《Triple Strength》 1. Hunter: Wiremu 1. Hunter: Wiremu New Class Available: Hunter YES! Finally, I got it. Three years I had been training under Master Ari the village hunter. Hunter is a difficult class to get. All but the simplest basic classes require you to be trained under someone of at least Journeyman Level. Huntmaster Ari has never told me what level he actually is. I think he must be at Master Level! Hunter is one of the more difficult basic classes to get as it requires more Skills than most other Classes. It needs Stealth, Skinning and Small Blades along with one other hunting Skill. I had finally met the last requirement, which, for me, was the Skinning Skill. I had been struggling with Skinning and had initially earned the Butchering Skill instead. It was a while before I lived that one down. Because Master Ari is a Master Trapper I got the Trapping Skill as my other Hunting Skill. The reward for Hunter being difficult to get is that it gives five attribute points per level whereas other Classes can give less. I have just passed my fifteenth winter and gained my first Class. I am now a man of the village with a new name! I am now Wiremu Hunter, son of Bryan Forester and Whetu Weaver. Master Ari never had more than a couple of apprentices at a time and in the three years, I had been training under him none of the others had lasted long enough to get the Class. I know my training is not finished by any means. I still have so much to learn about Hunting from the Master, but I know enough that I got the Class to Level 1. Humans, when they get their first Class usually have an average of 90 attribute points, spread over all the 9 attributes depending on their childhood growth. I was slightly above average with 92. My Status Sheet was not bad:
Wiremu Hunter Hunter Class Total
Type Attribute Level 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 0 9 35
Agility (PA) 12 1 13
Perception (PP) 11 2 13 You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Mental Strength (MS) 9 1 10 34
Agility (MA) 12 1 13
Perception (MP) 11 0 11
Spiritual/Magical Strength (SS) 10 0 10 28
Agility (SA) 8 0 8
Perception (SP) 10 0 10
Totals 92 5 97
My Skills were: Fishing 3, Small Blades 2, Stealth 2, Trapping 2, Cooking 1, Butchering 1, Bow 1, Skinning 1. Hunter automatically assigned three of the five attribute points. One went to Physical Agility, and two went to Physical Perception. The other two points were mine to assign, and I immediately put one to Mental Strength. This brought it up to 10, and with my Mental Agility already over 10, I could now form a bond with an animal companion. There were only two people in the village with animal companion bonds. My master had a big old Timber Wolf as his bond. I wanted to be just like him. The other I put to Mental Agility. Animal Bonds were a Mental based Skill rather than a Physical based Skill. It was controlled by Mental Strength and Mental Agility, which determined the strength and complexity of the Animal you could bond. I was going to be looking out for a wolf cub even though Master Ari had warned me more than once that a minimum level of Attributes was not going to bond such a strong and complex animal. I was going to show him that I could do it. Your Attributes determine what Skills are available to you. While I train with a Spear, because my Physical Strength is below the minimum of 10, I can¡¯t get the Spear Skill yet. When I do it then helps me use the spear and gives bonuses. I probably should have put one of my free attributes toward Physical Strength to get the Skill, but I would rather have a bond. I will get it next time I level the Class. All Classes and Skills have requirements like this. Bow, for instance, required Physical Strength at 8 and Physical Agility at 10. Physical perception definitely helps with accuracy but is not a requirement. Levelling a Skill is easy until Level 5, when it becomes an Apprentice Level Skill. At Level 10 it slows again, and this is the Journeyman level. However, the Journeyman Levels usually also open up other related Skills. Bow at Level 10, plus the right attributes and a demonstration that you can do what is required will open a Skill called Longbow. Master Ari has it. It adds Spiritual Strength to the Bow and means the range can be taken beyond the pure Physical. Spiritual Attributes aren''t of much use to me yet. There are all sorts of skills with all sorts of requirements. Part of life is exploring and growing in what you can do. Levelling Classes are similar to Skills. It slows at the Apprentice Levels and then slows again at the Journeyman levels. However, at the Journeyman level, you can now teach your class, and specialisations open up to you, all with their rewards and requirements. The main specialisations that would open to me as a Hunter are Ranger, Scout and Monster Hunter. Specialisations can also be levelled and almost always give a unique or hard-to-get Skill. Scout often gives a mapping Skill, for instance, but Ranger will sometimes open up a second Animal Bond. However, that is a long way away for me. Tonight I celebrate with my Master and my family. The village celebration feast and the week¡¯s end will include my Naming Ceremony. At the end of the week, the whole village joins together for a meal, and we put down a communal hangi. Between now and then, I am going to try to hunt a boar for the hangi as I like pork! 2. Identified: Wiremu 2. Identified: Wiremu I got the Identify Skill about a month after I got the Hunter Class. That was the same day I started hunting people. I had been away from the village for four nights, checking and re-baiting my traps out toward the mountains. I was bringing a good load of pelts back along with some meat from the latest traps. Trapping was now level 6, and Skinning level 4. I had levelled my Hunter Class while away to 2, and the increase in perception was starting to be noticeable. I could see further and clearer and better in low light. Now that it had moved four points in a month, I could tell the difference and figured it might be about 5% better, which was great. It also enabled me to get the Talented Skill Tracking along with my relatively high Mental Agility. Mental Agility was how fast and quickly you could think. It was strong on creativity and imagination. Craftsmen were always strong in mental Agility. Tracking was an eye-opener. Suddenly I could see why some of my traps were more effective than others. I now had several of my traps in the backpack to redeploy in better places. I couldn¡¯t wait to level it and see what further advice my Master had for me when I got back. I put my two free points into Physical Strength because that was something I could measure easier to see how things increase. It also brought my Physical strength to over 10, which allowed me to get the Spear Skill. I had been practising with the spear but hadn¡¯t been strong enough. I almost allocated those points to Mental Strength and Mental Agility as I had not yet found a wolf cub. I was starting to think I needed to lower my expectations with this bond and maybe try bonding with a bird to help with scouting. Of course, I was still thinking too big, as I was thinking of a majestic bird of prey. I had visions of standing on a rocky outcrop with a hunting falcon on my arm. I think my Mental Agility was working overtime. Maybe it was just youthful dreams. My enhanced perception meant I smelled the smoke from the village first, and it didn¡¯t smell right. I knew the smell of burnt flesh, and not just from my attempts to get a fire affinity. I found a place to stash my pelts and moved forward quickly but cautiously. The dread started to rise the closer I got. When I finally saw the village it was a smouldering ruin. I collapsed to my knees in horror. I had the sense to stay in the tree line and not rush in to find my family''s house. It was obviously done by people. There were bodies left lying around, including my Master¡¯s Timber Wolf, who had three arrows still in it. I couldn¡¯t see my Master or my parents from where I was. I stepped back into the trees and threw up. Then the rage started to burn in me. I started moving around the edge of the village toward our house, taking in the scene, senses on full alert. Then I saw a strange body. Not a villager. He was lying face up. He had been stripped of all weapons and valuables, but he had on a tunic with the insignia of the Empire. Imperial slavers. I started being extra cautious if that was possible. I had heard stories they would leave men behind after a raid to catch the ones who managed to run off into the bush. At the time, I thought they were just campfire stories my Master used to tell us to try and scare us. I remember asking why they didn¡¯t have hounds to chase them, and he said they did, but he said there would be less damage to the slaves if they came back on their own instead of being mauled by the hounds. As far as I was aware, we were not part of the Empire. Our village traded mostly with the nearest town, Freebourne, which was part of something called the Free Republic. So I guess that is what we were, but to be quite frank, life outside the village didn¡¯t mean much to me. I didn¡¯t even know where the Empire was or where the border was or anything. All I knew was it wasn¡¯t near my hunting grounds. I moved around the edge of the village toward my house, and when I cleared the corner, I just froze at the scene. I backed into the forest a short way and just lost it. I curled up in a ball in tears as my world collapsed. There were three dead foreigners who didn¡¯t really interest me except that this must have been a very expensive village for them to take. The other dead bodies were my Master and both my parents and one of our neighbours. All my world is gone. The best-case scenario I had thought about was my parents escaping into the bush. Then if they were captured 15 years old me figured I could rescue them and be the hero. But now, there was no hope. There might be a bit of revenge. The anger was building again. It took a while to get myself into some sort of order. First, I needed to know how safe the village was before I could go and bury my parents. I figured if they left one of their Scouts here, I was doomed. Their senses would easily pierce my weak stealth skill. If they only left warrior classes, I was probably OK scouting, but taking them down would be harder. Hopefully, they were just Warriors. The best-case scenario was that there was no one left there. I didn¡¯t really believe that. Wait up. I had levelled my Hunter class, so my Physical Perception was now at 15. I had in mind to get Far Sight, but that wouldn¡¯t help me here. What other options were there? The skill list came up with: Far Sight Blood Hound Hearing Aid Tasty Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Sensitive Skin You could only have one dedicated perception skill for every ten points in Physical Perception. I wasn¡¯t getting another one until I hit 20 Attribute points. Tasty had been available for a while, and a lot of cooks got it. Sensitive Skin always seemed useless to me. Touch-based sensitivity for what purpose? Did you have to wander around naked? In the close bush, the smell and hearing seemed to have more advantages than Far Sight, which needed open spaces. In the end, I went for Hearing Aid. The smell option was just a bit too foreign for me to get my head around. Maybe I needed to up my Mental Agility. That gave me a huge insight into why Mental Agility was needed for animal bonding. The Hearing Aid skill came with both passive and active components. Passively my hearing suddenly improved. Sounds got clearer, and I could tell the direction easier. My own movements suddenly seemed loud. The active part of the skill meant I could adjust the sensitivity of my hearing to a moderate level, and I could focus on a particular sound, making it clearer. This was quite limited at the moment. I guess it would improve as I levelled the skill. I upped the sensitivity and headed back toward the edge of the village. The amount of sound I could hear myself making inspired me to move slower and more carefully to reduce it. Then Stealth went up a level. I stopped in amazement. It hadn''t gone up in the last month, despite my best efforts. Hearing was only one of the senses. If I disguised my scent and look, would that also help? There was a Eucalypsical Tree nearby known for its fragrant leaves. I went and crushed some and rubbed it down my arms and clothes. Then I strategically placed some leaves where they weren¡¯t in the way but would hopefully make me blend into the bush more. I had a feeling I would need all the help I could get. When I got near the far side of the village, I heard voices. I focused on my Hearing Aid, and while I didn''t make out what they were saying, I pinpointed their direction. I saw a tree which I thought overlooked where I thought their camp was and climbed it carefully. I could see through some branches into the camp, and suddenly I was regretting not getting Far Sight. Double Damn. I shouldn¡¯t have changed the plan for getting Far Sight. I was not thinking clearly. The only weapons I had on me were my knife and my bow. If I got into knife range of these higher levelled and armoured warriors, I was dead. I would need critical hits with my bow, and they were armoured, so their critical areas were mostly protected. FarSight would have helped with my bow accuracy. I had really hampered myself in choosing Hearing Aid. Shit! There was nothing I could do about it now, but I was really beating myself up about that choice. I stayed in the tree watching for a while. There were two people moving around the camp. There was a wagon with a cage, with three people locked in the cage. They were huddled on the floor of the cage, so I couldn¡¯t make out who they were, but I thought they were fellow villagers. Tied to the Wagon were two hounds. Then a third person came from the direction of the village, and one of the others went out that direction. Change of the watch. Three Warriors. If I could get a look at their weapons, I might be able to figure out what type of Warriors and estimate of level. I might also get a look at the type of lock on the cage. If I stayed downwind I should be able to get close enough to see and hear without the dogs smelling me if I was careful. As I got close into position, Stealth levelled to 4. I noticed it was easier and smoother to be able to move quietly. The two in the camp were men, and human, as far as I could tell. One had a sword at his waist, and a shield was propped up nearby. I was trying to get an estimate of his level when it happened. Suddenly I just knew he was a Level 12 Warrior. The how puzzled me for a while, then I checked my status sheet, and I had Identify 1. I knew I had enough attributes in Mental Perception to get it, but I had never figured out how to. Mental perception is basically insights into other people. It helps with seeing through illusions, but mostly it gives knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of people. In this case, it is just the strength. Will it tell me his skills too? Even just his highest one? No. I guess I would need to level it to get more information. What about the other guy with the beard? Level 14 Sentry. Shit! I froze. Sentry was a specialised Warrior, and they got bonuses to Physical Perception. Beardy had a war axe on one side, and I spotted javelins near the wagon. If he had some sort of throwing skill, I needed to stay well away from him. I very, very carefully backed away and made my way to where I had stashed my pack. What the hell was I going to do? The sensible thing to do would be to pick up my stuff and hike it to Freeboune and raise the alarm. Freebourne was a week''s hike away if you used the roads. I wouldn''t be able to use the roads till I was sure I was away from the Slavers. There was also the desire for some sort of revenge and the idea of maybe rescuing the three in the cage. My Master was always saying that Hunters often were going up against beasts stronger and higher levelled than we were. Traps were the great equaliser. That was why it was a core skill of the Hunter Class. Mostly when I went out, I used snares and box traps because they were easy to construct. Only once did I use a drowning trap near a river, and sometimes I used glue boards (when I didn''t want the pelt). I once helped my Master dig a spike pit for a rampant bear, but that was a lot of work. Spring traps were not used much because the spring was very difficult for the blacksmith in Freebourne to craft. My Master was able to create something similar to a spring trap using his Spiritual Trapping skill. I did not have that skill yet, let alone at a high enough level. The village owned one spring trap, purchased when the bear evaded all our efforts. If it hadn¡¯t been stolen, it would be in the Masters'' hut. I worked my way back to the village and around the edge until I could be sure where the watchman was. I was able to identify where he was by using Hearing Aid, specifically the sound of his snores. Maybe the Hearing Aid wasn¡¯t a bad choice. Just not the best. I went back to the Master¡¯s hut, which was just a pile of ash. Poking through the ash, I did find the trap. Do I set it near the watchman while he is asleep? What do I do now? 3. Hunted: Wiremu 3. Hunted: Wiremu I thought it was reasonable that the bulk of the night shift would be taken by the Sentry as he had the perception bonus. At least one of the other two would be asleep. Then there were the hounds. Breaking the three out was looking pretty impossible. Sometimes we used poisoned meat or fruit in a trap, especially if we wanted multiple kills per trap. I had some made by our local Herbalist. It will poison both the physical and the spiritual. The hounds were probably too strong physically but maybe weak enough spiritually to be affected. These were some pretty big maybes that could get me killed. Was I interested in living? Everybody I had loved was dead. Everybody I had grown up knowing was either dead or enslaved. I was a hunter. Maybe I should just hunt and see how many I could take out before they got me. That sounded much simpler. My mind settled at that thought. I would need to start with the weakest. That was not the sentry. The only attacks I had were physical, except for the poison, which had some Spiritual effect, but I didn''t know how much. I guess we were doing this the hard way. The only way I could take out these warriors, who probably had double the Physical Constitution to me, would be by getting critical hits. Because of their armour, this meant the face and neck from the front only. I would probably need two critical hits to be sure of the kill. So I would need to be reasonably close, and they would need to be reasonably still. The bear trap could hopefully do that. Then I would need to run like hell. I would probably have the hounds on my trail. I would head to the river and have the poisoned meat ready to drop for them. If that worked and I got away, I would see about a second hit later. The trap would be lost to them, unfortunately. That was the plan and now for the execution. Hopefully not mine. I wanted to take at least one out before they got me. I set the trap near the bush they used for a latrine. They hadn¡¯t dug a pit, but they did use the same bush. It was night. The Sentry was on watch at the village. One warrior was sort of on watch at the camp and one slept. I was waiting until one of them came to take a piss, or better yet, a shit. When it happened it would be fast. I had poisoned the trap and all my arrows. I was keeping my eyes averted from the campfire to keep my night vision. I was as ready as I could be. And I waited for hours. It was the one who was supposed to be on watch at the camp. That was unfortunate because he had his chest piece, pauldrons, grieves and boots on. He had taken his helmet off. He didn¡¯t step on the trap and was pissing just to the right of it. I moved around a bit and took aim just below his centre of mass. Yes, his groin. His hip, to be precise. And I hit it too. He stumbled into the trap which grabbed his leg, and he landed on his back. He was yelling, but now I wouldn¡¯t get a better shot. I got him just below the chin with the arrow angled up into his head. If that didn¡¯t kill him, I was out of time. The sleeper was rising, and I could hear boots thundering from the village. The Sentry was coming and coming fast. I took off. I heard the Sentry yell at the other to loose the hounds. I used every bit of Physical Agility I could. Not keeping a straight line but dodging and ducking between trees. I heard the barking of the hounds change as they joined the chase. Something whizzed past me and slammed into a tree. I went faster. Just when I caught sight of the river, a massive pain erupted from my thigh, and I got thrown sideways. I lay there for a few seconds, then glanced at my thigh. There was a javelin pinning me to the ground, and one of my leg bones was also poking through my skin. A pair of boots arrived in view, and I heard the Sentry swear, ¡°Fucking kid¡±. Then an armoured fist struck me and that was the last I knew. When I came to, I was locked in the cage on the back of the wagon which was moving. One of the other villagers, Sarah, was trying to get some water in me. A male voice came from the other side of the cage and said quietly, ¡°It might be kinder to let him die.¡± My leg was bandaged and a splint held the leg bone straight. It hurt like hell every time the wagon went over a bump. I voiced my first thought, ¡°Did I get him?¡± The voice across the cage replied, ¡°Yea kid, you got him.¡± Consciousness faded away again. The rest of that week was a blur. I was in and out of consciousness. Sometimes the wagon was moving when I came too and sometimes they were camped for the night. At some point, they had joined up with their main group, and we had a number of wagons, many with cages a lot more tightly packed than ours. At one point another four people were put in our cage and my days of taking most of the floor were gone. My leg was healing. It seems my regeneration beat the infection and started on the leg. Regeneration was a function of your constitution. My physical constitution was my highest, and the bone would be healed in about a month, although I could probably put careful weight on it in a couple of weeks. Regen couldn¡¯t bring back limbs, but given time most non-permanent injuries would heal. I checked my Status sheet to see what improvements I gained.
Hunter Class Total
Type Attribute Level 3 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 2 11 45.0
Agility (PA) 14 3 17 This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Perception (PP) 11 6 17
Mental Strength (MS) 9 1 10 34.0
Agility (MA) 12 1 13
Perception (MP) 11 0 11
Spiritual/Magical Strength (SS) 10 0 10 28.0
Agility (SA) 8 0 8
Perception (SP) 10 0 10
Totals 94 13 107
Free points 2
Resistances: Pain +2 Skills: Novice: Fishing 3, Skinning 4, Butchering 1, Cooking 1 Small Blades 4, Spear 1, Tracking 1 Identify 1, Hearing Aid 1 Apprentice: Stealth 5, Bow 5, Trapping 7 The first thing I noticed was I levelled the Hunter Class. It took a month of normal hunting to get it to Level 2 and one fight to get to Level 3? Admittedly it was a fight I almost died in. The surprising thing was my baseline Physical Agility went up two. Raising your baseline Attributes got progressively harder the older you got. I guess I was still young, but I had also worked pretty hard at it in order to stay alive. I also seemed to have gained Pain Resistance and levelled it to 2. Resistances get applied directly to your constitution. I was a little surprised it was a Mental Resistance, but I guess I shouldn''t have been. It doesn¡¯t do anything for the physical wound. This not only added 2 to my Mental Constitution but also meant a pain Reduction of 2%. It doesn''t seem like a lot. And it is not, yet. I really don¡¯t want it to increase, but looking at my situation I think there might be quite a lot of pain in my future. Stealth and Bow both broke through to Level 5, often referred to as the Apprentice Level. Usually, you have to do something extra to break a class or skill through to the next level. Novice Levels are generally 1-4, Apprentice 5-9, Journeyman 10-14 and Master over 15. Breaking through a level can often reward you with some attribute points or other skill options. This doesn¡¯t always happen, but it might explain why the Physical Agility went up twice. Trapping went up as well. I have two attribute points to assign. I don¡¯t know what to do with them. If I was in the village I would have either put them into Spiritual Agility to bump it to 10 as this was a common level as a minimum for skills. Spiritual Agility is all about flexibility in using the Spiritual. Disarming Spiritual Traps, altering and tailoring Spiritual abilities and speed in using those abilities. It would get me closer to Spiritual Trapping, or the points could go into Mental Agility and I would get closer to Mental Trapping (probably what I would have done). Now I just didn''t know what my future held. I decided to wait. They wouldn¡¯t go anywhere. It took us another week to move out of the forest and onto the rolling plains. I basically spent the week in shock and staring into nothing, not sure about anything. I missed my parents. I missed my master and the village. My future was bleak. All my dreams were gone. When the forest thinned and we moved onto the rolling grasslands I perked up and started taking an interest in things around me again. My leg was healed enough to stand carefully on it and was causing me less pain. As I observed our captors the smouldering hate started building again. What right did they have to do this to me? To us? Did might give them the right? As I listened to their conversations with my Hearing Aid, they blamed us for the number of soldiers they lost, ignoring the fact we were defending our homes. They even lost their Slave Taskmaster or they would have been making compliant slaves already and they wouldn¡¯t have had to do all the scutt work. Apparently, that was our fault as well. So apparently it was our punishment to sit in our filth for days and they called us filthy savages like we had any choice. Yeah, the anger was building. The only other thing I could try to level was my Identify. I started Identifying everyone I could see. When I levelled it to 2 the range at which I could use it increased, but there was no increase in information which was what I really wanted. I stared at the back of our wagon driver for hours trying to discern more information than Level 11 Warrior. Then it occurred to me that Warriors have high Physical Strength and high Mental Strength and that maybe their Mental Strength was blocking my Mental Perception, which was very low. I started using it more on my fellow prisoners who were farmers, foresters and weavers etc. I started getting clues about the highest attributes and secondary classes and key skills. It didn''t seem consistent, but Identify started levelling. It was at the Level 4 block when the grasslands came to an end. Hearing Aid had also hit the Level 4 block at that point. I was getting much better control over my hearing and was trying to figure out how to break through to the Apprentice Level for both of these. 4. Slave: Wiremu 4. Slave: Wiremu Two weeks of rolling grasslands gave way to a more rocky landscape, and apparently this was our destination. It was a huge open cast quarry. The wagons rolled through the gates and we were unloaded into a pen off to the side. After a couple of hours this self-important man walked out onto a platform above the pen and gave us a speech on the glories of the Empire and the benefits of civilization that it brought. And we could be a part of this and be better and stronger if we only accepted the new Class we were offered. That was the first time I was offered the Slave Class. He didn¡¯t get any takers at that point and I don''t think he expected to. But that was just the start. Our accommodation was basically a shed. Meals were a watery gruel at dawn and dusk. Part of the Quarry had actual Stone Masons and their slaves carving out slabs and blocks which were carted off somewhere. Our job was to pound up the offcuts into gravel and load it into carts which then disappeared. Sometimes we had to pound at a rock face because it wasn¡¯t suitable until we got to the rock that was. There were injuries from falling rocks, there were injuries from guard beatings and whips. There was hunger and thirst. Then there was the Torture Pit. If you stood out in anyway, or especially if you showed any signs of new skills or, in one case an affinity, you were taken to the Torture Pit. There you were continuously tortured until you accepted the Slave Class or you died. They didn¡¯t want you to die. In fact they got punished if they killed you. They wanted you to become a Slave. Slaves with special Skills were more valued. The Guards were good at their jobs. The torture could last days, in one case over a week. Eventually the person would appear blank eyed and obedient. All the while we had to listen to the screams. Apparently Slaves found it very difficult to learn new skills after accepting the Class and it was impossible for them to get an affinity. One man was so exhausted after a day''s work he stumbled and fell into the cooking fire. At first there were screams and the smell of burnt flesh, then there wasn¡¯t and only burnt clothes and maniacal laughter. Then this guy went around touching everything he could and everything he touched was left with burn marks or on fire. The guards soon appeared with shields and herded / bashed him into the Pit. He only lasted a day and came out blank eyed and soaking wet. He was moved into the other barracks with the ¡°proper¡± Slaves and given other tasks until the next caravan collected them. About every three months a Caravan would turn up. We would get fresh bodies and they would take away the ¡°proper¡± Slaves. People would accept the Slave Class even at the threat of being taken to the Pit. This would happen if the Caravan was due and they didn¡¯t have enough for whatever number of Slaves they had to meet for their quota. In my first week there I got the Hammer skill and in the second my base Physical Strength went up one. Then I got offered a choice of two very basic classes. Labourer and Quarry Worker. I was suspicious at first and discreetly asked some of the others. Apparently this is common and the Empire would like you to accept more classes. All in the name of raising the skill level of their slave population, of course. Both Labourer and Quarry Worker came with three Attribute Points per level, but these were all automatically assigned. Labourer got 2 to Physical Strength and 1 to Physical Agility. Quarry Worker received 2 to Physical Strength and 1 to Spiritual Strength. This puzzled me at first, but apparently the Physical requirements of Quarry Worker went beyond the physical and needed the Spiritual boost. Spiritual Strength is how strong you are in the Spiritual aspects of your skills. Shield skills and attack Skills that can go beyond the pure Physical. Some of the skills had minimum Spiritual Strength requirements in the apprentice and Journeyman levels. I didn¡¯t care much about that. I was wanting the strength to escape. This was probably also the reasoning of almost every slave before me too. However, I chose Quarry Worker because Agility was taken care of in my Hunter class and I currently had no input to the Spiritual attributes. After I had been there 6 months I became one of the old hands. That was when I bonded with Pip and levelled my Hunter Class. What is there to hunt in a Quarry? Rodents and snakes. We did our best to supplement our food and I was one of the better hunters and with my stealth and hearing, better at avoiding the Guards. My Trapping, Tracking and Stealth all went up. At that point I was being worn down mentally. Quarry Worker was stalled at 4 and I couldn¡¯t be bothered putting in the effort to get it over the hump to the Apprentice Levels. Why bother? New Class Available! Slave Effects: 40% increase to Physical Attributes, 40% Increase to Spiritual Attributes, 90% decrease to Mental Attributes. Link to Slave Bond Do you want to accept this class? Y/N The Class is offered when you are the weakest. I turned it down again but I can see why people would just give up and accept it. Slave was an advanced class, which meant very specific requirements had to be met before you were offered it. One of those criteria was to be under the authority of a Slave Taskmaster. The Slave Class would basically strip you of all your mental defences. You will become stronger, but also become a drone. Slaves could craft if they had the attributes and some plans, but they couldn¡¯t create. They could fight strongly, but only as directed. This is what the Empire wanted for me. To become a drone. This slave quarry might be hard physically, but the real battle was Mental. Food was still important so I went out hunting that night and checked my few traps. I followed a faint snake trail and found a new snake nest. I could hear them well with Hearing Aid, but the crevice was too dark for me to see and Identify them. I braced myself against the edge and leaned over trying to catch a glimpse. That¡¯s when Pip gave me my poison resistance. While I was peering into the crevice a young snake attached itself to my hand and injected me with its venom. I quickly moved my hand away, but the still attached snake came with it. I brought my other hand around and detached the snake and was going to smash its head against the rock when it occurred to me I could harvest the venom as a weapon. It was quite a potent weapon. I was definitely getting woozy and had to sit for a while. This was just a young snake affecting me and my Physical Constitution was pretty high these days. I hadn¡¯t seen this type of snake before so I threw an Identify at it, and it came back with Young Desert Viper - Potential to Bond 63%. That was new, or was it just the poison affecting me? I could bond with it? I could bond with it!!! I wasn¡¯t going to let this chance pass. Now how on earth do you do this? It was Mental Strength and Mental Agility and obviously Mental perception helped. My base Mental Strength had notched up a couple of points due to the pressure of being here. I latched on to that and tried to form a Mental connection to the snake. It was like pushing through mud. Thick mud. I added one of my free points to Mental Strength and it got slightly easier. I put another to Mental Agility and could move through the thickness easier, and suddenly I was there. I could feel the snake''s presence in my mind, just vague emotions. I definitely got the feeling he was hungry. I got a new skill, Animal Bond 1 and It seemed to push my Hunter Class to 4. A Desert Viper appeared in my Status and I decided to name him Pip (shortened from Pip Squeak, because he was small). Hopefully we would grow to understand each other better as we levelled the Animal Bond skill. Pip had two skills, Quick Strike and Venom Bite. I could come back and harvest Venom another night. Right now we needed to hunt for something for Pip to eat. I let Pip slither up my arm under my sleeve and he curled up on my shoulder under my shirt where I provided the warmth. We went hunting. I had a new purpose to keep going. I would have to keep Pip a secret from everybody, including my fellow prisoners. As soon as someone accepted the Slave Class they would then answer any question asked of them. Including if they knew if any of their former mates had any special abilities. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. I looked at my Status and one thing stood out to me. That was my Spiritual Agility still at 8. 10 is often a minimum for a lot of skills. Am I missing out on some Spiritual Skills because of this? I had two points from levelling Hunter to 4. Should I bump it to 10? I could use one point to get Physical Perception to 20 and get Far Sight. I could put them in the Mental Attributes and bolster my mental defences and boost my connection to Pip. Shit I am going to do it. I closed my eyes and put them to Spiritual Agility and waited. Nothing. Did I waste my last free points for a long time? Probably. Anyway I liked the look of my Status now. All I have to do now is keep me and Pip out of the Torture Pit.
Class Hunt QW Total
Type Attribute Level 4 4 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 10 2 8 20 57.0
Agility (PA) 14 4 18 Poison R +1
Perception (PP) 11 8 19
Mental Strength (MS) 11 2 13 38.0
Agility (MA) 12 2 14 Pain R +3
Perception (MP) 11 0 11
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 0 4 14 34.0
Agility (SA) 8 2 10
Perception (SP) 10 0 10
Totals 97 20 12 129
Free points 0
Resistances: Pain +3, Poison +1 Skills: Novice: Fishing 3, Skinning 4, Butchering 1, Cooking 1 Small Blades 4, Spear 1, Tracking 2 Identify 4, Hearing Aid 4, Animal Bond 1 Apprentice: Stealth 7, Bow 5, Trapping 8, Hammer 7 Bond: Pip: Desert Viper Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike 5. Fifth Attempt: Wiremu 5. Fifth Attempt: Wiremu So I have now been in this Quarry for three years. Two and a half years after bonding with Pip. Yes, I probably wasted those two free attribute points. I certainly haven''t had any grand Spiritual revelations, or even a noticeable skill. Yes, we have managed to keep out of the Torture Pit, but I think it is iminent. We have had some close calls and more than one Guard was careless and died by Desert Viper venom. Those things are a menace, though one of the Guard¡¯s constitution was too high, even for Pip¡¯s adult venom, and he had to be helped to his untimely demise. I never did figure out what a nest of Desert Vipers were doing out here in the grasslands. They must have hitched a ride on one of the wagons I suppose. The events of the last two and a half years are clearly written in my Status. There are some Base increases in my Physical Strength and Mental Strength, just from the general torture of being in this place. Similarly with the Pain Resistance. I haven''t managed to level Hunter again. I guess there are only so many ways to hunt rodents. Quarry Worker is knocking on the Journeyman door but hasn¡¯t broken through. I got a Physical Strength and a Spiritual Strength base increase when it busted through to Apprentice, so I am expecting something good, but I know our time has run out here. If we don¡¯t make it out in this attempt there won¡¯t be another. I did get a new Class. I thought it would help me a lot. I was having to deceive a lot of people about Pip and I got a base increase in my Mental Agility which bumped the total to 15 along with a new skill, Deceive 1. When Deceive hit the Apprentice level I got offered the Class Spy. I remembered my old master saying to get a class you must be trained by a class holder above Journeyman Level or sometimes you were offered it if you had one of the Class required Skills over Journeyman Level and all the others over Apprentice level, but not always. Easier and more reliable to be trained, he said. But apparently, I managed it by levelling Stealth from hunter to over Journeyman Level, and I guess I got lucky or met some other hidden requirement. Spy gives 1 to each of Mental Agility, Mental Perception and Spiritual Perception and then two free points. Spiritual Perception is seeing the Spiritual. So finding Spiritual Traps and locks, understanding and analysing the Spiritual. Levelling Spy is how I know I have run out of time. I broke into the Captain¡¯s office (not for the first time) and the Caravan is due in a week and I have been marked as being here too long. Our fifth escape attempt is literally going to be do or die, because I would rather be dead than a slave. All this Spying has boosted Stealth and Hearing Aid and I finally got Far Sight. I am hoping Far Sight will prove it¡¯s worth when we get out of here tonight. See, Pip. Think positive. When we get out of here TONIGHT! Pip and I understand each other a lot more now our Animal Bond is in the Apprentice Level. I like to think he gets all my jokes, but maybe I am just going crazy, despite my Mental Strength. Or maybe I am going crazy because of it. There''s a thought. I think the stress is getting to me. They could come for me at any time and we can''t really leave till after dark. I bring up my Status Screen to distract myself while I pound stupid useless rock. I have been saving my free attribute points from Spy cause I think I might need some boosts tonight and I am not sure which yet.
Class Hunt QW Spy Total
Type Attribute Level 4 9 4 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 19 2 18 39 77.0
Agility (PA) 14 4 18
Perception (PP) 11 8 1 20
Mental Strength (MS) 20 2 22 56.0
Agility (MA) 13 2 4 19
Perception (MP) 11 0 4 15
Spiritual Strength (SS) 11 Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. 0 9 20 44.0
Agility (SA) 8 2 10
Perception (SP) 10 0 4 14
Totals 117 20 27 13 177
Free points 0 7
Resistances: Pain +9, Poison +4 Skills: Novice: Fishing 3, Skinning 4, Cooking 1, Butchering 1, Small Blades 4, Spear 1, Tracking 2, Lock Pick 4, Far Sight 1 Apprentice: Identify 7, Trapping 8, Hearing Aid 9, Animal Bond 5, Bow 5, Deceive 6 Journeyman: Stealth 12, Hammer 12 Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike Looking at my attributes, I am basically 40% stronger than a normal man, 20% faster and can see 20% better. But that is not unusual around here. My Physical and Mental Constitution is way above what I estimated that the first Warrior I fought was at, so long ago. I am fairly sure I am tougher than (maybe as tough as) the average Guard here. I have had a lot of time to think here and a few months to spy. They definitely send their weaker warriors on the slave raids, under the command of more seasoned warriors. I took out a Level 11 Warrior, i.e. Warrior was in the beginning Journeyman levels and he hadn¡¯t been able to specialise or get a second class. This means he was lacking in either attributes, or skills or both. The Sentry was the seasoned warrior in charge, and probably the only reason I am still alive. He didn¡¯t have to aim for my leg. Even though I might be a strength and constitution match for a Guard, the fact there are multiple Guards, trained to work together and supported by Bowmen, tends to hold me back from unleashing on them. I know they have an eye on my strength too, which is why I think there are always several in view and they are looking forward to finally getting rid of me. This day is dragging something fierce. Will they come for me before tonight? My guess is during the night as that will be easier for them to restrain me, but I have been wrong before. We had a change of Guard about 5 months ago. They came with a new Captian and a new Slave Taskmaster. I don¡¯t know if the old company got promoted, or just finished their time here. Maybe the new Captain did something to earn him the scut duty. Things got very unsettled there for a while as they changed things up and established themselves. There were a lot more random people sent to the Torture Pit. Initially I was quite plesed to have a new Captian and Slave Taskmaster. I have settled on a long term goal, or purpose for my life, as long as I can live past tonight. I want to find a way to break the slave bond and reverse the Slave Class. It sounds like an impossible goal, but I am going to try. Slave Taskmaster is primarily a Mental Class.That means it has minimum Mental Attribute Requirements and will give Mental Skills and Attributes. That is one of the reasons I was so pleased to get Spy because it is also a Mental Class with a perception focus. The Slave Taskmaster must transfer the slave bond to a Slave Owner. Killing the Slave Taskmaster or Slave Owner should break the bond, but won¡¯t reverse the class. The Slave would just wait for a new Owner or Taskmaster to come along. I wonder if there are people in the empire who assasinate the slave owners and nick off with the slaves? I guess that is just called theft and murder, and undoubtably happens. What we need to do is reverse the class or find another class that essentially reverses the attributes. Being able to break the bond without going around killing everyone would also be of benefit. I was using Identify as much as I could on the Slave Taskmaster and those with the Slave bond with little success. Then I turned it on to the bond between Pip and myself, it suddenly broke through to the Apprentice Level. Then I started making progress. I could get an impression of the bonds. The Bond between Pip and I had some similarities to the slave Bond, but there were a lot of differences too. The Slave Bond was a lot more complex than ours, probably because it was between two thinking beings and it probably also depended on a Skill of the Slave Taskmaster. With a new Taskmaster arriving I really wanted to see the bond transfer between them. It was really frustrating when it happened during the day and all I could see was rock and all I could do was pound rock. The new bond seemed to have a different flavour to it, which was the only way I could explain the difference. Using Identify on myself actually gives me a lot more information in my classes and skills and their requirements. Sometimes I can get a sense of Skills just out of my reach where I might just need a little bit more of an attribute. I could sense Farsight and that a little bit more Physical Perception and I could get it. You don¡¯t get a list of skills when you hit the required attribute level. You actually have to be doing something to trigger the Skill. I was hoping for a new skill when Mental Perception hit 15. I could sense there were some, but I couldn¡¯t trigger any. Identify is my most frustrating Skill. Enough history and speculation. The work day was over and the dinner line was forming. I wasn¡¯t going to wait till everybody was asleep. I often slipped away after the dinner gruel when others were milling around. I kept Pip with me this time. Often while I had dinner he would go off hunting, to save us from slip ups. I wasn¡¯t too worried this time as I was either going to be gone or dead. I also might need him if the Guards came early. There is always a head count at the dinner and breakfast lines, in addition to other random checks. I had nothing kept by my sleeping pad so wasn¡¯t planning to go anywhere near it. My gear, such as it was, was stashed in the Quarry. It consisted of a couple of sharpened stones I used like knives, some ripped fabric I had formed into snares and a stoppered jar of snake venom. I would need more gear to survive in the rocky grasslands, while trying to get to some civilization where I could get better supplies. I expected this to be supplied by some unwilling Guards before I left. I hoped they would be carrying some coins as well. This was a bit too much of relying on luck for a decent escape attempt, but it was the fifth attempt. Options had run out. I was going to go up the Wall. At night. At the back of the quarry is a sheer cliff face they called the Wall. They do have archers patrolling near the bottom. The last person to attempt the Wall wasn¡¯t brave enough to go at night. He started in the predawn and was a quarter of the way up when the first archer saw him. They didn''t even string their bows. They took bets on how high he would get and whether he would be alive after he fell. He got less than half way and he was unfortunate enough to survive. They dragged his broken body to the Pit. Of course I was going to be different and I would hopefully be taking one of those bows with me. Positive thinking. After the meal, if you could call it that, and the head count, I manoeuvred to the edge of the milling, generally depressed group and slipped into the darkness toward the edge or our ¡°pen.¡± That was when four figures detached themselves from the surrounding shadows. I was having a minor heart attack, when I realised they weren''t guards, but fellow prisoners. Pip slid down the inside of my trouser leg and onto the ground and off into the night. ¡°Slate,¡± I greeted the leader. ¡°What can I do for you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been noticed that you are not here a lot at night.¡± He stated. ¡°And this concerns you, how?¡± I asked. ¡°Tonight, you need to be.¡± He said. ¡°Why?¡¯ I asked. ¡°Apparently, you have an appointment,¡± he said with a sly smile. ¡°Really, Slate?¡± I replied. ¡°Have you sold out to the Imperials? You don¡¯t look glassy eyed.¡± I pretended to peer into his eyes. ¡°Captain, said we do good keeping things orderly, we won¡¯t have to take the class.¡± he stated. ¡°Surely, you are not that gullible,¡± I mused out loud moving forward a bit. Deceive was getting a workout tonight. His smile disappeared. ¡°We got assurances,¡± he declared. The Captain probably had a leadership type class, which was a mental focussed class, and he had probably used some sort of Persuade Skill on them. I looked at them again. On the other hand, maybe they were that gullible. A Skill notification was flashing in the corner of my vision, but now was not the time. I was almost in position. ¡°So what are you going to do about it, Slate?¡± I asked. His smile returned. ¡°Cap, said said we could do what we liked as long as you stayed aliv¡­¡± I hadn¡¯t waited for him to finish, but had got in striking range and struck hard and hit his temple. My knuckles were very sore, but he dropped like a sack of slate. I didn¡¯t know if he was unconscious or dead, because my eyes were firmly fixed on the other three. The sudden violence from me and the loss of their leader, had stunned them, momentarily. ¡°Shit!¡± exclaimed the one on the left and started jumping up and down. This spooked the other two and they took off into the night. If one of them went to the guards everything just got a lot harder. Do or die. No other choice. Pip rejoined me, his victim now lying on the ground. We picked up the pace, went over the pen fence and into the quarry. I now had two Skill notifications flashing at me. So not the time. When I got to my small stash of goods, I quickly checked the Skill notifications. Truth Sensing 1. Help to see through lies and help against persuasive type skills. A requirement of having Mental Perception of 15, I knew something was just there. The other skill was Unarmed Combat 1. I didn¡¯t think the punch was that effective as I hadn¡¯t been aiming for his temple, however, I will take it and be grateful. I had had a theory that Skills and Levels came a lot easier in times of stress. This seemed to support that. 6. Against the Wall: Wiremu 6. Against the Wall: Wiremu We moved further into the darkness of the quarry. Suddenly the barracks behind me lit up and the horn sounded for an immediate head count. There would be patrols out soon and a search of the quarry started. I headed straight for the wall as stealthy as possible. I wasn¡¯t going to take the time to get equipment. If chance provided an opportunity I would take it, but fast and unseen was the best chance I had. Wait. I was acting like a newbie Hunter only thinking about sight and hearing. What about smell and the other tricks I learned as a new Hunter. I found a quiet dark spot and started to cover my hair and skin with stone dust. Identify niggled at me that with a couple of more points in Spiritual Agility there was a Skill that would help. I had the spare points. Did I trust my most frustrating Skill? This was my worst escape attempt ever. I usually had things planned and prepped. Now I was running on luck and chance. I guess planned and prepped hadn¡¯t worked. Let''s take a chance. I put one point into Spiritual Agility. Nothing. The second point triggered a Skill Camouflage 1. Identify told me Stealth had to be over 10, Physical Agility over 20, Mental Agility over 15 and Spiritual Agility over 12. A Proficient level Skill. I think that will be very helpful when I am clinging to the exposed face of a rock wall, while being hunted. I finished covering what I could with Stone dust, the new Skill helping with thickness and shading. I was about to move on when I got another notification. New Affinity Acquired: Granite Wow. It didn¡¯t come with any Attribute points, but there was one skill immediately available. Granite Bones 1, which I took.This was like Hearing Aid and came with a passive ability in the form of a Resistance against Crushing of 10%, and an active ability of locking joints in place. The Crushing Resistance I was not happy about. It would increase my chances of surviving if I fell from the wall, and I did not want to survive if I fell. The ability of locking joints in place seemed like it would be very useful in the climb. I got the sense from Identify that it was the prolonged period immersed in Granite dust that was the reason I got the affinity, The final straw was me deliberately smearing granite dust all over me. Identify also hinted at more skills, but these were not as clear as last time and involved multiple areas for additional attributes. I doubted I had enough free attributes. I decided to not invest any more now. I checked my Status quickly and was very surprised to see Pip shared my affinity and also had Granite Bones with the crushing Resistance. I caressed his head under my shirt and his tongue tasted my finger. I wonder now, if I had got the smell or taste skills if I would be able to share any of Pip¡¯s senses? I would need to get to level 30 in Physical Perception to test it. That will be a while. I need to keep moving. The normal patrols were out in the quarry, but they were always in their regulation pairs, so I didn¡¯t stop. The alarm had not reached this far yet. I would rather they not know where I was and have to search everywhere, rather than focus their attention. If I wasn''t found overnight I knew patrols would be sent to the surrounding area tomorrow. That had happened before. The offender at that time was eventually found dead in the quarry, but the patrols were out for three days before she was found. Getting out of the quarry was only the first step. The back of the quarry was about a kilometre and a half from the compound. Atarau, the larger moon was out, but there was a reasonable cloud cover to compensate. I would much have preferred Mahina as the light from her was not much more than the starlight. I was a beggar and I couldn¡¯t be a chooser. I reached the wall without alerting anyone to my position. I worked my way along the wall to where I had picked out to start the climb. I had picked out a route as best I could over the previous few months when I had the opportunity. This had always been an option for an escape route, just not the most preferred. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. I found my first hand holds and started to climb steadily. I briefly dreamed about gaining a climbing skill, but just like running and jumping, there were no Skills for them. How good you were at those things depended on your physical stats. I was 40% stronger than I was before and 20% more agile. My 20% increase in perception was the only thing keeping me on the right route in the dark. Pip was just along for the ride. My Hearing Aid was on full listening for patrols at the base on the cliff. I was about 70m up when I heard a patrol and the cloud decided to clear. I grabbed the best hand holds I could and froze, pushing hard on Camouflage. There were five archers in the group. They were positioning an archer at key points along the wall, obviously not expecting me to have reached the wall yet, if I was coming this way. The one that was stationed in my view was close to the bottom of the wall. His focus was on the land leading up to the wall, but archers will have high perception. I know from my Physical Perception that movement in my peripheral vision will get my attention and their hearing will be acute, even without other bonuses. My muscles had been starting to get minor fatigue from the climb and now they were frozen to keep me still. Most of my weight was on my fingers and one leg. I had locked the joints on the leg to help keep the weight off the muscles, I had locked the finger joints as well, but if my hand muscles didn¡¯t help I would snap the bones from the weight. I was starting to think that Granite Bones had also added to my weight. And Pips. The clouds were coming back, but very slowly. Even in the dark, the first rock or dirt I dislodged would alert the archer. First step: stay immobile and wait for the clouds. Step two: take out the archer from hanging off the side of a cliff, without alerting other sentries. Step one was hard enough. My muscles were straining even with the locked joints when the cloud finally came back. Camouflage had levelled. When the cloud came back, I very carefully shifted my handholds and weight to relieve my muscles and free up a hand. I would not have been able to see the archer in the dark without Far Sight. This would have to be very carefully timed. Archer shouldn¡¯t have the same physical Constitution as warriors and generally only light armour, but to make sure of this, I was going to have to hit the face, preferably the eyes. I took careful aim and then threw with all I could and not dislodge myself. It was definitely more than a guided fall, but not by much. After I had let go I made a small noise and the archer''s head turned toward the noise. The jar of viper venom hit his helmet on his forehead and broke, spilling venom all over his face, including his eyes and mouth. He went down furiously, wiping his face and spitting out venom. He went still very quickly. The eyes and nose were the fastest and deadliest way to absorb the venom. New Skill, Throwing Weapons 1. The body will be found in the morning or at shift change, whichever came first. That means there will be a patrol sent to the cliff top at first light, probably with the hounds. First things first. I needed to make it to the cliff top and I had at least three hours of constant climbing still ahead of me. An hour later I was trying to figure out how to get past a particularly smooth area, and I was thinking Granite must have more that could help me. This whole rock face was granite. I took my five minute break when I could and then focussed Identify on the Granite skills. I got the feeling there was a Granite Spike skill, but my attributes were too low, especially Spiritual Agility. So no free handholds there. I couldn¡¯t sense if there was a way to make cracks without causing a quake. I had five free attribute points and there didn¡¯t seem to be a skill to help me so I needed old fashioned physical strength and agility. I put two into Physical Agility to bring it to twenty and one to strength to bring it to forty. That left me with two points. I really wanted to shore up some of my weak areas, especially Spiritual Agility, but at this time it was a life or death physical challenge. I was pretty sure if I fell now, I would not survive even with my crushing resistance. If I wanted to live I needed more Physical Agility. I put the last two points there and started to work my way sideways to where I thought I might be able to go up. It was all or nothing. It was over four hours later I pulled my exhausted body over the top of the wall and lay for a few minutes. I couldn¡¯t rest. Dawn was only a couple of hours away and I would have mounted patrols and hounds on my trail. I pulled myself to my feet and staggered into the tall grasses, not bothering to hide my trail. 7. Run: Wiremu 7. Run: Wiremu I continued to run, or more accurately, half stagger. I had been working all day in the quarry, stress and climbing all night and I was exhausted. I had a long way to go. At least the first half hour was on a downhill slope. I was out of the quarry, but I was not yet free. I had nothing on me but two sharp pieces of stone, a couple of crudely made snares and Pip. I doubt I would have gotten this far without the four extra points in Physical Agility, but I had no options there either as I had no free points. I looked at my status as I ran / staggered.
Class Hunt QW Spy Total
Type Attribute Level 4 9 4 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 19 2 18 1 40 82.0
Agility (PA) 14 4 4 22
Perception (PP) 11 8 1 20
Mental Strength (MS) 20 2 22 56.0
Agility (MA) 13 2 4 19
Perception (MP) 11 0 4 15
Spiritual Strength (SS) 11 0 9 20 46.0 This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Agility (SA) 8 2 2 12
Perception (SP) 10 0 4 14
Totals 117 20 27 20 184
Free points 0 0
Resistances: Pain +9, Poison +4, Crushing +11 Skills: Novice: Fishing 3, Skinning 4, Cooking 1, Butchering 1, Small Blades 4, Spear 1, Throwing Weapons 1, Unarmed Combat 1, Tracking 2, Lock Pick 4, Camouflage 2, Far Sight 2, Truth Sensing 1, Granite Bones 1, Apprentice: Identify 7, Trapping 8, Hearing Aid 9, Animal Bond 5, Bow 5, Deceive 7 Journeyman: Stealth 12, Hammer 12 Affinity: Granite Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Resistances: Crushing +11 Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones, No inspiration. I kept running. The grasslands were very different to the forest where I learned to hunt. The grass varied from knee height to over my head. There were scattered copses of trees and rock outcroppings. I generally kept a straight line, occasionally veering to a group of trees. I had no idea what animals were predominant in these lands. Just as the pre-dawn glow was starting on the horizon I crossed an animal trail. A smallish herd of hooved animals had been through recently. I crossed straight over and kept going. This was going to be cutting it finer than I liked. About half an hour later I burst out onto a farm track. I went a little way in each direction to see if I could see any signs of civilization. Then I very carefully back tracked to the animal trail. I was using Tracking like mad to try not to show any signs that I had backtracked, and it started levelling for the first time in three years. I guess it was a form of tracking myself? I wanted the hounds to lead them to the farm track, but if they had a tracker in the group ¡­ well I was doing my best to not give any sign. The Physical Agility points were working overtime here. It took me twice as long to make it back to the animal trail and dawn had definitely arrived. I then used the animal droppings to mask my scent, hopefully. I rubbed them especially on my legs and feet at and below the height of a hound. Pip was definitely of the opinion I had over done it. I then very, very carefully made my way along the animal trail, hopefully leaving no clue. I went in the opposite direction to the herd as it wouldn¡¯t help me to hide if I startled a herd of mid-sized beasts. I just kept going, keeping low and stealthy and using tracking on myself. After a half hour of this and Tracking hitting the Apprentice levels and Stealth was inching closer to the master level, I decided distance was my better bet. I broke into a careful jog, still trying to keep low and leave as little trail as possible, but getting some distance from where I knew they would be. My mind was starting to get foggy with fatigue, hunger and thirst. I got a burst of motivation when I heard barking in the distance behind me. Hearing Aid told me they were not getting closer. I needed somewhere to hole up and rest. Eventually I crossed a small trickle of a stream. After drinking my fill I followed it downstream for a while. We came to a rock outcrop near a copse of trees and I found a ledge mostly out of sight. I lay down on the bare rock (granite actually, so my affinity told me) and went to sleep. Pip understood he was on watch. After all, the only help he had been, so far, was extra weight. No help! It was dark when I awoke. Pip wasn¡¯t anywhere to be seen. He had left me an offering of two dead rodents and a bird''s egg. There was no way I was going to eat the rodents raw. I had no easy way to light a fire and I wasn¡¯t going to do that while still this close to the quarry. I cracked the egg and ate it raw. Pip then arrived out from under one of the bushes holding a second bird''s egg delicately in his jaw. He placed it on the ground and I could see his belly was extended, so he had eaten. I thanked him with grateful emotion through the bond, and picked up the second egg while offering him the shells of the first. I ate the innards of the second egg while he then scoffed down both sets of shells. I definitely got the impression eggs were his favourite food. I bled the rodents in the same spot I slept and then used my snares to tie the carcasses to my belt. This might attract other predators, but at this stage I felt it more important to keep confusing my smell. I had no idea where I was in the Empire. I didn¡¯t even know how big it was. Was it a huge multi province entity or was it some small tin pot wanting to be a huge multi province entity? I hadn¡¯t seen any maps, not even in the Captain''s office. I knew the wagons took about two weeks to get to the nearest city, but I didn¡¯t know which direction that was and I intended to stay far from any road. I decided to continue to follow the creek as this was the general direction I had been heading and anywhere away from the quarry was good enough for now. It would be annoying if I was heading deeper into the empire, but we will deal with it when we have to. We walked through the night. Well, I walked and Pip rode on my shoulder. At least I could keep my thirst quenched. We had one incident with a hunting cat of some sort attracted by the rodents. It was not much bigger than the size of a domesticated cat and was easily chased off. Throwing Weapons was a good skill and I kept a couple of rocks on me. I ditched the rodents about an hour before dawn and started looking for a place to sleep for the day. I was starting to feel a bit more confident with no sign of any patrols. I figured maybe two more nights travel and I might risk a fire and day travel. The next two nights were similar. My hunger was getting worse and raw egg and water were my only sustenance. As we walked I observed the local wildlife. There were a lot of bird life, which varied from small to very large. Most nested on the ground using camouflage to hide. I figured with my throwing skill I could kill a medium sized bird and had been eying them up for my first cooked meal. Pip was really good at locating nests. There was one very large species of bird, and by large I mean taller than myself. It couldn¡¯t fly but flapped its wings when running for more speed. It was quite fast and its feet had sharp claws. I stayed out of their way, but did manage to raid a nest. They had really good sized eggs, for me. Pip was pretty confused by them, though he happily devoured the leftovers after I had broken them up. There were a lot of hoofed beasts as well. Most ran in herds and some of those were very large. There was a deer-like creature which looked similar to ones we had in the forest. There were these huge bull-like creatures, bigger than the domestic bulls with more fur. When a herd of them ran by the ground shook. There were big hunting cats, some of which hunted in groups, and packs of smaller hunting type dogs. There were a myriad of scavenger type beasts. It was actually a dangerous place for a lone human, even more so for me, as I was unarmed and unarmored. The nearest I came to other people was spotting a campfire in the distance one morning with Far Sight. I kept watch for a while, and spotted a bunch of horses with riders, but couldn¡¯t tell if they were an Imperial patrol or just locals. I figured one more night and then I would cook my first breakfast and start actively looking for civilization and some gear. That last night was really scary. I was actively hunted by something fast and stealthy and I almost became its meal. It was a cat type and my sharp rocks barely scratched it through its fur. Fortunately before it could do more than scratch me Pip had it limping away with a leg full of venom. I doubt it died from that. It was a very close call. Definitely time to walk during the day and hide at night. At least till I got some gear. 8. Imperial Checkers: Wiremu 8. Imperial Checkers: Wiremu The sun was rising when I found a safe-ish place for the day. I planned to sleep for the morning, and travel and hunt in the afternoon and find somewhere for my fire and roast bird this evening. Campfire smoke was too visible during the day. The creek I had been following was now a small stream. I had kept travelling parallel to it, but kept a reasonable distance from it as it now attracted all sorts of animals, both hunter and prey. Scanning the horizon before I bunked down for the morning I saw a straight line in the landscape. Probably a road, but the low levelled Far Sight couldn¡¯t make out much detail. That will be my destination this afternoon. My mouth was already watering in anticipation of cooked meat. I woke early in the afternoon with a new purpose and with a new destination. I wouldn¡¯t make the road before nightfall, which suited me just fine. I had a roast fowl to enjoy, I hoped. At dusk I found a grove of trees in a depression in the ground and dug a small fire pit to keep the light down and so the surrounding grass didn¡¯t catch. The dry grass and twigs caught fairly easily to the sparks from the rocks striking each other. The hardest part was plucking the damned bird. I very, very much enjoyed that meal, and that is understating it. Maybe, I will find some herbs and spices soon as well. An hour before dawn I smothered the fire and filled in the hole, scattering detritus around so it was not obvious I was here. It was late morning when I approached the road very cautiously. It was a proper road and not a farm track. There had been maintenance done at one point filling in the worst of the holes. It obviously connected two towns. I was conscious I must look terrible dressed in filthy tatters of clothes, or perhaps rags. I wasn¡¯t armed and had no supplies for travelling. I would stand out and be immediately suspect by anyone who saw me. In the half hour I observed the road, nobody used it. No couriers, no farmers, just one small rabbit who crossed. I decided to be cautious. I picked the direction most away from the quarry and set out parallel to the road, a short way inside the grasses. Two hours later I picked up the sound of fighting. This made me even more cautious. I wasn¡¯t looking to get in any fights. If it was bandits, I certainly had the look to be classed as one of them. On the other hand it was also an opportunity. Where there is fighting there is probably dying, and I was in desperate need of equipment and supplies. I guess classing me as a bandit was not so wrong after all. As I neared the sound of the fighting, I first came across a well ordered camp. Two people were in the camp. A male was tending to a line of horses and a female was preparing a meal. Both had the glassy eyes of slaves. My first chance at some supplies. I would have to be careful they didn¡¯t see me because I didn¡¯t want to kill them and if they saw me they would report me to the survivors of the battle. A little random theft could perhaps be blamed on a rogue of whoever they were fighting? Maybe? I stealthed to the rear of one of the tents and used my ¡°rock knife¡± to cut a hole big enough for me to crawl into. The guy who slept on the left was a thin weed of a man and nothing fit. Apparently I had filled out some muscles in the quarry. The things you don¡¯t realise. I did find a general purpose knife and some travel rations. The Guy who slept on the right was a bit bigger than me and I scored a shirt and trousers, with a belt, and a pair of boots which were only slightly too big. No coins. I stuffed all the pockets full of travel rations and slipped out again. The next tent obviously housed a couple of women and nothing fit. I did score a small backpack, a tinder box, a second knife and whetstone along with more rations and a canteen. I figured I had better go and see what was taking so long in this fight. Fights don¡¯t normally take very long, even though it seems like it when you are in the middle of them. When I got to where I could see it was a mess. There were a lot of bodies. From what I could see the Lieutenant? Yes Lieutenant had a platoon of maybe twenty manning a checkpoint at the crossroads. The six wagons, who had a very large number of armoured personnel, had not wanted to be checked for some reason. Half of the lieutenant''s people were on the ground and unmoving. Half of those still standing were wounded. The lieutenant did not appear to be wounded, but he was doing a lot of yelling. Of the wagoners, they had also lost a lot of personnel. One wagon was off the side of the road with a broken wheel and dead horse. There was a loose horse heading away from the battle as fast as it could. Probably the smartest creature here. The survivors were huddled behind a massive kite shield. Held by a heavily armoured warrior, obviously a shield specialist. There were spearmen on either side of the Shield Bearer and the three of them had accounted for a number of bodies lying in front of them. My guess is the lieutenant had ordered a charge. You don¡¯t do that against a Shield Bearer, that is where they are the strongest. There seemed to be a number of noncombatants hiding behind the last three warriors. A lot of the wagoner personnel were downed by the two imperial archers, which were the cause of the stand off. The wagoners couldn¡¯t move or they would catch an arrow and the Lieutenant only had the two archers, himself and three others capable of fighting. I realised there used to be four archers. One of the dead archers was lying with a throwing knife in his eye, sorry, her eye about 10 metres to my left within reach of the grass edge. Opportunity! I carefully made my way over, camouflaging myself in grass on the way. I inched forward on my stomach and when everybody''s attention seemed elsewhere, I got the bow and the quiver of arrows, which was about half full. I obviously wasn¡¯t used to these new knives because it slipped and the coin purse came loose as well. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Now the question was, do I join the fight, or make like the sensible horse. If I joined the fight, and there was no question which side I would join, I potentially could have some new allies and a source of information. If I left I would be way better off but lacking in information. The noncombatants could be a huge burden, but the three remaining warriors were very good. If I joined the fight I would have to take out the two archers quickly, and hopefully the warriors had enough left in the tank to take on the lieutenant and his remaining people. Should be able to, especially if I could provide ranged support. On the other hand, I hadn''t touched a bow in over three years. My bow skill is still in the low apprentice levels. I am very low skilled for a fight like this. My biggest advantage is Physical Strength and Pip. All my skills are too low, except maybe for Hammer and I don''t have one of those. I have a bow. To be quite honest, that Shield Bearer is probably stronger than I am too. Yes, I am going to join the fight. Non-hostile people and information are too much of a draw card. I just have to hunt smart. I have no traps, but I have Pip. I send Pip off to the furthest archer as they are the one I am most likely to miss. He will take a while and the lieutenant is winding down, unfortunately. I am not sure what he plans to do next, but I made sure Pip knew to leave him till last. If the enemy has an idiot commander you leave them as much opportunity to make as many mistakes as possible. Yeah, we are out of time. I take a bead on the nearest archer. She has her bow up so I aim for the weak armour under the arm. She is only 20 metres away from me. I control my breathing and let the arrow loose. The shot is good and she goes down. I quickly get another arrow and line up the other archer, who is looking at his mate puzzled. As I suspected my aim was off and it bounces off his pauldron. He spotted where the arrow came from and returned fire, bloody archers and their high perception. I violently rolled sideways through the grass and the arrow pierced the ground where I was lying. Everybody knows where I am now, however the Shield Bearer has taken the opportunity to charge the lieutenant. It is a Skilled charge too. The un-prepared lieutenant flew back about 10m and one of those near him was clipped by the charge. The two spearmen were close behind the Shield Bearer and were engaging the remaining combatants. Where is the other archer? He is obviously highly skilled and can still turn the tide. I relax a bit when I see him on the ground fighting off Desert Viper Venom. Those things are a real menace. I move closer to the action because my bow is unreliable at that distance and I want to get a better angle. I also want to put an arrow in the other archer because the venom may not be enough. The Lieutenant is moving sluggishly, so I take the opportunity to put an arrow in him to make him stay down. The last three on three battle with the wagoners is going in their favour. Things can change in an eye blink so I keep a close eye for the opportunity to make a favourable change. When I clear the combatants and have a view of the other archer he is still on the ground but has a potion in his hand. I put an arrow in him, but it only goes through the shoulder. I really need to level this skill. At least he won''t be using his bow in the near future. I looked back and the Shield Bearer and one of the spearmen had finished. The other spearman then took down their opponent. The first spearman moved toward the archer that I had wounded and I had the Shield Bearers full attention on me. ¡°Hello Stranger,¡± she says. Well that is a surprise. There are not many females that large or that skilled in front line fighting. She moves toward me and I can see she towers over me and is very solidly built. With full plate armour there is no way to tell male from female. She looks around for other dangers, and seeing none starts to remove her helmet. Then she spies Pip making his way to me and her hand goes to the axe at her side. I put up a hand to say wait and bend down and put my other hand down for Pip to climb. I can feel her surprise even if I can''t see it. Pip settles in his usual place on my shoulder with his head poking out of my shirt looking at her, his tongue tasting the air. There couldn¡¯t be a bigger contrast between us. She is a towering, solid figure in full plate armour, obviously well trained with a specialised class and a shield as tall as I am. Then there''s me with no armour, just in baggy shirt and pants with a borrowed bow and a snake on my shoulder. Then she takes off her helmet and it gets worse. She is a bloody Orc! There ain¡¯t no mistaking the green tinted skin and protruding lower jaw with tusks. We had the occasional Dwarf and Elf through the quarry, but no Orcs. Apparently the standing orders are to kill on sight for the Imperials, which would help to explain the fight. One Spearman heads toward us while the other goes to the noncombatants. They are also removing their helmets and they are both male Orcs. It is obvious the three have operated together as a unit for a long time, with the way they seemed to be in sync. I glance around and there are humans and possibly a dwarf among the wagoners dead. The noncombatants are a mix of human and elf that I can see. 9. Mother鈥檚 Tusks: Wiremu 9. Mother¡¯s Tusks: Wiremu ¡°Greetings,¡± I reply. ¡°Wiremu Hunter and Pip,¡± I introduce myself. I would have preferred to keep Pip hidden, but it is too late for that now. ¡°I am Branik of the Mother¡¯s Tusks, this is Kopje and Sme?ka,¡± she indicated the spearmen in turn. Both Kopje and Sme?ka were thinner wiry Orcs in a combination of leather and chainmail. All their equipment was well maintained and in good condition. Sme?ka gave me a big wide grin, showing a lot of teeth. I didn¡¯t know if that was a friendly gesture like humans do, or a threat. ¡°What brings you to this place, Wiremu Hunter?¡± She asked. ¡°Running, mostly. From them.¡± I pointed to the Imperials. She nodded as if that made sense. ¡°You are lacking in equipment¡± she stated the obvious. ¡°You are entitled to a share of the loot. There will be a camp nearby.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± I said, ¡°the camp is that way.¡± I pointed. ¡°There are two slaves there.¡± ¡°Are you a slave owner, Wiremu Hunter?¡± She was looking at me intently. ¡°No, the reason I was running was to avoid becoming a slave.¡± I replied. ¡°Hmmph.¡± she grunted and nodded to Kopje. He headed toward the camp. A tall thin Elf approached and got Branik¡¯s attention. ¡°We will need you to help fix the wagon.¡± he instructed in a nasally tone that really grated on me. Branik stared at him a moment, with her arms crossed. You could see his resolve wilting and I am sure she was not using any Skills. Then she stated, ¡°The warriors will check for further threats and equipment. You no longer have the personnel for six wagons. We will be moving ahead with only the five.¡± ¡°But my contract ¡­.¡± his words petered out under her stare. ¡°I strongly suggest you get any valuable cargo moved to one of the good wagons, Masnachwr, before we get replacement horses attached.¡± She looked at me. ¡°Do you want a job, Wiremu Hunter?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I replied quickly. Truth Sensing was giving me a very strong positive vibe from Branik and a very strong ¡®be wary¡¯ vibe from the elf. The Elf¡¯s protests were silenced by a look from Branik and she said, ¡°Follow me.¡± She started walking off. ¡°I suggest you hurry Masnachwr as we are moving as soon as possible.¡± I followed. The Elf walked back to the non-combatants and started yelling instructions. Once we were away, she turned to me. ¡°You have just been hired by the Mother¡¯s Tusk Mercenaries and we have standards.¡± She looked me up and down. ¡°Which you don¡¯t currently meet.¡± She declared. ¡°What are your classes and skills?¡± ¡°I originally trained as a Hunter, so Traps, Bow and Small blades. I was recently a Quarry Worker, so I am strong and journeyman level Hammer skill. But if I ever see another hammer it will be too soon. Journeyman Stealth and beginner Far sight, Spear, Unarmed Combat and Throwing Weapons.¡± I decided I would not tell her about the Hearing Aid, Affinity or the Spy Class. She already knew about Pip. ¡°You work for me.¡± She declared. ¡°Kopje is second in command, then Sme?ka. You don¡¯t take orders from anyone else. What we need is someone to scout. Is that a job you could do, Wiremu Hunter?¡± ¡°Yes, I think so. Please just call me Wiremu. I have not done it before, but a lot of my hunter skills will be useful there.¡± I answered. ¡°Then you need to be light and fast.¡± she declared. ¡°We will find some leather armour and ranged weapons. Keep the bow, we will find more arrows. The Dwarf there was a guard. He had a set of throwing knives. If you find them you may keep them. You will practise every night, both bow and Throwing weapons.¡± She paused and glared at me. ¡°You will not use Throwing Weapons in a fight until it is at least Apprentice level.¡± I nodded. She continued, ¡°The Mothers Tusks spar every morning, both unarmed and primary melee weapon. No mercenary should have Unarmed Combat at less than Apprentice Level and Primary Weapon at journeyman level. Your Primary melee weapon will probably be either Small Blades or Spear, but probably Small Blades so it doesn¡¯t interfere with the bow. We will try you with both and see. Do you have a preference?¡± Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°I am more familiar with Small Blades, but I am open to options and guidance. I am not used to fighting people, I am used to hunting beasts¡± I replied. ¡°At least you recognise the difference.¡± she said. She looked at the two utility knives in my belt. ¡°We will also need to get you some decent small blades,¡± she stated. ¡°You start with the Dwarf, he also had some decent knives. All coins get pooled and divided up. One share each and Two shares to the Mothers Tusks. I see you have already acquired a purse.¡± She was sharp, ¡°As it was acquired before you joined you may keep it. All further coin will be shared.¡° She said sternly. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for a full strip so we only want useful equipment and potions this time.¡± She waved me off to get started, while she started on the Lieutenant. The Dwarf had two good fighting knives with sheaths and belt and a bandolier with pockets for six throwing knives, three of which were empty. I knew where one knife was. There was no way his armour would fit me, but I did grab his coat as it had deep pockets I could keep things in, like his coin purse. The next body must have been a general worker as there was nothing but a few coins. The next body was an imperial and he had a short sword and two potions I didn''t recognise. Into the pockets they went. I stripped his chainmail off as it is valuable, but while his Armour would have fitted I was not going to risk being mistaken for an Imperial, or be so obvious I would be accused of killing one. The archer I killed was next and I emptied her quiver into mine. Her bow was the same as mine but she did have some spare bow strings. She also had two potions, one the same as the other imperial and one different. I am thinking these potions were part of the standard equipment for imperials. The archer I first looted had similar potions and spare string. I found two of the three missing throwing knives there. I had a bunch of chainmail and four short swords over my shoulder and full pockets when Branik called me over to one of the wagons. She indicated for me to put the loot into a large chest. The chest had a stylised image of a bust of a large breasted female Orc with impressive Tusks. I guess this was our symbol. I put the coat with the full pockets in as well. It would all be sorted later. I kept the war knives and throwing knives. Kopje had come back with the six horses that had been in the Camp and the two slaves and was in a heated discussion with Masnachwr. I used Identify on the slaves and as I suspected the slave bond was not active, with the death of the Imperials. The slaves were still glassy eyed and more listless than usual. I Identified Masnachwr while I was there and he came back with Level 9 Merchant, but I got the strong impression of another class also being there, similar to Thief, but not the same. Definitely something shady. This was expected of course, from somebody running a caravan in Imperial territory, but willing to fight Imperials. Or get his guards to fight them anyway. My top pick was smuggler. I hoped he realised the whole caravan would have been lost without the Mothers Tusks, an idiot Imperial commander and me. Branik told me to go with Sme?ka and we headed back towards the imperial camp with an empty pack each. Sme?ka was a cheerful, chatty guy. When we got to the camp we went from tent to tent getting anything that might be valuable. There actually wasn¡¯t a lot. I think Sme?ka found more in the Lieutenants tent. We also collected any food that would last. Sme?ka made me keep a second canteen. On the way back I detoured to pick up the small pack I had stashed in the grass, when I decided to get involved in the fight. When we got back to the wagons the horses were hitched. Only two of the imperial horses were needed and the remaining four were tied to the last wagon. The Slaves were working transfering some final goods from the damaged wagon and there were some crates unloaded beside the road obviously discarded to make room for more valuable goods. Branik was very keen to be moving and was pushing everything along. I Identified the slaves and their bond was active again and lead to Masnachwr. I wasn¡¯t sure what to think about that. Branik called me over. ¡°Wiremu, we are heading down the east road there. We will be travelling as fast as these wagons can manage, and we won¡¯t be stopping till nightfall. Do you know any scouting signs?¡± I shook my head. ¡°This is the all clear sign,¡± she drew in the dirt. ¡°I expect to see this about 2-3 kilometres. If I don¡¯t see one for five kilometres I will assume something has happened to you and there is danger. This is the warning sign. The direction of the symbol is the direction of the danger. If I see this Kopje or Sme?ka will come and investigate. Anything else you will need to come back and report. Do you know the Riding skill?¡± ¡°No,¡± I replied. ¡°On foot is better for now. Kopje will be watching the rear for any pursuit. You will need to watch the road and both sides. Once we are away from here we will get you the Riding Skill on one of those horses as there are times we might need to make a fast getaway.¡± I nodded. ¡°Does the snake need anything?¡± ¡°No, he is fine.¡± ¡°Good. I am pretty sure Masnachwr didn¡¯t see him. It might be handy to keep him hidden, in case we need an edge.¡± I nodded again. ¡°OK, I had best head off then.¡± ¡°Get some rations to take, and fill your canteens from the barrel before you go. If all goes well I will see you around dusk. Part of your job is to identify a good campsite. Obviously near water if possible and out of sight of the road. We will fill barrels when we cross a stream so water is preferred, but not essential. If there is fresh game when we meet, the Mothers Tusks will be appreciative. Orcs get grumpy without meat in their diet, but we get grumpier if we are surprised by danger. Don¡¯t let it distract you from your job. We will discuss more tonight.¡± I nodded and headed to the water barrel and sorted my small backpack. I never did find that sixth throwing knife or armour. I certainly understood the urgency to get moving. 10. Scouting: Wiremu 10. Scouting: Wiremu The wagons would not be going faster than the horse walking pace, which would be about 6-8kilometers per hour. That means I need to leave four markers every hour, plus range on both sides. I was going to be on the go all afternoon and I think I was going to be glad I didn''t have armour. I set off down the east road at a fast jog. I figured any dangerous animal would have been chased away by the fighting and noise, so I wasn¡¯t going to leave the road until I placed my second marker. I was thinking about Branik. She seemed pretty sure of me. I wondered if she had a skill like my Truth Sensing. She may even have a Leadership type class. That sounded very plausible. She certainly ran a tight and very competent mercenary group. I figured that unless I really stuffed up I would be employed for the duration of this contract. She had already told me what she would expect in a mercenary. I would judge that her expectations were probably higher than average. The day was spent running back and forth. Tracking was active and so was Farsight. Nothing had levelled during the fight, not even bow. But to be quite honest I didn¡¯t expect it to. I need a lot more practice with it to get back up to speed. Truth Sensing had levelled sometime during the conversation, but that was all. I swung close enough to the wagons to eyeball them at least once an hour, checking they were not under attack or needed help. There was only about four hours of travel time before dusk. I found a small creek and an area of low grass close by, which should be out of sight of the road.I had practised my Throwing Weapons when I could during the day and managed to bring down a mid sized bird. I got a second with my bow as I waited by the road for the wagons to direct them to the campsite. Pip found a nest and had a meal of egg. Soon the season would move on and the eggs hatch. Branik took the birds from me and gave them to Sme?ka to prep and start the meal. We would eat separately from the Wagoner crowd. I found a plank of wood and went away from camp and practised my bow. I went through two full quivers before I was starting to feel comfortable with it again. Then I did the same with me throwing knives. Kopje came by at one point as suggested some changes to my grip and wrist. It was fully dark at that point, but both moons were up and I had good perception. Then the meal was ready. Over the meal we dealt with business first. Mostly the fact there were only four of us to stand watch. I was only used to 4-5 hours sleep a night in the quarry. The others were all physical classes as well with high constitutions so we did three two hour watches before morning spar time. One person got the night off. Then I got to ask some questions. I even found out the name of the empire. It was the Nystad Empire and we were in the easternmost province of Nomandes heading east to the neighbouring Kingdom of Kirghiz, specifically the city of Hrothgar. Hrothgar had a very high percentage of Orcs in the population. I asked where the city of Freebourne was in relation to us and it was South and west. Nystad and Kirghiz were in a perpetual state of unrest and border skirmishes. Hrothgar was therefore a fortified city with a sizable military presence, basically being the gateway to the rest of the kingdom. The wagoners were actually part of the Torgovlya Enterprise with offices in both countries, supposedly giving them a legitimate pass through the border. However, because of the unrest there were a number of items banned from trading, especially military and enchanted items, potions and some ingredients etc. Guess what we were carrying a lot of. They had not been expecting checkpoints until closer to the border, and they were expecting to have contacts that smoothed the way for a price. I was right. My employment would end in Hrothgar and if I did well she would put a good word out to the Mercenary Association or the Town Guard or Army etc. It was another 6 weeks to Hrothgar, so I had time to get my skills up to standard. After dinner it was weapon and armour maintenance. Spear points were sharpened, broken links in the chainmail repaired and some dents smoothed out. There is a limit to what they could do on the road, but what they could do they did, especially after a fight. Branik actually had the Armour Repair and Weapon Repair Skills at a reasonably high level and it had saved them a lot of coin over time. She had spent the time on the road putting together and adjusting armour for me. The Lieutenant apparently had a good set of leather armour in his tent which was not military standard, so it must have been personal. He had been a skinny dude so she had her work cut out. She had taken off the arms so it was now a vest. She had used the arm leather to expand the vest to fit and had me try it on while she made further adjustments. For the legs she had a pair of trousers from a sturdy material and had sliced up the leather leggings of the armour set and if she had time tomorrow she would attach the leather as a set of greaves down the front of the trousers and use the rear part of the leather and the balance of the arms for some rough vambraces to lace on to my arms. She was really pleased as it was really stretching her Armour Repair skill and it had already gone up a level, which was quite hard for her to do at her level. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I worked on the knives I had acquired and checked and sharpened all the edges. They had some oil which I used on the bow and I checked the arrows after all my practice. Some of the fletching needed straightening. I put aside some of the feathers from dinner for use as fletching later. There was space in their chest set aside specifically for repair tools and spare items. Branik and I took longer than the others so while we were finishing Kopje and Sme?ka sorted the loot. There was a good selection of potions and they identified them for me so I would know for the future. The most common were minor health regeneration potions, the physical agility, then a couple of Physical Perception potions from the archers. The real score were two potions for Spiritual Strength and Spiritual Agility found in the Lieutenants tent. He probably had a skill that used those, and thinking about it now it may well have been what he was doing when I entered the fight. I asked the question and Branik said she had specifically invested in Spiritual Perception so she could see people using such skills and she was prepping a shield charge even before knowing I was there. She could see him preparing. She had been expecting the archers to take down one or maybe all of them during or after the charge. She had used the ability before for timely interventions that had saved their asses. Most people can¡¯t use any skills after being hit with one of her shield charges. I knew Orcs usually had very low Spiritual attributes. It was one of their weaknesses. She must have invested quite a lot of points. This must have been part of her training and I was very impressed. I would be even more impressed if it came from her own initiative, but I wasn¡¯t game to ask. Attribute allocation is very personal. The remaining loot was chainmail and short swords and other equipment. There was some debate as to whether I would be better to learn the short sword rather than just knives. I was quite keen to have both. They said a variety of weapon skills was good but I shouldn''t learn a second weapon until my first weapon was at the journeyman level. They could help me with a melee weapon, but they couldn¡¯t help with the bow. None of them had any archery experience. That triggered another memory that a weakness of Orcs was a lack of ranged weapons. The normal way the Orcs compensated for a lack of raged options was having fast movement skills to get in close, fast. I had that first night off from watch. I guess they were still feeling me out. We were up well before dawn and stretching for our sparring. Unarmed Combat was first and I spent the better part of the next hour getting punched and kicked and thrown. It was pretty much as I expected, but it still wasn¡¯t pleasant. Granite actually helped here and I was able to withstand more than they expected on a couple of occasions and retaliate faster. It meant I got a bit closer to hitting them. Unarmed Combat did level. Small blades training was very instructive. They had me doing a series of movements over and over with the blade to get it into my muscle memory. While I was doing that Branik sparred with Kopje and Sme?ka separately with their spears and then together against her shield. Then she sparred with her axe and Kopje used a short sword. Sme?ka then used a one handed mace. All the while I was going back and forth and up and down and thrust and again and again. If I slacked off or slowed down I was yelled at. When they had finished I had to show the same moves, but with Sme?ka as an opponent. Small Blades didn¡¯t level but I think this is what it needs to break through to the apprentice level. The benefits of proper training. These people had this sort of training from the beginning, with all their skills. No wonder I am so outclassed. And out Skilled. I left to scout while everybody was still eating breakfast. Things started to fall into a routine. It wasn¡¯t till a week or so later that people really stopped looking behind them for pursuit. After that first week Small Blades finally moved to Level 5 and the Apprentice levels. That was when I finally started sparring with my knives regularly against Sme?ka and progress was being made. I received a base increase in Physical agility when Small Blades went into the Apprentice level. It was the first Attribute increase in a long time. My Bow skill had been stuck at level 5 for a long time. I practised every day and it was becoming more and more familiar and I practised shooting from all sorts of angles and positions and gradually increased the range. It was one day I was out scouting and saw a deer, except around here they are called a gazelle. It located me and took off and I still nailed it. Bow went up to 6 and I needed to find a way to practice on moving targets. Unarmed Combat was improving by leaps and bounds. I wasn¡¯t just getting beaten up any more but getting actual instruction on holds and throws and different techniques. I was still getting beaten up but not just getting beaten up. It was ready to break into the Apprentice levels any day now, which was fast according to Sme?ka. He seemed to think I was a natural at it. I did like Unarmed Combat but I know how much my Granite affinity, strength and pain resistance helped. Especially the Granite. Being more robust and being able to lock joints definitely gave me an advantage. Granite Bones had even gained a level. Farsight and Tracking have both improved. Farsight is on the cusp of the Apprentice levels. By contrast Throwing Weapons has barely improved. I am definitely going to need to find someone to get training from. There is no one here who knows more than the absolute basics. I haven¡¯t levelled my hunter Class, but I hope I am getting close. In contrast Pip was having the laziest life. He barely has to hunt for himself. Bits of meat appear near him, even the occasional egg. He gets carried everywhere.I think he is definitely putting on weight and he can¡¯t blame the Granite this time. When I told him that he just looked at me and poked his tongue out. 11. Mercenary Guild: Wiremu 11. Mercenary Guild: Wiremu On the fifth evening over dinner Branik said we would be approaching a town in a couple of days and I might start to see signs of civilization. Land would be cleared and some farms would start to appear, farmed by some of the braver farmers. Actually, retired soldiers and mercenaries would often break in land at the edges of towns as they generally had the skills to defend it. I was not to engage, or even be seen, if possible. I was to keep closer to the road and on the last day keep with the wagons. The reduced numbers and wagons would be passed off as a monster attack, but having four spare horses with Imperial branding would be a problem. Kopje was going to take them and skirt the town with Masnachwr¡¯s second in command and the horses loaded with some of the more inflammatory goods, just in case they couldn¡¯t avoid a search. Masnachwr thought these goods might make it hard for him to persuade / bribe an unknown guard. I made it a point to watch Masnachwr closely to see if I could work out some of his skills. I know he had a merchant class which gives attributes in the Mental area, but with all my spying, identifying and Hearing Aid, I hadn¡¯t figured out what else he had. He certainly had several Mental based skills along the lines of persuade and deceive, but I suspected he also has some minor illusion type skill to help hide goods. I knew there was an Illusion class which was strongly Mental based, like the Bard class. I had been enthralled by seeing an illusionist in one of my infrequent childhood visits to Freebourne. I can see something similar, but lower key, being useful for a smuggler, or even a less honest merchant. Branik and Sme?ka would be in full armour while in town for two reasons. Firstly to give an intimidating presence. Secondly to hide they were Orcs. Normally only Branik wore a full face helmet, but Kopje and Sme?ka had purchased them for this contract. They had documentation from the Mercenary Guild and the border crossing to be allowed in Imperial territory, but as Branik said, a bit of paper doesn''t mean much, especially when your life is on the line. They are often just overlooked as the strong silent mercenary. A lot of store keepers would refuse to trade with them and that is on top of the general distrust of mercenaries. They would be staying one night in town and I would be the front man for them to get resupplied. Branik would also give me my share of the looted coins so I could get anything I needed. I wouldn¡¯t get paid till the end of the contract. We would be staying at the Mercenary Guild accommodation and room and food was covered in the contract. The others would be staying at a nearby Inn. I spent the rest of the evening quizzing them on local goods and expected prices. I really hadn¡¯t used coins, or made any major purchases in my life. Masnachwr wanted to hire some additional guards at the local Mercenary Guild if possible, so Branik would be spending time there. Sme?ka would accompany me after the wagons were secured in the ¡°secure compound¡± at the Inn. Sme?ka didn¡¯t think much of their security, but they didn¡¯t have a say and they were not responsible for security while it was in the Inn¡¯s compound. I did see signs of civilization and farming the next day. We camped on the edge of a farm and some of them traded with the farmer for some fresh produce. It would take us almost all day to get to the town, called Yelets, so we would actually spend two nights there. Pip disappeared for a while and I think he might have helped himself to the farmer''s eggs. I didn¡¯t ask or want to know. Kopje and the horses left well before dawn. I was to stay with the wagons, so it was a lazy day for me. We approached the town gate mid afternoon. I was positioned at the back of the first wagon and I watched carefully as Masnachwr interacted with the guards. There were definitely skills in play. Truth Sensing was flaring warnings frequently. I caught the gratuity pass hands, but only because I was watching for it and I had reasonable perception. He brought the corporal to the back of each wagon and as he looked in I felt another skill in play. I had the strong impression from Identify that one more point in Spiritual perception would enable a skill to show me more. I had no spare points to allocate. None of my classes had levelled since the quarry, only Skills. I was very disappointed being so close but ending with nothing. I had a quick look at my stat sheet while Masnachwr was paying the regular entrance fee and filling in the paperwork.
Class Hunt QW Spy Total
Type Attribute Level 4 9 4 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 10 2 18 1 40 83.0
Agility (PA) 12 3 4 4 23
Perception (PP) 11 0 8 1 20
Mental Strength (MS) 9 11 2 22 56.0
Agility (MA) 12 1 2 4 19
Perception (MP) 11 0 A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. 2 4 15
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 1 0 9 20 46.0
Agility (SA) 8 0 2 2 12
Perception (SP) 10 0 0 4 14
Totals 92 26 20 27 20 185
Free points 0 0
Resistances: Pain +9, Crushing +12, Poison +4 Skills: Novice: Fishing 3, Skinning 4, Cooking 1, Butchering 1, Spear 1, Unarmed Combat 4, Throwing Weapons 2 Lock Pick 4, Far Sight 4, Truth Sensing 2, Camouflage 2, Granite Bones 2, Apprentice: Identify 7, Trapping 8, Hearing Aid 9, Animal Bond 7, Bow 5, Deceive 7, Small Blades 6, Tracking 6, Journeyman: Stealth 13, Hammer 12 Affinity: Granite Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Resistances: Crushing +12 Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones, Spiritual Perception was at 14. I had hoped to level the hunter Class with all the scouting, but not yet. Just like Skills the classes needed something extra to move to the next category. Both Hunter and Spy were waiting for that something extra. We moved the wagons through the town to an Inn called the ¡°Thirsty Traveller¡±. After securing the Wagons Branik, Sme?ka and myself walked to the Mercenaries Guild which was a compound near the exit we would take in two days'' time. I had never been in a Mercenaries Guild before. Branik wanted me to take the lead here too for now. While the Mercenaries Guild should be accepting of anyone with a membership in good standing, which could be translated to paid the annual fee, they were staffed by local people with the same prejudices as the area they were in. If word got out Orc mercenaries were here it could make the following day more difficult than necessary. At the end of the day they were all mercenaries and if someone was willing to pay for information there would probably be some takers. Branik got us in with her membership token. We entered into a wide walkway. On the left was the Jobs area with boards up for listings. At the back of the area were counters for completed jobs. Some jobs were contracted totally through the Mercenary Guild, for a fee. These jobs the client paid the mercenary guild upfront and you worked directly for the guild and were paid by the guild. These types of jobs were usually the hands off type for the client. Monster extermination, private courier and deliveries, harvest contracts for crafting ingredients etc. Other jobs were more where the Mercenary Guild facilitated a meeting, and you negotiated with the clients directly. Escort runs, like the Mothers Tusks were currently on, personal and property protection etc. The army sometimes posted scouting or supply line protection jobs. The less legal jobs were usually negotiated directly and quietly through an agent of the client. Assassinations, drugs, smuggling, slavery etc. Some of which might be legal in some parts of the world and illegal in others. It was the Mercenary Guild and if you had the coin there was probably someone to take the job. Mercenaries usually banded together into groups as you had to be very highly skilled to operate alone. There were some specialist couriers with fast mounts and high riding skills who operated alone, but most jobs needed a group. If you were between groups, joining a contract with a group who needed more people was a good way to increase your reputation and possibly get offered a longer contract. These would be the sort of people we would be looking for, but they came in all sorts of sizes, with all sorts of skills and all sorts of reliability. It would be Branik¡¯s job to pick the suitable ones. She was in charge of security. We went to the counter to post a job on behalf of Torgovlya Enterprises for escort of wagons to Hrothgar leaving in two days. Interviews would be held in Training Yard 4 at 3pm tomorrow. We paid the fee to post the advert and book the training yard and a small extra for the Guild to get the word out to reliable people who may be available. I did all this with Branik and Sme?ka acting the strong silent types at my back, still with their helmets on. Branik was planning to be a fully visible Orc tomorrow at the interview to weed out the ones with negative reactions and we were leaving the following morning so it shouldn¡¯t matter with word getting out then. We also booked accommodation and meals for two nights, with room service. I got some local information as well including the location of the communal baths down the street. I was looking forward to that. Opposite the Jobs hall was a tavern area. The crowd looked rough and unkempt, as you would expect. Spirits seemed high and a lot of laughter was heard. Beyond that I was told there were rooms for games of skill and chance. Private meeting rooms could be booked along with the private training areas. There was a sparring area behind the Tavern for those who got into disagreements. Twice a week there were organised fights there for those who wanted to test their skills against each other. There was a large communal training area, free for members. You could hire training equipment, weapons and trainers. I perked up when I heard about the trainers, but I would not have time here and one lesson is usually not enough. I might still look into it as I need to level Bow. In the building behind the training areas there were Guild craftsmen and a Guild market. I left Branik and Sme?ka to head up to their rooms and get their armour off, while I went to find the local baths. I hadn¡¯t been in a town this size since I had been in Freebourne as a kid. Everything was new and different. I was watching everything I could, gawking like a country yokel. But then I was a country yokel. My high perception meant I was aware of things a normal country yokel wasn¡¯t, like the pickpocket across the street, and when they crossed the street obviously heading for the country yokel, I caught and held their eye for a second and they backed off. I was identifying everyone I could. Interestingly, Identify failed to work on the pickpocket. The smartly dressed man at the fruit stall looked at me sharply when I Identified him. It only came back with a vague idea of a merchant, but he obviously had a skill that warned and protected him from my skill. I nodded in apology. I am pretty sure he was committing me to memory. The Bath House also offered a laundry service which I accepted and paid for. They also offered a ¡°Personal Washing Service.¡± I could choose from a selection of ¡°Personal Washers¡± available of either sex. Services to be negotiated at the start. One look at the Personal Washers and I could tell they were slaves. I declined and a lot of the pleasure went out of the bath I had been looking forward to. I did enjoy being clean and a soak, but the realities of being in an Empire town had crashed my party. Pip wasn¡¯t impressed with the bath and the high humidity. He didn¡¯t like it at all. I guess he is a Desert Viper. I got back to the Guild for dinner and decided to eat in the Tavern rather than my room. Everything was still new, but I was much more subdued and wary. Identify levelled, finally being used. It would be a challenge, but I was hoping to get it to Journeyman level before leaving town. ¡°Hello, son. Can we join you?¡± I looked up warily. The speaker was an older man in worn leather with a well used weapon. He was accompanied by a younger level 9 Warrior according to Identify. Identify failed on the older man. The younger man was carrying three flagons. ¡°Sure,¡± I said warily. ¡°I am almost finished and you can have the table,¡± I continued. ¡°Actually, we would like a chat,¡± he replied. ¡°We bought a round of drinks,¡± he said, indicating the three flagons. ¡°Well, that would depend on what the chat is about,¡± I replied as they sat down anyway and a flagon was pushed in front of me. ¡°It is about the Job you posted this afternoon,¡± he replied. ¡°We are puzzled about some of the details.¡± ¡°And who is this ¡°we¡±?¡± I asked. ¡°My apologies,¡± he said. ¡°I am Adrian Longstrider and this is Warren Carter.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you,¡± I said automatically while my brain whirled at high speed. ¡°More details on the job will need to wait for the interview tomorrow afternoon.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± he said. ¡°But I find it strange that the job for a respectable company like Torgovlya Enterprises is posted by a Level 9 Quarry Worker, who is not a Guild member and who is reluctant to share his name, and was accompanied by two much higher warriors, after they apparently suffered loss getting here. You can see where the questions might come from can¡¯t you?¡± Truth Sensing was dormant. I wouldn¡¯t trust it working on this guy anyway and the younger one was staying quiet. My furiously working brain could only come up with two options here. Either he is interested in the job and the anomalies flagged that things may not be what they seem. Meaning he wants out of the empire (or maybe to get someone out of the empire, perhaps the young fellow?) without too many questions. Or he was an investigator for the Empire here to stomp on irregularities. ¡°I really am going to have to refer you to either the wagon master, who is staying at the Thirsty Traveller, or wait until the interview time and take it up with the head of security, who will be there.¡± I deflected. ¡°Yes,¡± he said, ¡°I am going to have to do that. It is obvious you are far too intelligent to actually be a level 9 Quarry Worker, and your Mental Strength is way too strong for that. Yet there are gaping holes in your story, it is like this is the first time you have done this.¡± They got to their feet. ¡°If you are ever interested in levelling your actual skills then look me up sometime. Good evening to you, enjoy the drink.¡± he said and they walked away. I sat there silent for quite a while, mulling over that conversation. He had obviously been testing me in some way during the conversation, and had not got past my highest class information. I hadn¡¯t detected anything. I didn¡¯t think he worked for the Empire as they would have just taken me in for questioning if I refused to answer. I decided some immediate investigation was in order. I slipped out the back of the Tavern and over the wall of the compound and into the night. 12. Night Hunt: Wiremu 12. Night Hunt: Wiremu Stealth at night in a town was quite different than in the open field or forest. Light sources came from various places and angles and often created sharp lines of shadow. I carefully circled the Mercenary Guild, looking for clues. I found him in an alley with a view to the front entrance. Warren was hidden but not hiding. He was making little movements and noises that gave away his presence and he seemed to be doing it on purpose. This was obviously suspicious, so I went even more carefully and kept looking. The second person was on a roof within sight of Warren (if that was even his name). This person was good. I only found them when I was close enough that Hearing Aid picked up a heartbeat where there shouldn¡¯t have been one. Only then did I spot their outline and I was way too close. They hadn¡¯t seen me and I carefully backed off to where I could see both. The person on the roof was easy to lose track of. I had some skill notifications, but I was not going to split my attention at this point. Eventually, Warren made a signal and the person on the roof moved off. I decided to follow. Because they were so hard to follow with sight I actually mainly followed with Hearing Aid focused on them. They were quiet, but Hearing Aid was in the journeyman level of skills, much higher than Far Sight. They very carefully circled the Mercenary Guild. There were a couple of times I thought I had slipped up and they saw me, but apparently not. When they got back to Warren they caught his attention and made a signal and he moved off down the alley. The shadow figure followed from nearby roof tops. I shadowed the shadow. Eventually, they entered a smallish warehouse. It took me another fifteen minute to find an entrance I could use without the watchmen spotting me. It was an upper window to a small office which then let me out onto a mezzanine overlooking the action on the warehouse floor. I did spot the two bowmen also overlooking the action. The action was Adrian Longstrider leaning over the table with another figure going over papers. Warren and his shadow were waiting to one side. Now that the shadow was not hiding I could tell it was female. Adrian dismissed the first figure and summoned Warren and his Shadow. Warren stepped forward. ¡°What happened?¡± asked Adrian. ¡°He didn¡¯t show,¡± said Warren. ¡°We waited the whole two hours and Tabs did a circuit of the Guild. Nothing.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± said Adrain, ¡°wait over there for a minute.¡± He sat in the chair by the table and steepled his hands as if in thought. Then he raised his voice, ¡°OK, Mister Level 9 Quarry Worker. You have just displayed some impressive Stealth and Perception abilities. But then you made a huge beginners blunder, in triggering the Spiritual Trap when you entered the building. The contradictions keep growing. I assume you are here to talk.¡± He indicated the chair opposite him. ¡°Please come down and we can chat.¡± Warren and the Shadow Girl, (Tabs?) had shocked expressions on their faces and were scanning the mezzanine, as were the archers. I pondered for a moment. Not about whether to go down, but whether Pip would be more use up here with the archers, or down there with the main players. I decided downstairs. I detached myself from the shadow I was hiding in and leapt over the handrail, dropping lightly to the stone floor of the warehouse. Before I left the shadow of the mezzanine Pip detached himself and moved along the edge. On my way to the table I picked up a spare chair and placed it where I could see all three and the main entrance was in my peripheral view. I had my back to one of the archers, but I figured they wouldn¡¯t act without authority. ¡°You are quite the puzzle,¡± Adrian said. When I remained silent, he continued. ¡°I have one question which is really puzzling me. I know nothing comes free, so in exchange I will offer some insight into one of my classes.¡± I nodded for him to continue. ¡°The question that is going to keep me awake all night is, how come I can only identify you as a Level 9 Quarry Worker?¡± When I nodded for him to continue, he said, ¡°My Identify skill is in the Master level, my Mental Perception is up there too and I have the Trainers Class, which gives me insight into people''s abilities and classes. This means people who have Skills to mask their status or confuse it, generally don¡¯t confuse me. Yet all my Skills are certain you are a Level 9 Quarry Worker. No hint of doubt there. You are obviously not a Level 9 Quarry Worker, so please explain the skill you are using, as it is effective, and something I have not come across yet.¡± I paused, not sure how he would take this, or even if he would believe it. Eventually I said, ¡°I actually don¡¯t have any Skills to mask my status. Level 9 Quarry Worker is my highest class.¡± There was stunned silence for a moment. Then Adrian just lost it. He burst out laughing, slapped his hand on the table and lost himself to laughter for several minutes. I had an amused smile on my face, as his laughter was infectious, but I really didn¡¯t know how to react here. Warren looked confused and Tabs, just looked cross. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Eventually, he brought himself back under control. Still chuckling he said, ¡°That is actually very clever. I could make that work for some people, even though it would involve a lot of effort. You''re obviously not just a Level 9 Quarry Worker. Let me introduce ourselves again. I am Adrian Longstrider, no deception there and this is Warren Carter and this young lady is Tabitha Carter, Warren''s sister. And you are?¡± He left the question hanging. I saw no reason to hide my name. ¡°I am Wiremu Hunter,¡± I answered. ¡°Hunter, from the Free Republic?¡± He asked. When I nodded he said, ¡°That explains the Stealth and Perception. The Hunter Class.¡± This man was very knowledgeable and every time I opened my mouth I seemed to give him insights that I wasn''t sure I wanted him having. ¡°Wiremu, I haven''t laughed like that for a long time. You have made my night, so I am going to offer to train you in the Mask Status Skill, if you have the Ability levels. I am a Trainer, so it shouldn¡¯t take long.¡± ¡°What do I need?¡± I asked. ¡°For Mask Status you need Mental Agility over 15 and an active mental skill, Intimidate, Persuade, Etc. You couldn¡¯t have done what you did tonight without Mental Agility over 15. You can¡¯t change the status, and it is obvious you are hiding something, but it is more robust against perception Skills. If you have Mental Agility at 20 and Spiritual Agility at 15 you could get the more active Confuse Status or Manipulate Status. Confuse Status you need the same Mental Skill. There is a chance people will assume what they have seen is correct, but it may just be as obvious and mask Status. For Manipulate Status you need an active Falsify ability like, Acting, Defraud, Mislead, Swindle, Seduce etc. Once Manipulate Status gets to the Apprentice level you can display what you like and it is effective against equal level skills, but can be broken through easier, if people realise they need to go deeper.¡± I checked my Status. Tonight had levelled Hunter and Spy, as well as Stealth, Farsight and Hearing Aid. This meant I had four free Ability points and I could bump Spiritual Agility to 15 by using three of them. I figured it was worth it, and Deceive would be a good enough skill for Manipulate Status. I figured this was a key opportunity and I made the changes. This would also enable Spiritual Traps and I now knew they were useful as alarms as well. I would work on that once we left town. ¡°I would very much appreciate that,¡± I said. ¡°Very well, we will do it after our discussion. The main reason we wanted to talk is that Warren and Tabitha need to urgently leave town for an extended period. Your job ad seemed to be a good opportunity,¡± he said. ¡°I did tell you I''m just the messenger. I have no authority here.¡± I replied. ¡°Warren here is a competent Level 9 Warrior. He could probably get hired anyway. Tabitha is more difficult as she is a Level 10 Thief. She also has the Merchant Class, but it is still in the novice levels. Tabitha is the one who really needs to leave for a while as on her last job she bit off more than she should have.¡± I saw Tabitha¡¯s scowl get deeper as Adrian shared that information. ¡°And what is it exactly you want me to do?¡± I asked. ¡°I want you to facilitate them joining the caravan,¡± he said. ¡°And in compensation, if you can make it happen tomorrow I will train you in a skill tomorrow night. I strongly suggest Detect Spiritual Traps.¡± I pondered it for a moment. There seemed to be no downside to it. If I couldn¡¯t make it happen I was leaving and probably never coming back, and if I could manage it, I would have some new skills. ¡°Two skills.¡± I said. I would get as much out of this trainer as I could. His eyes narrowed as he thought. ¡°Very well two skills.¡± he said, his eyes flicking to Tabitha. I got the impression that whatever arrangement they had between them just cost them more. ¡°OK I said I will see what I can do.¡± I said. ¡°What Skills and abilities can I use to sell this to my boss?¡± I asked. ¡°Warren is a typical semi aggressive warrior with apprentice skills in Sword, Shield, Charge, Quick Cut and Shield Bash. Tabitha has Stealth in the Journeyman levels and Dark Sight in the upper Apprentice Levels, which is why you detecting her and following her without her seeing is impressive. Otherwise standard thief skills in Detecting and disarming traps, lockpicking etc.¡± I nodded. I really needed to get out of here. I would have a very busy day tomorrow. ¡°Have you decided which Status skill you will try to learn?¡± Adrian continued. ¡°Manipulate Status,¡± I said. ¡°That is an interesting choice,'''' he said. ¡°Usually only those in the more subtle classes try to learn that. The Hustlers, Swindlers and Spies.¡± I was careful not to react to any of that as I am sure he was testing all my reactions. It took almost an hour of him walking me through accessing my status through using my Mental Agility, specifically and then I had to incorporate some Spiritual Agility in the technique. Eventually I got it and I think it was only so quick because of the bonus from his Trainer class. I left by the main door and hid nearby after making sure I wasn¡¯t followed. Part of the manipulate Status skill meant I could order my skills so while I waited I rearranged them into Novice, Apprentice and Journeyman categories. Pip eventually joined me and I got an impression from him of a lot of people moving to and from a section of floor. I figured there was a basement entrance or tunnel. I got a few hours of sleep before morning training. 13. Shopping: Wiremu 13. Shopping: Wiremu Morning training was held in the communal training yard. As Sme?ka was taking me through my Small blade drills I saw Branik talking with another group. When she came back She said that for unarmed Combat she had arranged a match for me with one of their trainees. Winner either by knockout or best of three by tapping out. My opponent had Unarmed Combat in the low apprentice Levels but she had put a wager on me so I had better step up even with my Novice level skill. We moved to the sparring area. My opponent was a solidly built girl who seemed to have a real anger problem. Her anger seemed to be directed at me. We entered the ring and I could see others gathering to watch as well. After getting the command to spar, we circled each other then in the first exchange it became obvious I was out skilled. I came out of the gasping for breath from a hit in the solar plexus. She came back in fast and I missed a block and took a knee to the groin and tapped out. One thing with the Mercenary Guild is that no fighting is fair and you use whatever strike works. The second round started too soon as far as I was concerned, but I was able to surprise her by locking my arm joint and then getting her into a hold, so she had to tap out. I think this increased her anger. The next round we had two exchanges before I took a kick to the head that really dazed me and she really laid into me before I went down and stayed down. I came round with Sme?ka throwing water on my face. I couldn¡¯t really tell from behind his helmet but I got the impression he was grinning. When I checked and Unarmed Combat had broken through to Level 5, the Apprentice Level, but the only extra bonus I got was bruises. Not extra attributes or anything for getting beaten up. Again. Actually, I looked closer and Granite Bones had levelled as well. That kick may have well broken something without Granite Bones. I guess it saved me an expensive potion. I had breakfast with Branik and Sme?ka in Branik¡¯s room as she outlined the day. After breakfast we would hit the Guild Traders for our supplies. We were looking at a two week run through the wilderness until the fortified border town of Kirsk. Then two weeks to get to Hrothgar. We weren¡¯t counting on being able to resupply in Kirsk. Once the shopping was done I was free until the interviews. I wasn¡¯t going to get a better opportunity so I outlined the events of the evening as they pertained to the Carter siblings. I figured it was best to come out straight with it to Branik. She was silent for a long time when I finished. Eventually she said, ¡°Adrian Longstrider is known to me by his reputation. It may appear to have no consequences if we do not take these siblings, but there definitely will be. Longstrider will be playing multiple angles here. It is interesting he seems unaware we are the Mothers Tusks, but he probably knows this by now. He won¡¯t oppose us directly, as it is not his way and our clan is too strong, but he can make life difficult.¡± She looked at Sme?ka. ¡°Sme?ka will go and investigate and find out more about what trouble the Carter siblings are in and whether that might cause us more trouble than Longstrider. You and I will get the supplies.¡± The Guild Traders had a huge range of supplies and equipment. Usually they were a branch of a Merchant organisation, or an office connected to a local business. Most of our supplies would be delivered to the wagons. As we went around I was looking for what I personally would need. There were many things I could upgrade from my armour, no offence Branik, to my knives and bow, to training equipment. I didn¡¯t have enough to be looking at enchanted equipment. I would have to be very careful about what I purchased or I would be broke very quickly. It was late morning when Branik released me, so I had about four hours before the interviews. I figured my biggest need was to upskill with the bow and there was no one to train me in the caravan. I booked an hour''s training with the archery instructor. It was more expensive than expected as I was not entitled to the Guild discount. The first thing the instructor did was get me to shoot a quiver of arrows at a stationary target. Her first comment after that was that my strength was significantly more than my Agility and that was unbalancing the skill. The standard Imperial Army bow was adequate (yes, she recognised where the bow came from) but I would be better with a more advanced recurve bow. Then she started to alter my stance and technique to help me compensate for the imbalance. We had a short time on moving targets after that, and she recommended a training device which was a modified Spiritual Trap that would throw objects so I could practice with moving targets. It was a very worthwhile hour and set me up very well. Bow levelled as well. I went from there to the Guild Traders and purchased the training device, but there was no way I could afford a new bow. I bought some trap supplies, and especially some for spiritual traps. I was excited to be able to learn spiritual traps, finally, There were so many uses for them I had not thought of. The big expense I was saving most of my coin for was some better leather body armour. I could only afford a chest piece, but it had full arms and extended below my waist with a specific groin protector. Branik¡¯s vest would be my backup and her trousers and bracers were still the best I had. Access to proper trainers was doing me a world of good.
Class Hunt QW Spy Total
Type Attribute Level 5 9 5 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. 10 2 18 1 40 86.0
Agility (PA) 12 3 5 4 24
Perception (PP) 11 0 10 1 22
Mental Strength (MS) 9 11 2 22 58.0
Agility (MA) 12 1 2 5 20
Perception (MP) 11 0 0 5 16
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 1 0 9 20 50.0
Agility (SA) 8 0 4 3 15
Perception (SP) 10 0 0 5 15
Totals 92 26 25 27 24 194
Free points 0 1
Resistances: Pain +9, Crushing +13, Poison +4 Skills: Novice: Cooking 2, Fishing 3, Butchering 1, Spear 1, Throwing Weapons 2, Lock Pick 4, Camouflage 2, Truth Sensing 2, Granite Bones 3, Manipulate Status 1. Apprentice: Small Blades 6, Bow 7, Unarmed Combat 5 Tracking 6, Skinning 5, Trapping 8, Identify 8, Deceive 7, Animal Bond 7, Far Sight 5, Journeyman: Stealth 14, Hammer 12, Hearing Aid 10. Affinity: Granite Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Resistances: Crushing +13 Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones, 14. Job Interview: Tabitha 14. Job Interview: Tabitha ¡°Who the fuck does he think he is,¡± I complained to my brother Warren, again. ¡°He beat you at your own game, Tabs,¡± Warren smirked. ¡°He is a god-damned Quarry Worker. They only have rocks for brains. How did he even find me?¡± This was really bugging me. Warren and I were preparing for the ¡°interview.¡± Sure the last job I attempted was a cluster fuck and now I have to leave town, but it did level Thief into the Journeyman levels, and I got an elusive affinity. And it was the very rare Shadow Affinity. I had only told Warren. If Longstrider knew I had it there was no way he would let me leave town, regardless of how much heat was on me. It came with the Skill, Shadows Embrace. While it was only Level 1 I was using it last night and there was no way he should have seen me, let alone be able to follow me. ¡°Even with the Hunter Class,¡± I continued, ¡°he would only get Far Sight which helps with distance and ranged weapons. I have the specialist skill Dark Sight almost at Journeyman level. Night is almost as clear as day to me. I should have seen him and he shouldn''t have been able to find his own butt in the dark.¡± I had been fuming at Warren ever since the meeting last night with Rock Brains and Longstrider. ¡°Rock Brain didn''t even have a status skill and the simplest of Spiritual Traps caught him. How the hell did he beat me at night?¡± I think Warren was tired of me whinging. ¡°With the way he negotiated with Longstrider I think he might have rocks for balls,¡± Warren piped in. ¡°And that is going to come back and bite us as well. Did you see the look Longstrider gave us? We will be the ones paying for that,¡± I complained. ¡°Well, we need him to pull through,¡± Warren stated. ¡°We need to get out of here because someone attempted too much.¡± He looked pointedly at me. ¡°If he does get us on the caravan he will have a treasure trove of skills to choose from with Longstrider,¡± I said enviously. ¡°Did you see Longstrider steer him toward the simplest of skills that anyone with the right Attributes would pick up? I bet Rock Brain misses the most of this opportunity.¡± I groused. ¡°We need to leave to get to this interview,¡± Warren reminded me. There were about a dozen warrior types milling around the entrance to Training Yard 4 when we arrived. I definitely stood out as not a warrior type with my light leather armour, truncheon and cosh. I really don¡¯t have any lethal fighting skills. Warren tried to at least get me to wear a war knife in a visible place to try to fit in. I decided not to because if they asked me to use it then it would be obvious I had no skills. Rock Brain arrived with two fully armoured warriors and led us into the Training Area. One of them was huge and in full plate with an axe and a massive shield. The other was skinnier and had combination leather and chainmail armour with a spear and small shield. The two warriors marched to the centre of the area and turned to face us. Rock Brain went to the edge and squatted down to watch. The big one planted the massive shield into the ground and the other one did the same with the spear. Then they took off their helmets and my brain skidded to a halt. Holy Troll shit, they were Orcs! I heard at least two people exit the training area in a hurry. Our parents used to tell us horror stories about the viciousness of Orcs. How the hell are they even in the empire? I glanced over to Warren to see how he was handling it, but he was just frozen with his mouth open. I really wanted us to leave as well, but we didn¡¯t have many options. I figured if Rock Brain can work with them I guess we could. God, what a horrible thought. We are better than Rock Brain. Then the big one spoke and SHE was in charge! I am not sure I can take anymore. ¡°Pay attention, you lot. I am Branik and we are the Mother''s Tusks,¡± she announced. ¡°We have a contract with Torgovlya Enterprises to escort them to Hrothgar. We have seen fighting and taken losses. There will be more fighting. This is no easy contract. If you can¡¯t hack it or you can¡¯t work under my command then you are best to leave now.¡± Another person left. Warren glanced at me, obviously worried about what we were getting into. A senior man stepped forward along with a younger man. He had an air of authority about him. He said, ¡°We represent the Furious Fighters. There are five of us, all seasoned warriors. We are interested in sharing the contract.¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Branik replied, ¡°There will be no split authority. You come under the Mothers Tusks or you don¡¯t come.¡± He frowned, ¡°Very well. You are on your own. I warn the rest of you, that without seasoned warriors this is a suicide run.¡± He turned and the two of them walked out. A couple more also decided to go. I looked around and there were only five left, plus Warren and myself. Branik spoke up again, ¡°Please come forward one at a time and state your name, class and major Skills. Then you will spar against myself or Sme?ka. We are not interested if you don¡¯t have the Skills to survive. We will start with you.¡± She pointed to one of the other warriors. One by one they went forward, talked to Branik and then sparred with one or the other. She then dismissed them. She hired three of the five. It was obvious she was leaving Warren and myself for last. The spearman took Warren and questioned him and they started sparring. Branik started questioning me. She had the same competent air about her that Longstrider did. However, where he was quiet and seemingly friendly, but you knew the poisoned knife was poised at your back, she was straight up and in your face. I knew I only had one chance to convince her to let me come. She certainly wasn¡¯t going to bow to pressure from Longstrider or anyone else. She was also distressingly knowledgeable about my current troubles. Then she wanted to spar. I drew my truncheon, but I wasn¡¯t sure what it could do against a warrior in full plate. She didn¡¯t have her helmet on so that was her only weak spot. She didn¡¯t draw any weapons, but came at me with her armoured fists. I dodged and weaved and tried to strike back, but my truncheon was deflected by her gauntlets. This was the opposite of where my skills were most effective. There was no cover, it was broad daylight and I was in a stand up battle. I normally did none of those things. Then she started landing hits. I was determined to keep going till she either stopped or killed me. Eventually she decided to finish it by landing a hit to my head and I went down and couldn¡¯t get back up. She went to talk to Warren and the spearman while I tried to get the world to stop spinning and desperately tried not to throw up. Warren was looking at me very worried, but trying not to show it. Eventually I joined them. Rock Brain hadn¡¯t moved from the side of the Training area where he had gone when we first arrived. Branik said to me, ¡°You have enough speed, but you have never trained for situations where you do not have the advantages, or where your advantages are turned against you which is what happened on your last job. I will take you both. You, Warren, are acceptable for your level but you will need to step up or you will die out there. You, Tabitha, have obviously only trained in the areas where you are good, not in situations where you are weak. If you choose to join us you will have some way to fight, during the day against Beasts. If you turn up tomorrow at dawn at the Thirsty Traveler with just what you have now you will not be joining us. I am not taking people who are going to be killed in the first fight.¡± Warren nodded. I sort of nodded, but actually the world was still spinning for me, so I really needed to sit somewhere for a while. We stopped at an eatery near the Guild. ¡°So what can I steal to fight beasts?¡± I asked the obvious question to Warren. ¡°Your Blunt Weapons Skill might transfer to a mace, but I think your Physical Strength is too low.¡± Warren replied. ¡°My perception is high, but there is no way for me to learn the bow or to throw in time.¡± I still wasn¡¯t feeling great as I sipped on the free water. ¡°What about your newest ability,¡± Warren asked. ¡°You do have quite high Mental and Spiritual Attributes.¡± I looked inward with Identify. I was getting some hints that there were Skills available. I would need to figure out how to bring them out. Before dawn. And hope they would satisfy the Orc. I still shuddered thinking we might be working under an Orc. ¡°What do you think about the Orc?¡± I asked. ¡°I sparred against the one called Sme?ka and he was very good. Much better than me. Branik definitely has a Specialised Class, probably based around that massive shield. Honestly, they scared me. If only half the rumours are true we are going to have to be very careful. When you were sparring with her she had no compassion or mercy, but she was very precise in her actions,¡± he replied. ¡°In beating me up, you mean,¡± I grumped. ¡°Yes in that,¡± he smirked again. ¡°I was worried, but she was very controlled. There was honestly nothing I could do. Sme?ka could have taken me and she is levels above him. Wiremu seems OK with them and if we are heading to Hrothgar we will need to work with Orcs.¡± ¡°Wiremu?¡± I asked, my mind still buzzing from the hits and the revelation of the fact there were Orcs here, and we could be travelling under their command. ¡°Rock Brain.¡± he clarified. ¡°Oh yeah,¡± I replied. I saw some local guards walk by. I pulled my hood up. ¡°Right, we need to get off the street back to the safe house, and I have a lot of work to do if we want to leave tomorrow.¡± I said. 15. Chasing Shadows: Tabitha 15. Chasing Shadows: Tabitha If I wanted a new shadow skill, and that seemed to be the only way I could, maybe, get something for the morning. I needed to take stock of where I was at. I brought up my Status sheet.
Tabitha Carter Class Thief Merch Total
Type Attribute Level 10 4 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 0 1 10 62.0
Agility (PA) 12 2 10 24
Perception (PP) 11 3 10 4 28
Mental Strength (MS) 8 0 2 10 53.0
Agility (MA) 12 1 1 4 18
Perception (MP) 10 1 10 4 25
Spiritual If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Strength (SS) 9 0 4 2 15 50.0
Agility (SA) 10 0 5 2 17
Perception (SP) 10 1 5 2 18
Totals 91 8 48 18 165
Free points 2 2
Skills: Novice: Cooking 1, Sewing 4, Confuse Status3, Shadows Embrace 2. Detect Spiritual Traps 4, Disarm Spiritual Traps 2, Blunt Weapons 4, Knockout Strike3, Parry 4, Apprentice: Dark Sight 9, Identify 8, Distract 8, Appraise 6, Bargain 7, Lock Pick 7, Sense Spiritual 5, Unarmed Combat 5, Detect Physical Traps 6, Disarm Physical Traps 5. Journeyman: Stealth 12 Affinity: Shadow I figured with Shadow that I was looking at illusion type skills. Illusions were usually strong on Mental with secondary focus in Spiritual. My Thief class focused on Perception, both Physical and Mental, and Physical Agility. My Merchant Class doubled up on the Physical and Mental Perception but also gave me Mental Agility. I had already focussed my free points into Spiritual Perception and Spiritual Agility as this enabled me to see and disarm Spiritual Traps. I was weak in all three Strengths. I had a mental manipulation skill, but I wasn¡¯t sure how well it would mix with illusions as it was Distract, and not the common Persuade or even the more impressive Intimidate. I wouldn''t have swapped it for anything as I am sure it is the only reason I am alive after the last debacle. Actually Distract might be better on beasts than the others. I had used it on guard animals as well as guards in the past, sometimes it is hard to tell the difference. Scary illusion shadows, was what I was thinking, to frighten and distract. These were beasts, so if I could convince them a scarier predator was present to frighten them, or a juicy prey so they would go off chasing shadows. Sight in the form of Shadows and sounds from the Distract Skill were what I could aim at for now. Distract lets me cast sound to an area, with a small mental push. But only small sounds. Branches breaking, small animal noises, up to about the level of a dog''s growl was what I had done in the past. Anyway I was getting ahead of myself. I first need to make shadow images, before I can even start adding in sound. One thing I did learn from that conniving bastard Longstrider was how to learn a Skill by focussing on one primary attribute. Illusion skills mainly used Mental Agility, often supplemented with Spiritual Agility. Start simple. What is a simple animal shape that might scare others? Snake. I hate snakes. Let''s start with a long thin shape. I focussed on Mental Agility imagining the shape of a snake and channelling it through the Shadow Affinity. Phissft. Again. Again. Again! Rest for some food Warren brought in. Again. The last hour and a half was wasted. It was not working, I could barely get the shadows to twitch. I could get the shadows to spread a bit, but I needed shapes. Reasonably convincing shapes. I had set the room up with lanterns on one side of the room creating shadows of the furniture and other objects, which was what I was trying to shape. Warren came back and watched for a bit. I think it was obvious how frustrated I was getting. Then he announced he was going out to observe the meeting between Longstrider and Rock Brain, although he called him Wiremu for some reason. As he was leaving Warren said that as I had had some success in expanding the shadows, maybe I should concentrate on that for a bit and see if that leads me anywhere. Fucking hell. I hate it when he comes up with sensible ideas. I am supposed to be the smart one here with the Mental Agility. He is just a dumb warrior. He had left immediately after making his suggestion so I couldn''t snap at him. Maybe he wasn¡¯t so dumb. Expanding the shadows. Let''s see how far I can expand them. They expanded about a centimetre, then snapped back as I lost control. Then it occurred to me that I was still primarily using my Mental Agility and there was nothing here to create or imagine. This was just expansion, probably mostly Spiritual Strength with maybe some Spiritual Agility. The shadows expanded a lot easier, and started to fill the room when I switched abilities. I pushed more and the lanterns started to darken, it was like fighting against the light. I could feel my Spiritual Agility defining the shape of the shadow, but it was the Spiritual Strength that was fighting the light. Then I ran out of energy and the shadow snapped back and the light brightened and I had a Skill notification waiting. Engulfing Shadows 1. Darken an area with shadows. The size of the area is managed by my Spiritual Agility and the density of the shadow was a function of Spiritual Strength, which was harder depending on the amount of light around. I had four unallocated attribute points from the recent level ups. I needed to experiment with the Skill in different areas and lighting and see which attributes I needed more. I went to fetch some more lanterns. I also needed to practise some scarier sounds to use in my Distract Skill in the Engulfing Shadows. I knew it was still not going to be that useful in broad daylight until at least the Journeyman Level, but it was the best I could do and if the Bitch wasn¡¯t happy I guess we weren¡¯t going. I thought it was a pretty amazing Skill and I was very happy. 16. Skills: Wiremu 16. Skills: Wiremu The meeting with Longstrider was set for late in the evening at the same place as before. However, I had plans. I gulped down the evening meal and left as soon as it was dark. I had been watching the interview sparring very carefully this afternoon, but I was using the trick that Longstrider had walked me through and not just watched using Physical Perception. When I focussed watching through Mental Perception I got a lot more understanding of what Skills they were using. It was like empowering Identify. When I focussed using Spiritual Perception I could see when they were using a primarily Spiritual skill and what it might do. Identify levelled and I got a new Skill called Sense Spiritual. This opened my eyes to some of the wards around the Training Area. I couldn¡¯t determine what they would do but I could sense they were there. It was a start. This technique might have been common knowledge around here, but it was an eye opener to me. I left early because I knew where there was a Spiritual Trap I could study. Hanging off the outside wall of the upper story of a warehouse for an extended period would not have been possible without the ability to lock my joints. Sense Spiritual showed me there was something there and examining it with my Spiritual Perception, along with knowing it was a trap, helped me work out the different parts that made up the trap. It was like most traps in that it had a camouflage section, a bait section, a trigger and then the consequences of triggering it. There was a physical part, in this case hidden in the window frame and a spiritual part. I couldn¡¯t get to the physical without triggering the trap. The Physical part of the trap held the spiritual in place and in the right shape. The camouflage section was by far the hardest to pierce through and figure out. It was camouflaged against Spiritual Perception as well as Physical Perception. It took me the best part of an hour to puzzle through but once I had done it the rest of the trap was an open book. Once I had figured out the camouflage part I got the skill Detect Spiritual Trap 1. But why stop there? How would I get past the trap without triggering it? The key there was the linking of the different parts of the trap. Either I could avoid triggering it, or disrupt where the trigger linked to the jaws or consequence of the trap. I couldn¡¯t not trigger it if I wanted to go through the window. So I had to stop the consequences, which in this case was an alarm, some sort of Spiritual flare. There was more to that flare, because I know nobody in the building saw it except Longstrider. I could work that out later, for now the object was to get in without triggering the flare. Granite Bones Levelled. Time was getting on. It wasn¡¯t as easy as breaking the link between the trigger and the flare as that is what the trigger did to set off the flare. I would have to figure out how to either keep the link intact, or create a second link that will keep the connection active. My experience with Physical traps was giving me a good head start here, now I just have to figure out how to do the same thing spiritually. In the end I used my spiritual Strength to harden the link and, hoping it was enough, triggered the trap by passing through the window. It was, and I earned the Disarm Spiritual Trap Skill. Hunters knew where their traps were and hence were not concerned about finding or disarming traps. I would have to do this with Physical Traps as well. I figured I would have a huge advantage learning to find and disarm physical traps from my Trapping Skill and experience. I was realising how incredibly lucky I was there were no Spiritual Traps at the quarry. New lesson, don¡¯t underestimate anybody, even weak prisoners. I was very curious about Mental Traps as well, but that will have to wait. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. The warehouse was silent and dark. I had about an hour before the meeting, so I figured I had about half and hour before someone started to arrive, probably the archers to do a sweep of the building before Longstrider arrived. I wanted to explore the area of the floor where Pip had tasted all the people. I landed lightly on the stone floor ¡­. Stone floor. I examined the stone and granite slabs were a very common building material in the area. Probably due to a nearby quarry. Pip slithered off to explore while I examined the stone around, what I figured was the entrance to a basement or tunnel. There were several layers of spiritual traps. I had no way to separate them out, let alone try to get through them. My newly learned Level 1 Skills had a long way to go. I really wanted to learn to set such traps. I would get there. Meanwhile, could I bypass them in some way with my granite affinity? I started with putting my ear to the ground and engaging Hearing Aid to see if anyone might be down there. Nothing. What about using my Spiritual Perception through my affinity? I started to get a sense of the granite. The minute cracks in the carving and the different densities of whatever it was that made up the granite. I got the sense the slab was about 5cm thick. It joined to more rock around the entrance and further away from the entrance was dirt. My senses didn¡¯t penetrate very far into the dirt. I did extend them down through the joining rock as far as they could go, which wasn¡¯t very far. I then felt some small vibrations through the rock and suddenly realised somebody was coming up the entrance. I decided it was time to make an exit. I went back up the mezzanine and re-strengthened the link in the trap before exiting the window. I left Pip inside. I would come back in about 15 minutes and knock on the door. It is best if no one knows I was there, or if they think someone was there it would keep them wondering. I would play up the naive country yokel with my Deceive Skill. When I paused in an alley to wait I checked my status and I did have a new Skill, Granite Sense. Granite Sense obviously used Spiritual Perception to work and this determined the detail of what I could sense. Spiritual Strength determined how far I could sense and Spiritual Agility determined how flexible I could be with the sensing, ie how effective it was in other materials. Currently dirt, no. Other similar rock, yes but harder. I would need to experiment with the Skill and as I leveled it these should become easier. 17. Stranger鈥檚 Gifts: Wiremu 17. Stranger¡¯s Gifts: Wiremu Three new skills and I haven''t even started training yet. I did have the sense to ask Branik and Sme?ka about which skills I should ask Longstrider to train me in. They said it comes back to my classes, and what Class specialisation I wanted. Specialised Classes give unique or rare skills you can¡¯t get elsewhere. For example if I wanted to specialise as a Scout this would give a unique ability called mapping. I would never get lost and combined with a literacy or drawing skill I could produce accurate maps. In order to get Scout I would need my Hunter class at Level 10, Farsight at Journeyman and a minimum in Physical Agility and Perception. The armies trained their scouts for this. With my low class levels specialisation was a long way away. I didn¡¯t really know where I wanted to head. Hunter usually took one of several main specialisations. The most common were Scout, Ranger, Bounty Hunter and Monster Hunter. They didn¡¯t know about my Spy class or affinity, so I couldn¡¯t ask them about specialisations for that. The Ranger Class needed Plant Lore and Animal Lore. Monster Hunter needed Monster Lore. Lore is a basic level of knowledge about a topic that could then be built on with experience and study. It is usually passed down from Master to apprentice throughout the training time. This made me realise my knowledge of forest animals was reasonably good and to a lesser extent plants. My Master had been knocking things into my thick head for a while, not enough for the Lore Skills yet, but getting there. Monster Lore was a subset of Animal and Plant Lore as monsters could be either, as well as mineral or elemental. Branik suggested that without a Master, or access to books, it would be this that limited my options for the future. They said I should ask for training in Lore. This sounded very boring to me. There must be some cool skills I could get. Unfortunately it also sounded very wise. I knew I was severely lacking in knowledge. Apparently, according to Branik, Trainer was a general training class, which gives boosts to learning skills taught by the trainer. The trainer is also able to use skill books in their training. These books can only be used by someone with that type of class and people with those classes would build up a library of such books. Those Skill Books were very expensive to make and Trainers, and similar classes, usually charged students a lot for such training. I would only be able to be trained in skills that he has, or that he has in his Skill book library. He should have general Lore Skill books. It still sounded boring to me. Time to make an appearance. I moved from the alley toward the door. I spied the archer on the rooftop opposite the door, but I gave no indication of seeing them. The door was opened by a large fighter type. He showed me into the warehouse with the same desk and chairs. Longstrider and Warren Carter were both there. No sign of the girl. I assume she was either training furiously, or maybe I wasn¡¯t going to learn anything tonight as they couldn¡¯t meet Branik¡¯s criteria. ¡®Welcome,¡± said Longstrider. ¡°You continue to be a man of many talents. I did not realise it was the Mother¡¯s Tusks who you worked for when I asked you to get the Carters signed up. That does explain some of those anomalies with the job advert. When I found out who it was later that night, I didn''t think you would be able to succeed. Branik can be quite stubborn.¡± He smiled. ¡°You are entitled to learn two skills. I am impressed.¡± He did not seem to know about Branik¡¯s criteria for Tabitha. That was interesting. I glanced at Warren, but he showed no signs. If Tabitha had not gone to Longstrider to be trained that meant his costs were too high or they were confident of getting there without him. I was expecting to have to bargain for at least the second Skill due to Branik¡¯s criteria for Tabitha. I certainly wasn¡¯t going to upset the applecart here. I will take my skills and go, thank you very much. I smiled back. ¡°That''s great,¡± I said. ¡°I wish to be trained in Lore.¡± His eyebrows went up. ¡°You continue to surprise me,¡± he said. ¡°Most young people want something a bit more active, even when they get advice. I have some Lore skill books, but not a large selection. You can choose from Plant, Animal, Herbs, Sentient and Mineral. I don¡¯t have Monster Lore, unfortunately.¡± I schooled my face into disappointment, even though I wasn¡¯t particularly interested in Monster Lore, yet. I might even get to level Deceive after this. Sentient I understood as an overview of the Sentient races and that could be helpful for Spy. I hadn¡¯t even realised it was an option. I decided to stick with the plan. ¡°I would like Animal Lore.¡± I said. It was an expected choice for my Hunter Class. I made a show of considering the other options, not being able to choose Monster Hunter. ¡°For the second one I think I would like Mineral Lore.¡± I continued. His eyebrows were up and down tonight. ¡°That is an interesting choice,'''' he said. ¡°You wish to specialize the Quarry Worker Class?¡± I nodded, ¡°It is my highest level class.¡± I was trying to give the image I was flustered at not having my first option available and making a spur of the moment, rash choice. Animal and Mineral was my plan. Branik suggested Animal and Plant, or maybe Herb but Branik didn¡¯t know about my affinity. Animal Lore was for my Hunter class, but it was also for Pip. I wanted to understand him more and work closer with him. Mineral Lore was obviously for my Granite affinity, but I really wanted to keep it a secret. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Very well,¡± he said and made a hand sign at one of the archers on the mezzanine who went down a set of stairs and toward a tunnel entrance that I obviously pretended to know nothing about. Well, what do you know, Deceive did level. The archer was back quite quickly so his Library was close. There wouldn¡¯t be many books, so I imagine it was portable in some way. The Skill books looked thinner than I had expected. This was my first time seeing one, let alone using one. I looked using Sense Spiritual and they both shone brightly, although the Mineral one was brighter. Did that indicate how much they might have been used, and that they had a life span depending on how many times they were used? It was logical, but I could hardly ask. Last night I obviously had no way to see the Spiritual, Tonight I wasn¡¯t going to even give a hint of anything that was not necessary. I wanted him to keep thinking I was Spiritually blind. He put the first book on the table. ¡°In a moment I will get you to open the book and then I will activate it. It is vital you remain in physical contact with the book for the entire time the Skill transfers. The length of time will depend on that Skill, Animal Lore is a large one, and your Mental Strength and Agility. I will monitor the Skill transference and if it is too much for you I will stop it. This will result in an incomplete Skill, but it will still count as training as the durability of the book will decrease the same amount. However, I will not allow the Skillbook to mentally damage you. It may also damage the Skillbook. Do you understand?¡± he asked. I nodded, ¡°What level of Mental Strength and Mental Agility is usually required?¡± I asked. ¡°With Animal Lore a Mental Strength of 12 and Mental Agility of 15 is usually sufficient. After the transfer you will need about an hour for the Skill to settle and assimilate before we do the second Skill. Usually I would insist they be done on separate days or at least after a sleep. The strain will be increased for the second skill, due to the short time between them, but Mineral Lore is smaller than Animal Lore. We will see how the first one goes. Are you ready?¡± He asked. I nodded and put my hands on the Skillbook. ¡°Very well, open the book.¡± he instructed. I didn¡¯t see what he did because my mind was flooded with information. There were a lot of animals and I got an overview of everything. Insects, birds, fish, slimes, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores. Different habitats from the frozen tundra, to the scorching desert, to the caves deep in the earth. Reptiles came and went even though I tried to grab it. I don¡¯t know how long it was that I was unaware of my surroundings. I trusted Pip to watch out for me, and his bond was active. When I came back to awareness, I was lying on a row of chairs. Longstrider was talking to someone I didn¡¯t recognise, and Warren was no longer in the room. ¡°Welcome back.¡± Longstrider said when he saw me stir. ¡°That was a more active than normal transfer. I suspect you got more from the Skillbook than most. I suggest you go into one of the side rooms there and meditate for a while. Sleep if you can, but I doubt you will be able to. You will have a lot of information buzzing around in your head. Did you get the Skill?¡± I checked my Status and nodded, ¡°Yes.¡± What I didn¡¯t tell him was it was already Level 2 and several other skills had levelled. Butchering, Fishing, Tracking and Animal Bond all went up a level. Lore was definitely the way to go! I went to get up, purposely putting a foot near Pip and paused holding the back of a chair as if I was getting my head straight. Pip slithered up my trouser leg. I then moved to the room and sat on the floor. He was right, information was flooding my mind. Suddenly, I knew why Pip liked to be against my skin. He needed a certain body temperature and couldn¡¯t do it himself and needed me to help, especially at night or in the mornings. If we were in a cold environment he would be at a severe disadvantage. All sorts of facts were buzzing through my brain and explaining parts of my experience that I never realised. Pip moved to my shoulder against my skin and warmed himself. About two hours later Longstrider looked in. ¡°I have an appointment, and If we don¡¯t do the second skill now you won¡¯t make it to the caravan at dawn. Are you upto it?¡± he asked. I nodded as my mind had settled a lot. ¡°Come on then. This shouldn¡¯t be as bad. Animal Lore would have synced with a lot of your hunter skills and one or two may have levelled. This is normal. If you had learned this the traditional way from a Master, it would have taken several years, but there would have been a greater Skill growth, but less noticeable because of the length of time. I am not sure what this Mineral Lore will do. There probably won¡¯t be as many skills for it to link to. It should be a lot smoother.¡± he said. That is what he thought. I had no idea what this would do to my affinity. ¡°Let''s proceed,¡± I said. I opened the book and he did his thing and information again flooded my mind. This information wasn¡¯t as familiar to me and obviously didn¡¯t link with as many skills. I understood different types of rocks and the different components they are made from . Surprisingly, I also got information about gems, mineral based Monsters and some basic chemical information. I had thought Alchemy was a separate field. Obviously Granite was something my mind latched onto. Especially the different types of granite and the different concentrations of minerals that make it up, especially something called quartz. This was a totally different experience than Animal Lore. Not nearly as intense. I think it was less than half an hour before my mind settled enough to interact. I checked my Status and I had Mineral Lore 1. Granite Sense had jumped two levels and Granite Bones had gone up one, but this meant it was now at the Apprentice level. The Quarry Worker Class had levelled to 10, which is journeyman level and I had the impression a specialisation was available. I was very interested, but now was not the time. Dawn was less than two hours away and I was not going to get any sleep as my mind was still buzzing. Longstrider was nowhere to be seen. I gave the archer a wave as I left and went back to the Guild to get my gear. It was packed as I was expecting a long night. I was seriously wondering where I could get some simple mining equipment with my new knowledge buzzing around my head. It wasn¡¯t going to be possible I thought. I decided I would lie down and rest for an hour. 18. On the Road Again: Wiremu 18. On the Road Again: Wiremu I came too with the banging on my door. It was still dark out. I guess it was time to go. At least my mind had settled a lot. We were let into the Inn¡¯s secure yard and we were the first there. We stored our gear and I checked through whether all our supplies were there while Branik and Sme?ka checked the other wagons. All the supplies I had ordered with her were there, but apparently she had ordered more equipment from the hunter dealer after the Job Interviews and this hadn¡¯t arrived. She gave me a list of what she was expecting and there was a surprising number of traps and trap equipment. She said, ¡°Wiremu, you are our Hunter and Scout. I will discuss more with you later, but I anticipate we will need traps for beasts and for people. I have ordered the basics here, but you have authority to change what¡¯s here if you think it will work better. We need warning traps and damage traps. Here is some additional coin, go and rouse that lazy hunter merchant and meet us at the gate.¡± ¡°Yes, mam,¡± I said and set off. This was curious. I was mulling over the list with my new knowledge of the animals in the area and planning some changes. I would also include some Spiritual Trap supplies as I was very close to getting the skill. I wonder what she found out after the interviews. Dawn was here when I finally got the hunter merchant to open up. He had most of the order packed, but not delivered. He was kind of expecting to be woken up for the goods. We went through the crate and I switched out some items and added others, including some shovels, hammers and two dozen javelins. They could be throwing weapons or possibly stakes in a pit trap. I settled the balance of coins with the Merchant and set off to the gate with the crate. I got there before the caravan and sat on the crate to wait. I was starting to get a bit concerned when the lead wagon appeared with Branik and Masnachwr. Branik had not been the only one busy during the time in town. Masnachwr had also been hiring and had added another wagon so we were back up to six. Branik indicated the crate was to go in the wagon with our other equipment. I saw all three of the guards she hired had shown up and the Carter siblings were also there. Tabitha looked as tired as I felt. I was curious about what Skill she had demonstrated to Branik to let them join. I would have to find out later. She didn¡¯t look like she had any extra equipment. The checks leaving the town were a lot less than arriving, and I think now everyone knew there were Orcs, they were in a hurry to get rid of us. Branik told me to stay with the caravan until we left the farming area. The day was uneventful and we were still in the farming area when we found a camp for the night. Kopje rejoined us with the horses after dark and they were unloaded into the new wagon. Branik called a meeting with all the guards after the evening meal and reiterated the chain of command for the new people and set the watch schedule and informed everyone of the routine. I was identified as the Scout. Tabitha was a back up scout, but was to be on night watch, all night, every night. There was always another person with her in a three hour rotation. She would sleep in the morning in the wagon with our supplies. I was exempt from the night watch but it was clear that once we were away from civilization there would be traps set at night and this was my job and overseen by Kopje. There would be a separate meeting for the scouts in the morning before I set out. The night went peacefully. There were a few grumbles at the morning sparring. I was paired up with a new warrior. Tabitha looked dead on her feet. Thinking about it she has probably been up and active for two days and nights straight. After breakfast Tabitha and I were taken outside of camp, by Branik and Kopje. ¡°I have very good reason to believe we will be attacked by other mercenaries. I haven¡¯t managed to determine the reason, as it only became clear when the Furious Fighters tried to move in on our contract. The goods are probably reason enough. You two are our eyes and ears. You are both also our major defence against stealth attacks and treachery.¡± ¡°You suspect the new wagon hires and the guards?¡± I asked. ¡°I think the guards are good as I vetted them myself, but I had no say in the wagon hires. While one of you is on day duty and one on night, you are both on call all the time. You also need to work out strategies to work together against stealth and internal threats. You both have abilities that are kept secret. You will need to learn each other''s abilities and coordinate. The abilities won¡¯t be secret after they are used the first time anyway.¡± Branik said. I looked at Tabitha and wondered what she had shown Branik. She was probably wondering the same about me. Branik continued, ¡°Today, Wiremu, Kopje will teach you to ride. We are still in a farming area so we are reasonably safe. Tonight you will go with Tabitha and practise your abilities and put strategies in place. Wiremu, you will teach Tabitha Trapping, and Spiritual Trapping if possible. Kopje also knows traps and will join you, but he does not have the attributes for Spiritual Trapping. The three of you will be responsible for setting and dismantling the traps. Wiremu, your hunter class gives you the advantage knowing where to place the traps. You will teach Kopje and Tabitha what you can. Tabitha, you hit the sack. Wiremu, Kopje will teach you how to saddle a horse.¡± Horses are not nice beasts. Mine snapped at me and tried to throw me, and succeeded the first time. Kopje was very amused. We rode ahead scouting the road, and then doubled back to check no one was following and then went off the road, which was more challenging to ride. I got the Riding Skill mid morning and it got steadily easier from then on. I didn¡¯t realise till later, but I think the horse was smelling Pip on me and that was making it skittish. During the afternoon there were periods I didn¡¯t have to concentrate so much so I looked at what I could specialize Quarry Worker into. There was only one option, Prospector. That gave me attributes in Physical and Spiritual perception and Spiritual Strength with only one free. Four total, and I felt it was reinforcing my strengths. The thing about specialised classes is they often come with a unique or very hard to get Skill or bonus. The Prospector specialisation was all about finding valuable items in the ground. It came with the skill, Treasure Sense. To level the Prospecting Class I would need to find treasures in the ground. I couldn¡¯t see that happening for a long time. The Skill Treasure Sense, however, was not limited to the ground.When I got close enough to the wagons several parts were highlighted by the Skill as having Treasure. I would have to experiment with what was considered Treasure. I got the sense that as I level the Skill my range would increase, but so would my sensitivity. I think this meant I could focus more on what I considered Treasure. After all, water is a treasure to a person in the desert. This would be a good Skill for a Thief. I wondered if Tabitha could get it when she specialised Thief. As far as I know she had Thief at Level 10 but not specialised. I guess it had more requirements than a simple Class like Quarry Worker. I would probably have the same trouble with Hunter and Spy. I checked my Status.
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros Total
Type Attribute Level 5 10 Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. 5 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 10 2 20 1 42 89.0
Agility (PA) 12 3 5 4 24
Perception (PP) 11 0 10 1 1 23
Mental Strength (MS) 9 11 2 22 58.0
Agility (MA) 12 1 2 5 20
Perception (MP) 11 0 0 5 16
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 1 0 10 1 22 53.0
Agility (SA) 8 0 4 3 15
Perception (SP) 10 0 0 5 1 16
Totals 92 26 25 30 24 3 200
Free points 0 1 1
Resistances: Pain +9, Crushing +15, Poison +4 Skills: Novice: Cooking 2, Fishing 4, Butchering 2, Spear 1, Throwing Weapons 2, Lock Pick 4, Camouflage 2, Truth Sensing 2, Manipulate Status 1. Mineral Lore 1, Sense Spiritual 1, Detect Spiritual Traps 1, Disarm Spiritual Traps 1, Granite Sense 3, Sense Treasure 1 Animal Lore 2, Riding 2, Apprentice: Small Blades 6, Bow 7, Unarmed Combat 5 Tracking 7, Skinning 5, Trapping 8, Identify 9, Deceive 8, Animal Bond 8, Far Sight 5, Granite Bones 5 Journeyman: Stealth 14, Hammer 12, Hearing Aid 10. Affinity: Granite Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Resistances: Crushing +13 Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones, I seem to be getting a lot of Sensing Skills, but I suppose that is understandable with Hunter, Spy and now Prospecting. I looked at my Status wondering what to do with my free attribute points. Maybe I will wait to see what secrets Tabitha was hiding and see if they can help there. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder what she would think of Pip. 19. Secrets: Tabitha 19. Secrets: Tabitha I was looking forward to finding out Rock Brain¡¯s secret about how he found me and tracked me. Sleeping in the back of a moving wagon was not exactly comfortable, but I was so exhausted I didn¡¯t stir till mid afternoon. I stayed in the wagons and practised my three ¡®secret¡¯ Skills, Engulfing Shadows, Shadow¡¯s Embrace and Distract. I managed to level Engulfing Shadows to 2. After dinner while Kopje and Sme?ka were doing a gear inspection, Branik called Rock Brain and myself away from camp. I grabbed Warren to follow as well, and nobody objected. It would take me a while to be comfortable around Orcs. Some of the things you hear are really nasty. Anyway, Warren knew all my secrets. Well, not that boy secret, but all the others. OK, all the other relevant ones. Branik was carrying a lantern, and I carried a second to help with my demonstration. I decided to take charge of the conversation. ¡°OK, Rock Brain, what is your secret? How did you find and track me the other night?¡± I demanded. ¡°Rock Brain?¡± he asked. ¡°Seriously, you are not that smart. A Quarry Worker, you only have rocks for brains.¡± I replied. ¡°I guess that makes sense,'''' he said with a small smile. ¡°I can be pretty hard headed.¡± He looked like it was some private joke that only he got. Seriously, Rock Brain is an insult and he doesn¡¯t even get it. ¡°So spill.¡± I demanded, again. ¡°Well,¡± he said, ¡°the way I found and tracked you is not actually my secret.¡± What the goblin shit is this? ¡°You were incredibly hard to see,¡± he continued, ¡°but I didn¡¯t use sight to find you. I used sound. I have Hearing Aid in the Journeyman levels.¡± I just stood there stunned for a moment. ¡°Then how come I couldn''t see you?¡± I almost shouted. The night was my playground, my bitch. ¡°I thought you had, a couple of times,'''' he confessed. ¡°It was probably a combination of my stealth being only one step from the Master level and my use of Camouflage when I stopped.¡± ¡°How the hell do you have a higher stealth than me?¡± I asked. I was flailing here. This conversation was bringing me crashing down fast. ¡°A combination of using it a lot, and Hearing Aid and Pip,¡± he said. ¡°Seriously Hearing Aid opened my eyes, or ears, to how much sound I actually made, and Pip opened me to smells.¡± ¡°Who is Pip?¡± I asked. ¡°Pip is my secret,¡± Rock Brain said as he reached for his shoulder. I saw movement on his shoulder and when I looked closer I could see the leather pauldron section of the armour had been altered to make a gap there. ¡°Fucking Troll shit!¡± I exclaimed as a snake slithered out from his armour and onto his arm. I took a step back. ¡°I hope that thing is not poisonous,¡± I said. ¡°This is my bond Pip, and he is indeed poisonous. A bite would be fatal for those of low constitution and painful for everybody,¡± he replied. ¡°That is so cool,¡± my brother, Warren, entered the conversation. ¡°Would he let me touch him?¡± he asked. ¡°No, no, no, no,¡± I said, taking another step back. ¡°Sure,¡± Rock Brain replied. I was sure he had Rocks for Brains now. No one else would bond with a poisonous snake. ¡°Just put your hand near his head and let him taste you with his tongue first.¡± Warren did that and then the snake moved onto his arm. I was waiting for him to get bitten, not knowing what I should do. I looked to Branik, who just stood there with an amused look on her face. Bloody Hell did nobody have any sense around here? Hang on Rock Brain was talking again, ¡°.... so if you want to level Stealth you need to focus on masking yourself from other senses and not just sight. Pip could have tracked you as well by tasting your scent in the air and on the ground.¡± When I got my mind engaged again, I realised that was very good advice. After my Stealth hit Journeyman Level it had basically slowed right down. ¡°I am trying to level my Camouflage Skill because once it hits Apprentice level it should help mask smells and involuntary noises like my heart beat. I can only use it when I am stationary though.¡± Rock Brain sounded disappointed about that. Seriously, that is an awesome Skill and he is disappointed? Bloody rocks for brains. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Tabitha?¡± That was Branik speaking. Right my turn. ¡°Right, so the reason you had trouble seeing me was I was using a Skill called Shadows Embrace which comes from my Shadow affinity.¡± Rock Brians looked up and seemed very interested. Yes, Rock Boy you had better be impressed. I have an affinity! ¡°It is only low Novice levels but it is getting there,¡± I continued. Rock Brains interrupted, ¡°You should check it with your Identify Skill cause it may mask you from other senses as it levels.¡± I gave Rock Boy a look that said, I wasn¡¯t an idiot, while I checked the Skill with Identify. It has been a rough few days. ¡°Yes,¡± I replied, ¡°it will, from apprentice level up, and I can move while it is active.¡± See, I thought, my affinity Skills are better than your normal Skills. I didn¡¯t say that out loud did I? No, I am OK. ¡°What we are here for is actually my second Skill from my affinity, ¡° I continued. ¡°Engulfing Shadows, which will blanket an area in shadows and when I combine it with my Distract Skill, it can be quite disorientating for people. Let me demonstrate.¡± ¡°Wait a minute, let me take Pip back,¡± said Rock Brains as he moved to get the damned snake from my brother. ¡°Sure, Rock Boy, I would not want him biting Warren.¡± I said. He reached over to take the snake saying, ¡°Rock boy? I thought I was Rock Brains?¡± ¡°I am impressed that you can tell the difference,¡± I snarked. He just smiled at me. He is bloody infuriating. ¡°Maybe I will just shorten it to RB.¡± Then I saw Warren wink at him. What the hell! My brother was supposed to be on my side. I activated the Skill to cut all that off. The area went dark and the lanterns dimmed, throwing out very little light. Then there was a rustling of grass to the left and a low throaty growl, then the snapping of a branch on the other side. The sound of bats swooping past, followed by footprints getting closer. Then I let the skill go and the lanterns returned to normal. ¡°That is seriously awesome,¡± Rock Boy said in a tone that said he was very impressed. My ego perked up at that. It had taken a beating tonight. Warren said, ¡°You have certainly improved, Sis.¡± Rock Boy added, ¡°Your Distract Skill must be near Journeyman because even Hearing aid was having trouble working out what was real and what was not. I think it only worked it out because intellectually I knew none of it was real. We will have to work out some way to communicate while your Skill is active. How long can you keep it up?¡± ¡°It depends on the area and the amount of light I am fighting against.¡± I replied. ¡°An area of this size and these lanterns, about 5 minutes. I can obviously use the Distract Skill without the Shadows, especially during the day.¡± ¡°Five minutes is easily long enough to deal with one or two attackers.¡± Branik said. From there we worked out a system of small noises to communicate, like the noises I could make but these would be unique to each of us. Rock Boy had two pieces of sharpened rock on him and he tapped and scraped them together. Rock Boy was definitely the name for him. Everything he did seemed to be related to rock. Branik had a deep inhuman growl she used which was quite frankly frightening in the light. She said Kopje and Sme?ka could make the same noise and she would teach them the patterns. Warren used a piece of wood against his shield. I used two bones together so I had a real noise rather than my skill. We worked out a system of the number of people and rough area they were in. The real noises would identify where we were. We talked through some scenarios. If we were attacked during the day the first attack would be against Rock Boy, to take out the scout and so they weren''t sniped at by him. He was going to be riding for speed at the expense of stealth, and he wouldn¡¯t range too far. If he needed stealth he could abandon the horse. Almost any attack during the day would heavily involve ranged weapons. Branik had a shield for every guard, including me. We would start practising with them in the morning. Even without the Shield Skill we could use them to protect against ranged attacks. The normal strategy would be to disable the lead Wagon and stop the caravan, then pick off people from a distance. The plan for us was to circle the wagons for cover and take cover making them come into melee range, then fighting amongst the wagons to hinder the ranged attackers. Rock Boy said if we had to do that, then while we were waiting for them to come, to set traps in the spaces between the wagons and make them come through to get to you. The more likely scenario was a night attack, initiated by stealth or an insider, and in the confusion a charge by a number of warriors. Rock Boy and I were to let the Warrior Guards deal with the warrior attackers. We were to deal with Stealth and treachery first. If there were ranged attackers, that was Rock Boys'' job, but that was unlikely at night. A key defence against ranged attackers at night was to keep the camp dark. My skill could help with that. Almost all ranged attackers would have Far Sight rather than Dark Sight for the bonuses it gave to ranged weapons. The typical scenario was a stealth attack to cause confusion and give the Warriors time to get to the camp, and then the Stealth people would backstab our guards. Branik had got the traps to give us early warning and cut down the numbers. Our enemy knew how many Guards we had. It was Rock Boy who changed it up. While he would have some traps outside the camp, he would have most of them set in the camp. The most likely and easiest confusion would come from stampeding the horses. The second would be sabotaging or setting fire to the wagons. They would not want to destroy the goods so this would be limited. We could set traps against both of those. The worst scenario from our point of view is if they arrange an animal attack or stampede through the camp. These would be the purpose of the traps he would set outside the camp, in the most likely approaches. Getting the earliest warning possible is the only advantage we could get there. Stampeding herd beasts would be much easier for them than trying to get predators to attack, though that should not be discounted. Branik would run the guards through different responses to these scenarios so they were prepared and cut down confusion. If I got into trouble my backup was to be Rock Boy. It was highly unlikely any of the warriors would be free to help. Rock Boy and I were basically on our own. I was the one with no lethal fighting skills. I was feeling quite vulnerable. It was obvious Rock Boy had more brains than I had given him credit for. 20. Preparations: Wiremu 20. Preparations: Wiremu I had Kopje set some ordinary traps up for me to find and disarm. I picked up Detect Traps and Disarm Traps very easily and they basically jumped to the top of Novice levels. With my background in setting traps this was child''s play for me. Getting the Spiritual Traps skill was harder, but not as hard as it would have been without already having the Disarm Spiritual Traps Skill. I had purchased some ready made Spiritual traps and setting those by using Spiritual Agility wasn¡¯t quite enough to give me the Skill. I had to go in and alter the camouflage settings before the Skill appeared. Then it was easier to alter other aspects of the traps. I got the impression that when I got to the apprentice level I would be able to create my own simple traps. I walked Tabitha through setting traps and Spiritual Traps. While she got the skill she never really got why I would place a trap in a certain position, or use a certain bait or camouflage. She was a city girl. She would never level those skills very far, but she could follow instructions, so it was an extra pair of hands. My Trapping was now one step from the Journeyman level. Scouting on horseback was very different to on foot. For a start the horse scared all the game off. I had been learning a greater variety of scouting signs to communicate with Branik, although she now saw me quite often on the horse as I was staying closer to the road. My riding Skill was now in the apprentice levels. I have had time to think how vulnerable I am riding out alone. A decent archer and I am done for. The horse is fast, but I would rather be stealthy. It has been three days since we left the last farm and everybody is on edge. I am on edge. I keep running different scenarios in my head. What would I do if ¡­.. Most of these scenarios are about when I am ambushed while out on my own. What I didn¡¯t think about was what I would do if I spotted their scout, because there they were, hiding in that rocky outcrop. They were watching me, so I didn¡¯t deviate from my normal activities, and kept riding. How many were there? One or more? Farsight and Hearing Aid indicated only the one, but I was too far away to be certain. Was I riding into an ambush? My first priority was to get a warning to the caravan. I left a sign by the road for Branik that essentially said, ¡°I have seen something suspicious¡±. I didn¡¯t think that was enough. It would be almost an hour before the caravan got here and they might find and erase the sign. Intelligent enemies are a pain. Beasts are easier. Time for a sweep down one side and try to communicate while assuming I am being watched. When I am level with the caravan I have had my stone knives out and been playing with them for about five minutes. I have no idea if I am actually being watched, but if I was the scout I would want to know where the caravan was. I acknowledged the caravan with a wave with a knife in one hand, and when I saw Branik watching me I made two specific and obvious movements that signed, one ahead. It was only because I had Hearing Aid tuned on her that I heard her low rumble of acknowledgement and the signal to carry on. I finished the sweep and was coming back on the other side when Kopje made a small movement I could only see from horseback, getting my attention. As I rode past I said quietly, ¡°I saw one scout in the rocky outcrop, on the right side of the road about 5km ahead. They probably followed me.¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. He nodded, ¡°Carry on carefully. We will investigate.¡± And he faded into the long grass. I seriously wanted to ditch the horse and be the hunter and not the prey. However, I followed instructions and was very careful. My sweep forward came closer to the rocky outcrop, but I didn''t see anyone else. Heading back to the caravan I was stopped by Kopje. ¡°There is only the one scout,¡± he said, ¡°and they are staying with the caravan for the moment. We assume to check numbers and composition, but maybe also to communicate with someone. I wasn¡¯t in town so they don¡¯t know that I am around. You are our best tracker and scout, do you think you could backtrack the scout to find their camp and get us some idea of their numbers and make up?¡± I nodded. ¡°Pip and I should be able to. Smell is his specialty.¡± ¡°In that case,¡± Kopje said, ¡°I will swap places with you and ride your route while you scout.¡± I dismounted. He continued, ¡°The most obvious thing about you is the bow, so I am going to have to borrow it and the quiver.¡± I didn¡¯t like it, but I could see the logic. I handed them over feeling like I had just been disarmed. He mounted and positioned them where I would normally have them. ¡°Remember it is only scouting,¡± he said. ¡°If they see you all our advantages will be gone, don¡¯t take unnecessary risks.¡± I nodded, and he wheeled the horse and rode off. I would start where I first spotted the scout as I knew he (or she) was there for some time, and hopefully their smell would linger. Their smell definitely lingered, as they had been there a couple of days watching for us. From their waste deposits, Pip could tell it was a she and he gave me the impression she was in heat. That was far more information than I wanted. From my tracking and Pip¡¯s scent we were able to find their camp which was well off the road and probably a day ahead for the caravan. The camp was mostly empty, only two people present, one archer and one slave. The slave was preparing a meal, obviously he was there to do the menial tasks. There were signs of a large number of horses, which I guess is how they made such good time. There was a horse trail heading toward the road, so I followed it. They were preparing an ambush site. It was close to another rocky outcrop and archers would have a clear view of the road from there. Mostly they were digging trenches on either side of the road and then hiding them. I thought they might be for the warriors to hide in, but then it became obvious they were there so the wagons couldn¡¯t leave the road and circle. I counted another four archers, so with the one at camp and the scout that made six. One of them was obviously senior and may well have a specialised class. I wasn¡¯t willing to go closer to identify them, because of the high perception of the archers. There were eight warriors. The older man that was at the interview was in charge and he looked like a specialised swordsman. The second warrior giving orders also looked like a specialised class, possibly a spearman like Kopje and Sme?ka? I backed off and made a circular route back to the caravan. On the way back I found something that might help us. I met back up with Kopje and updated him with the numbers and preparation. I also told him what I had found and how I thought it could be used. He would take all that to Branik and they would discuss. For now I was to carry on. I got my bow back and mounted up with more confidence, knowing my death wasn¡¯t planned till tomorrow morning. They wouldn¡¯t want me as the scout to see their preparations. Spy levelled, which was good. 21. Plan C: Wiremu 21. Plan C: Wiremu Branik was of the opinion we needed to make a strike first or we were in an unwinnable situation. However, we only had four human warrior guards, including Warren, three Orcs, Tabitha and myself. We had a caravan to guard against all the normal threats as well. We were up against six archers, and eight warriors. At least three were specialised. The good news is we didn¡¯t have to kill them all. We only had to take out enough of them to make them back off and, preferably take out at least some of the leadership. So my plan was accepted in theory. Now that I was on the cusp of putting it in action, it didn¡¯t look as good as it did in theory. My plan was essentially to turn our worst case scenario into their worst case scenario. A beast attack at night, under the cover of which, we could then carry out some selective assassinations. But I hadn¡¯t just found any normal beast. I had found a monster. Monsters were inherently different to normal beasts. Some class specialisations required the killing of monsters to get them and level them. Monster Hunter was one of those. My Animal Lore told me in general terms what Monsters inhabited these grassy, rocky plains. I only knew about the animal and mineral based monsters. I knew nothing about the plant or elemental monsters. I really did need to get Monster Lore at some point. Or maybe just Plant and Elemental Lore? The Monster I was looking at was a big, grey skinned brute. He stood upright, making it obvious it was a he, but he did move surprisingly fast using all four limbs. When upright he was about half again my height, with big muscles designed for digging and moving rocks. He had a bit of fur on his head and shoulders, but that was all. He was a Field Troll. He was an animal based monster, currently munching on a gazelle, although he would eat anything really. In the rank of monsters in these areas he was about the lowest on the food chain. We had the Mountain Trolls where I grew up, which were larger, and I was taught to recognise their territory and avoid them. All the Troll species are very territorial. My Animal Lore, let me know that Field Trolls were one of the favourite foods of the Griffins that flew over the plains. Beak and wings of a very large eagle and body and claws of a very large lion. Basically they would dive bomb their prey raking with claw and beak till they died. More than enough to out damage the Field Trolls high regeneration. This explained why the Field Trolls lived in caves and hunted at night. The Mongols were large canine type beasts that roamed the plains in packs. They could get into a Field Trolls cave, but fighting a Field Troll in a confined space would basically be a death sentence to them. Everyone''s bane were the Golden Hornets. They would swarm and a continual stacking of poisons is death to anything with blood. There were Mineral monsters immune to the poisons and I am sure Plant and Elemental as well. Unfortunately, I had blood, so I hated them and avoided them. There were others, but fortunately Monsters were rare and I am sure the army swept the roads clear of Monsters regularly. More likely they put out contracts to mercenaries. This Field Troll was young, which meant in his prime. The Mercenary camp was outside his territory, so I would have to enrage him and keep him enraged and following me for the 6-8km to the camp. And stay alive, me that is, not Troll Boy. I don¡¯t think there is any way I could kill Troll Boy on my own. I was having doubts that I even had enough firepower to enrage him. I had a dozen of the javelins with me. When I purchased them it was with the idea for ready made stakes for a pit trap in a region with few trees. I bought them because I had doubts my bow, even in the apprentice level, would be able to pierce the Troll¡¯s skin. The troll is big enough I doubted I would miss even with the low Throwing Weapons Skill. I did have plenty of Physical Strength. I just thought, maybe the imbalance between my Physical Strength and Agility was disrupting my Throwing Skill as well as the bow skill? I could maybe adapt some of those techniques the Archer Trainer taught me. I guess I can try it a dozen times. I was planning to mix up the bow and the javelins. My aim was to pierce the skin. Pip had donated some poison to the effort so I had a light coating on the javelins and some arrows. Pip doesn¡¯t have the volume I used to be able to get from his relatives in the quarry. He did his best. The problem with leading an enraged Troll was that there was no way to do it quietly, particularly when you are advancing on a camp of high perception archers. So if I survived the first part of the plan and reached the camp, I then needed Tabitha to keep me alive. She would need to engulf the archers, and maybe be me, in Shadows so I didn¡¯t get shot by an arrow. The Troll wouldn''t be hampered by the Shadows as he had weak eyes anyway and hunted mostly by sound and smell. Animal Lore is fantastic. This meant that Tabitha could possibly direct the Troll with her Distract Skill. Tabitha was very hesitant about taking part as she felt very vulnerable. She would only come if Warren came to protect her. All that remained was the backstabbing and the escape alive parts. Originally Kopje and Sme?ka were going to do the backstabbing, but when Branik heard about the swordsman she felt she should be there as her Shield Bearer class is the best counter for the swordsman. Sme?ka was left in charge of the caravan security. The trouble with Branik coming was she had absolutely no stealth and there was no way she could clank up to the camp in her full plate. She switched her armour to leather and chainmail armour like the others, but she still stomped everywhere and was carrying that massive shield. Stealth was the original reason for Kopje and Sme?ka to come; however getting to camp was their problem not mine. This meant there were only three warriors and Sme?ka to guard the caravan. My problem was squatting right in front of me crunching down on a leg bone. I had felt Pip would be better going with the camp attack group. Tabitha wouldn¡¯t go near him, but Warren thought he was the best and was keen to carry him. Tabitha looked very sceptical, which I think was part of Warren''s motivation. So it was just me and Troll Boy. Time to get this show on the road. I would start with a bow shot and see if it would pierce the skin. It did! I had aimed for the softer flesh of the groin, and yes he was now enraged. However, because of his poor eyesight he couldn''t find me. I stepped forward and followed it with a javelin to the shoulder. Yes now he has found me! Time to move. Because he hunted by sound and scent I made sure to make lots of noise in my movements. I had also made sure I had a distinctive scent for him to follow. I had strips of recently killed lion hide tied to me. I had hunted it earlier for this purpose, and as a bonus we had feasted on lion meat for dinner. As it was possibly my last meal, it was quite nice. Once Troll Boy had my scent I don¡¯t think there was any way I was going to lose him. He would roar and charge on all fours and then rip at anything in reach. I found I was faster than he was except for his short burst charges. When he got on all fours and charged I had to look out. Fortunately, he was not very manoeuvrable when he charged. The first time he charged he took me by surprise and he clipped me on the hip and I had to scramble away. It hurt, but did not limit my manoeuvrability, probably thanks to Granite Bones. If he had slowed me down this would have been over before we got going. We got into a rhythm, I would run and then dodge and then lose an arrow or javelin then repeat. I am glad he was dumb. We weren''t even half way and the first wounds were healed over, despite the poison. What the hell am I going to do if I run out of arrows and javelins? From here on I would have to watch the Troll and my back, because if I heard this racket getting closer there was no way I would be waiting quietly in my camp. The first thing they would do is send out a scout. There is no way Kopje would be able to find and intercept a scout at night. Hopefully, they can be stopped from reporting back. Which meant I probably had one of the archers heading my way. This is where things really got tricky. If the archer killed me, or just wounded me enough for the troll to kill me, then the troll would be happy and just wander back to its lair after munching on me for a bit. Crisis averted. Plan failed. Now I need to keep an enraged troll following me while I am in stealth which slows me down significantly. He won¡¯t lose my scent so he does not need to see me, but I am also going to need to be as quiet as I can, while running in stealth and firing arrows and javelins. If I can pull this off, there is a good chance my Stealth might bump into master level. If I survive. We haven¡¯t started the real fight yet. So this is not easy, even knowing the troll''s expected movements.I am sure the scout is here, probably trying to see who is enraging the troll. The fact that there are arrows and javelins would give the impression there are two of us. Oh, how I wish there were two of us. I am not travelling in a straight line, but moving about a lot, only keeping to the general direction of the camp. I jump a bunch of grasses into the clearing beyond, to find a startled archer. I have one of my last javelins in my hand and have been on a constant hair trigger for the last hour, so there is no hesitation from me and i thrust the javelin at her, catching her leg, and then I am off, because i know the troll is doing one of his charges. Behind me I hear a short scream and a triumphant roar from the troll. Maybe I can take a short breather. I try to get a sense of where I am and we are actually very close to the camp. I can hear people coming fast, I figured they heard the scream, archers with high perception. Time to hide and watch for a bit. I am still holding the javelin with the archer''s blood on it, and I realise I still have the lion scent on me. The troll might not be happy yet. I move to where I can see better, and four warriors are lined up with shields, with three spearmen behind and directed by the swordsman. The archers are scattered around and lining up shots. A classic formation for this type of battle, and they will probably succeed in taking out the troll. The shield warriors move into the troll''s line of sight as the first arrows land, and the troll has a new target. One arrow bounces off his skull, but the other four land. One of the archers was trying to be clever and hit an eye or the mouth. The troll charges the shields and two shield holders bounce, but the others hold and the spearmen get to work. The arrows have mostly stopped as the danger of hitting their own warriors is very real. My Hearing Aid has picked up additional fighting noises from an archer position, so friendly fire is not the only reason the arrows have slowed down. I grab my bow and aim for one of the front line warriors. Friendly fire indeed. I get one of the shield warriors in the shoulder joint, and he goes down and the troll breaks out from the shield trap and wounds two spearmen, one of them losing an arm. Unfortunately, I have drawn the attention of the swordsman, who is looking in my direction. He yells something to the archers and then starts moving in my direction. Then a large shadow engulfs the fighting and there is increased yelling. This will give the advantage to the troll. It is a larger area than normal for Tabitha, but she is only fighting against the moonlight and a couple of torches. I figured she could hold it for maybe five minutes. However, the swordsman appears out of the edge of the shadow, still heading in my direction. Shit. All of a sudden the swordsman goes flying sideways, and it wasn¡¯t the trolls doing. It was a shield charge from Branik. This swordsman is completely different from the lieutenant who I last saw as a recipient of her charge. Instead of landing hard and struggling to get up, he rolls and is on his feet with a sword in his hand almost before Branik is re orientated on him.I think there is some history there as Branik was very keen to come when she heard the Swordsman was here. They start fighting each other in earnest, shield and axe vs two handed longsword, or even maybe a great sword. I don¡¯t know much about swords. I can¡¯t stay and watch as I get a sense of distress from Pip and he is a third of the way around the shadow. The Shadow flickers and I get a glimpse of the carnage in the centre, but then it comes back. I suspect Pip is near Tabitha and Tabitha is in trouble. I am moving around the edge of the shadow as fast as I can. Hearing Aid is picking up the sounds of fighting from the location I can sense Pip. Then suddenly the shadows change. They expand and they change from neutral darkness to having a terrifying sense of rage. So terrifying it made me pause. I think it even made the troll pause, let alone the warriors, who were the object of the rage. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. I broke through to see Warren lying dead with four arrows in him and a third in his shield. The senior archer was also dead, Pip slithering off his throat leaving puncture marks and Tabitha rising from the dead archer with Warren''s sword in her hand dripping blood from where she had stabbed the archer. She turned toward me, her face filled with absolute fury. Something had broken in her and changed her Shadow Skill, or given her a new one, as it was still active. ¡°I want to kill them all,¡± she said to me quietly. The archer''s death wasn¡¯t enough for her and there was no way I was going to argue with her while she was like this. ¡°I can now sense where everyone is in my shadow,¡± she said. ¡°Very well,'''' I said. ¡°I will follow you.¡± Pip joined me and we moved off into the shadows. She still carried Warren''s sword. It was a slaughter. She led us directly to any one alive and we dispatched them, including the troll. The troll was healing, but when she focussed her shadows on it, it froze in terror and we killed it. We did find Kopje in the shadows. He was lying near the warrior that was the second in command, who appeared to have bled out. He had a number of puncture wounds and I think a broken leg. I think he would have died if we hadn''t bound his wounds and fed him a potion. He would need to be carried back to the wagons. Tabitha finally let her Shadows drop, or ran out of energy, because she basically collapsed. Then we saw Branik heading our way. She was limping, and her leather armour was torn in a number of places, but she looked victorious. I saw her take stock of us, particularly Kopje and Tabitha who were unconscious. Then I saw her continue to look around, obviously looking for Warren, and realisation dawning on her face. When she looked back at me and I nodded in confirmation. She gave a worried look at Tabitha. I was exhausted so she left me to watch over the two unconscious ones, while she did a head count. She brought Warren''s body over to us and laid it covered to one side. There was one archer missing from the headcount and one horse missing from their camp. They probably left fairly early in the fight. Branik said she was going to grab one of the horses and scout a trail to the road, hopefully finding a route to bring a wagon. In these grasslands it should be fairly easy. If that is the case she will be back with a wagon in the morning, if not she will be back with a stretcher for Kopje. I was in charge till she got back, and she would be pleased if I started looting everything into a pile. She left and I was going to rest for a bit before I did anything. I checked my status.
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros Total
Type Attribute Level 6 10 6 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 10 2 20 1 42 93.0
Agility (PA) 12 4 6 4 26
Perception (PP) 11 0 12 1 1 25
Mental Strength (MS) 9 11 2 22 60.0
Agility (MA) 12 1 2 6 21
Perception (MP) 11 0 0 6 17
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 1 0 10 1 22 55.0
Agility (SA) 8 1 4 3 16
Perception (SP) 10 0 0 6 1 17
Totals 92 28 28 30 27 3 208
Free points 2 3 1
Resistances: Pain +9, Poison +4, Crushing +16 Skills: Novice: Cooking 2, Fishing 4, Butchering 2, Riding 2, Spear 1, Granite Sense 3, Sense Treasure 1 Lock Pick 4, Camouflage 2, Truth Sensing 2, Mineral Lore 1, Animal Lore 3, Sense Spiritual 1, Manipulate Status 1, Detect Spiritual Traps 1, Disarm Spiritual Traps 1, Detect Traps 4, Spiritual Trapping 1, Disarm Traps 4, Apprentice: Small Blades 7, Bow 8, Unarmed Combat 5 Throwing Weapons 5 Tracking 7, Skinning 5, Trapping 9, Identify 9, Deceive 9, Animal Bond 9, Far Sight 7, Granite Bones 6, Journeyman: Hammer 12, Hearing Aid 11. Master: Stealth 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Resistances: Crushing +16 Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones Hunter had levelled, I now had six attribute points to allocate. There were a lot of skills that levelled. Stealth went to master, giving me base attributes in Physical Agility and Spiritual Agility. Throwing Weapons hit Apprentice and Bow, Small Blades and Animal Lore all went up. The surprising thing was I got the credit for the Monster Kill and that was new in my status. I wasn¡¯t sure that I was now the monster after following Tabitha and killing everybody. I was not feeling good about that. I reasoned that they were here to kill us and we can hardly take prisoners. I still didn¡¯t feel right about it. I started going through the bodies close to us. I didn¡¯t want to be too far away while Pip was the only other one conscious. 22. Specialization: Tabitha 22. Specialization: Tabitha The sun was just breaching the horizon when I came too. The first thing I felt was a great emptiness and loss. Warren was gone forever. The rage I felt yesterday was not gone exactly, but it was quiet. The second thing I felt was Pip curled up on my stomach. I am never going to be a fan of snakes, but Pip has earned his place. I looked around. Kopje was beside me, but seemed to be breathing easier. Rock Boy had been busy, and there was a pile of gear stacked nearby. Then I saw Warren''s body. I went over to him and lay my head on his chest and just sobbed. I don¡¯t think I realised how much I depended on him to be there for me. It was quite a while before I pulled myself together again. When I looked up Rock Boy was there. No. I am going to call him Wiremu. He was there and he followed me into the shadows, without questioning my sanity. Now that I was in the light of the day I was questioning my sanity. He looked uncomfortable, like he didn¡¯t know how to comfort me or what to say. ¡°I¡¯m OK,¡± I told him, knowing I wasn¡¯t going to be Ok for a very, very long time. He nodded. ¡°Branik should be here about lunch time, hopefully with a wagon.¡± My turn to nod. ¡°I am going to go and start going through their camp,¡± he continued. ¡°I will watch Kopje¡± I said. He turned to go. I assume Pip decided to stay with me. ¡°Put aside anything you are not sure about and I can come over later as I have the Appraise Skill,¡± I added. He acknowledged that with a wave and a small smile. It was time to look at my status and figure out what the hell I actually did yesterday. I remember getting to the Camp. Bloody Branik has no concept of stealth. We would have been discovered if I hadn¡¯t engulfed us in shadows and used Distract on the watchman. Then we waited. That Troll was loud and we heard them a long way off. I Distracted the watchman with other sounds for a while, but eventually there was no covering it up. The watchmen roused the senior archer who took one listen and then roused the camp. The Swordsman pushed everyone to gear up ASAP while instructing the archer watchman to go scout. Apparently she wasn¡¯t the regular scout, but the senior archer confirmed it and off she went. Everybody heard the watchman scream and the Troll roar in victory. They formed up in their ¡°Monster Formation¡± and marched off quickly. We followed at a distance. It wasn''t long before Kopje disappeared off to the left. Then we heard them engage the troll. When we got to where I could work, Branik went off to the right. I stretched my Skill and threw Engulfing Shadows over the battlefield. Then I heard a thud behind me and I looked back and saw Warren had caught an arrow on his shield. I saw the senior archer striding out from the tall grass drawing another arrow on me. I guess he worked out that I was causing the shadows. He probably had the Skill Sense Spiritual which would have made it obvious. Warren caught this one in his ribs and I know the shadows faltered. I tried to stretch the Shadows to include us. Warren was charging toward the archer, with his shield up, but the archer used Triple Shot and Warren took all three arrows. He barrelled into the archer and I saw Pip sink his teeth into the archer''s wrist. Warren wasn¡¯t moving so I went over to help. The archer was trying to throw Pip off his wrist, but Pip had wrapped his body around it now and wasn¡¯t letting go. The archer was hitting him with his bow, I don''t know how he didn¡¯t break something. Pip gave me enough time to grab Warren''s sword and stab the archer several times until he stayed down. I remember there being a Class Specialisation option which I accepted without really looking at it because I was going to take whatever was on offer. It came with a new skill, Intimidating Aura, which I immediately activated and pumped everything I could into it, while still holding the Engulfing Shadows. I checked Warren and discovered he was dead and I remember a consuming fury taking over. The Archer I stabbed moved, bloody high constitutions. I went to stab him again and saw Pip injecting Venom into his neck. I remember Engulfing Shadows levelling to 5 and becoming Apprentice level and I could suddenly sense everything that was in my shadows. Then Wiremu came and followed me on a killing spree. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if I had a Berserker skill after that.
Tabitha Carter Class Thief Merch SPred Total
Type Attribute Level 10 4 2 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 1 1 11 66.0
Agility (PA) 12 Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. 2 10 2 26
Perception (PP) 11 4 10 4 29
Mental Strength (MS) 8 1 2 11 54.0
Agility (MA) 12 1 1 4 18
Perception (MP) 10 1 10 4 25
Spiritual Strength (SS) 9 0 6 3 2 20 59.0
Agility (SA) 10 0 5 3 2 20
Perception (SP) 10 2 5 2 19
Totals 91 12 50 20 6 179
Free points 0 0 4
Skills: Novice: Cooking 1, Sewing 4, Trapping 1, Spiritual Traps 1, Disarm Spiritual Traps 2, Detect Spiritual Traps 4, Blunt Weapons 4, Parry 4, Knockout Strike 3, Sword 2, Confuse Status 3, Shadows Embrace 3, Rampage 4 Apprentice: Intimidating Aura 5, Appraise 6, Bargain 7, Identify 8, Lock Pick 7, Detect Traps 6, Distract 7, Detect Spiritual 5, Unarmed Combat 5, Disarm Traps 5, Engulfing Shadows 5 Journeyman: Stealth 12, Dark Sight 10 Affinity: Shadow Shadow Predator is the Specialisation name. Only available with Shadow Affinity, Journeyman Stealth and using your shadows in combat. That must be personal combat, when I attacked the archer. With Predator in the name it didn¡¯t even sound human. It gave me points in Physical Agility and Mental Agility and the Skill, Intimidating Aura. I had levelled Intimidating Aura to Apprentice already. I realised Shadow Predator is a top tier Specialisation with 5 points available for each level. Most only give 4 and some only 3. I had already levelled it to 2 with my killing spree. Dark Sight had levelled to Journeyman level giving me an extra point in both Spiritual and Physical Perception. I had picked up the Sword Skill and others like Distract had levelled. I had picked up the Skill Rampage. It had come with a point in Physical and Mental Strength. I used Identify on it and what it did was give a short term boost to all my attributes. There is a bit of a loss of control at the time and a crash at the end. The boost gets better and longer as it levels. The crash at the end does not lessen though. I already have it at level 4. What the hell am I going to do now without Warren? Put that aside. One thing at a time. First thing is I am going to get someone to teach me the sword. I have Warren''s sword and if I am going to be a Shadow Predator I need a killing weapon. I am also sick of being weak and I will need more strength for the sword. I take the four free points from Shadow Predator and put them all into Physical Strength. OK, let''s see if we can be of any help here. I walked over to the pile of gear and started appraising items. 23. Understandings: Tabitha 23. Understandings: Tabitha Branik did arrive just before noon with a wagon and Sme?ka. The wagon was the one with the Mothers Tusks, gear and the one I slept in. Kopje was taking that space now. I let Wiremu get the equipment off Warren. I guess it is mine now. Then we took the time to bury him. Wiremu said a few words from his village and then Branik and Sme?ka sang a traditional song in the Orc language. Then they left me to say goodbye while they loaded the wagon with the gear I appraised to be of any value. We helped Kopje into the wagon and Sme?ka stayed with him to re-bandage his wounds and set his leg before giving him another portion. We took the wagon to the camp site where I appraised half the stuff Wiremu had piled to take as rubbish, and we loaded the rest while I did a walk through the camp to see what valuable stuff he missed. Nothing, actually, he just had a lot of junk with the good stuff. We then took the wagon to the road to catch up with the rest of the wagons. We now had a string of thirteen horses to add to the four they previously had. We also had the slave from the camp. All the Orcs were vehemently opposed to owning slaves and so was Wiremu. I was ambivalent but certainly didn¡¯t want the responsibility right now. We caught up with the other wagons, late afternoon. Branik changed the watch now the immediate danger is over and I will only be on half the night. After dinner, which was lion again, I got Sme?ka to show me how to sharpen and care for the sword. The problem with sitting around maintaining gear was everybody wanted to chat and hear about the raid. I didn¡¯t want to talk about it. Wiremu gave an overview from his perspective, I think to mainly divert them from me. But then Wiremu went off for his Bow training. I saw he had the bow from the senior archer that Pip and I killed. I guess he was trying it out. I think I was a bit rude to the others there and went off by myself till it was time for my watch. I had the first watch with Sme?ka and he knew I didn''t want to talk. When I did lie down to sleep it took me a long while to go to sleep. The next morning after Unarmed Combat sparring, I got Sme?ka to show me some sword drills. My arms tired easily even with the extra four points in strength. My strength is still only half what Warren''s was and what these warriors'' are. Maybe I should ask Branik for Warrior Training and get the class. I wonder how long that would take. A lot longer than this caravan trip apparently. Usually a minimum of a year for a talented Warrior. The Guard Class is easier, often only taking a few months, but while two of the mercenaries hired in town had it, neither were over the Journeyman Level. All the loot we collected belonged to the Mothers Tusks. We each could pick a horse and one or two items that would be useful to us. Wiremu picked a horse for himself and kept the bow he had tested last night. I also chose a horse, although Branik said we could get the equivalent in coin if we didn¡¯t want a horse. The Swordsman¡¯s two handed sword was too heavy for me, so I would stay with Warrens for now. I needed sturdier armour, but nothing metal that would make a noise. I also needed a backup weapon. Most of the armour from the front line fighters had been left as it was torn to pieces by the troll. There were a couple of leather jerkins from the archers, one that could fit me. The two small holes could be fixed and Branik said she would show me how. I also found a good backup fighting knife. I would also have to learn the small blades skill. Small Blades should be easier for me because of my low strength. Branik also said I should stick with swords no bigger than the one I had, preferably smaller. Wiremu and I took lessons on caring for the horses, grooming, feeding, checking hooves etc. Wiremu had kept up riding as a scout. It was less tiring for him. Sme?ka taught me to ride and Branik said I could go out with Wiremu for half days. I think she was trying to see if I would make a second scout. The answer was no. It did my riding skill a world of good, but Wiremu could look at a patch of grass and say which animal had passed, how many there were, which direction they were going and how long ago. I saw grass. He also saw a lot more with his Far Sight and a lot more detail at a further distance. His hearing was phenomenal. I definitely preferred the town. A local bar with some casual pickpocketing and I was good. It made me think about what sensing skill I should get next. My choice before this trip had been Sensitive Skin. Huge bonuses for lockpicking and disarming traps. Being able to sense airflows and air temperature can tell you a lot about secret exits and movement around you. There was also a rumor that it hugely enhanced your sexual experience. There were a lot of benefits for a girl like me. With my Physical Perception nearly at 30 and Dark Sight almost at Journeyman level, there would be advanced sight options available as well. It was my Spiritual Perception that was holding me back from the skill of being able to see through objects. That sounded awesome for a thief. But now I was also a Shadow Predator. What do predators do? They stalk, hunt and kill. I desperately wanted to level Shadows Embrace as that will start making me very hard to find. When I was riding in the day I was practising using it for me and my horse. When it levelled enough to start muffling sound and smell, I had visions of silent riding in the shadows. It was probably the Master level I needed for that but we need to aim somewhere. I had picked a fast, black mare with my shadows in mind. She was quite the spirited horse. I named her Dusk. I like riding fast. Wiremu was strange. He was definitely looking out for me in a quiet unassuming way. I know if it was me I would be bursting with questions about what skill I had got and how it worked. He didn¡¯t. He just accepted it and my strange actions that night. I have decided to get some advice from him. He is a hunter, which is the closest thing to a predator I know. I am rambling. My mind does that a lot these days. It is a way for me to avoid thinking about Warren. Most advanced perception skills require a basic one before they become available. Dark Sight has been fantastic for me, but Wiremu has demonstrated that sight is only one sense and I need a second. I can tell you right now there is no way I am enhancing my smell. Towns stink. Horse manure, human manure, rotting waste, and just unwashed humans. No way. I will wait till I have talked to Wiremu. I have been playing around with my Shadow skills, especially in the lonely watches. Particularly enlarging Shadows Embrace to include others, and Dusk, and changing the size and shape of Engulfing Shadows. Yesterday while walking alongside the wagon I tried using Engulfing Shadow on the wagon¡¯s shadow to make the shape of a cat. I had to push the skill very hard to move the Shadow. I guess it is the difference between using a shadow that is not fully created by my skill and one that is. I got a round ball that sort of looked like a sleeping cat, floating along the ground with the wagon. I tried to get it to start walking and suddenly I had a new skill, Shadow Manipulation 1. It made manipulating existing shadows easier. I am still going to have to work hard on making recognizable shapes. When I Identified Shadow Manipulation I got the impression from apprentice level I could start giving them solid forms. That got me excited. I was keen to experiment and see how solid and for how long. Just using them to touch someone along with my Distract skill could be helpful. Tickling by remote. Maybe pinching. Used with Engulfing Shadows and Intimidating Aura it will take it to the next level. Eventually I may not need to ever carry lockpicks again. We are now apparently three or four days out from the next town, the fortified border town of Kirsk. Training got me Small Blades 1 and levelled my Sword to 3. Shadows Embrace is now Level 4 and I am thinking about what I need to get it to the apprentice level. Riding is already there. Riding is great. Maybe I should look to get a mounted class. The most basic mounted Class is called Rider and shouldn¡¯t be hard to get, maybe a few weeks training, and it will open up all sorts of mounted specialisations and skills. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I followed Wiremu out to his bow practice and watched him set up the practice thingy. He put sods of grass in it then stepped back. I saw with Spiritual sense when he triggered the trap and it threw the sod into the air. He missed. ¡°How do you find your arrows?¡± I asked. ¡°I can usually spot them when I get close,¡± he said. ¡°I do lose a couple every now and then.¡± He hit the next few sods. He seemed to be getting up there in the levels. ¡°Your Bow Skill must be quite high now.¡± I observed. ¡°I am trying to get it into the Journeyman level,¡± he said. ¡°The latest thing is trying to shoot the bow from Rocky¡¯s back.¡± He named his horse Rocky. I don¡¯t know if he was getting back at me for all the times I called him Rock Brain or not. For some reason he had picked out the biggest and slowest horse of them all. Seriously, it is almost a cart horse. He said he wanted quiet solid dependability rather than speed. Dusk can easily out pace him. Eat my dust Rock Boy. In his next break I said, ¡°I am actually here looking for some advice. I got a new specialisation and I am not sure what to do with it.¡± He nodded for me to continue. ¡°It is called Shadow Predator. It gives attributes in Physical Agility, and Spiritual Strength and Agility with two free. It came with the Skill Intimidating Aura.¡± ¡°It is definitely intimidating,¡± he said. ¡°What is your question?¡± ¡°This predator and fighting is all new to me,¡± I said. ¡°I am a non combat Thief and reluctant Merchant. I have recognised the necessity of learning some combat skills, but I am not a fighter. I am not a predator. What do I do with this? I am not even sure how the Class will level. It may only be with combat.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± he said in thought. ¡°I doubt the class will require combat to level as the Skill that came with it should be good at avoiding combat by scaring off the less committed. But that will require testing.¡± That perked me up a bit. Do I tell him about Rampage? ¡°So you know I went a bit crazy in that fight?¡± He nodded. ¡°I got a skill called Rampage and I am a bit scared it came because of the predator class.¡± ¡°What does Identify tell you?¡± He queried. ¡°That I got it because I am crazy and not because of the class.¡± I replied. ¡°You have to trust that for now, but we can test it. Have you tried using Rampage since the fight?¡± I shook my head, ¡°No, I have been a bit afraid too.¡± ¡°Well we can set up some test scenarios and I can be there to see you don¡¯t lose too much control. The first tests will be to see if you can turn it off at will or do you need to let it run out. Ask Branik if you can come out scouting with me tomorrow and we can look out for situations it might be able to be used.¡± He said. That all sounded very sensible. ¡°Ok, that''s a good idea. I will ask.¡± I replied. ¡°Now about Shadow Predator.¡± He continued. ¡°Predators come in many forms, but they are all predators for a reason. That reason is usually to eat and feed their young and protect their pack etc. They also have the benefit of keeping other species from over-populating and in control. Why did you choose to become a Thief?¡± he asked. I thought for a bit, ¡°For the thrill of it.¡± I replied. ¡°It didn¡¯t start out that way. It was a way to keep Warren and I fed so he could get a good class. Longstrider hooked me up with a Master who trained me. Technically I might still owe him for some of that training, but, you know, Thief.¡± I said as I shrugged my shoulders. ¡°The Merchant class was only so I could learn the Appraise Skill so I could steal better stuff.¡± ¡°What about now?¡± He asked. Shit, why did I come to ask him? Bloody difficult questions! I think I liked it better when he was Rock Brain. ¡°Now I have no clue,¡± I said honestly. I was lost without Warren. All our plans were gone. ¡°Then I guess that is what you have to take time to figure out,¡± he said. Bloody useless conversation. Putting it all back on me to figure out. ¡°So tell me about some predators and let me see if that helps.¡± I said searching for more clues. ¡°First of all Predators hunt in a particular environment, which they are suited for. A pack of forest wolves or a forest python would get eaten very quickly out here on the plains. And vice versa for the plains hunters. So where do you hunt best?¡± That was easy. I am a town girl. I hunt in civilization. ¡°I am guessing you will hunt best in town,¡± he said. Bloody, know it all. He continued, ¡°While predators will hunt anything in lean times, they have their preferred prey. What is your preferred prey?¡± he asked. ¡°What do you like to hunt?¡± I do like relieving the rich arrogant people of their possessions. That does give me pleasure. This question is probably related to my as yet undetermined purpose. ¡°I will have to think about that,¡± I said. He nodded. ¡°While you are thinking about that, think about how you like to hunt. There are three broad types of hunters or predators. Firstly, there are those that lay traps and lure their prey in. They require planning and setup, but once the prey is in the trap there is no escape. I hunted like this growing up in the forest. ¡°Secondly, there are the Predators who study their prey and anticipate their movements and then strike hard and fast. Pip is an example of this type of predator. I have had to learn this out here on the plains and I strike with my bow. ¡°Thirdly there are the predators who like the thrill of the chase. A pride of lions herding and running down their prey. They like the chase and out run their prey.¡± ¡°Bloody hell, how do you know all this?¡± I asked. ¡°Animal Lore.¡± he replied. ¡°A hunter has to know his prey. When you decide what you want to hunt, get as much knowledge as you can.¡± ¡°What the hell is your purpose then?¡± I asked. ¡°What is it you hunt?¡± Yes I was trying to turn his questions back on himself. But I was also curious about what motivated him. ¡°The Empire raided my village and either killed or took everyone I knew as slaves¡± He stated in a flat voice. ¡°What?¡± I said, shocked. ¡°They can¡¯t do that. You have to voluntarily take the slave class. People do it to get their family out of debt or for crimes etc. You can¡¯t force people to be slaves.¡± ¡°Yes you can,¡± he replied quietly, but with utter conviction. ¡°I was taken to a quarry where we worked and were worn down, until we gave up and took the Class to escape the beatings. If they were low on their numbers for the slave caravan, they would take people to a torture pit and torture them for days until they took the class to make the pain go away. You can definitely make people slaves. I watched it happen continuously for three years before I escaped.¡± I had to sit down. I was in shock. This was not what the Empire said happened. Holy Troll Shit. My whole understanding of Empire culture had just been undermined. I wanted to doubt Wiremu¡¯s story, but it explained so much about him. I grew up in the empire. I knew people who had slaves. OK, I mostly stole from them, but still. ¡°I, ah, need to think about this,¡± I said. ¡°It does explain a lot of things, but shit really?¡± He nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you to think about it then,¡± he said. ¡°Don¡¯t forget to talk to Branik about tomorrow.¡± and he left me to it. 24. Rampage: Wiremu 24. Rampage: Wiremu Tabitha looked like she had had her world turned upside down when I left her. I guess she only believed me because she knew me and my classes. Or some of my classes. I still had six free attribute points to allocate. I wasn¡¯t in any hurry. Bow was inching toward Journeyman level. Once it got there, there were Proficient level skills available like the Long Bow Skill my master had. I might need to bump some attributes to get them. The same was true for Small Blades. I was content to hold them for now. Manipulate Status is now level 3 as well. I try to keep it on all the time, showing my highest class a Quarry Worker Level 9, so no one will think I got it to level 10 and specialised it. Not that Prospecting has done me any good so far. Identify, Deceive, Animal Bond and Trapping are all ready to get to the Journeyman level. I am really keen to see what Pip and I will be able to do at Journeyman level. Identify indicates that some skills might be compatible to share. I am looking forward to getting Venom Bite. I meant Quick Strike as I doubt Venom Bite is compatible. We will have to wait and see. I am puzzling over how to get it over the hump to Journeyman level. The conversation with Tabitha had renewed my thinking about combatting slavery. The slave we took from the mercenaries was sold to Masnachwr like the other two were earlier. I needed more knowledge on how to break the bond and combat the class. I figured this knowledge was in the empire somewhere, but would be locked away and carefully guarded. It should be more readily available outside the empire. I was hoping somebody else had already cracked it and I could follow in their footsteps. First I had to get out of the empire. To do that we had to get past a fortified town and a controlled border. Then we had to make it over the mountains to Hrothgar. The last town was trouble enough and this one will be crawling with the empire military. Branik approved Tabita¡¯s request to go out scouting with me for half the day. She strongly reminded us we were there to scout not hunt. Kopje was sitting up now. It looked like he would make a full recovery, but he certainly won¡¯t be fighting anytime soon. Probably not till well after we get to Hrothgar. I asked Kopje to teach me some Orcish. He has started with some common words and phrases. Unfortunately some of the sounds they make when communicating are too low for a human to hear let alone replicate. I still try and he says it sounds like someone with a very bad accent. Which is exactly what it is. Hearing Aid is Journeyman level now and when Physical Perception gets to 30 I could choose Expanded Hearing, which means I could at least hear Orcish properly. I suppose there are also some oral Skills that allow me to speak it properly. I am still thinking about it because there are some Sight Skills I like as well, especially the one that allows me to see heat. Far Sight needs to be at Journeyman for that though. A lot of crafters choose that as everybody from Alchemists to Blacksmiths want precise temperatures. Seeing heat is easier than using the Sensitive Skin specialisation that feels the heat. Tabitha kept asking questions about my time with the slavers all morning. I guess she was trying to get her head around it. We tested her Skill Rampage first just while riding. Her aim was to see how much control she had and to see if she could stop it early. When she activated it her head lifted and her eyes scanned for danger. Her hand went to her sword hilt, but she didn¡¯t draw it. She couldn''t really concentrate on talking other than simple yes and no answers. After about 4-5 minutes she slumped in the saddle exhausted. I judged that to be reasonable control, but she couldn¡¯t stop it early. She didn¡¯t even want to as it made her feel powerful. When she recovered we did it twice more to test different things, but mainly so she could get used to how it felt with the skill active. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Far Sight then picked up a small pack of Hyenas scavenging a kill. There were probably only about twenty, certainly less than thirty. That is small when Hyena¡¯s often are in clans of 150 or more. I figured if Tabitha went in on foot they would defend their meal. I could provide ranged support from Rocky and if things got out of hand I could swoop in. I asked her not to use any shadow abilities unless she got in trouble to test the skill away from the shadow class. I figured her Intimidating Aura would chase them all away if she used it. Hyena¡¯s are not known for their bravery. She walked in with her sword in hand and the Hyenas objected. They circled her and then the first one came in for a bite and she activated Rampage and started striking out. I started Rocky moving at a walk and taking shots at the ones on the edges. I wanted Bow to level. She was faster and stronger than when she practised, which was the effect of rampage. I think she was a bit less accurate in her strikes than she could have been but it was hard to tell. She had killed about half of them and I had taken a number out before the rest took off. With Rampage active she took off after them, but couldn¡¯t get far. When she slumped down in exhaustion I lifted her to the back of Rocky and we went back to where we left Dusk. The slump at the end is the biggest danger in using the skill as it leaves her very vulnerable. The skill didn¡¯t level for her, but she is more confident in using it. She said her Sword levelled to 4. Tabitha is an interesting girl. In some ways we are compatible, but in others we are complete opposites. We are both stealth based hunters, but she is a town hunter and I definitely prefer the wilds. I think I would go crazy if I was stuck in a town too long. She is impulsive and passionate. I like to take a more considered approach. When I say passionate, she definitely has a temper. The Intimidating Aura and Rampage Skills are based on something in her personality. I really liked Warren even after only knowing him for a short time. We could have been really good friends. His loss is affecting me as well, as I don¡¯t make friends easily or quickly. His loss has really thrown Tabitha into a spin. I don¡¯t think she realised how much she depended on him. I was starting to care for her, but more in a brotherly way. Cho?o?d is the Orcish word for it but the ¡®o¡¯s are almost a sub harmonic sound. It means clan or extended family. I guess I am partly stepping into Warren''s shoes but only till she finds her way. The countryside was getting hillier, and apparently would continue to do so. After Kirsk there was a great river which was the border and then a large mountain range. Hrothgar was situated in the major pass just on the other side of the mountains. I was looking forward to Hrothgar as it was the home base for the Mother''s Tusks and Kopje kept talking to me about it, in Orcish. It was quite large with varied races. Predominantly, Orc and Dwarf, but then some of every other race according to him. But first was Kirsk. Kirsk was a border town of the Empire. It was heavily fortified and had an Imperial Garrison adjacent to it. The garrison was bigger than the town. We had been travelling in farm areas for the last two days and I was sitting on Rocky on a hilltop, with my first view of the town. We had a lot more company on the road now, especially after we passed a major intersection yesterday. The intersection had a Tavern and general store and a couple of houses. Imperial Couriers, Troops and farmers all accompanied us. The road was now wide enough for two wagons to pass and we did pass another caravan. Apparently, the other intersection branch goes to a large city, which is the province capital. We were taking the less travelled route which makes sense for smugglers like us. 25. Stone Walled: Wiremu 25. Stone Walled: Wiremu Masnachwr was not going to take the whole caravan into Kirsk. We would camp for a day at a common ground outside the walls. The main danger here was not beasts, but thieves. Tabitha was back to full night watches. Masnachwr would go in tomorrow with one wagon as Torgovlya Enterprises had an office in the town, and made money by mostly supplying the garrison. There were some goods for him to deliver and others to pick up, as well as some papers to collect that should get us across the border. He wanted two guards to accompany him, but it wasn¡¯t wise for the Orcs to go. Branik chose me to be in charge and another warrior type, called Bruce. She gave me papers identifying Bruce and I as verified members of the Mothers Tusks. She also made it very clear that we were there to guard the wagons and Masnachwr and his wagon driver and not to get involved in anything else. If Masnachwr got in trouble we were to leave him to it. There was not a whole lot of trust there. We left after breakfast and joined the queue to get in the gate along with mostly farmers with goods for the day''s market. At the outer gate the wagon was inspected and papers shown. I had figured that a Level 9 Quarry Worker would raise a lot of questions if anyone identified me as I was supposed to be a guard. I couldn¡¯t invent classes with manipulate Status still in the novice levels. Hunter was a more likely Class for a Guard than Quarry Worker, so I had it changed to Hunter level 9. At the inner gate there were additional guards, in fact, when I identified them they were specialised Sentries. All of them. I figured this was the real checkpoint. Security was a lot stricter here. I doubted Masnachwr¡¯s tricks that got us into the last town would work here. I guess that''s why the main caravan is still outside. At the inner gate the wagon was more thoroughly searched. The papers were gone over in much more detail and Masnachwr was more closely questioned. I noticed the local farmers were not getting the same treatment, I guess they were known. We were about to move on when we heard a yell. ¡°Hold that wagon. I want to talk with that man!¡± The speaker was a short weedy man flanked by two bulky sentries. He came marching through everyone and they all respectfully made way for him. He was marching directly towards me. ¡°Hold that man.¡± he said and the sentries grabbed me and immobilised me. ¡°You, young man, are attempting to manipulate your status,¡± he stated. There was no question in his tone. ¡°Your attempt is pathetic,¡± he continued, ¡°the question is, why?¡± He was looking at me intently, so I tried to identify him. That hit a blank wall. Identify was a Mental Perception based skill, but my mental strength was higher. I tried to push that through Identify and all of a sudden Identify hit Journeyman level giving me a Mental Perception and Mental strength point. The newly levelled skill now told me I was out classed and out of my depth in any and all mental attributes against this guy. ¡°So, you are only a Level 6 Hunter, and a Level 10 Quarry Worker. That''s curious. Did you spend some time in the Imperial quarries by any chance?¡± He didn¡¯t wait for a reply. ¡°But here is the gold!¡± he declared. ¡°You are a level 6 Spy.¡± He turned to the guards. ¡°Take him to the holding cells. I will be along later to find out who he is spying for. Now, who is in charge of this wagon?¡± As I was dragged off I could hear Masnachwr proclaiming innocence and that I was a mercenary and hired by the mercenary group they had contracted and he had had no say in it etc etc. They stripped me of all weapons and armour. The only reason Pip wasn¡¯t discovered was he had slithered down and hid in my crotch. It made that area look rather large, but they had left me my trousers and under shirt. At one point one of the female guards was looking at my crotch intently. I sure hoped Pip wasn¡¯t moving around, but I didn''t dare look. I tried to distract her by asking about the guy who had me dragged here. ¡°That is Investigator Smythe,¡± she smiled. ¡°You had better come clean kid, you won¡¯t get anything past him. He has Keen Sight which focuses on noting details, Truth Sensing and his Skill from his Inquisitor Specialisation, Pierce Status. He will see right through you, and those are only the Skills he has told us about.¡± Well that explained how he saw my classes so easily. If he spent some time with me would he see through to my affinity? I think I need to try and avoid that. They then took me and locked me in a cell. Apparently, they make their cells out of stone. Granite to be precise. I spent some time sensing the granite for weak spots. Granite Sense went up to 4, but while there were a few weak areas they had high quality stonemasons do good work. A Granite skill to create weaknesses would be good right about now. Is there a Tremor, or Crack, or Quake skill available? My new Journeyman level Identify was giving me more details about my skills and skills within my reach. I knew there was a new, unspecified, Granite skill available if I increased my Spiritual Agility to 20. That would take 4 of my 6 available points and there was no guarantee it would help. What else was available? There was no way I was going to combat or counter him on a Mental level. That is obviously his strength. I would be much stronger physically, but I doubt he will ever let me close enough to do that. Spiritually was anybody¡¯s guess. If I am going to play to my strengths then Physical, and especially Granite, was the way to go. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I now have only two free points and a new skill Granite Spike 1. I spent a bit of time swearing. That is the Skill I needed climbing the quarry wall. I needed it then and I get it now? I realise I didn¡¯t have the attributes for it then, but, Fucking Troll Shit, as Tabitha would say. When I calmed down I Identified the Skill. This new Identify is great. Granite Spike would enable me to create a spike of Granite on any rock surface at Novice Level. Apprentice Level it will be on any hard surface and can be shaped to a limited extent. At Novice and Apprentice level as long as I am touching the same surface I can create it out a fair way from me. Journeyman level adds to the previous levels by not requiring a surface and it can be in most shapes, but the size of the spike is reduced and I have to be touching it if it is not on a surface. Master level, and things could be an incredible range of size and shape. I really need to improve my Throwing Weapons Skill because at Journeyman Level I will be able to create stone knives as long as I have the energy. This is an amazing skill and a real game changer for me. Now I need to live and stay free long enough to level it. Now to test the Skill. I created a spike in a corner out of sight of the door as I was not sure If I could remove the spike or if it was permanent. I created a spike about 20cm tall and it pushed out of the granite surface very rapidly. Fast enough to pierce a foot, but probably not an armoured foot. Leather or wooden or similar soles, yes. Metal, no. However, most sabatons are steel capped and have a normal sole. Walking on steel is not good for traction. Yes I can make the spike disappear after, but I have to action it, or it will stay. I was in an empty cell, slightly wider than the door. I figured after letting me stew for a while, I would be transferred to an interrogation room, which would include torture devices. Whether or not they would be used in the first session would depend on Investigator Smythe. I really, really, really wanted to get out of this stupid empire. The border is close. Pip is a worry. If they find him he will be used against me, and then killed anyway, probably. There is an air vent big enough for him to navigate and it should eventually lead outside. Branik and Tabitha won¡¯t know of my detainment until Masnachwr gets back to the caravan tonight, if he doesn¡¯t stay the night in town. I can¡¯t count on outside help. I decide it is best if Pip at least explores the building as he is able. Knowledge is good and he has nothing else to do here. I have Granite Spike to practice. When I get tired of that I can practise Granite sense. I have not been around Granite since the warehouse floor, so now is my chance. I feed Pip into the air pipe and think I have communicated what is needed. I then sit down to practice. Granite Spike went from a single spike to two to three and then to four as it levelled. Seriously I couldn¡¯t be in a better place to level a Granite affinity. Well, maybe I could, as the room service sucked, because there wasn¡¯t any. Granite Sense broke into the Apprentice levels and I could almost sense the entire cell block. I was two cells down from the guard entrance and the cell between us was empty. The Cell at the far end was different as there was no wall to an adjoining cell. I suspect this was the interrogation room but my senses couldn''t quite stretch that far yet. There were three other prisoners, from what I could tell from their movements on the stone. I couldn¡¯t tell how many guards there were as they had laid wooden flooring on the stone. I could tell when they were walking around. The ceiling was a thinner sheet of Granite and then a wooden structure, which I assumed was a building in the Guard compound. I was getting nervous. I was detained just after dawn. There was no daylight in the cell so I couldn¡¯t tell how long had passed until Pip reached daylight. When he did I estimated it was early afternoon which was about how long I would leave someone to stew. If I didn¡¯t want to be interrogated by Investigator Smythe, and I didn¡¯t, then I would need to make a break for it in daylight. Soon. Pip was mapping the building for me. Except he couldn¡¯t see anything as he navigated dark tunnels and crawl ways. He smelled / tasted the air and created a scent map. There were rooms where lots of people were or had been and others with only one or only occasional or older visits (probably store rooms). My Granite sense was blocked where there was no stone and the buildings were predominantly wood. I was pushing the Animal bond to understand Pip¡¯s senses. I was also chipping away at the thinner granite ceiling. I was chipping away with Granite Spike from the stone walls and angled up to the ceiling. Four spikes at a time. I think I had a corner free enough that my weight would snap the slab and have enough gap to crawl up and out between the ceiling and the floor above. The trick was to do it quietly so as not to alert the guards. My strongest Skill is stealth. Using that is my best chance of escaping. Time to go. 26. Camouflage: Wiremu 26. Camouflage: Wiremu I reached up and grabbed the corner with one hand using the other hand to hopefully grab the slab when it breaks. I started to add weight by taking the weight off my feet. It was then carrying my entire weight. Not helpful. I started to bounce gently, then with more force. Then it broke. My feet were just off the ground so that was fine. My free arm caught the biggest piece, but others crashed to the ground. I paused with Hearing Aid and Granite Sense on full listening for any reaction. There was reaction from the other prisoners, but none from the guard room. I pulled myself up into the crawl space between the cell block ceiling and the ground floor. I kept two smaller pieces of Granite with me that had a bit of an edge. To navigate I was trying to match Pip¡¯s scent map with what I could smell. It was a large building and a lot of people were moving above me. Then my nose picked up the kitchens and this matched with Pip¡¯s scent map and everything fell into place. Animal Bond went to Journeyman level and I received the Skill Bond Senses 1. Yes, another sensing skill. I will check later what Pip got as I am a bit busy right now. I think this skill is what my old master had with his Timber wolf bond. Pip¡¯s map showed a room near me which only had the smell of rats and dust and was near the edge of the building, so I headed toward it. I had moved off the stone at this point and there was only dirt under me. Pip was making his way back to me. The room was there but I couldn''t make a hole in the floor. The granite pieces were not sharp enough, and I couldn''t get enough leverage. I break out of a stone cell to get blocked by wood. Mutter, mutter, mutter. I keep going to the edge of the building. The wood panels here are thicker than the flooring, but the difference is I can get leverage. Hearing Aid tells me there is no one there even though it is mid afternoon. Bond Senses tells me it is a garbage strewn alley, with rats? Pip perks up at that and speeds up on his way to me. I guess he is hungry. I turn and brace my feet against the boards and my arms against a flooring beam and apply all my Physical Strength. It bends and cracks and I have a hole large enough to crawl out. I am filthy, in a garbage strewn alley with no armour and no weapons. Getting away without being seen is the first task. I can¡¯t use the roofs in daylight as that would make me a target from the walls. The Guard Barracks is near the gate we entered but I need to get lost in the crowd first. Pip finally makes it but sorry we don¡¯t have time for you to hunt. At one end of the alley is a major road leading to the barracks entrance and the gate out. At the other end a minor road. On the other side of the alley was the back of a row of shops and their yards and tradesman entrances, and usually, the entrance to the upstairs accommodation. I walk down the alley away from the major road. I was looking for some clothing to cover my dirty rags preferably a coat or jacket, maybe a long sleeved shirt. One of the accommodations had some clothing hung out to dry on an upstairs balcony. I jumped the fence and climbed up to see if any would fit. I grabbed a couple and ducked back to the alley and donned them before entering the road and walking away from the barracks. The long sleeved, black maids dress was a little tight, but fortunately the sun hat would help cover my slightly unshaven face. I was lucky facial hair was slow growing for me. I joined a busier road and then took turns at semi random. Half the town would have heard the alarm bells ring from the barracks triggering the gates to stop all traffic. Most of the townspeople just carried on as normal, just making way for the guardsmen who started moving out from the barracks searching and questioning people. I needed somewhere to hide and wait for dark. I could also do with a weapon. This town was quite a bit larger than Yelets. There has got to be more places to hide because this disguise was not going to hold up against any moderate inspection and definitely not to someone with Keen Sight. It was too tight around the shoulders and arms and I had no bust and combat boots. The sun hat didn¡¯t match either. I looked at a bathhouse with longing. It could work to hide in, but I had no money. Plus I had to go in as a male or it would totally blow my cover. Think stealth. I cut down an alley to the tradesmens entrances, after all I was dressed as a maid. Next to the bathhouse was a laundry place, which made sense. There were unattended baskets of laundry in the backyard, yes it was dirty laundry, but there might be something there that I could swap the dress for. I found the reason the baskets were in the backyard. A number of items were covered in vomit. Those laundry people needed to charge more. I found a pair of dark blue trousers that only had a wine stain on and embroidered dark grey shirt, which looked quite good on me, I thought. I left the maid''s dress for them. Dusk was only in about two hours. I doubted they would go door to door in the whole town for one person, though I might be wrong. The sensible way would be to run a fine tooth comb over everything going through the gates and enhance the wall watch and patrols. I would attempt to get out at some point, and I was planning that attempt tonight. Maybe I shouldn''t. Maybe I should wait a few days for the excitement to drop. The desire to get out of this town and out of this empire was very strong. I had two hours to mull it over. I saw an upper accommodation for a shop with an upper deck with a solid barrier railing. I stealthed up to it. Hearing Aid indicated the upper level was empty, but Pip and Bond Senses both indicated it was lived in. The door was locked, so I lay down on the deck out of sight to rest and wait. I awoke to the sound of someone moving around in the accommodation. Night had fallen. Time to move on and investigate two things. Firstly, could I get money and equipment? Secondly, how difficult would it be to get over the wall? The night was still early so there were a lot of people still around. There were also a lot of guardsmen around. As the night got on it would be increasingly more difficult to avoid the guardsmen as anyone seen would be accosted. Pip had not received any of my senses skills with the upgrade in Animal Bond, instead he had picked up the skill Camouflage. It was one of my lowest levelled skills, but I guess it was the one he was most compatible with. He could now sit on my shoulder and people wouldn¡¯t even see a bulge in the shirt. That is, people without Keen Sight. That Investigator concerned me. I hadn¡¯t seen him again, but I had no doubt he was searching for me. I decided to make my way to the nearest wall and see what I could find. I didn¡¯t have the pickpocket skill so it was too risky to try that. I had no lock picks so I would literally have to break into a place to access it and with the number of guards out that was not a good idea. All I had were my two small pieces of granite and Pip. Or rather Pip was stuck with me as he could easily get out of the town. Access to the top of the wall was through the towers that were periodically placed for the archers. Of course access was gated and guarded. Buildings were kept back from the wall by the width of a road which I guess made for easy troop movements. It also made the space visible from the wall and easy to patrol. I stealthed across the road in the darkest place I could find and crept along the base of the wall tillI I came to a corner of where it joined a tower. I engaged all my senses to find any danger. The moon was only a slither tonight and I was in the shadow. I engaged Camouflage while I tested the wall. Granite Sense told me it was well made and how thick it was. Mineral Lore levelled as I sensed the different materials that made the wall. That gave me a way forward to levelling the skill. Sense Spiritual and Detect Spiritual Traps told me the tower had spiritual protections. Quite complicated ones. Ordinary Detect Traps told me there was a physical trap at the gate. Granite Sense and Hearing Aid both told me there were a number of troops in the tower. I suspected more than usual. I suspected the entire wall was like this and they were there waiting for me to make an escape attempt. Camouflage levelled. I could go up the outside of the tower, but I strongly suspected the top of the wall would also be like this. I could try going all the way to the top of the tower. The tower extended two stories above the wall for two levels of archers. It would give me a better view of the top of the wall and what the outside looked like. It was that or go back to the town and find somewhere to hide. I really wanted out. I decided to climb and look. I climbed by creating small Granite Spikes angled up slightly to use and handholds. I made sure to remove them after. Sure enough Granite Spike levelled to Apprentice level and I could shape smaller better shaped holds. These were also more efficient for energy use. I was about four body lengths up when I froze and desperately engaged Camouflage. Patrols were passing both on the walls and on the road and they were paying attention to the wall. I think they have been warned I might have a stone affinity. There was really no other way to get out of the cell and I had left plenty of evidence. Camouflage saved me and jumped to Apprentice Level. It was probably Pip using his skill to help through the bond. When I was beneath the level of the top of the wall I needed to move around the tower away from the wall till I got above it, probably equal to the first archer level. I moved very slowly and carefully trying to keep camouflage on all the time. The skill wasn¡¯t designed to be used when moving and kept breaking, so I kept stopping and reengaging it. I was very glad Granite Bones enabled me to lock my joints or this would be incredibly more difficult. Granite Bones was also a lot stronger now and I could lock my finger joints on one hand and the bones would carry my weight without snapping. Eventually we will get to one finger. Once I was out of sight of the doors on top of the wall to the tower I started to slowly climb again. Camouflage, Granite Bones and Granite Spikes all went up. Easy to tell which skills I am using for this. I made sure to avoid the arrow slit in the first archer level. Then there was a noise in the tower and a flurry of activity. I saw a runner leave the ground gate. Speed was important now and I went for the roof. I had obviously triggered an alarm trap my low level skills didn¡¯t find. Why did I go for the roof? I had no idea. Thinking back it was a dumb idea as I would have been trapped there and only good for target practice for their archers. I was moving around the tower as I climbed, thinking to go down the outside. The roof was sloping slate tiles, but I only got a hand on it and I was blown out and away from the tower. Of course they trapped the roof, was my thought as I fell. This town, this whole empire was really getting to me and I just wanted out. What I got was the wind busted out of me as I landed hard on top of the wall. The only reason I didn''t break anything was because of Granite Bones. Then a spear was thrust in my face. ¡°Stay down and don¡¯t move a muscle, lad,¡± a gruff voice said. Other guards soon surrounded me as well. I had some Granite spikes ready, but not nearly enough. I didn¡¯t see any way out. Then it got worse. A higher, slightly out of breath voice that I had only heard once spoke. ¡°Well done, people, well done.¡± A gap was made and Investigator Smythe approached. ¡°Alive too!¡± he smiled. ¡°Who gets the reward?¡± he asked. ¡°That¡¯ll be me.¡± The first gruff voice said. ¡°Excellent, and a bonus for your squad too.¡± he said and there were several murmurs of appreciation. He addressed me, ¡°you and I lad were meant to have a conversation. We have lots more to talk about now,¡± he smiled. ¡°Get him up,¡± he continued. ¡°No! Wait! Don¡¯t touch him.¡± he commanded. Everyone backed off a bit. ¡°There is a snake on his shoulder, and I am betting it is poisonous. We will need a bag for it.¡± He said, eyeing me carefully. He definitely had Keen Sight. Gruff voice said, ¡°Thompson, go and get us a bag.¡± Then I heard two faint clicks of bones striking together with the message ¡®go left¡¯ then the wall was engulfed in shadow. I triggered the six spikes I had readied, five for the ones with the closest weapons pointed at me and one for the Investigator. Then I rolled left as far and as fast as I could. One guard went down as I took his legs out from under him. There was the noise of rocks hitting the right hand wall and like there was a scuffle there. I could tell it was fake, but it was very realistic. Then I picked out the bones again that said ¡®to me¡¯. Hearing Aid was fantastic and I stealthed toward the sound. Then Pip and my Bond Senses picked up Tabitha¡¯s scent. There was a loud grunt on the other side of the guards and then loud footsteps running away. I knew the footsteps were fake, but the grunt had been real. ¡°He¡¯s this way!¡± shouted someone, and several took off after the footsteps. ¡°Wait.¡± Smythe said. He sounded in pain. Good. ¡°It might be a trick, some stay here.¡± I reached Tabitha and she was indicating back to town to hide, but I wanted to go over the wall. ¡°Too high, too smooth.¡± she whispered in my ear. ¡°I can fix,¡± I replied. I grabbed her hand and put it against one of the crenellations and created a Granite Spike hand hold under it. Her surprise was very apparent. She indicated approval and I went over first and created holds for us. She followed. Before she left the level of the wall top she made a noise like a shout from the Tower away from where the footsteps had gone to confuse them. I still couldn''t see anything and was going by feel. This could only work because she had Dark Sight and could see the holds I made. I spent the effort to remove the ones above before I got out of range, so there would be no sign. She covered us in Shadows Embrace and let go of the Engulfing Shadows above. It was a tall wall. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Several times a face looked over the edge of the wall to examine it. When that happened we stopped moving and I engaged Camouflage. Unfortunately, Camouflage would need to be at Journeyman level to include others near to me. Our shadow seemed to blend with the shadow on the ground and we were also moving sideways along the wall as well as down. There was a bad moment when Investigator Smythe looked over. We were near the ground when that happened and I think we were outside his effective range. I am glad I had removed all the spikes as he would have definitely seen them. When we got to the ground my hearing, which was keeping track of the top of the wall, heard Smythe yelling to wake a garrison and get patrols out and warn the border post. We started running away from the wall and then at an angle to it. Tabitha broke the silence. ¡°So, Rock Boy huh?¡± she said. ¡°Yup,¡± I replied. ¡°You have had that affinity all along, haven¡¯t you,¡± she accused. ¡°Yes.¡± I replied. ¡°You let me be all show off about my affinity, and you smugly had one all along.¡± She was definitely winding up. ¡°Ah huh,¡± I said. ¡°Your affinity is definitely worth showing off as it is amazing. It got us out of that scrape.¡± I said, trying to mollify her. Running and holding a conversation at the same time wasn¡¯t the easiest. ¡°I should have left your ass up there,¡± she muttered, knowing I would hear her. ¡°I am glad you didn''t,¡± I said. ¡°That Investigator is a nasty piece of work, he has an Inquisition specialisation.¡± I could almost feel her wince. ¡°Damn, If that was one of the Empire''s Inquisitors you wouldn¡¯t be coming back from that,¡± she agreed. ¡°The horses aren¡¯t too far from here.¡± I smelled the horses well out as we were coming from down wind. Rocky and Dusk were tied to a stake. They both had saddle bags. I went to mine and found the leather vest that Branik had made for me right back at the beginning. ¡°Branik sent a spare knife and Bow, but it is not a fancy one like you had.¡± Tabitha said. I saw I was back to the standard issue imperial bow. ¡°She also sent your wages to date. She said even with the trouble you have caused, you were worth the hire. Apparently you are now also a spy?¡± she queried. ¡°I have the class,¡± I said, ¡°but I am not employed by anyone.¡± ¡°Hmmph,¡± she said as if not quite believing me. We mounted up and started for the border. ¡°We are going to have Garrison patrols out as soon as it is light I imagine. I expect a courier has already been sent to the border post. What happened at the Caravan?¡± I asked. ¡°Masnachwr was turned back from the gate after they took you and banned from entering. He came back to the caravan swearing and cursing that you were a spy and took it all out on Branik. I wouldn¡¯t have stood for it, but she let him vent. He sent a messenger into the Torgovlya office and they sent out a wagon to swap goods. They weren''t happy with Masnachwr and Masnachwr was blaming the Mothers Tusks. It was all very loud and messy. Masnachwr insisted they leave immediately for the border, so everyone packed up and they left.¡± She glanced at me to see how I was taking it. She continued, ¡°Branik took me aside and said if I wanted to go into town and try to help you I was free to do so. She paid us both up to date and said to consider our contract terminated. She told me that if I wanted my share of the coin from the loot to look her up in Hrothgar. She said that while she would like to talk to you, don¡¯t expect any share of the loot as it will go to the Mothers Tusks to compensate for the loss of reputation they are going to suffer.¡± ¡°Was she really mad at me?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± she said, a bit puzzled. ¡°She said to tell you that you have saved the Mother¡¯s Tusks twice and Kopje¡¯s life in particular and that goes a long way with Orcs. The first time was with the Troll,¡± she said, ¡°but when was the second?¡± ¡°The Troll was the second, the first time was the day we met and when she hired me. I will tell you the story some other time.¡± I replied. ¡°I think she would like an explanation and while she is not happy, she did send the knife and bow.¡± Tabitha¡¯s tone indicated she didn¡¯t really understand. ¡°Does Branik know about the Stone affinity?¡± she asked ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°It is actually a Granite Affinity and nobody but you and an Imperial Inquisitor knows.¡± I said. ¡°Damn. The Empire is very keen to keep people with affinites. That is why only Warren knew about mine.¡± she said. ¡°He is not going to let us go is he? He now knows there are two of us, or that I have two affinities. We are not even going to be safe across the border.¡± I was thinking out loud but Tabitha wasn¡¯t very happy with that logic. We rode on through the night. She led, because she had Dark Sight, not because she had the faster horse. I patted Rocky. I was very happy with her. While we rode I considered my status. No class levels, but definite skill improvement. Still only two free attribute points.
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros Total
Type Attribute Level 6 10 6 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 10 2 20 1 42 93.0
Agility (PA) 12 4 6 4 26 Poison R +4
Perception (PP) 11 0 12 1 1 25 Crush R +17
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 2 23 62.0
Agility (MA) 12 1 2 6 21 Pain R +9
Perception (MP) 11 1 0 6 18
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 1 0 10 1 22 59.0
Agility (SA) 8 1 4 6 1 20
Perception (SP) 10 0 0 6 1 17
Totals 92 30 28 30 30 4 214
Free Points 2 0 0
Resistances: Pain +9, Crushing +17, Poison +4 Skills: Novice: Cooking 2, Fishing 4, Butchering 3, Animal Care 3 Spear 1, Lock Pick 4, Mineral Lore 2, Animal Lore 3, Truth Sensing 2, Manipulate Status 4, Sense Spiritual 3, Sense Treasure 2, Bond Senses 2, Disarm Spiritual Traps 1, Detect Spiritual Traps 3, Detect Traps 4, Spiritual Trapping 3, Disarm Traps 4, Apprentice: Small Blades 7, Bow 8, Unarmed Combat 6, Throwing Weapons 5, Tracking 8, Skinning 5, Trapping 9, Riding 7, Deceive 9, Far Sight 7, Camouflage 6, Granite Bones 7, Granite Spikes 6, Granite Senses 5 , Journeyman: Hammer 12, Hearing Aid 11. Identify 10, Animal Bond 10 Master: Stealth 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Resistances: Crushing +16 Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones, 27. Border: Wiremu 27. Border: Wiremu The border is a wide and deep flowing river. It is maybe an average of 50m wide and deep enough you have to swim. The crossing is a solid stone bridge, two wagons wide and on each side were strong barrier gates and a fortified guard post. Both the Empire and the Kirghiz Kingdom had a very strong military presence on their respective sides based in a fort adjacent to the bridge. I could see that the river on both sides was heavily patrolled. On the other side of the border there was a flat plain and then the road curved up into the mountains. There were a lot more trees around, but they were a different type than I was used to in the forest where I grew up. I guess I would know more if I had taken Plant Lore. Apparently Hrothgar was on the other side of the mountains guarding the pass. There was snow on top of the mountains. With Farsight I could see Masnachwr and the caravan in the queue to cross. They had made very good time and must have kept going through the night. I figured they would have a difficult time crossing as the caravan who harboured a spy. At least they could all honestly say they didn¡¯t know and it would be the truth for anyone with the Skill to tell. I suspect that was the only reason Masnachwr wasn¡¯t detained at the gate with me. Tabitha and I were planning to ride upstream for quite a way before attempting to cross. We would have to dodge patrols. It would be easier without our horses, with our level of stealth, but neither of us were going to leave them behind. We turned our backs on the bridge and headed off. The first two days were painfully slow. Stopping and hiding and trying to camouflage a horse. Tabitha¡¯s Shadow¡¯s Embrace was much better. I made sure I told her so. Apparently she had levelled Shadow Predator in the exchange on the wall which really pleased her as she didn¡¯t use Intimidating Aura or Rampage there at all. I guess she achieved the objective of her hunt, which was me. Her Shadow''s Embrace was getting a real workout. If we rode really close she could include both of us and it was mid apprentice so there was some muffling of sound. It wasn¡¯t great, but anything to stop the sound carrying was good. When she got it to Journeyman level she would really be awesome. After the second day we seemed to break out of their patrol pattern and only the river was heavily patrolled. We started moving a lot faster keeping inland. On the fourth day we decided to risk a fire rather than another cold camp. We camped by a moderate creek which was flowing to the main river and sheltered by the trees and the creek banks lit a small fire. The trees around here had needles instead of leaves which I found strange. They also dropped these cone things which burned clean if quickly. The air was getting colder as well and I didn''t have a decent cloak. Tabitha did, but at night I was wearing all three of my shirts to stay warm. Pip was also suffering in the cold. He wouldn¡¯t leave me at night. That night I also finally got back to fishing. I searched the creek for a pebble, then I used Granite Spike to create a very small spike with a hook on the end. It took me several tries to get it right, but I did it. The pebble was still attached at the end, but I used that to tie a spare bow string too and baited the hook with a worm and we had fresh fish for dinner. Granite Spike levelled with that use of it and it was now firmly mid Apprentice level. Granite Spike was really a whole game changer for me. In the morning we started unarmed sparring again. We were surprisingly evenly matched. I had the reach and weight but she was marginally faster. My unarmed level was at 6 and hers at 5. If I didn¡¯t use my lock joint ability, which she didn¡¯t know about, then she could win maybe one in five matches. We also went through our blade forms but didn¡¯t spar. Neither of us was confident we wouldn¡¯t hurt the other by accident and that could be fatal for us out here. I didn¡¯t feel safe enough to practise my bow and I no longer had my throwing knives. I was looking to hunt. I needed some fur to keep Pip and I warm, especially at night. I know I didn''t have enough salt to properly look after the hide, but using what I had would keep it fine for a while and that¡¯s what we needed to keep warm. I had seen wolf and bear signs and deer and a cat of some type. We travelled another couple of days before I felt it was safe enough to camp early and go out specifically to hunt. We left Tabitha with the horses and to set up camp while we Pip and I went out to hunt. What I found was a big horned sheep. I managed to get two of them. I got enough meat for several days and two lovely woolly pelts. I really wanted the horns too, but I couldn''t think of a use for them so I left them in the end. I cleaned the pelts as best I could then brought them back to camp. I knew the key to preserving the pelts was to get as much moisture out of it as possible. This was the purpose of the salt I used to carry. I didn¡¯t have nearly enough salt with me so I made some frames to hold the pelts close to the fire and collected enough wood to keep it hot all night and hoped that would do. Pip enjoyed the hot fire and we all enjoyed the mutton. The pelts were quite stiff in the morning, but that was good. I cut some holes and some leather ties and exchanged my vest for a sheep pelt. Wool side out as that had the oils to be water resistant, except for a section around my shoulders where I had a wool lining for Pip. It must have looked terrible. In fact, Tabitha went into quite some detail on how it looked, after she stopped laughing. It was warmer than the vest and I would spend more time with the fit when we stopped tonight. I rolled the other pelt up for sleeping on. I was thinking we should have chosen to travel down stream rather than up stream. We still had this damned river to cross. We kept checking on it. The patrols had lessened. There was a definite track where they would travel and I figured from the tracks there would be maybe one patrol a week out here. I was thinking they would probably have cabins as waystops for their patrols, but we hadn¡¯t found any. Crossing the river was a problem as it was very cold mountain water. I had heard people could die from the chills if they were in it too long. I figured we would need a raft or something to keep us mostly out of the water. The horses should be OK to swim, I hoped. We had no axe or anything to chop wood to make a raft. That is really why I was looking for a cabin as it may have useful tools like this. By this time I had added a wolf pelt and a deer pelt to my collection. Tabitha had stolen the wolf pelt to sleep on. And we used the deer pelt, usually as a barrier against the weather. My Hunter class had not levelled, but I did level Bow to 9, so I was now looking for how to get it to journeyman level which would open up other specialty bow skills. Long bow and Triple shot I knew about and there might be others. According to Tabitha it was a triple shot that had killed Warren. I was unclear whether I could get both if I had the attributes, or should I get both? I couldn¡¯t see a downside but maybe there were problems levelling them together or something. Even if I had the attributes I would need to figure out how to trigger the skill. This is where I needed the advice of a master or even an older person like Branik or Kopje. First I had to get Bow to Journeyman and then see what the options were. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Two days later we came to a massive waterfall. Not massive in height, but massive in width. This meant the top of the waterfall looked very shallow except for a couple of deep channels. We might be able to cross there. We would have to get the horses up there and the Empire probably knew about it and may have a permanent presence there. The first problem was easy to solve as there was a patrol trail we could follow up to the top. I knew it was a risk, but the trail was the only way to get the horses up there. I scouted it first on foot all the way to the top. There were no watchmen or traps that I could see. I was very conscious after the Kirsk wall tower that my detect traps were low levelled. The idea was I would signal Tabitha from the top and she would lead the horses up, but there was no way she could see me and no way to hear over the waterfall. I went back down and we brought them up together. We left the trail as soon as possible and found a place to camp / hide while I scouted. I found their cabin. It was a log bunkhouse and attached storage shed. There was a squad stationed here. An Empire squad is eight people. Usually two archers and three shield warriors and three other warrior types. I figured the Lieutenant when I first met Branik had two squads with him as he had four archers. He probably also had one or two personal guards as he seemed to be very self important. But that was the past and he was dead. There was a recognised crossing. There were poles at various positions and a rope across the swifter parts. It seemed more for walking than for horses. They had a watch rotation. They weren''t very diligent in it. In my spying, hint, Spy Class, I am Spying. I discovered they had another two weeks before they would be relieved and go back to Kirsk. I also scouted upstream to see if there was somewhere else to cross. The area immediately up from the falls was a big lake. The falls were about 200m across and so was the lake and wider in places. The horses were probably better to swim the lake if we could get them up the bank on the other side. We were better to walk the rocks. We needed to scout the other side as well in case the Kingdom had a watch set. I spent two hours scanning the other shore with Far Sight and saw nothing but wild life. One of us will need to go over and see. My vote will be for Tabitha, tonight with her Dark Sight and Shadows Embrace. She agreed. Tabitha didn¡¯t return till near dawn. There was no Kingdom outpost there. The country on the other side was very steep and rough. She had gone right up to the head of the lake and found an old smugglers crossing. It didn¡¯t look to be used for a while. I guess that explained why the squad was based here more than anything. She would rest while I went to the head of the lake on this side and see what I could find. If the squad was here they probably knew about it. Where the river spilled into the lake it was wider than usual and hence shallower. There was evidence that there had been posts and a rope here too but they had been removed. I think we could make this work. I was tempted to raid the Squads store house before we left as we really needed some basics like rope and an axe etc. I was travelling with a thief. But I didn''t want to alert the Empire to our position. It turns out Tabitha was already planning to raid it before we left. I should have known. The sooner the better in my opinion, so we planned for tonight. It had been two weeks since we left Kirsk and the moon was now full. Tabitha thought there was probably enough light for even me to not trip over my own feet. As the sun was setting I moved the horses and our gear to the head of the lake. Tabitha went to watch the Squad and to look for an appropriate time to raid the store. I staked the horses and went to look at the crossing and do some prep work. This was going to take a lot of energy. Tabitha arrived about two hours after dust with a pack and saddle bags. The Saddle bags were apparently for Rocky as it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate for Dusk to carry them. I am not sure why not. She found a bag of salt and a hand axe and a machete. And rope. What I was most excited about was the skinning knife. That would help a lot. What she was most excited about was a bear pelt she found. I looked at it and it had holes in various places and was a very poor skinning job. Seriously the only use for it would be as a sleeping pad. It is a big thing to be lugging around as a sleeping pad. Maybe I will get my wolf pelt back and be able to do something with that. I guess she was happy and apparently Dusk had no problem with that tied to the back of her saddle. She has also pilfered some trail rations and some oats for the horses. The small bag wouldn¡¯t go far but we did need to look after them. She had also got a spare tinder box and a repair kit for leather and maintenance kit for the weapons and tools. That was good thinking. I was also pleased to see a bundle of arrows. I was being very careful with the ones I had left. All we were really lacking now was some decent clothing. We lead the horses to the crossing. We would be walking very slowly across. It was about 100m of mostly shallow streams. There were two deeper channels. As prep work I had created some granite pillars so we could tie the rope to it and I had twisted the skill Granite Spike to create a smoother path for the horses. It got me to another level in it. I wondered when I would be able to get Granite Manipulation which is manipulating existing granite rather than make my own with Spikes. Granite was only one type of rock and even in this river there were a lot of different rocks so maybe it wouldn¡¯t be so helpful. Mineral Lore was tugging me to understand them, but seriously it is only Level 1. I had a long way to go. When we got to the first deeper channel I tied the rope to the pillar I created and the other end to my waist and waded in. It was mostly waist deep with a small section deeper. I was swept off my feet once and Tabitha dragged me back. We couldn¡¯t have done this without the rope. After I tied the rope to a pillar on the other side I used it to go back and then we tried to coax the horses across. That took some time and additional Granite spikes to help. Pip the traitor was staying snuggled in the bear pelt on the back of Dusk. I needed a rest after that, but I was also shivering and needed to get dry and that wasn¡¯t going to happen in the middle of a river. I kept the break short and then removed the pillar on the other side of the channel freeing the rope and then also the near pillar and the most obvious of the spikes. We moved carefully to the next channel. This one was wider, but shallower, so it was easier overall. It took us four hours to get to the other side, but there were no broken bones and that was the biggest danger that one of the horses would break a leg and we had no way to fix it. If the Squad had potions they didn¡¯t keep them in the store house. Both Tabitha and I changed to dry clothes and I put my sheep skin on. We needed to keep going for a while before we could stop and light a fire. The danger was our feet as neither of us had spare footwear and apparently toes could rot and fall off if we didn¡¯t get them warmed. Thanks for that image Tabitha. We went for about an hour before we found a good spot to camp. Tabitha rode while leading Rocky and I followed on foot trying to minimise our tracks. Granite Spike had gone up another level and was now ready to get to journeyman level. I was working it hard all night, but at least I got rewarded for it. I loved that skill and I used it every chance I could. I have only had it for two weeks and it is almost at Journeyman level. Amazing. 28. Mountains: Tabitha 28. Mountains: Tabitha Wiremu is a very hard worker. He has basically carried us for the last two weeks with all the hunting and scouting. I felt bloody useless, regulated to camp cook. I hated that. Cooking did get to the apprentice level. But, what I feel like doing is going on a Rampage. Saving Wiremu¡¯s ass on that wall was awesome. That is where I want to be and what I want to be doing. None of this camp cook garbage. Getting to scout the other shore was a good stretch of the legs and Skills, and I found the way across naturally. It is good being useful again. Wiremu was pretty slow on the uptake about raiding the storehouse. Seriously, that was going to happen from the first time I laid eyes on it. He was weird about the loot I got from it too. He showed more pleasure over a knife than the bear pelt. He doesn¡¯t get it. He is used to being outside, I am not. I am cold. All. The. TIME! Pip appreciates the bear pelt. That bear pelt saved my life after that river crossing. That was horrendous. The previous two weeks were an ongoing nightmare and the river crossing was the worst. Now? Now I think we are lost in the mountains. It has been about ten days since we crossed the river. We have had to backtrack a number of times where we came against parts that were too difficult for the horses. We are trying to stay in the low areas, but to go through you do have to go up. Pip is as miserable as I am and I think Wiremu¡¯s patience is wearing thin. Last night I suggested we find a spot to camp and stay there for a few days to rest up. We have been on the move constantly for almost a month and everyone is worn out including the horses. I think he thought it would only take three or four days to get through the mountains and into Kirghiz. However, we have discovered these mountains are the border of the kingdom for a reason and they are big enough to stop an empire. We are travelling up a valley, trying to find our way. This one is a wide valley, well over a kilometre wide. Plenty of vegetation. I am riding Dusk and leading Rocky. Wiremu likes to scout on foot. He also likes to hunt. Rocky has another four pelts on his back. Two of some sort of goat type creature and a deer, but it is bigger than a deer. Wiremu called it an Elk. Then there is another wolf. At least in this climate the meat doesn¡¯t go off so quickly. I have just realised partly why I am so restless and frustrated. Wiremu is hunting during the day. I am a Shadow Predator, I need to hunt as well. I hunt at night. If we can camp in one spot for a few days I am going out night hunting. I may not know the animals, or tracks like Wiremu, but that won¡¯t stop me from hunting. If I run into anything too nasty I am confident I can escape with my shadows or scare them with my Aura. I have a plan. Now we need to action it. Wiremu came back at around midday and said,¡± I think I found a place where we can stay for a few days.¡± He led me across the moderate sized stream that ran down the valley. He led me to a small rocky outcrop that had a small cave, or more just a hollowed depression. Just down from that was a small meadow where we could stake the horses and beyond that was the stream. ¡°Looks good,¡± I said and we started to unload the horses. He stood for a moment with his hand against the rock. ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked. ¡°I have a Skill called Granite Sense. Now it is in the Apprentice levels I can use it on other types of rock, it is just a lot harder and I can¡¯t go as far. I am trying to see that there is nothing in the rock that will come out to bite us and to level the skill. That is a No and a No.¡± He replied. I placed my gear, including my bear pelt at the back of the cave, then led Dusk to the meadow. I saw Pip slither off into the bush. I guess he was going to hunt. It was becoming more and more obvious what I was missing as I also was a hunter. I raised my voice a bit, ¡°I am going to go out and hunt tonight.¡± I said. ¡°I realised it is what I am missing and it is making me restless.¡± He looked at me a moment, then said, ¡±OK. I will stay and watch the horses. There is a Mountain Troll somewhere up on the slope opposite us. I saw its territory markings at the base of the slope. Its lair is probably well up the mountain, but be careful if you go that way. I haven¡¯t seen anything else that might be trouble.¡± This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I was appreciating Wiremu more and more. He didn¡¯t try to talk me out of going. He didn¡¯t even say don¡¯t go into the troll territory, he just said be careful. He trusted me and my Skills. As well he bloody should after I saved his ass, but that was not the attitude I had experienced a lot of before. Which was why I normally didn¡¯t tell anybody where I was going or what I was doing. We had dinner in the daylight, which was nice. Pip returned with an extended belly and curled up on my bear pelt to digest it. I sharpened my knife and sword and prepared to go out. It was cold at night. Wiremu had taken the wolf pelt I had used to sleep on and made a cloak from it. It was barely more than draping it over my shoulders and tying it together below my neck, but I would need it. He was making himself one from the other wolf pelt. He had made a lot of changes to his sheep skin and it was now a woolly vest. He was trying to make shoulder pads from the goat hide to cover his upper arms. It was a work in progress. What had him stumped was trying to make trousers. His current ones were a mess. Apparently Branik had put them together for him. The only other pair he had were a light cotton pair that he had picked up in Kirsk. He was planning to use either the deer hide or the elk hide. I wished him luck. After full dark I stealthed into the night and went exploring. The object tonight was to explore the area and get back to using my skills. If I found something to bring back all well and good, but I wasn''t expecting to. This was good. Freedom. I engaged Shadows Embrace and started moving faster. I tried to sneak up on a couple of deer, but they sensed me and scattered. Probably smell. It is really difficult sneaking up on wild animals. I guess that is why hunters use a bow. I caught sight of a large cat stalking something, so I carefully followed and watched. They stopped well back and watched for quite a while. Then all of a sudden they pounced and after a short chase, brought down the deer. It reminded me of Wiremu¡¯s lesson on types of hunters. Stealth, watching and then pouncing at the best time. It was the pounce I was missing. I was also able to herd animals using the Distract Skill. Time to test out some options. The first deer it tried it on got away. I did cut it, but the sword was too difficult to manoeuvre for this. I would try the knife. I tried tracking it, but I couldn¡¯t find it even though it was leaking blood. I needed to find a different way. I also wasn¡¯t keen on killing and then leaving an animal. I had no butchering or skinning skills and quite frankly no desire to learn any. Firstly Stealth and Shadows Embrace. Let''s see how close I can get just using those two skills. Of the ten creatures I tried it on I got into touching range with two of them. I seriously wanted to grab the horns and ride that goat, but I knew it would end in disaster and I resisted, just. I probably could have got Riding into journeyman level. It was a fun night. I didn¡¯t stay out too late as I knew we both needed rest. It was a good start. Stealth didn¡¯t level, but Shadow¡¯s Embrace did. The next day Wiremu didn¡¯t leave the camp at all. He worked on his trousers and shoulders. Apparently, he finally got the sewing skill and his stitches finally were looking better. I never told him I have had the skill since I was old enough to work my hands. I wasn¡¯t going to be doing anybody''s mending but mine. I didn¡¯t like sewing anyway and he was doing fine. In the afternoon he went down to fish for dinner. I got the impression he liked fishing and hadn¡¯t been able to do it since he was a kid. I took the horses out for some grazing. When I returned he was walking up to the campsite and was bare chested and dripping wet. One hand had three fish and the other his clothes, which were dry. ¡°Did you go for a swim?¡± I asked, knowing the temperature of the water. He grinned, ¡°Yes I did. I was getting sick of my own stink and went in for a quick bracing wash.¡± I looked at him like he was mad. ¡°Do you know what I discovered?¡± he asked, but didn¡¯t wait for a reply. ¡°Cold Resistance. It is only 1% at the moment, but I share Resistances with Pip.¡± His grin got wider if possible. ¡°I can see this becoming a daily ritual.¡± That sounded horrible. It also sounded like something I needed. ¡°There is a deeper pool just upstream a bit if you are interested.¡± he continued as he walked past me. Shit, Shit, Shit. His Mental Strength must be up there in the mad range. Mine wasn¡¯t. I don¡¯t think I can do this. I made my way toward the pool. I was still swearing at myself as I stripped off then I felt the water temperature, Nope. No. No. No way. I threw myself in and almost died. I couldn¡¯t get out fast enough. I didn¡¯t have anything to dry myself with. Shit I was in shock. I used my shirt to get some water off and put on my jacket, trousers and boots. I was still shivering. That had better have been worth it. If I open my status and it is not there I will kill him. Very slowly if this was some sick joke. I peeked. Yes it was there. Cold Resistance +1 and I had gained a base point in Mental Strength. Take that you bastard. I wasn¡¯t sure about every day, but it was something I needed to level. I headed back to camp to get a spare shirt and stoke the fire. 29. Shadow Predator: Tabitha 29. Shadow Predator: Tabitha I went out again that night. I don¡¯t know if it was the increase in the level of Shadows Embrace that meant I got within touching distance of almost all the animals I tried it on, or whether it was just being clean. I slit the throat of a big rabbit type creature and stashed it to collect on my way back. I did that with another three and a fox. I thought the fox fur would make a nice nest for Pip. That was enough for tonight. Stealth levelled and small blades. Time to up my game tomorrow night. We started the morning with a swim / bath and then sparred to warm up. Wiremu cleaned and skinned the Hares and fox and set the pelts to dry. I needed to think about another sensory skill. I had definitely gone away from Sensitive Skin due directly to our morning dips in the stream. They would be unbearable with Sensitive Skin. Wiremu did say he could adjust his Hearing Aid to account for loud noises and Sensitive Skin would probably be the same. I had seen how useful his Hearing Aid was and the fact it had a general usefulness was enticing. If I saved up for the Skill that let me see through objects, it would only be useful in town and in very specific situations. Hearing Aid was useful everywhere. Keen Sight was something I had not thought about till Wiremu said the Investigator had it. That would add well to Dark Sight. I must talk to Wiremu as It will probably go well with his Far Sight as well. Do I want to double down on sight Skills? Identify was telling me Keen Sight would enhance all my detect skills, which were mostly Detecting Traps at the moment. Actually it would also enhance Appraise, Identify and Detect Spiritual as well. That was a lot of my skills that it would boost. Shit I don¡¯t know. There might be something else out there too that would be good. ¡°Hey, Wiremu, have you considered getting Keen Sight? It might mesh well with your Farsight?¡± I said. ¡°I am several Class levels away from being able to get another sensory ability,¡± he replied. ¡°Have you decided what to get?¡± he asked. ¡°No, though I am thinking Keen sight will go well with Darksight.¡± ¡°It would,¡± he said. ¡°Have you thought about your shadows? Shadows are an absence of light. It is like they are a negative skill. Your Shadow¡¯s Embrace also negates sound and smell, so your affinity seems to be something that negates or counters others.¡± ¡°How the hell does that help?¡± she asked. ¡°I have no idea,¡± Wiremu smiled ruefully. ¡°But I think it is worth thinking about in terms of skills.¡± ¡°Do you know of any predators that negate senses or skills?¡± I asked. ¡°Not in Animal or Mineral Lore that I know so far. You might need to try to get access to Elemental Lore.¡± Wiremu replied. ¡°Not much chance of that around here¡± I sniped. I guess that didn¡¯t need a reply. Wiremu had his pants making and fishing. I needed something to do. Seriously, one day and I am bored. ¡°I am going to take Dusk for a run,¡± I told him. He acknowledged me with a wave. I saddled her up, I felt like going fast. I headed downstream which was the way we came from to get here. The trees were fairly open so I let her have her head and offered general guidance. This was fun. We were flying through the trees. I think Dusk was having fun too. Then I saw movement from the corner of my eye. I looked and it was a wolf keeping pace with us. I looked around and it was a whole pack. I couldn¡¯t tell how many. Dusk had sensed them too. I leaned forward, ¡°Come on girl, let¡¯s race them.¡± We picked up the pace. They were trying to herd us to the right, by darting in from the left. I wasn¡¯t having any of that, we would weave through the trees and take the unexpected angle, jumping logs and sometimes wolves. I was looking for somewhere to be able to make a stand as this couldn¡¯t keep going. One wrong move and Dusk would have a broken leg, or I would go flying. Dusk was also starting to tire. I needed something to put my back to so we couldn''t be surrounded. I glimpsed a clearing through the trees with what looked like a cliff behind it and headed that way. I was right and I pulled Dusk up by the cliff dismounting and drawing my sword and shadows. It was the middle of the day, so Engulfing Shadows wouldn¡¯t be as effective as at night. The clearing darkened, but the main point was that I could sense where things were in my shadows, so I knew how many wolves there were and there would be no sneak attacks on me. I also had to keep aware of sneak attacks on Dusk. There were fifteen and wolves were not the same as hyenas and I had no back up. Let''s do this. I used Shadow manipulation to move a shadow to catch the eye of the nearest wolf and he glanced over. I ran him through and it was on. This knowing what was around me was great. I could dodge or parry or attack without looking. I heard a smack of flesh behind me and a horse snort and a wolf whimper and knew Dusk was giving a good account of herself. I had a few bites that had penetrated the light leather leggings I wore, but most scratches were deflected. Then I sensed a wolf starting to pounce toward my upper body to bring me to the ground. I kicked one wolf away and sacrificed another bite on my thigh to bring my sword up and skewer him. Unfortunately, momentum is a bitch. The body carried on and ripped the sword out of my hand. I gave everyone a pause with a flash of my Intimidating Aura, while I grabbed my knife. I whirled around and stabbed a wolf who was about to hamstring Dusk as I also drew my truncheon. I could still break bones and I had Knockout Strike that I had never used on a wolf before. It was pretty frantic for a while then a wolf landed on my back driving me down, but I was ready for him and rolled with it, coming back to my feet by Dusk, while the wolf slid along the ground. Momentums a bitch ah? Dusk''s hooves came down on his head and the last two wolves took off. I aimed my aura for the first time and gave them a blast to keep them running. I sank to my knees exhausted, knife in one hand and truncheon in the other. A wet nose jostled my head. Right Dusk first. I rose and inspected her. She had some scratches and a couple of bite marks, but generally looked Ok. A couple of wolves were still moving. One was trying to get away, her hind legs dragging behind her. I put them both out of their misery. I collected my sword and cleaned my weapons. Dusk looked OK to ride so I mounted up and we slowly made our way back to camp. Wiremu immediately rose to help when we came into the camp, with questions written all over his face. He helped me unsaddle Dusk and wipe her down, checking her wounds at the same time. It didn¡¯t look like anything needed stitching, so we would just have to monitor her for infection. Not that we could do anything about it. For the first time I was regretting not getting something like Herb Lore. I think Wiremu was thinking the same. Then we did the same for me. I had gotten heavier chest armour, so all my wounds were on my legs and one bite mark on my arm. We washed them and they didn¡¯t appear to need stitches. My armour would need some attention. Once Wiremu was happy I wasn''t going to pass out. I told him where he could get thirteen free wolf pelts. He saddled Rocky and they followed my trail back to the site. Time to review my status. Shadow Predator levelled, no surprise there. What was a surprise was I got a base attribute in Mental Agility and two in Spiritual Perception. Identify was indicating it was for my use of Engulfing Shadows to be aware of what was around me. Engulfing Shadows levelled twice and was now needing that bump to Journeyman level. Swords, Small Blades and Blunt Weapons all went to Apprentice and that was a jump of two levels for Small Blades. Intimidating Aura, Knockout Strike, and Unarmed combat all went up a level. Animal care also went to the Apprentice level, I assume from my care of Dusk¡¯s wounds. Riding had got to the Journeyman level in that wild ride. A smile spread on my face. I enjoyed that ride. I had a new class available to me. Rider. It was the most basic mounted class and only gave four attribute points per level. I used Identify on it and it only had two requirements, the Skills Animal Care and Riding. I had heard rumours you could get a class without training if all the skills were at apprentice level and one was at Journeyman Level, but this was only if you were very suited to the Class. I was very suited to Riding and I grabbed it. I wasn¡¯t going to try and wait and train for a better class. This was mine and I earned it. Rider assigned two attributes, one to Physical Agility and one to Physical Perception with two free points. With Shadow Predator levelling and the previous two free points, I had six available to me. Identify was telling me if I assigned four points to Spiritual Perception to bring it to 25 and one point to Mental Agility to bring it to 20 I had done something to unlock an advanced Skill. Oh hell yeah! This bastard was mine! I unlocked a new Perception Skill called Spatial Awareness 1. I became aware of everything in a 10m radius of me. A complete sphere, including underground. The distance I could sense would grow with each level and from the Apprentice levels I would get increased penetration into solid surfaces. From Journeyman level I get increased penetration into masked statuses. The radius awareness was passive and would grow. The penetration aspects require me to concentrate and act to make it happen. Oh yeah! Nothing will be hidden from me! And all because of the way I used Engulfing Shadows. Awesome. You are forgiven for not getting to Journeyman level. I still had a free attribute point, which I was going to keep for now. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I admired my status for a bit and then started looking at what I needed to do to repair my armour.
Tabitha Carter Class Thief Merch SPred Rider Total
Type Attribute Level 10 4 4 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 1 1 4 15 74.0
Agility (PA) 12 2 10 4 1 29
Perception (PP) 11 4 10 4 1 30
Mental Strength (MS) 8 2 2 12 57.0
Agility (MA) 12 2 1 4 1 20
Perception (MP) 10 1 10 4 25
Spiritual Strength (SS) 9 0 6 3 4 22 69.0
Agility (SA) 10 0 5 3 4 22
Perception (SP) 10 4 5 2 4 25
Totals 91 16 50 20 20 3 200
Free Points 0 0 0 1
Resistances: Cold +2 Skills: Novice: Rampage 4, Parry 4, Knockout Strike 4, Trapping 1, Sewing 4 Disarm Spiritual Traps 2, Detect Spiritual Traps 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Confuse Status 4, Shadow Manipulation 3, Spatial Awareness 1 Apprentice: Intimidating Aura 6, Distract 8, Appraise 6, Bargain 7, Identify 8, Cooking 5, Animal Care 5, Lock Pick 7, Detect Traps 6, Detect Spiritual 6, Disarm Traps 5, Unarmed Combat 6, Swords 5, Small Blades 5, Blunt Weapons 5 Shadows Embrace 8, Engulfing Shadows 9, Journeyman: Stealth 13, Dark Sight 11, Riding 10 Affinity: Shadow 30. Heavy Hitter: Wiremu 30. Heavy Hitter: Wiremu I led Rocky back from the clearing where I skinned thirteen wolves. I was pretty impressed as I knew her weapons skills were only in the Novice levels. I bet they weren''t now. Rocky was loaded down with pelts I would have to get to drying. Everybody would need to stay away from that clearing for a while. The scavengers were gathering as I left. When I got to the camp Tabitha was wildly excited. A new Class and an advanced Skill. That fight must have been more desperate than I thought. The new Skill sounded amazing. She was going on about how it would eventually make Dark Sight obsolete. I was pretty sure it wouldn''t as it sounded very much like a close range skill, maybe medium range at masters level. I didn¡¯t say anything. I might be wrong. We celebrated with wolf steaks for dinner. Tabitha¡¯s experience confirmed to me that the way to open new skills was to use your existing Skills in as many different ways as possible. I knew from the way Granite Spike levelled so fast that that also sped the levelling of the skills. It seemed by contrast to get better classes you needed to train under someone. When my Bow skill got to Journeyman level I could figure out that for me to get LongBow I would have to stretch the distance I could fire an arrow. I really wanted Triple shot, and I had no clue how to get that. Unsurprisingly, Tabitha decided not to go out hunting that night. She pretty much crashed asleep. I knew she was itching to go out riding but would have to give Dusk at least a couple of days rest. To be quite frank she needed the rest too. My trousers were a work in progress. I was using the cotton ones as a pattern, but the hide does not bend or stretch the same. Or stretch at all. It was taking a lot of adjusting so I could still move the same. I was using the deer hide as it was the thinnest I had. Once I had the deer working I would try to replicate them in elk for a tougher pair. Hide was not the best material and not going to last, but I had no way to make leather until I could reach a town with a tanner. Having just seen the damage to Tabitha¡¯s legs I was thinking that a second layer on the thighs and shins was a good idea. The shoulder and upper arm pads were done. Pip now had a warm place on my shoulder to be. I was really glad I figured out Cold Resistance and could share it. He was really suffering and we would have to go higher and colder to get out of here. I had really doubted he would survive. Now I have a mission to get Cold Resistance as high as possible. The next morning Tabitha and I went for our dip and then sparred, but not full out because of her injuries. She was more perceptive and I couldn''t hide anything from her. She was now also noticeably faster than me, which was the additional points to Physical Agility from Shadow Predator and Rider. I sat down to try and get a pair of trousers I could wear. Tabitha took Rocky and Dusk out for a walk so they could graze. She is definitely horse mad. This afternoon, I glanced at the gathering clouds, maybe tomorrow, I would start scouting further up the valley. These trousers were frustrating me. I would make some changes then put them on and go through some exercises to see where they pulled or restricted my movement, then take them off and make more changes. This is the reason I made the sheep skin into a vest so I didn¡¯t need to deal with arm movements. The shoulder pads worked well and I was going to make some new bracers too, but they were easy. I was certainly going to have the authentic ¡®mountain man¡¯ look. Tabitha came back with the horses around lunch time, looking relaxed. I was trying on my latest version of trousers and they seemed Ok so far. In fact they were pretty good. Jumps, rolls, splits, climbing. Yeah they were good. I jumped down from the tree I was climbing and noticed a new skill. Hide Armourer 1. Sewing had also levelled. I took them off again to use as a pattern on the elk hide and to add the second layer for the armour and I could see where I could improve them some more. Must be the Skill in play helping me. The next pair also went faster now that I knew what I was doing and with the Skill helping. I might see if Tabitha wants a pair. The elk will be better protection than the light leather trousers she is currently repairing. ¡°Hey Tabitha, I have got these trousers sorted and the Hide Armourer Skill now. There is enough elk for me to make you a pair as well as mine. Interested?¡± I asked. She looked at me and the elk hide. ¡°Yes,'''' she said, ''''but I would be more interested in a wolf hide pair.¡± I looked at the wolf hides, ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do that yet, as I would have to join several hides together and the fur is much longer. After I have done the trousers I was planning to use some of the wolf hides to improve our cloaks, including adding a hood. The weather is getting worse and we will be going higher so I think it will be needed. After that I could look into it.¡± I replied. She nodded. Then she surprised me. ¡°So tell me about bonding with an animal.¡± she said, ¡°Or is it only something hunters can do?¡± ¡°No. More people can bond with animals if they have the attributes and training. It was part of what my master trained me in during the hunter training. I always wanted a wolf like he had, but it turns out Pip is better for me. What were you thinking?¡± ¡°I am thinking that I am never going to be a strong fighter. A bond with a night hunter, with an additional ability like poison would work well for me.¡± she said. She had obviously been thinking it through. My animal Bond skill was in the Journeyman level, so technically I could train her. ¡°Mental Strength and Mental Agility are the two key attributes. The minimum is 10 in each, but practically you need more, especially if you are looking to bond a more willful or aggressive animal. If I remember correctly I was about 14 or 15 in each when I bonded with Pip.¡± Her face fell. ¡°Mental Strength is my weakest attribute,¡± she said. ¡°It is only at 12.¡± ¡°That is not far off, but you should probably work on increasing it. The more the better. I can show you the exercises my master showed me, and if the opportunity arises you will at least have a chance at a bond.¡± I said. She perked up at that and we spent the next hour going through some mental exercises. She went off to practise even though I had dampened her enthusiasm quite a bit. I had some trousers to make and then a stream to fish. The rain hit early evening, but we were Ok in our semi cave with the hides up giving some protection. We had moved the horses closer as well. The next morning was showery. I stripped to my briefs and ran to the stream for a quick dip and back, but Tabitha wouldn''t join me. I did hint it was good for Mental Strength as well as Cold resistance. She just threw a boot at me and rolled over in that bear skin. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I spent the morning working on our cloaks. Hide Armourer was now level 4 and Sewing moved to Apprentice level with joining different wolf hides together. I kept a split in the back so we could ride with them easier. When I lined the inside of the shoulders and hood with sheepskin, Hide Armourer also went up to Apprentice Level. Pushing the skills is the key to levelling. Our footwear was worrying me. I created a wolf hide cover which tied at the knee and went over the boot and tied it there. That was the best I could do for now. All that took all day and I never got to go fishing. Clothing wise I think we are sorted. I am going to need to try and make some arrows soon, the trouble is Tabitha stole the leather and weapon maintenance kits from the guard storehouse, but nothing for woodworking. We had a hand axe, a machete and my knife. That wasn¡¯t going to make usable arrows. I could make stone arrowheads with my Granite Spikes, but we needed the arrow shafts and the fletching. The next day it dawned fine but there was a cold wind blowing down from the mountain. After our morning routine I decided it was time to scout up the valley. Both Tabitha and Dusk were healing fine and we would need to move on in a couple more days. I saddled Rocky to take him and Pip came too. Our Cold Resistance was at 5% and I think he was becoming more active. Plus the fact he could curl up on my shoulder on my sheepskin vest, under my goat skin pauldrons all covered with a sheepskin lined Wolf pelt coat. I think he was levelling his crushing resistance under all that. We worked our way up the valley, keeping up one side, so I could use Far Sight to watch the valley. There was nothing of Interest until I went to turn across the valley and work my way back down the other side. Just a little further up I spied a family of Brown bears. Mum, Dad and two half grown cubs. This told me two things. Firstly this is what passed for summer here and we really needed to be out of the mountains before autumn. Secondly, we had no way to fight a large creature like a bear, and they were not the largest around. Branik had me train in Small Blades and I chose the bow, because I was the scout as part of a larger team. Branik, Kopje and Sme?ka were the heavy hitters to take down the large threats. Now it was just Tabitha and I. If we couldn¡¯t run, what could we do? I sat on the side of the hill watching the bears through Far Sight mulling things over. Our biggest weapon was a sword wielded by our weakest member. I was the one with the massive strength. With Physical Strength at 42 it was twice as high as my average and my next highest attribute was Physical Agility at 26. I wasn¡¯t utilising that asset, especially when you added in Granite Bones. I was our team''s heavy hitter. What could I hit with? I mulled this over all the way back to camp. I would need to change my training and practice with a heavy weapon. But we didn¡¯t have a heavy weapon, unless I could make one. In my status I had a skill that had never levelled since I got it and I got it before the slavers even attacked our village. Spear 1. Could I make a spear? Well, I was looking for a challenge for Granite Spike. I grabbed the hand axe and went down to the stream. I could fish while resting between attempts. I found a large flat rock and first attempted to make a thin rod as tall as possible. On the fifth attempt I had one that was about a metre and a half tall. Time for some tests, after I pull in that fish. I took the hand axe and hit the base of the rod with the back of the axe, using it like a hammer. The end crumbled a bit, but came loose from the river rock. It seemed solid. It wasn¡¯t going to break under its own weight. It was heavy compared to wood, but I had all that strength. How easy would it break? So it wasn¡¯t very strong if it took a hit from the side. It was strong to take end hits, but would break easily from the side. If I lay one between two rocks and stood on it it broke. Could I strengthen it somehow? There were a lot of tall trees around. Could I make a wooden pole and stone head? That seemed more reasonable. I cut several straight branches and smaller trees. Trimming them with the hand axe and removing the bark. They seemed all too soft and flexible. I think it was the wrong sort of tree, but I didn¡¯t get Plant Lore. There were some different species of trees dotted around the valley, but before I went and tried them I wanted to experiment combining wood in the Granite Spike. Would that strengthen it enough? I think it was about try number 20 when I got Granite Spike to encase a thin stick of wood about a metre long. That got Granite Spike to journeyman level, which was half the point of this. I tested this new creation by lying it on two rocks and slowly adding my weight. It took my weight, which the pure granite didn¡¯t. A small flex up and down and it broke. It was better, but still too weak for a spear. After a rest I tried using Granite Spike without it being attached to a surface. Fishing hook? Yes. A small stone knife? Yes. I tried a more stiletto design for stabbing. It went a fair way into the tree. Single use obviously as the blade broke, but could be useful. Think eyes and ears as places to stab. I tried throwing the knife. After the fifth attempt one finally stuck in the tree. If it didn¡¯t hit at just the right angle it would bounce. I tried creating darts to throw. That was more successful. I would experiment more later but it seemed small items were no problem and granite was quite the sharp edge. Now for a tree hunt. I did find a tree that I thought would work for a spear, but dusk was falling, so I cut some low hanging branches to take back to camp to test and I would come back tomorrow for spear sized pieces if it worked. I didn¡¯t get to experiment that night. I left the branches in the cave and went to check on Rocky and take a dump and a quick wash before settling in for the night. When I got back Tabitha had used the branches on the fire. I mentioned why I had set them aside. She looked at me and muttered something about communicating properly. I guess I had the night off instead. Over dinner I explained my thinking about the spear and she could see my logic. She thought we would be able to get away from almost anything with her shadows and aura, but there is no harm in having another weapon at our disposal, especially as the arrow bundle was getting smaller. The next morning I got five solid good straight poles from the tree. I cleaned them up but didn¡¯t sharpen them. Instead I made a cross shaped groove in the end and practised making stone spear points. Then, in the first time in almost four years, I went through the practice movements I had been taught. I remember struggling with the moves, even using a light spear, as my strength was too low at the time. Nothing wrong with my strength now. It was my muscle memory and coordination I had to work on. Don¡¯t forget the foot work. After an hour and a half of spear practice I went on to throwing weapons. I particularly wanted to practise with my off hand as my main hand would usually have my main weapon. The darts seemed to work better. I got out the practice trap I had for the bow and used that to practise against moving targets. I would try to get two darts in the target, one from each hand. My off hand will need a lot of practice. I practised my Small Blades with the stone knives. They had a different weight and feel. I set up some of the scrap hides to practice against. If I serrated the edge of the knife it ripped through the hides leaving jagged cuts. That is probably better against opponents with high regeneration as it will take longer to heal than a smooth cut. I had no skill levels that day but I was very happy with my progress. That night I made a hide belt to hold some pre-made throwing darts as making them required concentration and I wouldn''t have time in a fight. I am assuming it would come easier to me as I practised and levelled. We decided to spend two more days here and move on, on the third day as it was imperative to be out of the mountains before the autumn. The next day I repeated my training in the morning and then went hunting with my new weapons in the afternoon. It felt weird going out without my bow. I discovered trying to stealth with a big spear was nearly impossible. I actually parked my spear and went hunting small game then came back for it. The throwing darts were successful against the smaller game, but my aim was still abysmal. I tracked and cornered a wild boar and fought it with the spear. Spears were very awkward and required space. I managed the kill, but it was messy. Spear levelled, but It was going to need a lot of work to get comfortable with it. The pork was nice that night and there were still some useable bits of the hide. After drying the hide I cut it into strips as I would need to make some straps to carry the spears, both for me and Rocky. Most of the next day was spent in preparation for leaving the following day. I used the leftover hide to make some saddlebags for Dusk and a second set for Rocky. I spent some time in practice and got in a bit of fishing. Fishing went to the apprentice level so that was nice. 31. Koza and Velikan: Wiremu 31. Koza and Velikan: Wiremu It took three days to get to the head of the valley and another three to find our way up over the ridge to the next valley. Two nights camping on the bare rocks with no shelter in the biting wind. I was trying to keep heading east as best I could. Basically away from the empire. We were also heading north which I didn''t want as it would get colder, but I had to carefully find our way. At least we didn¡¯t have to back track this time. We worked our way down to a valley that was heading roughly north east. Two days later we were following a stream down hill still heading roughly North East. I hoped we had crossed the spine and were heading down into Kirghiz. I was looking for a place where we could camp to rest for two or three days, before continuing. I was riding with Tabitha and spoke quietly to her. ¡°Don¡¯t react, but we are being watched by an Orc. Looks like a hunter, let''s wait to see if he makes contact.¡± We both had our cloaks on and hoods up against the wind, so I doubt he could tell much about us, apart from the obvious like my spears and bow. The Orc watched us for about an hour before disappearing. The rest of the afternoon we were tense and on alert. I found a place by the stream to camp for the night. We both kept our weapons close. We didn¡¯t really have anything of value to steal, except maybe the horses, but usually a bandit would only find that out after they had killed us. At least we were in someone''s hunting grounds and hence a village may only be two or three days away. How friendly they were remained to be seen. The fact that they were an Orc hopefully indicated we were finally rid of the empire. The night passed without disturbance. We got moving after the morning routine. As far as I could tell we were not being observed. Cold resistance had hit 10, but the levelling was definitely slowing down. I am sure Tabitha was several points behind as she was not nearly as disciplined in levelling it. The valley had widened out, but the obvious route was near the stream. I wasn¡¯t very surprised to come out into a clearing to find four armed and armoured dwarves waiting for us. I pulled Rocky to a halt at the edge of the clearing and lowered my hood. Tabitha followed my example. Hearing Aid picked up the Orc in the trees to the left. He was quite a good hunter as he was down wind and so Bond Senses didn''t pick him up, but there was a creature in the trees to the right which We had never smelled before. There were other chemical smells from it, so it wasn¡¯t an animal, and Hearing Aid indicated the heartbeat was small. ¡°Hello,¡± I greeted them. One of the dwarfs stepped forward. ¡°A couple of soft humans,¡± he observed gruffly. ¡°What¡¯re ya doing here!¡± he demanded. ¡°We are just travelling through peacefully,¡± I replied. ¡°Do you have some claim to this land? Are you perhaps wanting a toll?¡± I asked in a casual tone. ¡°What!¡± he exclaimed and got very flustered. ¡°We ain¡¯t no bandits!¡± he shouted, obviously thrown off his script and outraged at the suggestion. Which was good. ¡°Well, that is good to know,¡± I said. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure what to think with four well equipped warriors, an Orc,¡± I nodded to the trees to the left, ¡°and another unknown,¡± nodding to the trees to the right. ¡±One can¡¯t be too careful.¡± Hearing Aid picked up a clink that sounded like glass in the trees from the unknown. The dwarf got back on track, ¡°We need to be careful as well. Even soft humans can cause trouble and often do!¡± he exclaimed. ¡°You are trouble.¡± he declared. ¡°You,¡± he pointed at Tabitha, ¡°are confusing your status, and you,¡± he pointed at me, ¡°are making your status tell me you are a level 9 Quarry Worker which is obviously a lie.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the funny thing.¡± I replied, still sounding casual, ¡°I am actually a level 9 Quarry Worker, or I was. I¡¯m obviously more than that now. So I guess we have a choice.¡± I continued. ¡°We can carry on our peaceful way and keep well away from your camp. The Orc tracked us yesterday, I am sure he can make sure we keep going. Or,¡± and I patted the four hares my traps had caught overnight and raised my hand with the two fish I caught this morning, ¡°we can share some grub and swap some stories. Your choice.¡± ¡°You got some guts, willingly coming into a camp of armoured dwarves,¡± he said, obviously stalling for time while he thought. ¡°Well, I know you are not Bandits.¡± I said with a grin. He spluttered again. I could see one dwarf behind him smiling, she was the only one without a beard so it was the only mouth I could see. ¡°Come on Erik,¡± a high pitched voice came from the bushes to the right. ¡°He¡¯s out played you and I want to talk to him, cause I am sick of you boring lot.¡± The creature that stepped out of the trees was short, probably coming to below my chest, and was very obviously a well endowed female. She was carrying a glass container in each hand. She Identified as an Engineer and Alchemist with a Specialisation in Explosives. ¡°What¡¯s the matter boy?¡± she asked. ¡°Have you never seen a Gnome before?¡± ¡°Actually, I have not had the pleasure.¡± I said. ¡°Oooh, I like you,¡± she cooed. ¡°Com¡¯on Erik, let''s go, I¡¯m hungry.¡± Erik gave a long suffering sigh, gave the Orc a sign, and waved us forward. ¡°Camp¡¯s this way,'''' he said. Everyone was still wary with hands near weapons as we made our way to their camp. The Orc didn¡¯t join us but followed from the trees, obviously watching in case we did something untoward. On the way I introduced myself as Wiremu Hunter, originally a Hunter, but forced to be a Quarry Worker. Tabitha introduced herself as a trainee Merchant and Rider and played up that she was a city girl out of her depth. I am not sure how much we were believed, but merchants did sometimes hide or confuse their statuses. All the Dwarves had the Miner class. Erik also had the Overseer Class and the Leadership Specialisation. Both Overseer and Leadership were strong in the Mental Stats and he probably had some skill tugging at him that we were not being totally straight up. My Truth Sensing was telling me that they were what they seemed or we would have been gone by now. Sn?frid was the gnome and I don¡¯t think she stopped talking. On the way back to camp she introduced the other dwarves. Lars and Ylwa both also had the Warrior Class. Ylwa was the female I saw smile. Borje was also a trainee engineer learning from Sn?frid. Apparently Koza was the Orc hunter and there was someone called Velikan helping him, but he was out hunting. There were three more dwarves at the camp, so that made seven dwarves, all with the Mining Class, two Orc Hunters and one Gnome Explosives Engineer. It seemed pretty obvious what they were doing out here. I wondered where the mine was, or were they still looking for a good place to mine? The three dwarves at the camp were also miners. Ashby was also a Herbalist and he was essentially the closest thing to their healer. Ulfhildr was the stoutest dwarf there. She was also a Blacksmith and hence their metal expert and gear maintenance person. Thyrrni was the thinnest Dwarf there and she was their Prospector. They were well set up in their classes. This expedition was well planned and equipped. In a clearing away from the camp was the sound of a lot of mules and there were piles of mining gear and alchemy supplies etc. Yes, they were well equipped. There was already a stew pot on the fire and Ashby quickly butchered the Hares and added it to the pot. Apparently he was also the main cook. Being a Herbalist wasn''t just about healing, but also bringing out the flavour of the meal. Koza didn¡¯t join us but remained in the forest watching. I could learn so much from these people. I really wanted to find a way to join them. I felt I didn''t have anything to offer them. Koza was a higher level Hunter. I looked at their Prospector enviously. I was a patched together mishmash and Tabitha, a city girl. Why would they even want us to hang around. We had nothing to offer. We shared stories of our travels from Kirsk, without going into details about why we left Kirsk in a hurry and why we were avoiding the imperial troops. When we said we were heading to Hrothgar they were shocked we were so far north. Apparently Jern was the nearest city and it was mainly Dwarvish and it was at least three weeks away from here. Then it was a windy mountainous road south to Hrothgar, usually taking about three weeks. If the weather was good. In exchange we got stories of their travels and the several mines they tried and gave up on. I got the impression their Prospector Thyrni hadn¡¯t been very popular. We also got some stories of Jern, mainly which taverns to try. I noticed we got no stories about why they were camped here and looked like they had been for a while. I wasn¡¯t sure how to build trust. We were strangers passing. Would coming clean about the inquisitor help? It might mean they really didn¡¯t want anything to do with us. Stolen novel; please report. The afternoon was advancing and people were pottering around the camp doing the things that needed doing. Sn?frid was telling us a story of how she got an explosive wrong when she was younger and collapsed a mine trapping the village head. Apparently by the time she was excavated out all the village ale had been drunk, and everybody was drunk and there was trouble. I was thinking about how I could convince Erik to let us stay the night, or longer. Then Koza came out of the forest and walked toward us. Next to him was the biggest Dire wolf I had ever seen. Ok I had never seen a Dire Wolf before, but this one was huge. I could have ridden him. His shoulders were not far below mine. This one was no stealth hunter, he definitely looked like he enjoyed chasing down his prey. As soon as he caught our scent his ears went flat, and the hair on the back of his neck went up and he bared his teeth and growled. Everybody stopped and looked, several automatically reaching for weapons and they were not looking at the Dire Wolf they were looking at what the Dire Wolf was growling at, us. Tabitha and I slowly rose to our feet, hands empty. There was no point in running anywhere. Koza put his hand on the wolf and together they moved toward us, the wolf continuing to growl. When they got to the edge of the camp Koza spoke in a deep rumble, ¡°Velikan says you have a dangerous animal on you. He doesn''t know the smell, but he doesn¡¯t like it.¡± Everybody looked at us and several weapons were drawn. Velikan was obviously Koza¡¯s bond animal. A Dire Wolf as a bond! I was in awe of Koza. I finally got to identify him and he wasn¡¯t just a much higher level Hunter than me he was also a high level Monster Hunter and a high level Bounty Hunter. Two specialisations and well levelled. I guess he and Velikan don¡¯t have to worry about stealth. They both looked like they enjoyed the chase. I chose my next words very carefully, being sure to maintain eye contact. ¡°Uo?lek¡± I greeted him in Orcish as one would greet their master. It was how I used to greet Kopje. He was surprised and I noted that Erik and Thyrrni also showed surprise. ¡°It is true that I also have a bond.¡± I was getting a strong impression through my bond link that Pip had a mutual dislike of Velikan. I reached my arm slowly to my shoulder and Pip moved out onto my arm, and then he did something I had never seen before. He hissed loudly and raised his upper body as if poised to strike. ¡°I would like to introduce you to Pip,¡± I said. I noticed Tabitha was poised for action as well. Hopefully, only I noticed the slight darkening around her, but I wouldn¡¯t count on it. I was interested that it was their prospector Thyrrni that stepped forward and spoke. ¡°Hello Pip.¡± She greeted him. ¡°Why do you hide a bond?¡± she asked. ¡°We are not savages. It smells of treachery.¡± ¡°It is not treachery, but survival.¡± I said. ¡°Ever since I bonded with Pip the only way we have stayed alive was by keeping him hidden.¡± I decided to tell my story, especially in relation to Pip, and see what happened. I didn¡¯t have many choices. Not even Tabitha had heard it all, although I am sure she pieced together a lot. ¡°I was a fifteen year old level 2 Hunter when my village was raided by Imperial slavers. My master and parents were all killed and I was captured. We were taken to the slave quarry about two weeks west of Yelets, I never bothered to learn the name of it. After 6 months and getting the Quarry Worker Class I was at a low point when I found and bonded with Pip. He was the only thing that kept me going, but we had to hide him as if any word got out he would be killed and I would have been forced to be a slave. We were there another two and a half years before we escaped. I was a level 9 Quarry Worker at that time. After some time on the run I came across a caravan fighting some imperials, and they were at a stalemate. I intervened, even though my skills were too low, but it was enough for the caravan to prevail. That was when I was hired as a scout by Branik of the Mothers Tusks, who was in charge of security. Branik, Kopje and Sme?ka were the three members of the Mothers Tusks and they took to training me and Pip. Pip was still kept hidden from the rest of the caravan as there was uncertainty about loyalty. ¡°When we got to Yelets we hired more mercenaries and that¡¯s when Tabitha and her brother joined us. I earned the opportunity to pick up a couple of skills from a trainer there and I got Animal Lore and Mineral Lore.¡± Erik huffed when he heard that. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you did to earn that, but whatever it was you got ripped off kid. Learning Lore from skill books aint worth goblin shit.¡± ¡°I had no master, no one to learn off. The Mothers Tusks could train me in fighting, but not hunting and not minerals. Mineral Lore tipped my Quarry Worker to Level 10 and I was able to pick up Prospecting.¡± All the dwarves were shocked at that, especially Erik and Thyrrni. ¡°No, no, no,¡± Erik said. ¡°You don¡¯t get Prospecting from Quarry Worker and Level 1 Mineral Lore. That just doesn''t happen. There is something else in play that you are not telling us.¡± I bet his Overseer and Leadership skills were ringing warning bells. If I am going to be open I guess I need to be all in. ¡°Indeed there is something else in play. Near the end of my time in the quarry I picked up a Granite Affinity.¡± There was a muttering amongst the Dwarves. Erik said, ¡°That is a useful affinity lad. Any sensing skills with it? You would have had to have had a specialised Sensing skill to trigger Prospecting.¡± I nodded, ¡°Granite Sense, but it has only just hit apprentice level.¡± He nodded. I continued, ¡°Everything I know about it is self taught or from level 1 Mineral Lore. I have huge gaps in my knowledge. That is the same in my Hunting since I was Level 2.¡± Pip had settled down on my arm and Velikan had also crouched down, though he was still on guard. At least his hair was not still standing up and he wasn¡¯t growling anymore. ¡°When we got to Kirsk we had to split from the Mothers Tusks and make a run for the border as I ran into an Imperial Inquisitor who wanted to detain me for my classes and affinity. Tabitha helped me get away and we have been lost since getting across the border.¡± I finished. ¡°That makes more sense, even though I feel you are leaving a lot out.¡± Erik turned to Tabitha. ¡°What about you, Lass. How does a novice Merchant and Rider help someone escape from an Imperial inquisitor?¡± Tabitha had also decided to lay her affinity out in the open. ¡°It is because I also have an affinity¡± she stated. ¡°A shadow Affinity.¡± The dwarves nodded in understanding. Koza had remained standing unmoving since we started. Sn?frid looked like she was bursting with questions, but determinedly keeping quiet for now. Erik said, ¡°I want to see your statuses. Thyrrni and I will be the only ones with the skills to see all your classes and affinities. The others will only see your top one or two classes.¡± Tabitha frowned, her top class was Thief and she had carefully avoided that so far. I also hadn¡¯t mentioned my Spy class. We also didn¡¯t really have a choice. Koza alone could take us both out without breaking a sweat, and we would only be a light afternoon snack for Velikan. I could tell when Erik and Thyrrni reached the Spy class as their looks suddenly focussed back on me. I said, ¡°Self taught, by hiding Pip and Stealth.¡± Whatever Skill Erik had seemed to satisfy him and he gave a small nod that satisfied Thyrrni. Identify would display Specialisations first then Classes in order of Level. So they would see my Status as Prospector, Quarry Worker, Hunter, Spy, then affinity. A novice level identify often wouldn''t pick up anything, but could, an Apprentice level would see the top one or two classes depending on the skill level and the level of Mental Perception as long as they weren''t being hidden. Journeyman Level would reveal more and the higher the Mental Perception the more penetration. Skills obviously multiply the ability in various ways and masking skills counter it. A master level will start seeing key Skills and some top attributes. Tabitha would display Shadow Predator, Thief, Merchant, Rider and then Shadow. Everybody would probably see the top two. She would be giving away everything to the whole group, whereas only Erik and Thyrrni would probably see my Spy. I could see her steeling herself for a reaction and lowered her Confuse Status. Erik was the first to comment, ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding about the Shadow affinity, that seems like a powerful class, though I have not heard of it before.¡± Tabatha obviously couldn¡¯t take the wait. ¡°What? No comment on me being a Thief?¡± Erik looked puzzled, ¡°Thief is a good Class. Useful too. Unless you were planning to use it on us? You look more intelligent than that. I haven¡¯t misjudged you have I?¡± he asked. ¡°No, no, of course not. I just get a lot of negative comments and accusations from humans, that''s all.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Oh, well, you will find dwarves are more intelligent than humans. Any Class can be devastating when misused. Thief is no different.¡± He said. ¡°I have a question.¡± rumbled Koza. He looked at me. ¡°Who taught you Orcish?¡± ¡°Mainly Kopje of the Mothers Tusks, although Branik and Sme?ka helped me practice it. I only had a chance to learn a few words and phrases.¡± I replied. He looked at me for a moment then seemed to come to a decision. ¡°You Ok. Pip OK. Girl Ok if you vouch for her.¡± He and Velikan then turned around and went back into the forest. I looked at Erik, ¡°What was that about?¡± I was puzzled. It was Thyrrni who answered. ¡°Orcs do not teach just anyone their language,¡± she said. ¡°You must have impressed the Mothers Tusks. I have heard of the Mothers Tusks, they are a strong mercenary outfit based in Hrothgar. Branik is one of the three top leaders and leads one of their divisions.¡± Erik spoke up, ¡°Now that the unpleasantness is out of the way, you are welcome to stay with us for a night before you move on.¡± ¡°Yay!¡± piped up a high voice. Sn?frid was literally jumping up and down in excitement. ¡°I have so many questions!¡± she declared. ¡°That is of course, if you want to,¡± said Erik looking at Sn?frid pointedly. She huffed. If I am digging I might as well dig all the way and see what we can find. ¡°What if we wanted to stay longer?¡± I asked. Erik thought for a moment. ¡°I can see how that would benefit you,¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t see how that would benefit us, or to be quite frank, the lass there.¡± he said looking at Tabitha. ¡°We can talk more about it in the morning if you want to make an offer,¡± he said. 32. Rock Brains: Tabitha 32. Rock Brains: Tabitha Fucking bloody troll shit soup. That was the most intense and scary conversation I have ever had and I was only watching, with my life hanging on the line. That was many times worse than dealing with Longstrider. At least with Longstrider I knew the rules. These weird foreigners! I gather we are only alive because Wiremu learned some Orcish phrases from Kopje. That makes as much sense as holding a conversation with a goblin, ie. none. Koza and Velikan just scare me silly. I am glad they went back into the forest. I find Sn?frid straight up annoying. I am glad she has latched onto Wiremu. It will be nice to be with others for a night. I know Wiremu wants to stay but I really want to get back to a town. I wander back to where we have put our packs, trying to get my thoughts in order. ¡°Come on lass, come and help me prepare the evening meal.¡± A dwarf with a braided red beard is speaking to me. Ashby I think his name was, the Herbalist / Cook. I nod and follow him over to the food prep area. He shows me what he is doing. Velikan brought back a wild boar. He had helped himself to one of the legs and the rest was for us. Koza had skinned it and Ashby was halfway through butchering it. He showed me the roots he had collected and wanted me to wash them and chop them for roasting in the embers. He chatters away about his day and that in the morning he would try to go out foraging for herbs and vegetables. He was quite proud when he showed me his herbs. Some dried herbs he had brought with him and then the selection of fresh and drying herbs he had foraged. Which would be best to be used for the pork and which would bolster their health. Some were better with the mountain goat meat. There were also mushrooms. He was planning mushroom sauce with the pork, but he pointed out the ones that were poisonous. When I asked why he had poisonous mushrooms and herbs, he said that with the right preparation some of them could be mixed together to minimise the poison effect and it would attack different diseases and ailments. What he didn¡¯t use on the trip he would sell in town to other herbalists and alchemists. It was quite a profitable side business for him. I asked why they were out here. He looked at me as if I was daft. ¡°We are looking for minerals, gems and metals to mine, of course,¡± he replied. ¡°How long have you been camped here and how long before you move on?¡± I asked. ¡°We''ve been here a three day lass. We will probably be here another four while Thyrrni finishes mapping the valley. If she doesn¡¯t find anywhere good for us to mine we will move on to the next valley.¡± was the reply. ¡°What are you looking for?¡± I asked. ¡°Mostly high value and low weight materials. We will take the silver and gold if we find it, but heavy materials are hard to transport. We are more interested in the gems and the specialised materials. This is a high risk prospecting adventure. The risk is we won¡¯t get more than enough to cover our costs, but we might also do very well. I know I will do well, even with my cut to the team.¡± He said, glancing at his herb collection. ¡°How is it going so far?¡± I enquired. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. He winked at me, ¡°Let''s just say we are about halfway through the time we allocated to the trip, which was six months, and nobody is grumpy. We haven¡¯t made enough to go back early, all rich, but nobody¡¯s grumpy.¡± ¡°So what happens if you find somewhere to mine?¡± I asked. ¡°If Thyrrni finds somewhere for us to dig and it is deep with no access we will let Sn?frid loose with her explosives. If there is a cave system then Sn?frid will be more selective and her and Borje will go in and check for stability. If it is inhabited then Koza and Velikan go in. Once the site is accessible then we will mine in shifts.¡± ¡°You mine at night as well?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°Of course,¡± he said. ¡°We ain''t out here on holiday. No one is ever allowed into a mine without Darksight. That and Cold Resistance at 10 are the minimum requirements. Up in these mountains I doubt Erik will let anyone in with less than 15 in Cold Resistance. Safety First!¡± he declared. ¡°You all have Darksight and Cold Resistance over 15?¡± I was checking. ¡°Lass, all dwarves have Darksight and we have been training our Cold Resistance since we were babes, usually while still in our mothers arms. The lowest of us are in our mid twenties, and that is probably Sn?frid who is not even a dwarf.¡± He laughed. Troll shit, that was going to put a wrinkle in Wiremu¡¯s plans. I wasn¡¯t all that sad about that though. I was a bit upset that my prized and bragged about Darksight was just standard for dwarves. I guess it made sense, but it drove home that I was well outside my home culture. My only secret now was my Advanced Skill, Spatial Awareness, and I guess they didn¡¯t know exactly what shadow skills I had. I got a level in Cooking for helping with the dinner. Cooking under someone who knows their herbs and spices definitely makes a difference. The conversation didn¡¯t go very late. When I bunked down by Wiremu I shared what I had learned and as expected he wasn''t pleased. He could see a prime opportunity to learn slipping from his grasp. To be honest, after I spent the afternoon helping Ashby, I was feeling more comfortable with the idea of spending longer with them. As long as Koza and Velikan kept their distance. The next morning I changed my mind, violently. They were all crazier than goblins, trolls, ALL OF THEM! They all had rocks for brains! They had a morning routine like Branik had established for us and it started with a dip in the stream, but they all did it together, NAKED! If you have ever heard that expression, ¡®hairy as a dwarf¡¯s ass,¡± that is no joke. Dwarves have hair everywhere! Even the women. For the women the hair is lighter and more spread out on their face and breasts, but otherwise they are just like the men. Sn?frid went in too and she didn¡¯t have hair anywhere but on her head. They don¡¯t care about nudity. Wiremu just stripped and joined them. He looked positively scrawny next to the stocky dwarves. They made fun of me as the ¡®soft human¡¯ till I very quickly stripped and dipped in, then got out and used my Shadows Embrace to run to my pack. That is another thing. They didn¡¯t just just dip, a quick wash and then get out. No they lounged and joked as if it was the warmest of bloody baths. They were complaining it wouldn¡¯t do much for their cold resistance and they were looking forward to the winter snow! They are all crazy! Koza and Velikan joined them and that was even scarier. Koza was covered in scars. Some were obvious claw marks. Some looked like he shouldn¡¯t have survived them. I thought with modern healing methods there wouldn¡¯t be much scarring. When I looked closer at Velikan he was the same. Wiremu was the next one out. He was white and shaking and had to be warmed by the fire. I looked at my Cold resistance and it was now at 8. I knew Wiremu¡¯s was two or three points higher than mine. I definitely needed to get back to civilization. I went to start the oats for the morning porridge, at least they wouldn¡¯t make fun of me if I was doing something at the fire. 33. Gem Sense: Wiremu 33. Gem Sense: Wiremu The morning dip raised my Cold Resistance to 12. It was getting harder to level. I don¡¯t know what Tabitha¡¯s problem was this morning. Maybe she has a hangup about nudity or something. It was more than her normal fuss over the dip in the stream anyway. The morning spar showed how out levelled we are, but I did learn a new hold and a throw. A lot of levelling of Unarmed Combat now was just practice and muscle memory. After breakfast Tabitha and I went for a walk with Erik and Thyrrni. Erik started the discussion in a typically dwarven blunt way. ¡°Ok, out with it lad.¡± he said. ¡°We can all see you want to stay and train with us, but what is in it for us?¡± Thyrrni spoke up before I could reply. ¡°Now Erik, let''s not be hasty. Let''s talk about classes and skills first. He probably doesn¡¯t know what we might find valuable.¡± She turned to me, ¡°So, when you got the Prospecting Specialisation, what skill did it come with?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t the specialisation always give the same skill?¡± I asked. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you have the same as me?¡± ¡°Not necessarily,¡± she said. ¡°I got the Earth Mapping Skill where I can make maps of the earth and the different rocks and ore deposits and mines. I made sure I had a well developed drawing skill when I got the class hoping for this Skill. I have a map of our travels so we can return to rich deposits, or we might sell parts of the map for a good price. With what we have found to date selling the maps to different deposits will pay for the whole trip. What we have mined is pure profit. We probably won¡¯t sell the key deposits, but will come back with the equipment to mine more ourselves. What about you?¡± she asked. ¡°I didn¡¯t know any of that.¡± I said. ¡°I really have been disadvantaged without a master. I got the skill, Sense Treasure.¡± Their eyebrows rose at that, which was good for me? I shrugged, ¡°I have a lot of sensing skills.¡± ¡°That sounds promising,¡± Thyrrni said. ¡°I am betting your Mineral Lore is too low for you to make use of it though. Look at that hillside and tell me what you see.¡± I looked at the other side of the valley and identified the Granite formation I saw. ¡°I thought so,¡± she said and then went on to explain what she saw. The Granite formation was just the start and what other minerals would likely be found around it. She saw where there had been old rock slides that now had trees growing on it and what that told her about the underlying rock, and it went on and on. Mineral Lore levelled just by listening to her. When she came to an end she looked at me and said, ¡°Your Mineral Lore just levelled, didn¡¯t it?¡± I nodded. ¡°Tell me about your Granite Sense,¡± she said. I described it to her, the range and detail in Granite and now it was at apprentice level the same for other rocks. She just nodded and then said we would need to run some tests before she could judge better. Then she looked at Tabitha. ¡°What about you, lass? I am guessing you come as a set and if Wiremu stayed, that you would also want to stay?¡± Tabitha reluctantly nodded. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be able to get to a town on my own,¡± She said. ¡°So tell me about your skills.¡± She said. I could see Tabitha hesitate in thought. ¡°My Shadow Predator came with the skill, Intimidating Aura. This was strong enough to halt a Field Troll.¡± They looked impressed at that. ¡°I have three other Shadow Skills all around Embracing, Projecting or Manipulating Shadows. I also have a short range sensing skill that can penetrate most things.¡± ¡°Penetrate how far?¡± asked Erik. ¡°It depends what I am trying to penetrate through, but approximately ten metres.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see much we need there,¡± Erik said bluntly. ¡°Where do you think you could add benefit to the team?¡± he asked. ¡°I was helping Ashby last night and I could do more of that so he can concentrate on his herbs more.¡± Tabitha replied. ¡°You want to be the camp cook?¡± Erik asked with doubt in his voice. ¡°Well, it is something I can do to pull my weight,¡± She replied. Thyrrni spoke up, ¡°I want to go and test Wiremu¡¯s sensing skills, we will grab some tools and be back tonight. Is that OK Erik?¡± He nodded. ¡°For today Tabitha, spend it helping Ashby, but talk to the others too. They each have their areas of responsibility and there might be something where you can be increasingly useful. Ashby does not need full time help.¡± We all headed back to camp, Thyrrni and I picked up some tools and headed to the Granite formation across the valley. As we went we talked about Granite and what gems were typically found in Granite. She had some examples with her and as she talked about them she handed it to me and had me use my Granite Sense and Treasure Sense on them. She was trying to get me to know them to try sensing them in the Granite formation. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Tourmaline was a dark gem whose light properties changed depending on where you look through it. I also changed when you passed small bursts of lightning through and were in demand with the tinkerers and a good one by the rare Lightning mage. Beryl was quite common. She had a piece of Emerald which is the green version of it, but it comes in yellow, pink, red and a clear version. It is often used in decorations, but can also hold simple enchantments. Topaz is a very hard gem, but can be quite fragile. The dust can be added to various metal alloys to add hardness and make enchanting easier. Zircon reacts to heat and is also used as additives to alloys, but has a focus for earth mages and may also be useful for me and my affinity. Finally, there is Apatite where the focus is on growth and nature enhancements and it is often used in alchemy. When we got to the formation she had me move around and try and sense what was there, just using Granite Sense. Then to indicate to her where I thought I might sense a gem. She would mark the location on her map.I had moved around at ground level and marked three possible gems, I wasn¡¯t sure what gems they were, but I did have a feel for the size. They were all small. She then had me focus on one of the gems I had felt on the way over and use treasure sense. It was Beryl that triggered one of the spots and so Thyrrni handed me a hammer and told me to go for it. It was about half a metre in at waist level. I used Granite sense to checks for cracks and the best places to hit and took a swing with a hammer for the first time since leaving the quarry. My Journeyman level Hammer was still on point and it didn¡¯t take many swings before I had to use a smaller tool. Shortly afterwards I was holding a small red Beryl. We went through the process twice more and I had small Topaz and Zircon. The Zircon was the largest being about half my thumb nail in size. I wasn¡¯t going to earn my fortune with these gems, but it was a start and showed the reliability of my skills. ¡°Good,¡± she said, ¡°Now let¡¯s try it on something that is not granite. We hiked up the valley for a couple of hours and approached a rock formation. This time she gave me no background or gems and just told me to try. Granite Sense didn¡¯t go as far. And I had to concentrate harder to sense the differences. There were four places quite close together so I tried using treasure sense to determine which was the most valuable. Then I started with the hammer. I found the most valuable, according to treasure sense, was a diamond. The other three were a gem called Pyrope. The Pyrope was a deep red and according to Thyrrni was in demand by Alchemists as it was inert to most chemicals. They liked to use it in their mixing tools and bowls. Thyrrni had one more test for me. We climbed up the side of the valley where there was an exposed rock face. When I looked down I saw the evidence of an old slip, which must have exposed this rock face and the dark, almost black, rock. She had me sense the exposed face. It was very different from the other two. Not as easy as the Granite, but not as hard as where the diamond had come from. It was different, it was like Granite Sense needed more Spiritual power to penetrate it. I couldn¡¯t sense any key points like Treasure Sense had pinpointed like the last two places. It was like the skill was saying the whole rock face was the treasure. When I described this to Thyrrni, this was in fact the case. This was something called Deep Iron Ore and was very valuable. It was normally buried deep underground, but the slip had obviously exposed it. She asked me to keep sensing to see if anything else was there. After a minute or so I felt movement in the rock. It was like a small worm about the size of my finger was moving through the rock. When I described it to Thyrrni she nodded as if it was expected. ¡°They are Rock Worm elementals,¡± she explained. ¡°They congregate around rock and metals with Spiritual affinities like this Deep Iron. They range in size from my little finger to the size of my arm.¡± ¡°Do you know why they like this type of metal?¡± I asked. ¡°No,'''' she replied. ¡°But when we come here to mine the vibrations in the rock will draw more of them and they will swarm. They inflict a Spiritual Attack that feels like being bruised or pierced by a rock, but it attacks your Spiritual Constitution, and Dwarfs are quite weak in that area. We would get maybe 20 minutes to half an hour of mining before we have to back off and wait for several hours for them to calm down. I took some samples back to Ulfhildr yesterday so she can check the quality and then she and Sn?frid would come and try to see how much is here.¡± ¡°I can tell you there is a lot here. It goes deeper than I can sense, and higher and lower as well.¡± ¡°Wow,¡± she said. ¡°I will tell Erik and we will probably stay and mine until everyone is exhausted from the Spiritual attacks and then move on.¡± ¡°How much would you get doing that?¡± I asked. ¡°Lets see, working in pairs, three shifts, probably 45-60 minutes each.¡± ¡°Wait up, I thought you said half an hours work?¡± I queried. ¡°Ah yes, but Sn?frid will have an alchemical solution we can put on the rocks to repel them for a while. Then standard practice is a four hour cool down to let them disperse before the next shift. So four and a half shifts in a 24 hour period. Three shifts each before we need a longer recovery period, standard practice is a weeks recovery. So two days mining and then Erik will probably have us move on and we will sell this location for top dollar. That will probably get us two mule loads worth of ore for ourselves. Everyone will be pleased with that.¡± ¡°Would it be beneficial if we could lengthen the time we could work?¡± I asked. ¡°Absolutely,¡± she replied. ¡°But how? Do you have a skill for that?¡± ¡°Not me,¡± I responded, ¡°Tabitha. She has a skill called Intimidating Aura, which we will have to test but may significantly extend the work time. We can also do four shifts, because I can swing a hammer, even though I don''t have the mining Class.¡± ¡°Oooh we have to test that!¡± she was getting visibly excited. ¡°We might be able to load all the mules. We can dump the cheaper stuff like the silver and gold ore. We have to get Tabitha out here and run some tests!¡± We then headed back, Thyrrni explained some more things as we went, but she was obviously distracted.. Granite Sense, Mineral Lore and Sense Treasure all went up once. Thyrrni thought I could be more helpful if I got my levels up in the three key skills that I levelled today. I was surprised that Prospecting didn¡¯t level, but apparently they aren¡¯t as easy to level as the early levels of the Basic classes. 34. Intimidation: Tabitha 34. Intimidation: Tabitha So Wiremu goes swanning off to learn how to use his skills, and I get to be the camp cook. I went to find Ashby, but apparently he was out foraging. I looked around and saw Ulfhildr sharpening a blade and had several tools she was going to inspect and maintain. She also had three lumps of rock set out in front of her she was looking at. I went over and greeted her. I got a grunt as a reply. If I remember correctly she is the team''s Blacksmith and metal expert. I looked at the lumps of rock. They were all about the same size, but my Spatial Awareness was having trouble penetrating them. Spatial Awareness was on all the time but seems to level very slowly, probably because I didn¡¯t consciously use it. I could, and I should use it to penetrate objects and statuses, but I generally didn¡¯t. I thought penetrating statuses was rude when amongst friends, and the bonuses wouldn¡¯t kick in until Journeyman level. Objects I should test it on and these pieces of ore were the first objects I noticed where my passive ability wasn¡¯t enough. I focussed my skill on them and one was not like the others. I pointed to the different one and asked Ulfhildr, ¡°Why is that one different?¡± She looked up at me sharply and asked, ¡°How do you know that?¡± ¡°I have a skill which helps me see into objects,¡± I said. ¡°I know nothing of rocks and metals though,¡± I quickly clarified in case she would assume I did. ¡°Those two,¡± she said and pointed, ¡°are Deep Iron Ore. They can be smelted to Deep Iron which is denser and more durable than normal iron without all the additives and has the advantage of holding certain enchantments better, mostly around durability and darkness. That one,¡± she pointed to the different one, ¡°is found in the same area, but has been changed by something. That change has altered its core make up and it is very rare. It is Darksteel Ore.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t steel made from iron?¡± I asked. ¡°Normal steel is, yes. But this,¡± and she picked up the ore, ¡°is something else entirely. Don¡¯t let the name fool you.¡± She looked at me again, ¡°what else can you sense with that ability?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really know as it is a new ability.¡± I responded. Her eyes lit up, ¡°Right, well let''s test it shall we? Come over here.¡± I followed her to the edge of the camp where there were bags of mined material. Some of the material my skill went through with no problem and some were like the ores. The fact that they were in bags didn¡¯t hinder me at all, but I didn''t tell her that. She pulled out a selection of ores from various bags and lined them up. ¡°What can you tell me about this one?¡± she asked, pointing to the first. It looked like a lump of rock with a gold vein running through it. My passive skill had no trouble with it but I focussed the skill anyway. There seemed to be quite a large percentage of gold in the rock. My Merchant class was making me aware that I should appraise anything valuable like gold, so I did. Using Appraise with the Spatial Awareness Skill gave me a whole new understanding of the value of the ore, which I would translate to mean the quality of the gold. I didn¡¯t have anything to compare it to, not having appraised a lot of gold. Yes I did. I looked at the sack she got it out from and compared the various ores there and this was one of the better ones. Wait up. That meant Appraise would work without me seeing the object as long as it was in my Spatial Awareness. That was huge. If I went back to the Merchant Class I would have a huge advantage in negotiations. The Thief Class as well in knowing the value of what was in a safe. Ulfhildr was starting to get impatient. I picked up the Ore and said, ¡°This is gold right?¡± She nodded. ¡°There is a lot of gold in this rock, and it is of good quality, from what I can tell.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± she said, ¡°I have tested some from the edge with my skills and it is quite pure. Knowing how much is in there is an advantage.¡± We moved on to the next rock. What I discovered was that with ¡®ordinary¡¯ material my passive skill had no problem seeing right through. Where there were Spiritual properties like the Deep Iron and Darksteel I needed to actively use my skill to penetrate it. Where there was a defined lump of the key material, like the gold seam, I could pick up how much was in the ore, but where it was mixed more thoroughly with the rock I couldn¡¯t. I am assuming that would come when I levelled the skill and practised. Ulfhildr was quite pleased with my ability. She said, ¡°That is a very handy skill for a Blacksmith to have. It is a shame you will never make a Blacksmith. Your strength is pathetic and you clearly have no aptitude for it. If you stick around, I might borrow that skill from time to time.¡± It was said in such a way that she would borrow it, rather than might. I just nodded acceptance. It was lunch time and Spatial Awareness had levelled and so had Appraise. That was a good morning''s work. Lunch was a, help yourself from the leftovers, which I gathered was normal. I didn¡¯t rush to the next task as I had some thinking to do. Erik was going to want to negotiate a contract with us and everything seemed to be in their favour. I was the Merchant with the level 7 Bargaining skill. What Ulfhildr didn¡¯t realise was that when she took me over to the ore my Spatial Awareness could sense everything that they had mined, including the gems hidden at the bottom of the ore. Appraisal had a general idea of the value of the goods. They were doing OK, but they weren''t doing as well as Ashby had indicated to me. We could add to that the value of the Maps Thyrrni could produce, which I didn¡¯t really know the value of, but maybe they were talking those up as well. What I was wondering was, how do I turn that to our advantage in the contract negotiations? Wiremu arrived back mid afternoon with Thyrrni. She immediately went to seek out Erik and Wiremu came to see me and told me what had happened. This changes things a lot. If my Intimidating Aura works on the rock worms everything is now significantly in our favour. I warned Wiremu that we would test this, but we are not doing any more until we have a contract in place and that he should let me negotiate it. Erik wanted to leave right away to test things. The cliff was about an hour and a bit walk from the camp. We decided to take the horses for a walk and Erik and Thyrrni brought a mule with some mining gear. Ulfhildr and Sn?frid weren''t going to be left behind. Sn?frid brought some alchemical supplies. Listening to her and Wiremu talk, apparently minerals have something to do with alchemy and the best way to defeat rock elementals was through different alchemy solutions. Personally, I didn¡¯t understand it but apparently Wiremu did. When we got to the cliff face I could feel it as a barrier against my Spatial Awareness. I tried to see how far I could push into it, but it was only about half of my normal reach, even when I pushed hard. I couldn¡¯t sense any of these worms. Wiremu said he couldn¡¯t either. His senses had grown and his reach was a lot further than mine in this rock. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. We left the horses and mule down the slope a bit. I had described to Wiremu the difference between Deep Iron and Darksteel. When I had tested my skills against the rock I was looking for any sign of Darksteel. I indicated to Wiremu where I thought his best chances were and he spent some time ¡®looking¡¯ for Rock Worms in that area. Another piece of the rare material will strengthen our position even more. Demonstrating we could direct the miners to Darksteel would explode our value to the team. Plus, I really wanted a piece for myself if possible as my shadows seemed to be attracted to it. We discussed a methodology with Erik and Wiremu would start mining, keeping his senses alert for Rock Worms. I would stand close also trying to detect the worms and when Wiremu directed me I would focus my Intimidating Aura and we would see what happened. I was seriously hoping my aura didn¡¯t send them into a frenzy instead of away. Wiremu was starting off to one side of the area and when Erik asked why he said his Treasure Sense was telling him something was there. Thyrrni and Ulfhildr both looked interested at that. Wiremu started with the hammer. It was too much effort for me to continuously push my senses into the wall so I went back to the passive which was only about a metre in until Wiremu sensed them. After about ten minutes Wiremu said he could sense two, one coming from above and one from deeper in the cliff. He kept mining and he said when he thought I might be able to sense them and I pushed with Spatial Awareness. I could sense one of them and it felt like something weird moving through the rock. It wasn¡¯t physical, or rather physically it was part of the rock, but it was more than that. I don''t really know how to describe it. I focussed my aura as best I could and triggered the skill as gently as I could. I had never tried to soften the skill before, it had always been blasted as strong as possible. It sort of worked. The elemental turned and went back out of my senses. Wiremu said it was still in his senses and had stopped fleeing, but also wasn¡¯t returning yet. I did the same for the other elemental, but a bit stronger. This one left Wiremus senses altogether. Wiremu had a pile of rock at his fee, but only a couple of pieces were worth collecting. My Spatial Awareness was good at differentiating between them. Normally this would be Ulfhildr¡¯s job. No Darksteel yet. Ten minutes later Wiremu said there were five incoming and one was larger, about the size of his forearm. I widened my focus to include as much of the wall as possible and gave a ¡®half¡¯ blast. Wiremu said all but the largest went out of his range. Erik, Sn?frid and Ulfhildr were pleased already, as they would normally be using up alchemical supplies by now. At the forty five minute mark there was a constant stream of elementals incoming. I was giving half strength blasts every 2 or 3 minutes. I could tell Wiremu had got to the Darksteel, but I was wearing out. I tried to switch from blasting to a level of constant presence, like I did the first night I had it. It was stopping them at a certain distance but I was wearing out fast now. Ulfhildr came and sorted through the mined rock picking out the good stuff with whatever skill she had. I warned Wiremu and he moved back and we exited the area before I totally ran out of energy. Then I stopped the skill and we both went into stealth. I didn¡¯t have the energy for Shadow¡¯s Embrace, but Wiremu triggered camouflage and we watched. It was like watching rock punch out of the wall, not leaving a mark, then entering the wall again, or sometimes the ground. They were all different sizes, one was as large as my arm. After about fifteen minutes the jumping stopped, but Wiremu said they were still there just in the wall. We went back down to Erik and the others by the horses. Erik was all smiles. Ulfhildr was sorting through the pieces of ore and had separated out the two pieces of Darksteel. ¡°Over an hour and you didn¡¯t take any hits at all!¡± Erik exclaimed excitedly. Apparently even with the alchemy the dwarves would be taking damage after about half an hour. ¡°We could get three miners in that space and basically keep going with one hour on and four hours off indefinitely,¡± he continued. ¡°I am exhausted,¡± I said. ¡°I couldn¡¯t do that indefinitely. But there is no time limit now as nobody is taking damage and no damage is accumulating.¡± ¡°True, true.¡± He said. ¡°Instead of nine shifts in two days we could cut it down to six, so three a day. If that is the take from one miner for one hour, each hour mining will be three times that. We have twenty mules, three for general supplies leaving seventeen. Basically a mule load full a day, maybe a bit more. We will be fully loaded in approximately two weeks. It will be close to three weeks back to Jern with a full load. This is great!¡± he said. It was time to bring the Dwarf back down to earth. ¡°That sounds good,¡± I said, ¡°but this is only possible with Wiremu¡¯s Senses and my Aura. We don¡¯t have any formal agreement at the moment, and you were reluctant to let us stay long. I am open to making an agreement, but technically we could just take the ore we have mined and be on our way.¡± ¡°What!¡± he said, ¡°no, no, no we definitely want to make an agreement.¡± he said hurriedly. ¡°We will do the same agreement as everybody else,¡± he offered. ¡°Equal shares after expenses,¡± he said. ¡°There are nine of us at the moment but Koza also takes a share for Velikan as we didn¡¯t need a second hunter with him here, and one share for the company, So currently eleven shares, you will make thirteen shares. Everybody will still make significantly more than our best case scenario.¡± ¡°I am not clear on what these expenses are?¡± I asked. ¡°Well there were the setup costs, like the equipment and mules, and there will be brokerage and blacksmithing fees when we get back.¡± he explained. ¡°We were not part of the setup, and everything we needed we brought with us. I don¡¯t think it is fair we are liable for the setup costs,¡± I said. ¡°But we are training Wiremu in his skills, that costs us in training fees.¡± he argued like a dwarf. ¡°The skills we are using for this are, and always were, adequate without further training. The training is definitely appreciated,¡± I said and turned to Thyrrni. ¡°Are you contracted to the team as a trainer?¡± I asked. She smiled a bit and shook her head, ¡°No.¡± ¡°We will be more than willing to enter into a five week apprenticeship agreement with Thyrrni as a separate agreement between us, so that Wiremu¡¯s training is not a burden on the team.¡± I said with a winning smile. ¡°We will also be keeping what we mined today.¡± I stated as if there was no argument against that. He was a bit grumpy now and I could see Ulfhildr was not very pleased. ¡°Ok Agreed,¡± he said reluctantly. ¡°Almost agreed,¡± I said. ¡°Don¡¯t forget there are three of us, not two. Wiremu couldn¡¯t do anything without Pip.¡± I gave him a sweet smile. I thought he might explode with how red he went. He sputtered a bit and said, ¡°Agreed,¡± before storming off, I assume before I could add anything else. ¡°That was entertaining,¡± Thyrrni said. ¡°Indeed,¡± Ulfhildr added. ¡°It is not often people can get Erik so worked up he splutters. Apparently, you did it the day you arrived, Wiremu, but I didn''t get to see that. I am glad I got to see this one.¡± I turned to Thyrrni, ¡°So we are interested in negotiating a 5-6 week apprenticeship deal with you. Can we trade you these Deep Iron ores for that?¡± I asked. ¡°Absolutely,¡± she said. ¡°That will be very generous. I will be sure to tell Erik how much you paid and see if I can make him splutter too.¡± I smiled at that. ¡°What are you going to do with the Darksteel ores?¡± Ulfhildr asked. I picked them up and handed one to Wiremu. ¡°With my one I want to explore how it works with my affinity,¡± I said. ¡°I will probably need a good blacksmith for that.¡± ¡°I will do you a good deal,¡± she said. ¡°What about yours Wiremu?¡± ¡°Mine is already taken, to pay off a debt,¡± he said, handing it back to me. ¡°My contract negotiator has done an excellent job and deserves every gram. But don¡¯t worry Ulfhildr, my senses picked up two more deposits within reach of our mining and one of them was bigger than where these came from.¡± 35. Mining: Wiremu 35. Mining: Wiremu We didn¡¯t start mining the next day, but spent it in preparation. We would keep the camp where it was as it was a good spot. We set up a staging area near the cliff, for some mules and supplies. Ulfhildr, Tabitha and I would basically be based there all day every day, only returning to the main camp for the evening meal, sleep and breakfast. Not forgetting the morning routine before breakfast. The first shift would start mining at 7am and mine till 8am. The next would arrive and mine 12pm to 1pm and the third shift 5pm till 6pm. We needed my senses on the job every mining hour, and I was thinking I could also pick up a hammer occasionally. It is quite a different thing when you are profiting from hammering rocks. I would be directing where the miners were to mine, aiming for the Darksteel. This was to be overseen by Sn?frid who will make sure we don¡¯t bring the cliff down on ourselves. She would also have some alchemical supplies on hand in case something happens to Tabitha. Ulfhidr was in her usual job of sorting and evaluating the ores, maintaining the mining equipment and packing the mules. Security was Koza and Velikan although I think Velikan just needed to mark his territory and we would be left alone. The heaviest workload was to be taken by Tabitha and her Aura. We were going to mine for six days then give her a full day''s rest. The first mining session was done by Erik, Lars and Ashby. The lunchtime miners were Borje, Thyrrni and Ylwa and then they would alternate. It was a pretty easy gig for the miners, as long as the Rock Worms were kept at bay. To mine flat out for an hour then have at least a 9 hour break before repeating. The first session went as well as our test. Tabitha kept trying different things with her aura to find the most effective method for the least energy. She was exhausted at the end of it. I stayed up by the rock face after the session. I wanted to see what the worms would do. After chasing off the miners with their frenzy they stayed near the rock face for an hour or so before starting to drift off. When the Lunch time minors arrived there was only one in my senses. The lunch session went OK as well, but it was a longer session for Tabitha as the worms were still closer so arrived faster. Thyrrni stayed with us after the session and she and I went over what she considered basic Mineral Lore that every level 1 Miner should know. Skill books are definitely no substitute for learning under a competent Master. There were two worms in my senses when the evening miners arrived and we had to cut it short when Tabitha collapsed. I was able to warn everyone and Ashby was the only one who didn¡¯t duck and vacate the area fast enough taking a hit. Erik told him to take the next day off. Ulfhildr would take his spot. Apparently Dwarves were slow to recover from Spiritual Damage. Tabitha swore she would be OK in the morning. The Skill was on the verge of levelling and once it levelled it would be easier. That was why she collapsed, she was pushing it to get it to the next level. When we came back the next morning there were no worms in my senses. They had gone up a level too, so I was sensing further. Tabitha¡¯s Aura levelled during the session and she was slightly less tired. I think that the main increase was in the strength of her aura. She was getting better at controlling the strength, focus and direction as well. Thyrrni stayed after the morning session as well and we continued our lessons. Today¡¯s was a mix of Mineral Lore and basic health and safety in a mine or quarry. Tabitha was made to listen to that as well. The day went well. Even with the level up Tabitha was barely hanging on to Dusk as we walked back to camp. After dinner I was surprised when I was approached by Koza. He had questions about the spears I had made. The spears had been stacked by our sleeping pads and been left unused. I handed him one and he looked at it carefully. Apparently it was made from Red Oak which was a good type of wood for a spear. He had me handle it and go through some motions. I still found it awkward and he said it was because I made it too long for me to hunt with. The shaft of the spear should only be shoulder height and the point only 20 centimetres on top. I realised I had sized my spear on what I had seen of Kopje and Sme?ka¡¯s spears and Orcs were a tall race. The spears were also thicker than needed, but that''s OK if I had the strength. He asked me about the stone heads I had on the spear and I showed him how I made them. He drew a shape on the ground and asked if I could make a spear head like that. I managed it on the fourth try. Apparently these were a good general purpose spear head. The spear we were practising on was the right size for him so I gifted it to him. ¡°Wiremu Hunter,¡± he rumbled, ¡°You resize your spears and make spear heads like this. In the morning I will show you some practice moves. If we are to hunt together on the return trip, your spear must at least be apprentice level.¡± ¡°Yes, Uo?lek¡± I replied. I was very excited. ¡°Uo?luk is the better word in this case,¡± he corrected me. I nodded in acceptance and he left me to it. I went straight to Ulfhidr as I knew she had some woodworking tools for the handles of the mining equipment. We shortened the spears and she showed me how to smooth the shaft, which made it a lot better. I then made the first spear head and she watched me. ¡°Wiremu, I am interested in your affinity. I knew a dwarf with a stone affinity, a Basalt, if I remember correctly. He was able to turn a piece of wood into stone. It wasn¡¯t a fast process but he had a wooden club where he had changed the centre of the club into stone and it made it stronger and heavier.¡± ¡°That sounds fascinating.¡± I said. I retrieved my offcuts from the firewood pile. ¡°I do believe I have many spare hours in which to experiment.¡± I observed. She just grinned, ¡°Let me know how it goes and you might ask Thyrrni about it as she knows more about stone than any of us.¡± I thanked her and left. The following morning Koza asked to see me practice with the spear. I went through the moves Kopje showed me back when we were sorting out which weapon I was to focus on. ¡°No.¡± Koza declared. ¡°Those are a warrior¡¯s moves, but mainly a warrior who is behind a shield wall. These are better for hunting.¡± He then showed me a much more mobile set of moves to practice. He walked me through it several times and told me to practice every day. Thyrrni wasn¡¯t coming to the cliff until the lunch mining session, so in the morning I reviewed my skills. I was disappointed that Bow had stalled at 9 after all the effort I had put into it. But I didn¡¯t have enough arrows to keep practising and the mining team didn¡¯t have any. Mineral Lore and Granite Sensing were the only skills increasing, although Spear would start. Cold resistance was now at 14 and Pip was going out hunting on his own again during the day. I tried to see if Identify would give me any clues on turning wood into stone but there was nothing. The lunch session went well and Tabitha and I were starting to settle into a routine. When Thyrrni came I asked her about turning wood into stone. ¡°The natural process is called Petrification,¡± she said. ¡°It is where any organic material is turned into stone by filling the original pore spaces with minerals which then changes the organic into stone. It happens slowly over many hundreds of years. I haven¡¯t heard of a skill that can do that, but it does make sense for those with stone affinities. I imagine it would be an advanced skill and take a lot of Spiritual Strength to force the process.¡± She went on to talk about the variations to Petrification, depending on the different minerals. Because Granite has a high silica content it actually hinders Petrification without a lot of water being present. With this knowledge my Identify did sense a Petrification skill, but my Spiritual Agility is a little too low and my Spiritual Strength is a lot too low. If I want the skill I know where I have to focus my attributes. After this session I discovered Mineral Lore was finally in the Apprentice levels. On the fifth day of mining we uncovered the first Darksteel deposit. This triggered my Sense Treasure Skill to go to the Apprentice Levels and my Prospecting Class to level. Sense Treasure gave me a point in Spiritual Perception when it broke through to Apprentice. With the apprentice level of Sense Treasure I could get a better feel for the Treasure I was sensing, and I could focus more on a type of treasure to try to find it. I tested this out at the diamond rock area and found another diamond, and several Pyropes. Pyropes were the more in demand by the alchemists and therefore were easier to sell. Diamonds were hard to work with and therefore less people were in the market for them. The seventh day rolled around and Tabitha wanted to go for a long ride on Dusk. I decided that Rocky could do with a run as well and joined her for a while. Dusk was always faster than Rocky and with her bonus with her Rider Class there was no hope of me keeping up. She was in a very restless mood so I pitied any stray wolf packs that might cross her path. Rocky, Pip and I found our own way. I had bought my bow and a spear as I was looking to hunt, or better yet, a nice quiet spot to fish. I found a nice spot to fish. Rocky grazed, Pip went exploring and I fished. It was a very pleasant way to spend a day off. We got back and I helped Ashby prepare the fish for dinner. Cooking with him gained me a level in cooking. Herbs are definitely the way to go. Tabitha rode in just before dinner. On the back of Dusk was this long necked woolly sheep / deer thing. Apparently it was called a Llama. It had amazing soft wool and she wanted me to make her a vest from it. I skinned it and set it drying and Ashby helped me butcher the carcass for tomorrow''s meal. Even Butchering with Ashby and him explaining the cuts and methods pushed that into Apprentice level too. Ashby was a Skill gold mine. Or Darksteel mine. We started our second week of mining. I took all my hide and sewing gear, some of which I borrowed from Thyrrni. I got Tabitha¡¯s vest done and started on a tricky project for us both. Gloves. I was going to make us each a fingerless pair and then some mittens to fit over top for when we don¡¯t need to use our fingers. This was very fiddly. I look back at some of my early work, like my wool vest, and shudder at the fit and the stitching. There should be enough left in the Llama to make a new shirt for me, I hope. Yes I said shirt not vest. It was lunchtime on the third day when I gave the emergency signal and everybody dropped everything and backed off. There was something big moving through the rocks. It was like the worms but much bigger and more powerful. The biggest worm we had had so far was as long as my arm. This was as long as I was tall and gave a much more powerful vibe. The worms scattered in its presence as well. Sn?frid came up beside me with a big jar of what she called her ¡®Killer Alchemy.¡¯ This wasn¡¯t the repel stuff, this was the kill everything stuff. I saw she also had a bag of explosive powder as well. When I described what I sensed to her she suggested it might be a Rock Serpent. They feast on worms but they can also manifest into a rock snake form and are one of the monsters in the rock elemental family. This one sounded like a small one. She was keen to try and kill it, but Erik overruled her and we cancelled further mining for the day and would hope it was gone in the morning. We consulted our resident monster expert that night and Koza said it could hang around for weeks. It was probably attracted to the Darksteel ore, or that was the prevailing theory. If we wanted to mine in the next month we would need to kill it or drive it off. He asked me what my trapping was like and then said the best way would be to set a trap with Darksteel ore as bait and Sn?frid¡¯s explosives be triggered to damage it. When the explosives damage the outer skin we get the killer alchemy into the wounds. Heavy blunt weapons only. It is young, so we should be able to kill it and the real prize is the monster core. It is young so the core will be small. I asked about the monster core and Rock Cores are often used to empower a city''s wall enchantments when the city is attacked, making the walls nearly impenetrable. A small core like this might be used to empower a rich person mansion or by enchanters for many other purposes. A person with the right affinity could use the core to empower themselves and their affinity skills. If I wanted to do that I would have to buy it from the team. I was the only one there with a rock affinity. When I asked how much Erik said it would probably double the profit from all the Deep Iron ore. I am pretty sure he was inflating it to get back at me, but it was clearly out of my price range. Apparently rich people can use cores to get an affinity. There was no guarantee it would succeed and the core might be wasted, but apparently the old Emperor had been buying cores at one point and the rumour was he was trying to get an affinity for his heir. No one knows if he succeeded. His heir succeeded him in suspicious circumstances so no one is saying. Tabitha came to me that night and asked, ¡°Did we leave a monster core from the field troll lying in the grasslands?¡± ¡°Maybe?¡± I replied. ¡°I did see Sme?ka spend some time with the Troll. If they did collect the core, and I can¡¯t see Branik missing a trick like that, then that would help explain why she wasn¡¯t very mad at me. Regardless of the reputation loss they would make a big profit.¡± She looked grumpy at that. I guess she played a big part in bringing it down so she wanted a part of the profit. I can see her making an effort to look Branik up in the future. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. The next morning Koza, Sn?frid, and I went up to the cliff mining site. Everybody else was below in the staging area. It is not often you get to witness a monster fight. I confirmed it was still there and laid out a trap and baited it with a piece of Darksteel ore, Sn?frid placed her powder explosive and handed us jars of her killer concoction. Koza and I both had heavy rock mining hammers. There was only room for Koza, myself and the rock serpent in the mining area so we could move around and swing the hammers. The others were hoping we would lead or drive it to them so they could lay into it as well, but that was very doubtful. I then started mining. As I sensed the Serpent moving toward me I moved away from the face of the wall and moved so the trap was between us. Watching it emerge from the wall was fascinating. It formed into a snake form, with a multitude of rock scales and gems. If we can keep our damage to a minimum this thing is worth a fortune. I can see the attraction of Monster Hunting. It moved over the trap seeming to absorb the Darksteel ore and then the trap triggered and Sn?frid¡¯s explosions ripped into it. Koza and I were right behind throwing jars of liquid into the ripped areas and then creating more gaps with our hammers for more jars. It trashed about in obvious distress and then lay still. Koza spoke, ¡°OK it is dead. I got the monster kill.¡± It was a frantic few minutes, but a bit anticlimactic over all. I guess that is the power of a good trap and the right weapons, which in this case was Sn?frid¡¯s alchemy. I checked my status. I didn¡¯t get the kill so Koza must have finished it. He was pleased as it levelled his Monster Hunter specialisation. My trapping was finally at Journeyman level getting me a point in Physical Agility and Mental Agility. Hammer and my Quarry Worker class went up. Koza got the core and then we moved out of the way and let Erik and team dismantle the serpent. This trip had moved from wildly profitable to ¡®beyond their dreams¡¯ profitable. Everything in the Serpent was Spiritually saturated or enhanced. One scale I saw was platinum and it had Spiritual properties. Crafters would go crazy bidding on this stuff. They moved very quickly dismantling the serpent for materials because if the Serpent had scared away or eaten the worms we probably had several hours of undisturbed mining available to us. As soon as there was space they started in on the ore going for the Darksteel ore. It was Ulfhidr¡¯s clan that had fronted the costs for the expedition and was taking a tenth share. They also had the first option on buying any materials. They would want all this, but it would bankrupt them to buy it. There would be an auction and it would attract bidders from kingdoms away and bidders for those kingdoms. The serpent loaded two full mules and we had three hours mining before I sensed the first worm. We got the Darksteel before we had to stop. That bumped Sense Treasure up again, but not Prospecting. We all went back to camp to celebrate and sort out the spoils. After dinner Erik called a meeting. We actually had a full load now. If we were to keep mining we would be discarding some of the lesser value items, starting with the silver ore. The general feeling was they wanted to get back to civilization and get paid. Erik warned that there would be some payment when we returned, but most of it would have to wait for the auction which would be several months away. The feeling was to head back so tomorrow was a pack up day and the next morning we would hit the trail. That night I finished my gloves and got a level in Hide Armourer and Sewing. Tabitha¡¯s gloves can wait until my new shirt is done. The morning training got my spear to 4, so we will see if Koza thinks that is high enough. I checked my Status.
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros Total
Type Attribute Level 6 11 6 2 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 10 2 22 1 44 97.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 6 4 27
Perception (PP) 11 0 12 1 2 26
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 2 23 63.0
Agility (MA) 12 2 2 6 22
Perception (MP) 11 1 6 18
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 1 11 2 24 63.0
Agility (SA) 8 1 4 6 1 20
Perception (SP) 10 1 6 2 19
Totals 92 33 28 33 30 7 223
Free Points 2 0 0 1
Resistances: Pain +9, Crushing +17, Poison +4, Cold +16 Skills Novice: Cooking 4, Animal Care 4, Spear 4, Bond Senses 4 Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Truth Sensing 2, Manipulate Status 4, Sense Spiritual 3, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Detect Traps 4, Animal Lore 3, Spiritual Trapping 3, Apprentice: Small Blades 7, Bow 9, Unarmed Combat 6, Throw Weapons 6, Tracking 8, Skinning 7, Fishing 5, Riding 7, Sewing 7, Butchering 5 Deceive 9, Far Sight 7, Camouflage 6, Granite Bones 7, Granite Sense 7, Sense Treasure 6, Hide Armourer 7, Mineral Lore 5, Journeyman: Hearing Aid 11, Hammer 13, Identify 10, Animal Bond 10, Granite Spike 10, Trapping 10 Master: Stealth 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Resistances: Crushing +17 Cold +16 Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones, 36. The Trail to Jern: Wiremu 36. The Trail to Jern: Wiremu I was heading back to civilization. Time to try and level Status Manipulation as I might need it. I enabled the skill and tried to set it to completely hide my Spy class. I am going to ask Erik to try and penetrate it as he is the most likely person with the skills in this group. On the trail we kept to a routine. There were twenty laden mules. Normally each dwarf would be responsible for two or three mules each. With Tabitha and myself it was two mules each and the dwarves would walk beside their charges so they were spread out along the line in case of incidents. Each person was also responsible for loading and unloading them and their care. Sn?frid had her own dedicated mule which nobody else touched. Koza and Velikan were scouting and hunting and scaring off anything looking for a mule dinner. We stopped for the night in the late afternoon and cared for the mules and Rocky. Tabitha went to help Ashby with the dinner. It was getting dark when Koza appeared. ¡°Spear to low,¡± He rumbled. ¡°Bring and we hunt.¡± I grabbed my spear and reached for my bow and he stopped me. ¡°Not that type of hunt. Bring two spears.¡± He said. They had obviously found signs of a particular type of animal. I followed with my senses on full alert. Visual tracking was doing no good in the dark so I was relying on Pip and my Bond Senses and Hearing Aid. It was Pip that picked up the bear scent. Then we scented Velikan. We found the cave the bear was in and Koza stopped me. ¡°Velikan will bring it out,¡± he said. I saw the shadow that was Velikan enter the cave and then the growling and roaring began. Soon Velikan came bounding out of the cave chased by the bear. Koza waved me into the frey. I had two spears, but I wasn''t going to risk throwing one with Velikan in there so I put one against a tree and just charged to get a strike to cripple a back leg. I was partially successful and I got the bear''s attention. It turned around to take a swipe at me and I ducked looking to thrust into the heart and finish it. I missed and the spear point broke on a rib. The bear was still coming so I had to get out of the way and couldn¡¯t concentrate to make another point. I backed up. Velikan was nowhere to be seen so I guess this was my fight. The bear was still coming so I was ducking and weaving and slicing with the still sharp edge of the spear. I was manoeuvring to where I had left the other spear. When I had it, I switched and got a thrust into the neck and then it was waiting while it bled out, but I did finish with a trust to the heart when it got slow. That wasn¡¯t a very successful showing in my view. I found the weakness of stone spear heads and my ability in the heat of battle. Koza and Velikan came out as I was starting to skin it. I think he had seen that I learnt my lessons, or he figured that if I hadn''t it was my death. All he said was, ¡°Next time I want to see you move like the practice drills.¡± I had forgotten the practice moves. I needed to drill much harder. I nodded and got to my work. When I got the skin off one side Koza chopped a leg off and tossed it to Velikan who sat down for a snack. We left Velikan with the rest of the carcass and headed back to camp. Spear didn¡¯t even level. The next day was a repeat, and then Koza came and got me again but this time it was a big old boar. I took the skin from that too because it was a tough old hide and was good for armoured sections. We left the tough old meat, even Velikan wasn¡¯t that interested. I rigged up a way to carry the spears on my back so I could take all three all the time. The next night it was a herd of goats. I killed two, one with a thrown spear and the other with a single thrust. Spear finally went to the Apprentice Level. The next day Thyrrni asked Tabitha to look after my mules and she took me off for half a day to look at rock formations. That is a statement I never thought I would make. Mineral Lore went up and Granite Sense was creeping toward Journeyman Level. I got a few more gems as well. I took care of Tabitha¡¯s mules that night while she took Dusk for a run. Koza came that night and said I would go with him the next day and to bring my bow and spears. We would be on foot. I talked Ulfhildr into managing my mules and Tabitha would look after Rocky. Koza must have decided I was worth teaching, because that day he taught me. No, he TAUGHT me. It was full on, this tree, that snake, that moss, that spider and it was in Common and in Orcish and I was expected to learn it once and then apply it and repeat it whenever he asked. In Common or Orcish. The only time it stopped was at lunch and we sat down and he taught me about the Orcish language. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. The Orcish Language is a tonal language so the tone the word is said in changes the meaning. That is why it is important to get those low tones sorted. Their language structure is different. Common language is ordered Subject, verb, object. ¡®I joined the clan¡¯ is it in common. In Orcish it is Object, Subject verb, for example Cho?o?d Eh Oo?leh would literally be ¡®Clan I joined¡¯ And words have areas of meaning. Oo?leh means joined and became family. If they were talking about joining a temporary hunting group they would use a different word. This was opening up the Orcish language in a whole new way. Then we were off again. Look for that plant and the healing mushroom will be nearby as they need the same soils and light. Those birds are particular to the berries in that tree which is a good tree for arrows. Those tracks indicate a mountain cat hunting ground etc, etc. I looked at my status and was amazed. Animal Lore was now Apprentice and I had Plant Lore 1 and I had Orcish 1. I didn¡¯t even know there were skills for languages. I asked Thyrrni about it. ¡°Absolutely there are,'''' she said. ¡°My native tongue is Dwarvish and I have a language skill for Common which is in the mid Journeyman levels. The Novice levels are just that, basic structure and learning words and sentences. Apprentice levels you will carry out simple conversations. Journeyman level are fluent in everyday speech and master is mastering technical language or academic language. For Orcish you will also improve in hearing and making the low tones that are so important. For the Elves it is the high tones.¡± ¡°How do you know all this?¡± I asked ¡°With my mapping skills I get around taking different contracts, so I picked up a Diplomat Class that helps me learn languages and smooth the way.¡± ¡°How many do you know?¡± I asked. ¡°I am Journeyman level in Common and Barbarian, and Apprentice in Elvish and Gnomology, and Novice in Southern Imperial.¡± ¡°Wow.¡± When I Identified Orcish 1 I got a strong link between it and the Spy class, as if the Spy class was helping me learn languages which did make sense just like Thyrrni¡¯s Diplomat Class. I would ask the Dwarves to teach me dwarvish but my mind will explode, so one language at a time. The next day I stayed with the mules and reviewed everything I could. I used Far Sight on the landscape and used that to trigger my memory. This day on day off pattern kept up for the next week and on the fourth day with him I was explaining everything and he was correcting. My Skills had jumped. Animal Lore at 7. Plant Lore at 4. And Orcish at 4. I really was getting the hang of those deep sounds in Orcish. Tracking had gone up to 9 and that was partly Koza explaining things and partly the increase in Animal Lore. My bond with Pip had also gone up. I was starting to feel like I knew what I was doing as a Hunter. Now I just needed my class to level. The following day I finally caught up with Tabitha. I thought she would be going stir crazy, but she was fine. She was learning Dwarvish and was already mid Apprentice level. She had asked the Dwarves to only speak dwarvish to her in preparation for Jern. Her language was helped along by her Merchant Class. I am feeling like the dumb Rock Brain again. I asked her about it and apparently Dwarves don¡¯t worry about small things like the order of the words. They add prefixes and suffixes to the words to indicate if it is the subject or object of the sentences so word order doesn¡¯t matter. Then there are other ways they change the word to give meaning for example for present, past or future tenses. Nope. I will be the Rock Brain and stick to one thing for now. Koza came to me that evening and said a mountain cat is stalking the mules. If i can hunt it tonight, or tomorrow at the latest we would be free to hunt something bigger. He said that with a grin. I figured this was a test or something. I grabbed my spears and knives. I left my bow as I figured at night I wouldn¡¯t get much opportunity with a bow. I still had the throwing darts I hadn¡¯t used for a while, but kept practising with. The first thing was to scout and then to think like a hunter. If your prey has a place you know they will be, it is pretty obvious to trap that area. I didn¡¯t have many traps, but I took them with me. Scouting was done by Pip and my Bond Senses. I had Hearing Aid on but I didn¡¯t think a big cat would make much noise until it pounced. We didn¡¯t want it to get that far. I did a circuit and picked up the scent. It was intermittent and it then clicked it was using the trees. I went and trapped the most likely places near the mules, baited with raw meat. I didn¡¯t think that would work, but it might, and it was easy. I made sure I had a spear in hand and did another circuit, this time hoping to follow the trail. There was some scent that was a few hours old and I tried to work out which trees it might have used. I probably looked funny going around sniffing trees. I tracked it through several trees and then the wind shifted and there was a strong scent. I threw myself sideways in a roll and the cat missed me by a whisker, almost literally. I came up facing it with a spear ready and threw a dart with my off hand which pierced it¡¯s shoulder. That just made it mad. It came at me fast dodging my spear at the last minute and claws raked my hide shirt. Yes, my new hide shirt. The cat wasn¡¯t the only one that was mad. I threw another dart and this one pierced its hind quarters causing a slight limp. I didn¡¯t wait for it to charge again but I went after it this time. I had learned from Koza. My Spear pierced deep, but I missed the heart. The thing with the spear head Koza showed me was it had a guard at the base of the head before it met the shaft. This meant the animal could be kept at a distance, or in this case, pinned to the ground. I pulled a serrated stone knife from my belt and sliced its throat. I checked the area making sure there weren''t more dangers before I started skinning. I was going to need a new shirt. Bond Senses finally went to Apprentice level and I noticed quite a difference in the level of information Pip was sending. I got a point in Spiritual Perception for that. Most importantly I finally got a level in the Hunter Class. I now had five free attribute points. Tracking also went into the Journeyman levels, but not giving me any bonuses. Nothing for Spear, Small Blades or Throwing Weapons, but I was rapt with Hunter. It had been a long time since it had levelled. 37. Bonded: Wiremu 37. Bonded: Wiremu Koza came to me the next evening and said, ¡±The day after tomorrow we will be passing through the territory of a Mountain Troll. Normally if we pass through during the day and are well outside by the evening this would not be a problem. However, this is good training for you and a monster core for me.¡± He smiled then continued, ¡°Velikan and I could do this on our own, if we had too.¡± That was absolutely incredible. I was stunned. He continued, ¡°Depending on the terrain and on the Troll it would be a six to eight hour fight for us. We think that with Pip¡¯s help we could halve this. I was stunned that they could fight for six to eight hours straight, so it took me a while to click that they didn¡¯t want my help, they wanted Pip¡¯s. ¡°Wait up,'''' I said .¡±I need some explanation here. Please start with how the hell can you fight for six to eight hours straight.¡± ¡°This is a weakness you and Pip share. Your bond is good, Journeyman Level if I am not mistaken.¡± I nodded. ¡°Yet you don¡¯t fight together.¡± He continued. ¡°You use his senses to help you track, but you don¡¯t hunt together. Velikan and I hunt together all the time. You are used to playing the role of Pip¡¯s protector, but he is a hunter too. Your skills are unbalanced between you and you must learn to hunt together and share more skills. The Skills I have from Velikan include Stamina and Strength boosts, Hide Skin, Speed Burst and Bond Senses. It is these shared Skills and the way we fight together, trading off the aggro between us, that make extended fights possible.¡± I realised I only shared Bond Senses with Pip and he has Granite Bones and Camouflage from me. I also realised that apart from the occasional hidden strike from Pip, he was right that I did all the fighting. Taking down the cat was a classic method from us. Yet it wasn''t us, it was me. How could we fight as a team? ¡°So how will Pip halve this time?¡± I asked. ¡°Mountain Trolls are big, strong and have a huge amount of physical regeneration. But they are dumb. A fight with a Mountain Troll is a long fight wearing through their regeneration. Pip¡¯s venom will eat up a lot of that regeneration and hence shorten the fight,¡± he replied. ¡°Are Mountain Trolls like Field Trolls?¡± I asked, ¡°as I have fought one of them.¡± ¡°Very good,¡± he replied, ¡°you have some experience. Mountain Trolls are bigger, stronger and have more attacks than field trolls. But they are just as dumb. They will repeat the same attacks and that can be predicted and avoided.¡± That matched up with my experience with the Field Troll. ¡°I remember my old Hunt Master saying the way to take down a Mountain Troll was with Spiritual Trapping. Would that work?¡± ¡°Yes, but your Hunt Master must have been a Master Trapper, with Spiritual Trapping at least in the Journeyman levels. What Level is your Spiritual Trapping?¡± he asked. ¡°Novice,¡± I said. ¡°Bring any traps, but don¡¯t expect much effect at that level.¡± he advised. ¡°To fight with your Bond you must always be aware of your Animal Bond skill. It is through this you communicate and share skills.¡± he continued. ¡°You will get to understand each other better and anticipate each other. Pip¡¯s weakness is mobility. He will need you to get him to where he can be effective. It is also unlikely he will be able to bite through Troll skin so he will need you to make a cut or to put him in a weak or damaged area.¡± Great. Rocky was my horse and I was Pip¡¯s horse. Shows who the real boss is. I wondered if Pip would get the riding skill. ¡°Now,¡± he continued, ¡°Injuries and loot. Velikan and I can take bigger hits than you. I have two health potions with me. Erik and Ashby will have some for emergencies, but this is a private hunt, so you have to buy them. You and Pip will be getting very close to the Troll, Pip will be on the Troll and then escaping along the ground, probably. Pip¡¯s biggest danger is being stood on by a five ton troll. Your biggest danger is being hit when dodging close to get Pip in place.¡± ¡°Pip and I both share the Skill Granite Bones, which currently gives a 17% crushing resistance. I took a glancing hit from the Field Troll and it pulled me through.¡± I responded. ¡°That will help. Pip will probably survive if he keeps on soil to cushen any misstep. If he gets crushed against rock nothing will save him. Velikan and I will draw the Troll away, but all sorts happen in a fight.¡± Koza observed. ¡°Tabitha helped with the field Troll. She has some unique skills that could be helpful.¡± I thought Tabitha could be very helpful, but she would also be grumpy at missing out. Koza looked at me. ¡°Several of the dwarven warriors could also help. I am not training them, I am not training Tabitha. I am training you. Too many people and I can¡¯t save when they do dumb shit. I have watched you fight, I can keep an eye on you and Pip, and help, when you do dumb shit.¡± I noticed it was a when and not an if. ¡°Now Loot,¡± Koza continued, ¡°There won¡¯t be much. We will have to leave most of it. Every part of Trolls are valuable, like the Rock Serpent. But Trolls are flesh and you need special solutions, or most of the treasure will be rotting within a day. I will take the core, we will split the rest 50/50. We will get the skin, teeth and claws. Pip and Velikan get everything they can eat and you can take as many bones as you can carry. You have to cut them out yourself.¡± ¡°What are they used for?¡± I asked. ¡°The skin is for really tough, but light armour. Take it to a leatherworker. Don¡¯t do it yourself. A Leatherworker will preserve some properties and it will self repair. They make good boots too, he said showing his. Bones are used for many things, but you want ribs for reinforcing in the armour. I have heard they can also be used in bows, but not my field. Teeth and claws are usually ground down and used in alchemy.¡± He replied. ¡°One more thing,¡± he said. ¡°You also have a chance at getting the Monster kill. All you have to do is beat me to the final blow.¡± He grinned. My chances were obviously not great for that. Not that I wouldn''t try. Then I realised that half the conversation had been in Orcish. I checked the Skill and it was now apprentice level. So that¡¯s the reason Koza was suddenly talking more. I think he is more comfortable speaking Orcish, and maybe his Common isn¡¯t that high a level? I prepared the best I could that night. I reinforced parts of my armour with the boar hide and created extra throwing darts. It was the serrated stone knives I really stocked up on. The next day dragged. We left the team before dinner and headed into the mountains. Mountain Trolls were like their field cousins and only emerged at night so we were planning to fight through the night. I had my bow and spears and traps and I was loaded with knives and darts. I think I had too much. Velikan located the Troll first, of course. Koza started the fight with a thrown spear which lodged in the Trolls thigh. That got his attention and the roaring started and Koza was charged. The spear was dislodged in the charge and I could see the wound closing as I watched. Velikan came in from the side and tried to hamstring the Troll but only drew blood. I went in from the other side and stabbed a serrated knife in its calf and left it there. This bled for longer, but then the skin closed up around the knife. I think it really annoyed the troll having a knife stuck in its calf. It was reaching down to get rid of it and I got an arrow in its neck. Embedded stone knives were really going to slow the Troll down which will help. Maybe I didn''t bring enough. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Koza distracted the Troll with a spear in the belly, ducking the return swipe and leading the enraged Troll in a circuit. Velikan was in and out and then I went in embedding another knife and left it there, but this time Pip was curled around the handle and he added venom to the wound. Pip then slipped off the Troll and onto the ground and slid away and in my next pass sliced a ragged wound and then I picked him up. We did that again and the Troll had had enough and saw me as the easier target. Koza had warned me about the rock throw ability and still it clipped me, and I rolled, coming up with a spear as the Troll was charging me after the throw. No way was I meeting that charge and I rolled again tossing a dart toward his eyes. It just bounced off his forehead. We were only five minutes into a three hour fight and I had taken a hit and was feeling it. I needed to pace myself. Velikan took the aggro by biting the troll''s leg and not letting go, shaking his head and working his teeth deeper. The Troll spun around to pound him and both Koza and I went for a leg each as he escaped. I went for the leg Velikan had been chewing on and left Pip to add his venom. I was taking Koza¡¯s advice and really keeping Animal Bond at the front of my mind. I could feel Pip injecting the venom through the bond and knew when he was done. This time the Troll didn¡¯t follow Koza or me but swiped at his leg, clipping Pip and sending him flying. I sent an arrow at his eye but only ended up taking off half his nose. He had stopped looking for Pip, who had stayed still and activated camouflage. Mountain Trolls have poor eyesight the same as Field Trolls, so Pip probably didn¡¯t even need to use camouflage. I knew he was wounded, but his skin and Granite Bones had stopped most of it. I had never realised how much information and feeling I could get through this bond. I am assuming it was reciprocated for Pip. I made a pass behind the Troll using my serrated knife to cut a jagged line right across his back and scooped Pip up on the way past. Ten minutes gone. Koza started another round with a spear in the belly of the troll, again. Velikan and I went for another pass at the legs and I left another knife embedded, in the thigh this time, with Pip attached. Knowing when Pip was done I put an arrow in the Trolls buttock and Pip was able to reach it and perform a second injection. The Troll swug an arm back to dislodged the arrow and Pip went flying again. This time I tried to send some Spiritual Strength into his Granite Bones Skill through the bond to help. No idea if it worked and again I felt his skin and bones soak up the damage. Pip would need to take a break soon to regenerate some Venom. My Identify skill came into play and indicated strengthening the bond with Spiritual Agility would help Pip regenerate Venom faster. I tried. This was really starting to feel like we were a team. Koza started the next round with a spear in the belly of the Troll. This time he wasn¡¯t quite fast enough and the Troll¡¯s swiped clipped him and sent him flying. Velikan was already heading into the rear of the Troll, so I took the aggro so he wouldn¡¯t charge the downed Koza. I put a spear in his belly. I made sure I ducked out of the way in plenty of time but he came after me with one of those fast charges the Field Troll did. I rolled, but my armour took a hit and I kept rolling for quite a while. Pip was somewhere off in the grass and I felt him trying to strengthen my skin to take the damage. Nice try. Using the bond to help each other was fantastic. By the end of the fight we might even get it to work. Velikan had taken the aggro and was dodging rock throws. Koza was moving in behind the troll with his spear and a wicked looking knife I had not seen before. The knife actually tore the hamstring this time and the troll went to one knee and Koza¡¯s spear went in under the troll''s arm. I rolled to Pip and tossed him to Koza, who caught him and let him inject the hamstring before rolling away. That slowed the healing and the Troll was dragging that leg for the entire next round. We got some good damage done during that time. I stood behind the troll stabbing him with my spear half a dozen times before the tip broke against his rib. Koza got the shoulder very loose and Velikan took some fingers away to chew. I was amazed that the finger stumps were already sealing over and starting to regrow. We were nearing the half hour mark, or maybe it was past it. I was losing a sense of time. We will just have to count rounds. Pip would need a couple more rounds to recharge his venom. I could feel it through the bond. The next pass I sliced my knife along the Trolls back trying to replicate the feeling of injecting venom. Worth a try. Must try all these things, more than once. Koza started the next round with a spear in the belly of the Troll. Seriously, what does it take to give this guy stomach ache? Pip was making his way forward through the grass when the Troll activated his Quake skill for the first time. I went to one knee and I could sense Pip bouncing around uncontrollably. I tried to strengthen the Bond with Strength again and got my bow and got an arrow in his groin hoping it would disrupt him from using the skill. It didn¡¯t seem to. He was looking to charge Koza while he was unbalanced which would also go over Pip, so I threw out a Spiritual Trap and it caught his leg causing him to get off balance in the shaking. He went to one knee and a hand went down onto the ground to support him, perilously close to Pip. Pip didn¡¯t waste the opportunity and bit the weak skin between his first and middle fingers. The Troll bellowed and raised his hand with Pip still attached. He shook his hand and Pip went flying. The skill finally stopped and I leapt for the back of the Troll before It could go after Pip. I had a dagger in one hand which I stabbed into the shoulder to keep me there and the other hand went up to the back of his head and I triggered Granite Spike from my palm into his head. It bounced off his skull. I left the Knife embedded and slid down the trolls back to the ground receiving a kick that sent me flying, his feet claws tearing through my armour. I felt Pip pushing Snake Skin in my direction. The world was spinning when I landed so I don''t know if it worked. Koza got the Trolls attention and started the next round by thrusting a spear into the Trolls belly. Velikan was hounding the Troll from the rear. Pip was in the grass to my right somewhere. I collected my Bow. I had to restring it. Pip was making his way to me, so I took my time and lined up a shot. This time I tried to imbue Venom into the arrow. I got his eye, on the third try. He didn¡¯t like that and yanked the arrow out. I couldn¡¯t tell if the green dripping off the end of the arrow was a successful imbuing of venom or just gunk from his eye. Hope for the first, expect the worst. Koza was in trouble, Pip had joined me. I grabbed a new spear and ran in. I got the Trolls attention and started a new round by stabbing the Troll in the belly. Then I shoved Pip in and dropped and ran. I think Pip finally gave him stomach ache. He bellowed and chased me. I took a hard hit this time, but I landed softly on Velikan. I am not sure if Velikan thought it was soft. Pip had dropped to the ground during the dash and was making his way toward me. Koza had the Trolls attention trying to widen the wound in the stomach. I needed a moment to get my breath after that hit and check nothing was broken. Velikan headed in determined to get a hamstring, I think. I lined up a shot with my bow again and was trying to poison my arrows. I didn¡¯t have many left. I was aiming high so I didn''t hit any friendlies. The poison didn¡¯t seem to be working on the arrows. I am not sure it was working at all. I loosed the arrow hitting the back of the neck. I missed the grab for the next arrow, but then something clicked and I was aiming a green tinted arrow. I let loose and hit the Troll in the back. The arrow point penetrated then the whole arrow seemed to be absorbed into his back. I don¡¯t know what the new Skill was called, but I had definitely made a poisoned, spiritually created, arrow. It took a lot of energy so I would have to use it sparingly until it levelled. But I definitely had to try it a second time now. I worked the same as the first. I would check the details later, now I had to enter the frey again. Velikan started the next round by trying to rip an intestine out of the Trolls stomach. He was partly successful, but took a hit for his trouble. I saw claw marks dripping blood from his side, but it didn¡¯t even slow him down, which was just as well as the Troll was going for a Rock Throw at him. That is until the Trolls arm went slack as Koza and his wicked knife sliced arm tendons. The Troll changed tactics at that and Koza almost added a troll bite to his collection of scars. Velikan and I were both coming fast. I went low for a tendon, he went high onto the Trolls back, driving him to the ground. I got five quick strikes at the tendon before the Troll raised himself up again. Pip got a bite in as well. Koza started the next round by thrusting a spear into the Troll''s stomach. The Trolls'' regeneration was definitely slowing down. Velikan¡¯s Intestine was still hanging out and the arm was taking longer to become active. I went for the damaged arm using quick strikes and trying to imbue poison in the strikes. In the end I left a dagger embedded and Pip to do the job properly. I was running short on stone daggers too. I moved to the front and started the next round by throwing a dart in his eye and stabbing him in the stomach with my spear. Pip was having a second bite at his arm. He started his Quake Skill again and I tried to roll away from him but my leg got pinned by his feet claws. Blood was dripping and I curled up and attacked his foot with my dagger and a dart in the other hand. I couldn¡¯t take off his claws without stabbing myself, especially as everything was shaking. I tried to take off his food instead with a series of quick strikes and imbuing poison. When I got to his bone there seemed to be no way to get through it. I put my hand against his ankle joint and tried ramming Granite Spikes through it. The bone was chipped and had pieces of granite in the joint when he took a step and released me and I rolled away. My leg would have been broken in two places if not for Granite Bones. It was still dripping blood so I wrapped a strip of hide tightly around it and looked at what was going on. Pip was not on his arm and more but up by the back of his neck. I am not sure what he is going to do up there as I don¡¯t think he could bite through the neck skin. I was the strong one. I tried to channel Physical Strength through the bond. I have no idea how that worked but Pip suddenly bit clear through the skin and injected poison into the main artery there. I restrung my bow, again and when Pip had finished he rolled down the trolls back and into the grass. I put a Poison Arrow into the same artery. The Troll was moving very slowly now. I lined up another shot when Velikan got in my way and got a good grip on the troll''s throat and he worked at it hard and more and more blood started coming out around his jaws. Then he got thrown and Koza ended the rounds with a spear thrust through the neck and stepped back as the troll fell and didn¡¯t rise again. Koza made sure and severed the head. 38. Loot: Wiremu 38. Loot: Wiremu I limped over to the corpse. Kozaa looked up, ¡°That was good,¡± he said, ¡°Not much over two hours. I see you picked up some poison Skills.¡± He grinned. Koza dug into the corpse and extracted the core. I hadn¡¯t checked my status. I had a quick look and saw Venom Arrow 3 and Imbue Venom 1. I also saw Quick Strike 4, which was good. I saw Pip had also picked up a Strength Boost Skill from me. Nothing about Snake Skin unfortunately. Pip and I would have to work on that. I would look at the rest later. Now we had work to be done. ¡°Let me show you how to skin this monster.¡± He said and we got to work. I made a note that Koza was much more talkative when speaking Orcish, and I made a point of using the language as well. I realised the only people I had talked to about language learning all had classes that helped them. Most people would not have that. Koza probably struggled with Common. The Troll was a very large beast to skin. Koza talked me through it and showed me some tricks. One of the tricks was he said I should make sure I take the ball sack and get it made into a coin bag. It will be impervious to most cut-purses and big enough for a bit more than coins. I guess it was a bonus of killing the male of the species. I wasn¡¯t going to ask about the breasts of the females, but he told me anyway, about the demand for them as liquid containers from the alchemists. I guess this is all adding to my Monster knowledge. By the time we finished getting all the skin we could carry my Skinning Skill was at Journeyman Level. I cut the claws and let him tackle the teeth. Teeth extraction is messy. By this time Velikan was chewing through a leg and Pip was trying to swallow something quite large for him. Was that one of the Trolls¡¯s balls? Actually, I don''t want to know. He could have asked me to cut him something. Eating Spiritually enhanced meat from monsters does help animals get stronger, especially noticeable in bonded animals. I assume because they get more chances to eat it. I think I will ask Koza about teaching me Monster Lore. I am sure all this was part of it, but when I get to Level 10 in my Hunter Class I will be able to specialise. After that fight Hunter was now Level 8 so it was not too far away. The Trolls ribs were a problem. None of my knives could barely scratch them. In the end I created a small hatchet with my Granite Spike and that got through. Eventually. We returned to camp a few hours before dawn, ladened with skin and bone. I was looking worse for wear, with ripped armour and a bandaged leg. With Rocky carrying all the loot I would be regulated to walking, or limping as the case may be. Ashby took pity on me and gave me some herbs with my breakfast that should speed the healing. I made sure to note which herbs. Everybody wanted to hear the story over breakfast and of course Koza was nowhere to be seen. I told the story with Koza and Velikan as the heroes and me bumbling through. Even Pip came out better looking than I did. I glossed over specific skills. When I checked my status I was surprised to see Deceive tipped over into Journeyman Level getting me a point in Mental Agility. I was waiting until we got on the road before I went through my status and the new skills.
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros Total
Type Attribute Level 8 11 6 2 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 10 2 22 1 44 103.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 8 4 29
Perception (PP) 11 0 16 1 2 30
Mental If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Strength (MS) 9 12 2 23 64.0
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 6 23
Perception (MP) 11 1 6 18
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 1 11 2 24 64.0
Agility (SA) 8 1 4 6 1 20
Perception (SP) 10 2 6 2 20
Totals 92 35 34 33 30 7 231
Free Points 6 0 0 1
Resistances: Pain +9, Crushing +17, Poison +14, Cold +17 Skills Novice: Cooking 4, Animal Care 4, Plant Lore 4, Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Detect Traps 4, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Spiritual Trapping 4, Truth Sensing 2, Manipulate Status 4, Sense Spiritual 4, Venom Arrow 3, Quick Strike 4, Imbue Venom 1 Apprentice: Small Blades 7, Unarmed Combat 6, Throw Weapons 6, Spear 7, Bond Senses 5, Camouflage 6, Fishing 5, Riding 7, Sewing 7, Butchering 5 Orcish 5, Farsight 7, Granite Bones 9, Granite Sense 8, Sense Treasure 6, Hide Armourer 7, Mineral Lore 5, Animal Lore 7, Journeyman: Hearing Aid 11, Hammer 13, Identify 11, Animal Bond 12, Granite Spike 10, Trapping 10, Tracking 10, Bow 10, Skinning 10, Deceive 10 Master: Stealth 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Resistances: Crushing +19 Cold +17 Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones, Camouflage, Strength Boost Hunter went up another level and this now gives me seven free attribute points. The other important thing was that Physical Perception was now at 30 meaning I could get another Perception Skill. My early experience tells me to consider this carefully. Tabitha¡¯s experience indicates that with the right experience and attributes advanced skills were available. I didn¡¯t need the Bloodhound Skill as smell was covered through the Bond Senses. Darksight was tempting as I used Identify on it and it would work with Farsight. Keensight wasn¡¯t available, but I got the feeling with a bit of effort that it could be. The Temperature sight skill was not available as it required a sight skill at Journeyman level, and Farsight was only at 7. The Skill Expanded Hearing was not available even though Hearing Aid was at Journeyman Level because my Spiritual Perception was too low and I got the sense I didn¡¯t have the attributes to raise it enough yet. I would wait on this. Spear went up two levels, Granite Bones and Animal Bond went up once. I used Identify on the new Skills. Imbue Venom means I can imbue items I am touching with Venom. This can include my darts before I throw them. I get immunity from our venom and a boost to Poison Resistance in general. The cost reduces per level and the potency increases. Venom Arrow creates a spiritual arrow with Venom, surprisingly enough. The cost would reduce as it levels and the potency increases like the Imbue skill. Quick Strike was a pure physical speed strike, with or without weapons. The hitting power was a function of Physical Strength and the speed a function of Physical Agility. It could be used in conjunction with Imbue Venom. Pip¡¯s Strength Boost was giving him a short access to my greater Physical Strength. His limit was on how many times he could use it based on his Spiritual Attributes. What other skills were available to me? Petrify was still well out of my reach. Triple shot and Longbow were available if I could figure out how to trigger them. Bow was my only weapon skill at Journeyman level, so none of the other more advanced weapon skills were available yet. Yet as I looked to my status I realised Bow was not my only weapon at Journeyman level. I also had the Hammer skill, which I had basically discarded. What was available for Hammer? Identify was highlighting a skill I could get. It would come because of Hammer, but was not limited to Hammer. It was a skill called Power Strike. It gave more power to any strike armed or unarmed. I could match it with Quick Strike but would suck the energy at the low levels. I took it, but I did need to consolidate my skills, because they were many and varied. I needed to practise with them and figure out how best they could be used. We had another week and a half to get to Jern. My goals in that time are to get used to my new skills and to work with Erik to raise Manipulate Status and spend as much time with Koza as I could. I have learned so much from him. I am thinking I paid all the deep iron ore to the wrong trainer. 39. Jern: Tabitha 39. Jern: Tabitha I am feeling a bit fucking jealous of Wiremu right now. He has two specific trainers in his specialties. I know I have had awesome chances as well and he brought me through the mountains. He also gave me his Darksteel ore and I now know how much that is worth. But still. He got to fight a monster, and the loot! Ok, it is mainly the loot, I can do without the fighting part. The fight was fascinating. Not the way he described it at breakfast, but the actual fight. A person with high stealth and a Shadow affinity might have just been nearby watching. In case they needed help of course. I am pretty sure Koza and Velikan knew I was there, although I don¡¯t know how. Those two are scary. He is going to get Koza to teach him Monster Lore. I have a job when we get to Jern, probably. I have been testing my shadows and the darksteel ore and discussing it with Ulfhidr. We haven¡¯t got very far, Ulfhildr thinks it needs to be smelted into Darksteel first. I probably have enough in the two ores to make a pure Darksteel knife. This is rare and insanely expensive. Darksteel is usually added to other types of steel to add properties because there is never much of it. I haven''t decided what I am going to do with it yet. Ulfhildr¡¯s family, Kinfolk is a better translation, sponsored this prospecting expedition and will be responsible for organising the auction to come. After the auction is when the bulk of our money will be distributed to us. It will probably take four months or more to arrange for an auction of this much high quality material. Ulfhidrs Kin will need to store all this in the meantime which means increased security. There are plenty of wannabe thieves around. They will, probably, hire me as a trainee merchant and security adviser. My Thief class is getting me this job. Hence the rush to learn dwarvish. I am really looking forward to settling down for a while in a small city and reassessing my goals. Ulfilder and her cousin will help me work on the Darksteel. Her cousin Elof is an enchanter and has had experience with people with affinities. This is a good gig for me at least until the auction. I haven¡¯t told Wiremu yet. I am leading Rocky. I have had plenty of time to investigate the Troll Hide, claws and teeth he got. I am still learning the value of monster parts, but that will come. Ulfhildr¡¯s Kin has a trading house where they sell their blacksmithing goods as well as miscellaneous goods and services. Their trading arm was called the S?lv Emporium and was headed by a Master Trader which was pretty impressive. Then there were various departments headed by Journeymen traders with associated juniors. They had two regular caravans running routes through the Kirghiz Kingdom and one that went south to the Barbarian City states. They tried to avoid the Nystad Empire as there were too many tariffs on foreign traders and the Empire dominated the trade and controlled the prices. Some goods you could only sell to the Empire, legally that is. Then there was the paperwork. The Empire had a form for everything and only licensed traders could operate. It was too hard for the S?lv Kin to be bothered. I was going to have to get used to the Royal Raha¡¯s rather than the Imperial Crowns I grew up with. The Kirghiz Kingdom named their coins the Raha, they followed the general concept of Copper bits, then Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Cargonite which was what the coins were made of. And the ratio was still 10 to 1, i.e 10 Copper makes a Silver etc. The Raha¡¯s were slightly smaller than the Crowns and called different names and were worth slightly less. According to the Empire anyway. They were still called Bits, Copper, Silver, etc. by the common folk, but they were Raha¡¯s not Crowns. From talking to Ulfhildr and Thyrrni, the buying power of each coin is similar to what I am used to. A mid level crafter would earn about a silver a day. A mid level house would cost about 1 Cargonite. Ulfhildr estimated that with the goods and gems and what the S?lv Emporium might purchase we can expect about three Platinum each when we get back and the rest would need to wait to see what the auction would bring. This means that most of the normal goods, and probably most of the deep iron was worth at least 40 Platinum (or four Cargonite) and then there is the Rock Serpent on top. Ulfhildr didn¡¯t want to estimate what that was worth, but probably at least another 3 or 4 times that. I was a bit shocked. I would be able to buy a house, a good house, from this trip alone. That was staggering for me who never thought I would be doing more than renting rooms. I was missing my brother Warren at this point. Finally, some good fortune and he is not here to share it. I won¡¯t buy a house because after the auction I will probably want to explore the Kirghiz Kingdom and I need to stay ahead of Longstrider. Yeah, I know that with this windfall I could pay him back, but why should I? He would probably want more than crowns anyway. He would want jobs and to tie me back into his network, especially if, or rather when, he found out about my affinity. I would definitely be moving on after the auction. I think Wiremu is planning to join the Mercenary Guild and start taking contracts, maybe forming a team. Joining a team probably, as he has no experience in negotiating contracts. I might be able to do that for him and maybe go on the odd contract too. That might be a good side gig. This travel business is boring. We are now about 2 days out from a village and then there is a road to Jern. At this point I would like to be attacked by bandits just to relieve the monotony. We won¡¯t be of course, because Koza and Velikan are out scouting and will probably remove any threats before they are even close. Wiremu is with them again today. I have been practising my Spatial Awareness on the Spiritually enhanced materials in the mules saddle bags. I have also been practising my Spatial Awareness against Wiremu¡¯s Manipulate Status. It got both our skills to Apprentice. I have more penetrating power against physical objects and he can now change two things on his status and it is stronger. When I checked he was now showing Level 2 Prospector, Level 11 Miner, Level 8 Hunter and no Spy at all. That is a more normal looking status. The Quarry Worker was definitely a stand out item. I took Wiremu¡¯s advice and asked Erik to test my Confuse Status Skill and it''s also now at Apprentice level too. It gave me a point in Spiritual Strength. That is a useful attribute for me now as a lot of my shadow abilities rely on it. Cold resistance is at 14 now and it is noticeable. I am please with it despite the torture to get it there. I did get another point in Mental Strenth for the torture. I am just glad we have moved away from the stream and so the torture is abated for now. Morning sparring has given me another level in Unarmed Combat. I am faster than most here, but my Physical Strength is too low. I am also practising my Intimidating Aura as I will get a good boost at Journeyman Level. I have been practising control, both in the distance it is from me and the level of intensity. I figure that keeping it at about a 5m radius and so low that it is a feeling of unease, will go under most people''s awareness and keep away all but the intentional people. I am not quite there yet, but am hoping that practising in the village may get it there. There is an added bonus with having my Aura on, as it also keeps away the insects. No more mosquito bites for me soon. We were finally stopping for the night. Wiremu came in all excited. He had just learned Monster Lore. Apparently when his Hunter class finally got to 10, he should get offered Monster Hunter as a specialisation. He had no idea what special skill it would come with or if there was anything he could do to influence it. There was no Trainer or Mentor even a Scholar here, so he couldn¡¯t ask. Koza had shared his Skill, but he had promised to keep it secret. The news that excited me was that we would reach the village the next day. The bad news was it was not big enough to have an Inn. They do have one of their farmers brew ale, and we could vary our diet, but we had to cook it ourselves. Wiremu will hunt tomorrow so we can swap meat and fur for vegetables. Sounds like a good deal to me. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. We approached the village in the late afternoon. It was just a collection of huts with a wooden palisade around it. We would be camping outside the wall as there wasn¡¯t room for all the mules inside. I helped Ashby trade for vegetables, herbs, grains and ale. Ulfhildr was part of the trade as she went and maintained a lot of farm equipment. Then I found a quiet spot and practised my light touch with my aura on the unsuspecting villagers. Some people reacted violently to it and looked actively for danger. Others just moved away, which was the intended result. The Aura did not level. That night we had variety in our diet washed down with ale. It was a good night. Unfortunately the village was by a river and we started the morning with a torture session. Jern was four days away and the road followed the river. I really wanted to mount Dusk and I bet we could have been there by nightfall. However, a slow plod beside the mules was the way to go. After all, these mules were carrying my fortune. On the third day Thyrrni was told to run ahead and let the kin know we were coming and prepare the secure yard and a feast. We were met at the gate by two senior Kin and several additional armed warriors from the S?lv Emporium. There were many smiles and greetings all round. Entering Jern was nothing like entering an Imperial city. Nobody checked the goods. The entry fee was waived as we were part of a known trading house. Nobody asked to look at my papers. It was very relaxed and startlingly so. I noticed Koza came into the city but there was no sign of Velikan. We were led through the main streets. Jern was a smallish city. It had a stone wall and most buildings were stone, as you would expect from a mainly dwarvish population. There weren¡¯t any dwellings over two stories and when I commented on this, Ulfhidr laughed and said Dwarves preferred to build down rather than up. The S?lv Emporium had a compound to one side of the main trading area. One side fronted the main road, which was their main shop front. We were led down a side road and into a yard. The mules were led down a ramp into a staging area below ground, out of sight. We unloaded the mules and they were led off to some adjoining stables. We helped move the goods to an empty strong room two more floors below where it would be sorted over the next few days. Erik and Thyrrni would oversee it for us and work with the clan. Ulfhildr, Lars and Ylwa were the clan members on the team. We unloaded our gear and were shown where we could stable Dusk and Rocky. We were welcome guests of the S?lv Emporium for the short term. We were shown to a visitor suite which was only one level below the ground and in fact had small high windows that would let in natural light. The family areas were not generally lit at all as everyone had darksight. The areas that did have light were for guests or S?lv traders of different races without Dark Sight. Or they were for the young. I was worried about Wiremu without Darksight. When I asked him he said he had actually chosen it. It made sense to him. At Apprentice level it would work with Farsight, and it would look funny if he was a miner without it. With his affinity he could also see himself spending a lot of time underground. That night we feasted. True dwarven ale and all the kin in the city were there. And they had hot pools to get clean in! Apparently there was an underground stream that was diverted. I am not sure how they heated it. It was a late start the next morning, and first on the list was clothes. Wiremu only had fur left and my clothes were all ragged. We shopped initially at the S?lv Emporium as they would extend us credit until the first payment was assessed. That should be in a couple of days. We both picked out two sets of sturdy and warm clothes. I also found a jacket that looked good. I think Wiremu really liked his wolf skin cloak. Ulfhildr had taken us under her wing and showed us around the city. According to her we would not find better quality metal work outside the S?lv Emporium, but Wiremu was looking for a Bowyer to get a decent bow and a leather worker for his troll skin armour. We collected Rocky and his loot and went to the leatherworker first. The Leather worker was excited to see such goods and Wiremu organised a full set of armour and boots with troll ribs as reinforcements. They would take the remaining hide and bones as majority payment if he wanted. He wanted them to use some to make me armour too, but I wasn¡¯t going out monster hunting and I had different equipment in mind. Wiremu was a hard person to dissuade. They would make me boots designed for stealth, but that was all. I also knew the value of the hide and what do you mean it will be only part payment? You should be paying Wiremu 10 gold on top and off we went bargaining. Wiremu kept two ribs to talk to the Bowyer and walked out with 20 Silver. He slipped me a few as a thank you. They were going to be several hours taking Wiremu¡¯s measurements and discussing design so I left them to it and took Dusk for a run outside of the city. I actually did a circuit of the city looking at the terrain and the walls. Always best to be prepared for an exit if needed. I met up with them again at dinner. They hadn¡¯t got to the Bowyer, but he was pleased with the design for the armour. It was going to take two days just to cure the hide, even with their Journeyman skills. Then the leather would be another two days and then they can start on the Armour. It will be ready in 8-10 days. The next morning I let Ulfhidr take Wiremu to see the Bowyer while I browsed their weapons and toys. I chose three good quality steel knives which were concealable. One for each boot and one in a neck holster. I looked at replacing my truncheon and got a good solid one, then I saw the nunchaku. Two solid batons, joined with a short chain. They would take some training which the emporium could arrange for a fee, but they would work with the Blunt Weapons Skill and special hits like knockout strike. I took a set and arranged for the training. They would be great. I picked up a set of lock picks and other specialised equipment for my class. I was then browsing with nothing to do while I waited for Wiremu. They took till lunch time. Men and their bloody shopping. Most of the team went off to their families after the first night. Only Ulfhildr, Lars, Ylwa and Koza were around. We saw Erik and Thyrrni coming and going as they worked through the goods with the S?lv traders. The next morning I had my job interview with the senior Trader and their Security Chief. They put me through my paces. I was not up to speed in my languishing Merchant Skills. Security wise I spotted all the test anomalies they had set up, thanks Spatial Awareness. My trapping and alarms would need a bit of work. The fact Spatial Awareness could penetrate walls, floors and ceiling was of great interest. We went down to the vault and tried it there but I couldn¡¯t penetrate the vault yet. I got the job. I start next week. They will train my merchant so I am up to speed, but my main job in the shop is for people carrying strange equipment and or casing the place. I will also do night shifts on a roster. They expect to have attempted breaches once it becomes known what they are storing. I was rapt. Wiremu knew I was having the interview. This afternoon I hope Wiremu and I will start looking for a nearby place to rent. A small two or three bedroom place nearby would be good. We would pay for the horses to be looked after at a nearby stable Ulfhildr recommended. We got paid the next day. Three Platinum, six gold and five silver each. That was a fortune, basically an annual salary for a mid level craftsman. I picked up my Gold and Silver and would collect my Platinum the next day when I could open an account at a local bank. We were recommended to the Jern Treasury as a reliable place with offices or affiliates throughout the Kirghiz Kingdom. Wiremu wanted to join the Mercenary Guild as soon as he could. It would cost four Gold for annual membership. This would get him access to the Guild Trainers, traders and crafters as well as the discounts. He could then start to look for a team and maybe simple solo jobs. We went together after lunch and were browsing the job boards and checking the place out while we waited for a counter to become free. I was keeping a spatial awareness on Wiremu, and then I suddenly sensed him raise the hood of his cloak and turn and walk out. That was really weird. I went to see what he had been looking at. It was a job advert on the Bounty Hunter board. It read: Mercenary Contract issued by the Nystad Empire. Wanted: Wiremu Hunter Description: Human male, 1.8m tall, fair complexion, brown hair, brown eyes. Has a bonded Snake. Wanted for: Spying, Murder, Attempted Murder, Escaping custody, Injury of an Imperial Investigator, Damage of Imperial Property. Status: Quarry Worker, Hunter, Spy. but known to use a status manipulation skill. Bounty: Four Platinum if alive or 1 Platinum if dead To collect the bounty, deliver the live person, or evidence of his death to the Garrison at Kirsk. Last known location Western Kirghiz. What followed was a hand drawn likeness of Wiremu, which was recognisable. Shit. End of Book 1 End of Book 1 - Final Status Wiremu Hunter
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros Total
Type Attribute Level 8 11 6 2 Constitution
Strength (PS) 9 10 2 22 1 44 103.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 8 4 29
Perception (PP) 11 0 16 1 2 30
Strength (MS) 9 12 2 23 64.0
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 6 23
Perception (MP) 11 1 0 6 18
Strength (SS) 10 1 0 11 2 24 64.0
Agility (SA) 8 1 4 6 1 20
Perception (SP) 10 2 0 6 2 20
Totals 92 35 34 33 30 7 231
Free points 6 0 0 1
Resistances: Pain +9, Crushing +17, Poison +14, Cold +17 Skills Novice: Cooking 4, Animal Care 4, Plant Lore 4, Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Detect Traps 4, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Spiritual Trapping 4, Truth Sensing 2, Manipulate Status 4, Sense Spiritual 4, Venom Arrow 3, Quick Strike 4, Imbue Venom 1 Apprentice: Small Blades 7, Unarmed Combat 6, Throw Weapons 6, Spear 7, Bond Senses 5, Camouflage 6, Fishing 5, Riding 7, Sewing 7, Butchering 5 Orcish 5, Farsight 7, Granite Bones 9, Granite Sense 8, Sense Treasure 6, Hide Armourer 7, This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Mineral Lore 5, Animal Lore 7, Journeyman: Hearing Aid 11, Hammer 13, Identify 11, Animal Bond 12, Granite Spike 10, Trapping 10, Tracking 10, Bow 10, Skinning 10, Deceive 10 Master: Stealth 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Resistances: Crushing +19 Cold +17 Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones, Camouflage, Strength Boost Tabitha Carter:
Tabitha Carter Class Thief Merch SPred Rider Total
Type Attribute Level 10 4 4 1 Constitution
Strength (PS) 9 1 1 4 15 74.0
Agility (PA) 12 2 10 4 1 29
Perception (PP) 11 4 10 4 1 30
Strength (MS) 8 3 2 13 58.0
Agility (MA) 12 2 1 4 1 20
Perception (MP) 10 1 10 4 25
Strength (SS) 9 1 6 3 4 23 70.0
Agility (SA) 10 0 5 3 4 22
Perception (SP) 10 4 5 2 4 25
Totals 91 18 50 20 20 3 202
Free points 0 0 0 1
Resistances: Cold +14 Skills: Novice: Rampage 4, Shadow Manipulation 4, Parry 4, Knockout Strike 4, Sewing 4, Trapping 1 Disarm Spiritual Traps 2, Detect Spiritual Traps 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Apprentice: Intimidating Aura 9, Distract 9, Appraise 7, Bargain 8, Identify 9, Lock Pick 7, Detect Traps 6, Detect Spiritual 6, Disarm Traps 5, Unarmed Combat 7, Swords 5, Small Blades 6, Blunt Weapon 5, Engulfing Shadows 9, Shadows Embrace 8, Cooking 6, Animal Care 6, Dwarvish 8, Confuse Status 5, Spatial Awareness 5 Journeyman: Stealth 13, Darksight 12, Riding 11 Affinity: Shadow 40. Mercenary: Wiremu

40. Mercenary: Wiremu

Mercenary Contract issued by the Nystad Empire. Wanted: Wiremu Hunter. Description: Human male, 1.8m tall, fair complexion, brown hair, brown eyes. Has a bonded Snake. Wanted for: Spying, Murder, Attempted Murder, Escaping custody, Injury of an Imperial Investigator, Damage of Imperial Property. Status: Quarry Worker, Hunter, Spy. But known to use a status manipulation skill. Bounty: Four Platinum if alive or One Platinum if dead. To collect the bounty, deliver the live person, or evidence of his death to the Garrison at Kirsk. Last known location Western Kirghiz. What followed was a hand-drawn likeness of me, which was recognisable. I was clean-shaven in the drawing, and my beard would now help a little. It wasn¡¯t an impressive beard like the dwarves. It was a bit thin and scraggly. After all, I am only an 18-year-old human. I was going to remove it, but not now. When I saw that notice on the Bounty Hunter notice board, I raised my hood and left. My goal of becoming a mercenary and going on contracts was now buried in Troll shit. I had no idea what I would do now. Tabitha had a job lined up for the next few months, but it seemed wise for me to get away from Western Kirghiz. I headed back to our temporary accommodation at the S?lv Emporium compound. Tabitha and I had just put a deposit on a three-bed rental cottage nearby. I guess if I gave her a month''s rent, she could find a flatmate. I had commissions for armour and a new bow that won¡¯t be ready for a week or so. Tabitha might collect them for me. I was very aware of what was going on around me. I was probably acting nervous. I was envious of Tabitha¡¯s Skill Spatial Awareness, where she was aware of things without looking. I probably made a mistake getting Darksight instead of waiting longer. Story of my life. What¡¯s done is done, and now we make the most of it. Pip is going to have to stay hidden again. I was sick of that, and I was enjoying being in a stronger partnership with him. We will work something out. We are moving forward, not back. I got to the S?lv Emporium and went to the shop section as I hadn¡¯t had a chance to get some weapons. Spears, knives and bows were my weapons of choice. S?lv could help me with knives and spear shafts. I could make my own spearheads with my Granite skills. Spear shafts were easy, and I picked up three. My current three were still usable, just worse for wear. I wanted a decent skinning knife and then a couple of fighting knives. I could make stone knives, but they wouldn¡¯t go through everything. The skinning knife I found was one made from Astral Silver alloy. The amount of Astral Silver was less than 5%, but it made skinning monsters a breeze, according to the saleswoman. I cut some scraps of Troll hide with it, and it seemed to be better. For the fighting knives, I asked about the Deep Iron and Darksteel we bought in and if I could get some knives with an alloy from them. Yes, but all work that includes Spiritually enhanced metals is made to order, and a 50% deposit is requested. It would probably take a week to commission and was very expensive. I really couldn¡¯t justify spending that much on a knife. I was looking for toughness and durability. She showed me a Steel Tungsten alloy knife with some chemical elements from Granite to toughen and Topaz dust for increased hardness. It was more expensive than basic steel but not exorbitant, so I purchased two. My Granite affinity was showing an attraction towards it. I will be able to experiment later. I would need some temporary armour, but I will deal with that later. I went to my room and made sure everything was ready for a fast departure. It was almost dinner, and I would discuss it with Tabitha and then possibly leave at dawn. Dinner is a communal affair at the S?lv compound and very casual. I grabbed a plate and went to sit with Tabitha, Ulfhildr, and Thyrrni was visiting as well. The topic of discussion was generally around the crafters and the rush to get notices to the Kingdom couriers to get the word out about the auction. The date had been set at six months away. Most people who could come were within two months of travel, but this would give them some leeway for the winter weather etc. It would also give other crafters and miners time to add their items to the auction. The event was growing. I saw Koza enter the dining room. He had a familiar-looking paper in his hand. Koza, who has specialisations in Monster Hunting and Bounty Hunting. He had a big grin on his face which looked really out of place. There was not much I could do, so I waited for him to arrive. He put the Mercenary contract for my bounty face up on the table and rumbled in Common, ¡°Wiremu, lad. You¡¯ve done good. You injured an Imperial Investigator. Was it that bastard Smythe?¡± I nodded, a bit stunned. ¡°Shame you couldn¡¯t finish it. Been trying to kill him for a decade. He cowers behind the other troops.¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°So,¡± I replied, ¡°you aren¡¯t going to collect the bounty, will there be many here who want to?¡± ¡°Not many in Jern. No Orc will ever give the Imperials anything but piss, and we want that paid for in blood. There are always some. It is a big bounty. Watch your back. It¡¯s a bigger bounty than I have ever had.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve had a bounty on you, and you''re a member of the Mercenary Guild?¡± I was puzzled. ¡°More than one. If you are a Guild member for any length of time, you will have a bounty on you. You either pay it, avoid it or kill those who issued it. I recommend you avoid this one.¡± ¡°How long is the bounty active for?¡± I asked. ¡°Six months, but the Empire has probably paid for longer. They want you badly.¡± He replied. ¡°That¡¯s going to stop me from joining the Guild.¡± I lamented. ¡°Why?¡± asked Koza. ¡°Half the Guild members don¡¯t join with their real names.¡± Tabitha joined the conversation. ¡°I checked the requirement for identity, and you need either official ID papers from a government source or three guild members who have known you for at least 12 months to confirm your identity.¡± ¡°So I couldn¡¯t join anyway,¡± I said. ¡°Of course you could,¡± Tabitha replied. ¡±The going rate for bribery of a Kingdom official for ID papers is around three platinum. However, the S?lv Kin have someone who could alter these ID papers for just a few silver.¡± She slid across official ID papers from the Nystad Empire. Nystad Empire Identification for Citizen Warren Carter, Warrior. Human Male. Born 33rd year of Emperor Nystid the 2nd in Yelets. Then followed a description of Warren, 1.9m tall light brown hair etc. ¡°Are you sure?¡± I asked Tabitha. ¡°Absolutely.¡± she replied. ¡°We have been through a lot and saved each other''s asses a few times now. Warren would want you to have them. In fact, he would think it was a great joke, considering the sort of citizen you were about to become.¡± She was referring to the escape from the slave quarry and from captivity in Kirsk. Not everyone at the table had all that information, though. ¡°It would make getting back into the Empire easier,¡± I mused. The Empire and I were going to be clashing in the future. That was certain. I also had a Spy class that needed levelling. Speaking of a Spy Class that needed levelling, there must be some disguise skills available that might help. I checked with Identify, and there were several, but most were unavailable to me because I did not have Sentient Lore. The only one available was called Veneer. It made surface-level changes that were only temporary. The more changes, the more energy it took to maintain and the less time I could keep it up. I added it to my Skill list. ¡°We will get Warrior changed to Hunter and a few description changes, and you will be good to go. I would recommend we visit an alchemist and change your hair colour.¡± Tabitha continued. ¡°Go red like Ashby.¡± Thyrrni piped up. I activated Veneer and changed my hair to red. Tabitha punched me on the shoulder, ¡°You forgot the eyebrows and beard, idiot.¡± ¡°Blonde is good.¡± Ulfhildr said, running a hand through her hair. Leaving my hair red, I changed my eyebrows and beard to blonde. ¡°We could add some Elf ancestry, and you could have blue hair.¡± Tabitha suggested. Now things were getting ridiculous, but I could appreciate Tabitha trying to calm me down. I released the skill. It took a lot of energy at the Novice level, especially doing the two things at once. Instead of leaving in the morning, Ulfhildr took us to see the head Alchemist for the S?lv Emporium. He recommended that instead of changing my hair colour, I should darken my complexion. This would reduce changes to the ID and make me look more like Tabitha, as she was supposed to be my sister. Both Tabitha and Warren had lightish brown skin, whereas I was quite fair. I would no longer be mistaken for a ¡°fair complexion¡±. The potion was two gold and would be permanent. It tasted horrible. It would take effect over the next day or so. The alchemist was a bit strange and absent-minded, so I hoped I would go a light brown, not green or blue. The document clerk for the S?lv Emporium told us that Nystad ID papers had some spiritual properties in the material to stop forgery. Those changes would cost three gold and take a day. All up it was still better than 3 or 4 Platinum and potentially got me access into the Empire. I spent the day in the S?lv compound, helping and levelling my Darksight. Tabitha went out shopping to prepare for her role as Merchant and get some items for the new accommodations we would be renting. It came with large furniture, like beds and some chairs and a table. We would need mostly small stuff, utensils, cooking supplies, bedding and a chest each etc. Actually, the list kept growing. We could get some of it from the S?lv Emporium. The next morning I was relieved to see my skin was a closer colour to Tabitha¡¯s than Koza¡¯s. I should end up a bit darker than Tabitha to make a marked difference from a ¡°fair complexion.¡± We decided to go out and set up the accounts at the Jern Treasury as a strong test for my new ID. It passed their test fine, and we each set up our accounts, naming the other as the next of kin as would be right for a brother and sister. We got ID disks from the Jern Treasury as well, which would fast-track our access at various branches and affiliates throughout the Kingdom. These disks were imprinted with a Mental and Spiritual imprint from each of us that was unique. We paid extra for this, two gold each, as we expected to be travelling. The cost also explained why the ID documents were not like this. I also gave Tabitha the right to access my accounts on my behalf, as I was expecting to be away a lot. She could deposit my takings from the auction and use them for investments if she found good investments to make. She was surprised at that. I wanted there to always be a minimum of a Platinum, but otherwise, I was happy to match her coin for coin on any investments. Coins sitting in a treasury doing nothing seemed a waste to me, and she had the Merchant Class. Apart from armour and equipment, I would have few needs for it. That afternoon we got access to our cottage and started moving our gear. We also moved the horses to a stable near the eastern gate. This would cost a silver a week. The cottage was small but comfortable. There were three bedrooms and a kitchen, dining, and living area all in one. There was a small basement for storage and an outhouse. There was piped water into the kitchen and the kitchen and outhouse had drains that took waste away. Dwarven plumbing was amazing. I drilled some holes in the walls in discrete places, so Pip could have the run of the place and access outside. His favourite place was already in front of the kitchen fire. The next day I registered at the Mercenary Guild. I was nervous, but everything went smoothly. I was now Warren Carter of the Nystad Empire, a registered Mercenary. 41. Contracts: Wiremu

41. Contracts: Wiremu

I explored what this local Guild could offer while I was here as I had some ideas about what I wanted to learn. I really wanted to learn Weapon Repair and Leather Armour Repair, but there were no Guild Trainers in that. I would have to negotiate with the local crafters. I had seen what a benefit they were to Branik and the Mother¡¯s Tusks. I would go back to S?lv for Weapon Repair, and the crafters making my armour for Leather Repair and see what I can learn. Small Blades, Spear and Throwing Weapons are my go-to weapon skills. The Small Blades and Throwing Weapons trainer was the same person, but the Spear Trainer was out on contract and expected back sometime in the next month. I would have to ask the members if I wanted training. There was an internal board for members to advertise training where I could advertise to train any skills I had that were at least Journeyman level. I would need to demonstrate my competence to the guild before they would let me advertise for the small fee of a silver for a month. My hunting skills were all in demand apparently. I had never trained anybody and was not ready to do that, so I declined for now. I booked a two-hour session with the Small Blades and Throwing Weapons instructor. This wasn¡¯t as enlightening as the Bow instruction I had received in Yelets. I guess the skills were at a higher level, and there was less to teach me. I got some small tips, and Throwing Weapons went up, but overall I didn¡¯t think it was worth it. The instructor was also too interested in where I got my stone darts from. I said I got them from a merchant in the Nystad Empire. I browsed the contracts available, and there were several I could take as a solo operator with hunting skills. Mostly around pest extermination. They didn¡¯t pay a lot, but it would build my reputation with the Guild and give me experience. I would consider it when my armour was ready. I went back via the S?lv Emporium. Yes, they had training available for Weapon Repair as that was a service they offered mercenaries. It would cost me three silver for the first day¡¯s training and then a silver a day until I got to Apprentice level. Then they would pay me on a piece-by-piece basis if I wanted to continue working. Most people got the skill on the first day, and if I didn¡¯t, then she advised me to give it up as it would show I had no aptitude for it. There were no refunds. I booked in for the following day and was told to report to their smithy on the Ninth street at 7am. I went to the Leather Armourer, and the arrangement was similar, but the fee was a gold a day for the first two days and then 5 Silver a day till Apprentice level. Armour was more complicated and especially as I asked for the skills to repair monster armour. I booked in for the following week. Working in a smithy, I was glad of the ability to control my hearing. I spend most of the day grinding and sharpening blades of various types. I was shown how to repair and change wooden handles and leather grips. Different oils were used for various metal types; some blades needed heating first and then retempering. I was told about the care of some Spiritually imbued blades and how to take care when working near runes and enchantments. I was not allowed to touch any of those. I did get the skill and levelled it to 2. They said to come back, and by the end of the week, I had a good chance of hitting the Apprentice level. Apparently, the sales lady at the Emporium was overselling the numbers that got the skill. Over half never finished the day¡¯s work. I decided to complete the week at the smithy. I had the money and nothing else pressing. It will supplement my income if I am ever in a tight spot or perhaps if I need to masquerade as a Smithy Worker. To get me over the hump to the Apprentice Level, I got to work on a Deep Iron alloy blade under strict supervision. I purchased a portable repair kit from them for use on the road but said I would be back for some contract work in between other contracts. Tabitha had started work at this point and was basically training under their Journeyman Merchant for the first week. She would then spend a solid week with the security head before starting her roster. She was now wearing smarter clothes and looked like a successful merchant. She would go riding most evenings after work and not get back till well after dark. Some nights she was significantly later than others. I didn¡¯t ask. I took a day off after the week at the smithy, and Pip, Rocky and I went to explore the area and maybe hunt. My new bow wasn¡¯t ready yet and wouldn¡¯t be for another week. Something about glues and materials soaking in alchemical solutions. We hunted a mountain goat, and I skinned it, and we had goat for dinner. We weren¡¯t feeding a bunch of dwarves, and Velikan was not here, so we had way too much meat. I made some jerky but then sold the rest to the nearest butcher. The butcher was very enthusiastic and would take anything I would bring him. The Leather Armour Repair went similar to the Weapon Repair, except there was a much greater variety of different types of leather and styles of armour. Some came with chainmail sections and buckles and studs. There were different things to look for in each of the different pieces. I only got the Leather Repair Skill at the end of the third day. At the end of the week, it was only at level 3, but that was sufficient for now. My new armour was available mid-week, and I took extra time going through the care and maintenance of that. Working alongside a Leather Worker, I learned why my hide armour was starting to fall apart. It is because I didn''t cure it properly. I hadn¡¯t worn any of it except my cloak since getting decent clothes in Jern. Most of it was only fit for the rubbish. My cloak was looking much worse for wear as well. I really liked that wolf skin cloak. I purchased the right solutions from them and was going to make a new cloak that would last. I practised curing the goat hide first. When I finally heard my bow was ready, I packed up for a week of hunting. Staying in town was getting to me, with people everywhere. I got three simple mercenary contracts for pest extermination, and Rocky, Pip and I headed out. The first contract was for a cluster of farms about a day and a half ride from Jern. We took our time. On the first day, we camped, and I spent the next day practising with my new bow. It took a while to adjust to the bow''s additional power. I was pretty sure I could get the Skill Longbow if I pushed it with Spiritual Strength. I would do that in due course, but what I really wanted was the Skill Triple Shot. I was pretty sure Triple Shot and Venom Arrow would work together. My first Hunt Master didn¡¯t have Triple Shot but described it as duplicating the physical arrow with two spiritual arrows. The main attribute was Spiritual Agility. This tripled the hitting power. I thought that if the two extra arrows were spiritual, then Venom Arrow could also poison them. I didn¡¯t get anywhere that day with all my practice and hunting, but I would keep working on it. A large cat predator was stalking the farmers. They had lost two sheep and a dog. I stabled Rocky in one of their barns to be safe, and Pip and I went hunting that night. We picked up the trail but then lost it. We had better luck the second night when I got an arrow in it, and that was mostly that. This hunting at night with Darksight is fantastic. I can see why Tabitha went straight for it. I can use my bow at night. It will be much better when I get it to the Apprentice level, but I am happy with my choice now. I skinned the cat, and one of the farmers wanted to keep the skin, so I sold it to him cheaply. They signed off my contract as complete for the Guild to pay me out. The next contract was another day''s ride away, but we took two as I saw elk tracks, and we detoured. We didn¡¯t catch the elk, but we did get a deer. The range on my new bow was fantastic. The next contract was a nest of ground rats. They would eat and chew through everything. They nested underground. This was a classic trapping scenario, and I had brought some traps for this. Pip and Bond Senses helped me find the main burrows. And we set the traps near the entrances. Usually, this would then involve days or weeks of repetitive clearing and resetting of traps. However, this time I stayed by the traps and cleared and reset them, and Pip went hunting in the burrows. I was having a leisurely couple of days, and Pip was making regular forays into the burrows and quite enjoying himself. Right up until the time he found the nest Mother. Then he fought a retreat towards me, and I used the Animal Bond to find them and dig down into the tunnel. Pip came out a bit worse for wear, but the nest mother was staggering from the poison and the fight. I finished her with a thrown rock dart. Then Pip went back to feast on the young, and the nest was no more. I dug to expose the breeding area, and the farmer signed off on our contract. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The next contract was another two days away. It was kind of semicircular around Jern. This was another predator, a bear, probably. This bear was different. It was much more cunning than an ordinary bear, and when I found it, it was larger than a black bear should be. I am assuming it had found a dead monster or more than one and had been feasting on it. The Spiritually enhanced monster flesh had been changing it. This fight was different. I put a Venom arrow in it first to slow it down, but it didn¡¯t slow much and charged me. I abandoned my bow for my spears. I danced and dodged around it, looking for a good killing blow. I took several hits on my new armour for my trouble. The thing is, I didn¡¯t want to ruin the pelt with lots of holes as all I could see when I looked at it was my new cloak. It finally dodged my spear, bit down on my forearm, and drew blood through the armour. That will teach me to mess about and not take it seriously. Its jaws went right to the bone. I got my other hand with one of my stone knives and stabbed it in the throat, but while it was bleeding out, it was doing its best to rip my arm off. Pip bit its face, and I stabbed again with the knife, this time aiming up into the brain and using my new Skill Power Strike. Eventually, it stopped moving, and I prised my arm loose. Shit, that could have been a lot worse. It would have been without Granite Bones. Without Granite Bones, I probably would have died. This was a big wake-up call for me. I was not the king of the forest. This was just a moderately enhanced beast, not a monster. If it kept feeding on monsters, It could become one, but it wasn¡¯t one, and it almost killed me. Things can go wrong very quickly, and I should not take chances. I went back to Rocky and found some rags. I cleaned the bite marks in a nearby stream and awkwardly wrapped them tightly with the rags. I would have limited movement for a while, and my bow would not be able to be used. It was my main hand too. I led Rocky closer to the bear and started to skin it with my offhand awkwardly. This seemed to take a long time and was nowhere near my best work. There would need to be a lot of prep work before I could cure this hide. I also cut some meat for my dinner, and then Pip and I looked around to see if we could find what it had been eating. Even if all the flesh had gone, monster bones have a lot of value, and there might be a monster core just lying there for the taking. We tracked the bear to a cave entrance. There we found evidence of what it had been eating. There were bodies and bones scattered all around. They were humanoid and about the size of an 8-year-old child. Goblins. There was a goblin horde in the cave system somewhere, and the bear had been feasting on the goblins that came to the cave entrance. Probably outlying goblins of the horde. The bear could easily take down five to ten goblins and then feast. It looked like it had been happening for weeks. My Monster Lore, as taught by Koza, told me a female goblin could have a litter of around ten every 4-6 months or so. Every 200 or so goblins would come from a Shaman who had a Monster Core and enhanced them spiritually. A goblin Chief could have 50 or more Shamans under him. That is 10,000 goblins. It is probably less because of a lack of food in the caves, but it may not be. A 10,000-strong goblin horde is a threat to a city like Jern. The goblins will just scale the walls like they are not there. I am sure there are defences in the walls or just outside them or both, but it is still a threat. I needed to get the word back to Jern. Hearing Aid was the first to pick up the sound of approaching goblins. The cave narrowed about 10m in, and that was my chance to bottleneck them and hope it was just a scouting party like the bear seemed to kill. I had a stone knife in my off-hand, and my good hand was throbbing from the bear bite and wouldn¡¯t be much use. I doubted I could get to Rocky fast enough, and if I didn¡¯t keep them bottled-necked, I would be swarmed. Goblin weapons were simple. Speed, claws and teeth. Shamans would also have some Spiritual Skill or skills. Then the goblins were there. They didn¡¯t just come along the floor, but the walls and ceiling too. The knife, even in my off hand, would rip through them, but they kept coming. One leapt off the roof to my back. It was Pip¡¯s job to get them off my back, as I couldn''t stop. A venom strike in the face worked. That wasn¡¯t the only one that jumped on my back. I would be dead without my new armour, and I would be dead without Darksight. Granite Sense could tell where the goblins were when they were touching the rock but not what they were doing or going to do. My damaged arm wasn¡¯t useless as I had to touch a goblin, and I could send a Granite Spike into them. It would be a hundred times better to wield a knife. I was cautious with using Skill as this could be a long fight, and I needed to conserve as much energy as possible. I was wondering how I could block the tunnel long enough to get away. There was a Granite Wall, but my Stats were too low. And my spare seven attribute points weren''t enough. I concentrated for a moment and created a ring of spikes around the tunnel. That gave me a breather, and then the next row of goblins just climbed through them. The energy cost of the ring was not worth the two-second breather I got. I was bleeding in other places where they had gotten through the armour. Pip was starting to get low on venom. I could really use Branik and her shield right now. Could I make a shield from Granite? The answer was yes, with a point in Spiritual Strength and only because I had a shitload of Physical Strength. I had no shield Skills. How could I hold it with a damaged forearm? I could encase my forearm in Granite, and then I wouldn¡¯t have to hold it and could use my upper arm to move it. I needed to do something. Wow, that took a ton of energy, but my shield is blocking the floor and sides leaving a gap at the top, which I move the shield to and crush a goblin and then back to get the one sneaking under. It is heavy. I didn¡¯t create it with a smooth surface but with a grid of spikes on the front. I am bashing the spikes into the goblins. I trigger a Power Strike, and it works, too, but I mostly use my Physical Strength. My boots are taking a beating, and the occasional goblin is getting over the top, but it is essentially a rest from what I was doing. I can often get the goblins going over with my knife, so Pip is resting as well. It feels strange with the shield in my main hand and the knife in my off-hand, but it is working for now. When I start to get pushed back, I Power Strike or Quick Strike forward again. Something is changing on the other side, but I can''t see through my shield and Granite Sense is confusing. Then Granite Sense flares a warning, and I bash forward just as a rock spike stabs up where I am standing. Shit, it must be a Goblin Shaman with some rock skills. Then my Shield takes a big hit, and I am pushed back, and the top left side of the shield breaks off. I see a massive stone club, and I know where the Shaman is. I sent three Granite Spikes into the area. One of them scores a hit, and he bellows. I don¡¯t wait and Power Strike forward again, hoping to keep him off balance. I am sucking through the energy. Pip slips onto the ground and moves forward, hunting the Shaman. The only way forward is to kill the Shaman. I glimpse him through the gap in my shield. He is about my size, a slightly large human. That hit that damaged my shield must have been a skilled strike. I had been practising my throwing with my off hand and so I threw the knife and sliced his cheek open. I only had darts in reach of that hand now and started throwing them when the opportunity showed itself. I kept pushing forward toward him. Pain lances through my back as a goblin lands on it, piercing through the Troll Leather. I reach back and grab an arm and yank him off. The Shaman bellows again, and I sense through our bond that Pip has struck. He has sunk to one knee, and I reach him, and Power Strike his head with my spiked shield, and it splatters his brains across the tunnel wall. The remaining goblins turn to flee when their connection to the Shaman breaks. I sink to my knees as well. If a goblin had stayed, they could have killed me. When I get a little strength back, I go to look at the Shaman. He is not overly strong or tough. About the same as I am. His strength is in the horde. If I hadn¡¯t been able to keep them bottled in the tunnel, I would be dead. If I hadn''t experienced the long fight against the Mountain Troll with Koza, I would not have paced myself and would be dead. If it wasn¡¯t for Pip¡­. Well, there are a lot of things to be thankful for. I grabbed my skinning knife and dug the Monster Core from the Shaman. This was my first time seeing one, and it was small in the palm of my hand. I would Identify it later. I grabbed the shaman''s body to take as evidence and sell. We would ride straight to Jern, riding through the night. We stopped at the first creek to get the worst of the blood off and try to clean the wounds. I grabbed some herbs I had to help with healing and fight infection and ate them with some jerky as we rode. 42. Core Skills: Wiremu

42. Core Skills: Wiremu

We approached the gates about mid-morning, and we must have looked a sight. I was barely awake in the saddle, having lost a lot of blood overnight. My armour was torn and ripped, and a body was tied on the back of the horse, still dripping fluids. When the guard on the gate saw us, he blew his alarm whistle before coming forward. And a bell started to ring. Pip had the sense to hide. He caught the reins to stop Rocky, and I basically fell from the saddle. He half caught me. Others were coming at a run, weapons ready. When they saw it was a Goblin Shaman on the back of Rocky, a louder bell started to ring. I was fed a potion and started to come to my senses. A sergeant was trying to get me to answer questions. I was moved into the guard house, and a Healer was summoned. I was fed a different potion, and this brought me around enough to answer questions. I showed them my Mercenary Guild ID. They brought a map, and I showed them where the cave was. A Squad or two were immediately dispatched to look and report. I described the Bear and the cave and, in broad terms, the fight. Nobody could understand how I survived against a Shaman and his Horde, even in a tight space. I mentioned a shield, but not that I had no skills nor that I created it. Tabitha was summoned and arrived with Ylwa and Lars from the prospecting team. Eventually, they helped me home with strict instructions and a smelling ointment from the Healer. Lars took the Shaman''s body to the Mercenary Guild before it rotted too much further. Tabitha had Pip, and Ylwa led Rocky to our cottage. I got out of my armour with help and collapsed into bed. I woke at dusk, and Tabitha had a bowl of stew and a loaf of bread for me to eat. Pip was curled up by the fire. They had unloaded Rocky and semi-sorted things. The city was still on high alert. I went through everything step by step with Tabitha. I looked at my Status, and there were significant skill gains and a Level in Hunter. Granite Sense, Spike and Bones were now all Journeyman, and Granite Shield was Apprentice. This gave me several Spiritual attributes gains. Darksight, Quick Strike and Power Strike were all now Apprentice level.
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros Total
Type Attribute Level 9 11 6 2
Physical Strength (PS) 9 11 2 22 1 45
Agility (PA) 12 5 9 4 30
Perception (PP) 11 0 18 1 2 32
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 2 23
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 6 23
Perception (MP) 11 1 0 6 18
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. 0 11 3 27
Agility (SA) 8 2 4 6 1 21
Perception (SP) 10 4 0 6 2 22
Totals 92 41 37 33 30 8 241
Free Points 8 0 0 0
Resistances: Poison +18, Pain +9, Crushing +20, Cold +18 Skills: Novice: Cooking 4, Animal Care 4, Truth Sensing 3, Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Sense Spiritual 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Monster Lore 3, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Detect Traps 4, Venom Arrow 3, Imbue Venom 1, Spiritual Trapping 4, Repair Leather Armour 3, Veneer 2 Apprentice: Bond Senses 5, Fishing 5, Orcish 7, Far Sight 8, Riding 7, Unarmed Combat 7, Sewing 7, Throw Weapons 7, Camouflage 6, Sense Treasure 6, Mineral Lore 5, Spear 7, Hide Armourer 7, Animal Lore 7, Manipulate Status 5, Butchering 5, Plant Lore 5, Weapon Repair 5, Granite Shield 5, Power Strike 5, Quick Strike 6, Darksight 6. Journeyman: Hearing Aid 11, Hammer 13, Identify 11, Animal Bond 12, Granite Spike 11, Trapping 10, Tracking 10, Bow 10, Skinning 10, Deceive 10, Granite Sense 10, Small Blades 10, Granite Bones 10 Master: Stealth 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 2 Bond: Pip Desert Viper. Crushing Resistance +20, Cold Resistance +18 Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones, Camouflage, Strength Boost. I now had eight free attribute points. I still didn¡¯t know what to do with them, so I waited a bit. Then I got out the Monster Core, and we both Identified it, and she appraised it and applied her Spatial Awareness. It was a dense core of highly concentrated Spiritual energy. She had learned about them from her Merchant training, and this was a small one. It was still worth several Platinum. Monster cores come with an affinity or sometimes a major and minor affinity. This affinity is usually related to the Monster it came from and the skills it had. Goblins are known for their growth and fertility alignment. The blood and body parts are often used in fertiliser and fertility potions for livestock and Sentients. This Shaman showed skills in manipulating Rock. A person could use a Core, which could have several effects. It could enhance an affinity or learn skills. Or it could damage what you have and, in extreme cases, cripple you for life. There were tests to see if a core was compatible with someone by using rituals. Usually, cores were used to power rituals and not used by individuals, except maybe the very rich. I didn¡¯t need the money, so I was in no hurry to sell it. I wasn¡¯t going to use it without a lot more information. It was probably compatible with me, but I could get random effects. It was a possibility that all it would do was make me super fertile. No thanks. Tabitha wanted to study it a lot more, and so did I. When would we get another chance? We stored it in the cellar behind a block of Granite for now. I spent the next day around the cottage, mostly seeing what my armour might need. I wanted to do as much as I could to level my Skill and learn for myself. I also started curing the Bear hide. The Healer came and re-looked at my injuries. They would probably take a week to ten days to heal. A week or less if I was diligent in using the ointment. The next day I went to the mercenary Guild to hand in my contracts and get paid. The Goblin Shaman was only partially useful. All the blood had been lost, and decay had started, but I still got five Gold for it. There was also a bonus from the city of three gold for getting the early warning back here. The silver I earned for the actual contracts looked quite meagre in comparison. Apparently, Warren Carter was the talk of the Guild. I had lots of new friends, all of whom I put off for now. Good on you, Warren. I spent the next day alternating between repairing my armour and working on my new cloak. I had the outer layer done and was considering the lining. The woollen lining was nice in the old cloak, but I only had goat hide here. I might try to hunt a Llama for the lining this time. I could make some new gloves, too, as my current ones were falling apart. Then I felt something happening with Pip through our bond. It was strange, not like he was in trouble, but growing and changing. The bond indicated he was in the cellar. That was ominous. I went to look, calling for Tabitha as she had the day off. I found Pip, and he had eaten the Monster Core, and it was digesting into his system. His body was noticeably growing. He was normally about a half metre long and quite thin. He was twice that now and going through other changes. His status was in flux. There didn¡¯t seem to be much I could do but wait for it to settle down. Tabitha arrived, ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± she asked. ¡°He ate the core, and it is changing him,¡± I replied. ¡°Shit. What do you think will happen?¡± ¡°No Idea. Actually, on second thought, I think he might be turning into a monster.¡± I said, a bit worried. ¡°Double goblin shit!¡± she said. ¡°Careful with saying that. It was a goblin core.¡± I grinned at her. ¡°How can you joke about this?¡± she asked. ¡°How long do you think it will take?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, several hours at least.¡± I didn¡¯t want to touch him as he was changing, so I got the armour I was working on and settled in the cellar to watch and wait. Darksight was a fantastic skill. Pip grew and shed his skin, then shrunk back to his original size. He would lay still on the floor, then suddenly twist and writhe on the floor as if in pain. The Bond was telling me it wasn¡¯t just pain. I didn¡¯t know how to interpret the sensations the Bond was giving me. Then he would lie still for an hour or more, and without the Bond, I might have thought he was dead. Then he went through another session of growing, writhing, shedding, and shrinking. The shed skin quickly broke down to dust. This was going to take hours. I woke in the dark cellar with Pip curled up on my lap. Time to find out what the core actually did to him. I checked my Status, and I noticed that he was no longer a Desert Viper. He was now a Venom Serpent, which was a monster type. He didn¡¯t have a class, but his Skills now had levels, and there were more of them. Some were obviously from me, and some must be from the Shaman. Some, I think, were combined. All the new Skills were Novice level, but the Skills he had before were much higher. Then I saw he also had a new name. T¨¡oke. I wondered what that was about. I knew my original name of Pip was short for Pip Squeak as he was so small then, and that does not apply anymore. It was given without thought to a juvenile snake. If he has taken a new name, he must have a much stronger sense of self-identity. Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Crushing Resistance 20, Cold Resistance 18 Skills: Novice: Growth 2, Power Strike 4, Granite Spike 4, Venom Spit 2, Granite Shield 2 Apprentice: Strength Boost 5 Journeyman: Granite Bones 10, Camouflage 10 Master: Venom Bite 15, Quick Strike 15 Affinity: Granite The resistances were the same. I must make more effort to raise the Cold Resistance as winter is coming. Growth was the odd one out. I Identified it, and for each level, he could increase his size up to twice the skill level times his original size. He was originally about 0.5m long and 5cm in diameter. At Grow level 2, he would be 2m long and 20cm in diameter. At Apprentice level, he would be 5m long and at Journeyman level 10m long. I could probably ride him at Master level. The Skill could change his size, which was a one-off effect. He would stay that size until he changed again, either up or down. Power Strike and Granite Spike are probably from us both, which is maybe why they are level 4. The Shaman used some Power Skill to break my shield and had some sort of Rock Spike Skill. Venom Spit is a variation on my Throwing Weapon Skill, I think. Similar to when I got Imbue Venom instead of Venom Bite. Granite Shield was interesting. He could create a protective shield over himself at Novice, but he could vary the size from Apprentice. I could see him with a small shield attached to his tail and then using a Power Strike. Maybe that''s the way I would do it. We will have to see. I was looking forward to levelling my own Granite Shield to be more flexible. The other big change was the jump in our bond. Animal Bond jumped from 12 to Master level 15. I think T¨¡oke¡¯s intelligence took a jump, but I will have to wait until he wakes. I don¡¯t want to start the next level of our relationship with a grumpy Monster. 43. Gambling: Tabitha

43. Gambling: Tabitha

So now I am living with two monsters instead of one. Not that Wiremu is actually a monster. Pip has always made me nervous, and now I wonder what I will come home to. I left Wiremu in the cellar fixing his armour in the dark with Pip twitching every now and again. I asked at work if anyone had heard of animals eating monster cores because Warren had thought he had seen one. I am getting used to calling him Warren all the time, so I don¡¯t slip. It is not as easy as I had thought, as memories of my brother keep coming up. I heard horror stories about animals going mad and rampaging after eating a core that were horrendous. I wonder what I will go home to. I am working in the S?lv Emporium as a Merchant today, and I have no jobs tonight. The last few weeks have been good for me. My Merchant Class has levelled twice, and my Thief class once. I think when I told Wiremu that I was a Security Consultant for S?lv Emporium, he thought I would be on the defensive team. I am on the Proactive team. Plus, when sorting out Wiremu¡¯s Mercenary Guild problems, I took the opportunity to become a member myself. I have done several ¡®acquisition¡¯ jobs for the Guild and for S?lv Emporium, although S?lv jobs tend to be more of the data-gathering type. These trading houses are pretty ruthless, and it will get worse as the auction gets closer and more competitors arrive. If Wiremu could get his head out of the monster''s guts, he could find plenty of opportunities to level his Spy Class. I have had plenty of skill gains, especially around detecting and disarming traps. Stealth is now only one away from the Master level. One thing I am really proud of is I learned Sentient Lore. This has really helped me understand the different races I am selling to or stealing off. There is not much difference sometimes. I also got a Coax skill which can help convince someone to buy. My supervisor was trying to teach me to get the Influence Skill instead. I really can¡¯t see myself as an Influencer. I think I know what I want to aim for. I need to keep on the move, and the one thing I am missing is using the Riding Class. I think I want to become a travelling Merchant / Information Broker. My Spatial Awareness is mid-Apprentice now, and I can read documents without opening them. It takes a bit of time, but it will get easier as I level it. Everything will be an open book to me. Literally. To get there, I need to level Merchant to Journeyman level, if possible and get a negotiation Skill and an acting Skill. I need to focus on my Mental attributes. Mental Perception is good, and with Sentient Lore, I am getting the hang of reading people. My Mental Agility is OK, but my Mental Strength is really poor. If I want to power my mental abilities and resist the influence of others, then I need Mental Strength. I don¡¯t know what Classes there are in those areas, but I want to find out. My next training steps are the gambling houses. Particularly the card games. Sure, I will know every card, but that is not the point. The point is to learn to read people and teach myself how not to be read. Turn my skill off and try to learn to bluff and manipulate. There will be others there using their skills to cheat and swindle, and I need to practise against them. I need to test Spatial Awareness against their Status defences and learn the tricks to mislead. My Shadow manipulation is also low Apprentice now, and I can give shadows physical form. A light touch only, but I am hoping enough to nudge the dice in the gambling houses. The trick will be to do it, so nobody notices and to not give away that I am manipulating things. That is the plan, and in a bold move, I put all my free points into Mental Strength to bring it up to 20. It is still the lowest of my Mental Skills, but at least it is close. I was a bit disappointed that I didn''t get any new skills from raising Mental Strength. I obviously need to take action to trigger the skills. Tomorrow night is the Gambling House. Tonight I take a gamble at my own house and see if I have a rampant monster there. Spatial Awareness enters the front of the house first, and all is quiet. As I open the door, I can sense most of the house, Wiremu is in the kitchen preparing dinner, and Pip is asleep by the fire. Everything looks normal, which puts me on high alert because everything is not normal. ¡°Hi!¡± Wiremu calls out a greeting. Him and his bloody Hearing Aid. I enter and say cautiously, ¡°Hello.¡± Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°It is OK. T¨¡oke is fine.¡± He assures me, indicating Pip. ¡°T¨¡oke?¡± I ask. ¡°It is his new name,¡± Wiremu replies. ¡°After the change, he has had a large increase in Mental Attributes and a much greater sense of self. Apparently, it means something like, Toxic, and that is something he identifies with to a much greater extent than my original childish name.¡± T¨¡oke raises his head to greet me, and I swear the look he gives me tells me I am a dumbass for not knowing he is fine. ¡°Good,¡± I replied. ¡°So what happened?¡± I use Spatial Awareness on T¨¡oke to penetrate his status. All I get is that he is no longer a Desert Viper but now something called a Venom Serpent. I don¡¯t know what that is, but I am going to assume it is the name of a monster animal. I used to get more than that, and I didn¡¯t use to get disapproving looks from T¨¡oke when I did it. ¡°As you have just discovered, T¨¡oke has had a lot of Mental growth and can now sense and resist people Identifying him to a certain extent. His natural reaction is to attack when people do that, but we will work on it.¡± Wiremu said, glancing at T¨¡oke. ¡°We also communicate a lot clearer through our bond. It is mostly not words, but images and feelings.¡± I nod, still cautious. Intelligence is good, probably. ¡°His Skills have also doubled and now have levels,¡± Wiremu continued. ¡°Some of the Skills are from me, and some are from the Shaman Core.¡± ¡°What about all the horror stories I have heard,¡± I ask, not informing him I heard them today. ¡°From what I have been able to work out with T¨¡oke, it comes down to compatibility and synergy. I think our bond also had a stabilising influence. The Shaman was an animal monster, and without that, both T¨¡oke and I would be dead. The Shaman had so many similarities with me and my affinity and skills. We think the core was filtered through the bond. T¨¡oke has one Skill that is obviously, directly from the Shaman, but that is it. Why don¡¯t you show her T¨¡oke?¡± I looked at T¨¡oke, and all of a sudden, he doubled in size and width. ¡°Wow, Ok.¡±I said. ¡°He will need to wait about half an hour before changing back, as it takes a lot out of him at this level. With the skill growth, it will get easier for him, and the change will get larger.¡± Wiremu explained. ¡°T¨¡oke is a lot more intelligent and will probably be more independent from me.¡± He looked at T¨¡oke, and they obviously exchanged communication. However, that worked. ¡°T¨¡oke, however, doesn¡¯t like his new size as he cannot ride and hide on my shoulder, which he prefers, apparently. That means I am still going to be his horse, I gather.¡± T¨¡oke looked smug. I am not sure how he looked smug, as a snake''s face does not change in expression. I wondered if he could communicate feelings in an aura or something. ¡°That¡¯s great,¡± I said, definitely a lot more relieved. ¡°So, what are your plans?¡± I asked. ¡°I am going to continue to work on my armour while I heal,¡± He replied. ¡°I might pay for another day of training at the Leatherworker¡¯s as I am struggling in places with it. What about you?¡± ¡°Tomorrow after work, I am going to visit Fortune''s Favour and try to teach myself how to gamble.¡± I said and then explained some of my longer-term thinking and dreams. Not all, just some. He liked the idea of a travelling merchant. Fortune''s Favour was one of the upper-class establishments for gambling. It looked all very posh. It was also very frustrating. It was like they¡¯d had people come and try to rip them off with skills before. Various types of card games were the main type of gambling, either against each other or against the establishment. The cards all had some sort of Spiritually enhanced coating that meant I couldn''t just sense them, but I had to concentrate and push my skill. I think it would have thwarted most perception skills. The dice were the same, and my weak Shadow Manipulation skills wouldn¡¯t affect it. The place was well-lit, minimising shadows and places to hide. There was security wandering through frequently, and I am sure they all had Keen Sight and high-levelled Sense Spiritual to spot skill use. I also think there might have been one or two spotters in the rafters above the lanterns. I did play a few games, and they had beginner tables to teach the games. I came out poorer than I went in, but I did learn a lot. What a fine upstanding establishment. Next time I will try one of the lower-class establishments. The next night I went to the most run-down gambling house I could find. I dressed down for it and played the gullible newbie. After all, I was a newbie, just not that gullible. I could tell the sharks and professional gamblers as their Statuses were locked up tight. I went wide-eyed into a four-player game of cards. Two of them were working together, and the other knew the score. I let them fleece me, and I watched how they did it with my Spatial Awareness. The two who worked together had clever communication going on. The lone guy was amazing at sleight of hand. I am not sure even Spatial Awareness caught everything. I lost a moderate amount of coins, but I found it very profitable. My next task is to learn the sleight of hand. I wonder if the lone gambler is looking for a trainee. 44. Accusations: Wiremu I am finally healed and my armour repaired. I did spend another day at the Leatherworkers, and with all my efforts on my armour I got Repair Leather Armour to the Apprentice level. That was a difficult, and expensive, skill to learn, but now at least they pay me. It is no wonder not many people have the skill. As a side bonus, learning to cure hides properly, all the leather working knowledge and making my new cloak, got my Hide Armourer up to Journeyman level. I can make good work now that will last. There is a market for it according to Tabitha, particularly coats, cloaks and hats. Tabitha is out most nights now. Apparently she has found someone to train her in gambling? I don¡¯t know how that fits in with a travelling merchant, but there must be some crossover skills. Or she has become addicted to gambling and is hiding it. I know her Mental Strength isn¡¯t the greatest. I might follow her one evening and check. The city has stepped down from the high alert although there are double strength patrols going out. The Mercenaries can get called to action in defence of the city against monster incursions. We must respond and we get paid a standard daily rate. I am on my way to the Mercenary Guild to see about another job or two. In the city would be prefered. Tabitha told me about the trading houses and their rivalry and the potential for Spy to level. I will look. The weather is getting cooler. My big scary monster snake wouldn¡¯t leave his spot by the fire. I have been trying to level Cold resistance but it is slow now. It is nice to be able to communicate better with T¨¡oke. I head up to the counter and am discussing how to get the sort of jobs that are not normally put up on the job boards. They keep lists of members who might be available for such work. He will put my name on the Espionage and Acquisition lists, but I declined to go on the Assassination list. He was trying to convince me otherwise because Hunters are generally quite good at assassinations. I did have to admit I had the skills for it. Then I hear a loud yell behind me, ¡°Wiremu Hunter!¡± Deceive helped me not to react and to carry on with my discussion. It was then repeated closer, ¡°Wiremu Hunter!¡± The Guild attendant said, ¡°I think they are talking to you.¡± I turned around and saw four large men standing there, one of which was holding the paper with my bounty on it. ¡°Hello gentlemen, I am Warren Carter. Can I help you?¡± I asked politely. ¡°You¡¯re Wiremu Hunter!¡± the loud mouth with the paper accused. He ID as a warrior as did two of the others and the other one was an archer. No specialisations that I can tell. I suspect they were wanting to get the Bounty Hunter Specialisation and a successful bounty hunt would go a long way. The guys didn¡¯t seem intelligent enough. ¡°No,¡± I said and showed them my Guild ID. ¡°I am Warren Carter. I do have the Hunter Class, but don¡¯t let that confuse you about the name.¡± I knew I was sounding a bit patronising when I said that, but I always did have a hard time not winding up idiots like these. Although, when I thought about it, these idiots were actually right this time. ¡°You look like him!¡± Loudmouth accused. ¡°We are taking you to Kirsk for the bounty!¡± ¡°May I see that?¡± I asked and he handed over the paper. ¡°First up, no snake. You don¡¯t see a snake do you?¡± I specifically asked the Archer who will have the highest perception. He shook his head. ¡°No Quarry Worker or Spy classes, although with Status manipulation I could be hiding those.¡± I conceded. ¡°I obviously don¡¯t have a fair complexion and this drawing is not me. These eyes are too close and the nose is too straight. I also have a much stronger chin, but I guess you couldn¡¯t tell that under the beard. Nope, not him,¡± I declared. ¡°I also live here with my sister who is also a Carter, although I have to admit, she has accused me of being adopted. Sisters eh?¡± I gave them a smile and handed the paper back. They were wavering. The confidence was gone, but they were not totally convinced. ¡°Maybe we should go and question his sister, that should get the truth!¡± Loudmouth grinned. ¡°Maybe we will all enjoy it.¡± They backed out the door to the street with evil grins. I had lost my smile, but made no move to follow. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to warn your sister?¡± the Guild attendant asked. ¡°No,¡± I replied. ¡°Firstly, that is what they want me to do and are probably waiting to ambush me outside. So I am going to go and relax and have a couple of ales at the bar and make them wait. They have obviously never hunted anything before and are not the patient sort. Secondly, if they happen to find my sister she will have no problem dealing with that lot, and I won¡¯t have to worry any more.¡± ¡°What does your sister do?¡± He asked. ¡°She is a merchant at the S?lv Emporium,¡± I replied, leaving a very confused clerk at the counter. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. After my ale, I browsed the Guild merchants, but didn¡¯t buy anything. I then decided I would stay and have an early dinner at the Guild bar. It would be better if I was accosted in the dark as there would be less reliable witnesses. I left the Guild not long after dusk and headed home. I picked up a tail almost immediately, the archer I think. He had some nominal stealth skills but he had no chance against Hearing Aid and then he got too close and Bond Senses latched on and tracked him. As I neared our house Loudmouth stepped out of the alley next to our house and then the others formed a semicircle around me. ¡°Hello again, I wasn¡¯t expecting to see you again,¡± I lied. ¡°You are Wiremu Hunter,¡± Loudmouth declared, ¡°We are going to get the truth from you and your sister and claim the bounty!¡± ¡°Getting the truth is going to be difficult for you when you already have the truth,¡± I said. ¡°We will see about that,¡± he said, taking a menacing step toward me. ¡°It seems this is your lucky day because here comes my sister now,¡± I indicated behind him. He actually looked. The idiot actually turned his head and looked. I could have killed him right then and he would never have known. I didn¡¯t because Tabitha was actually coming. ¡°Hello, Warren,¡± she said. ¡°Who are these handsome friends of yours?¡± she said in a sultry voice. The way she walked all the idiots were looking at her. I rolled my eyes. I know Tabitha sensed it through her Spatial Awareness Skill. There was a little smirk on her lips. ¡°These gentlemen think I am some guy called Wirey Hunter who has a bounty on him.¡± I replied. ¡°Wiremu Hunter.¡± Loudmouth supplied. I am sure there was some dribble there. Only the Archer was keeping a partial eye on me. Tabitha saundered right up to Loudmouth and put her hand on his chest. ¡°Wow you are a tall one,¡± She said. I really think she was way over playing it, but it seemed to be working. She moved around the circle getting close to each of them as she said, ¡°So you think my brother Warren is this Wiremu guy? Really Warren, I told you that you were adopted. What has this guy done?¡± ¡°Murder, escape capture and damaged stuff.¡± Loudmouth said. Then something seemed to change in his eyes and it was like he woke up. He grabbed at Tabitha, ¡°We are going to make you tell us the truth bitch. Using a skill on us! I am going to fuck you for that and make you pay.¡± All of a sudden there was an ominous feeling in the air and everything went dark. But not everything went dark. I could still see Loudmouth who was near me but not the others. She must have levelled Engulfing Shadows if she could now vary the density of the shadows. I took the opportunity to create a small Granite Shield on my arm and stepped forward and used Quick Strike and Power Strike to bash Loudmouth''s head. It was too much and his skull caved in and he collapsed dead. I stepped back making the shield disappear so I was in the same position as before. The shadows disappeared and there was no sign of Tabitha. ¡°I think that should be a lesson for you all about bad mouthing and threatening to rape women.¡± I said pointing to Loudmouth''s body. I stepped over him and continued, ¡°I suggest you take him and go and don¡¯t let me see you again. Remember, I warned him about running into walls and he ignored me.¡± Ignoring the fact we were in the middle of the street. Two of his friends dragged the body off. I watched until they were out of sight and entered the house. Tabitha was just settling by the fire. ¡°Seriously? Moral lessons about women?¡± She queried. ¡°Well I figured they should learn some respect.¡± I replied ¡°Just like you respected that guy by bashing his head in?¡± She replied. ¡°I put a bit too much behind that one. Anyway, I never said I was the best example. Besides I thought I passed the blame to you on that one?¡± She wavered her hand indicating a response of maybe. ¡°Anyway, what is this with your act?¡± I continued. ¡°Do you have some new skills?¡± ¡°I am trying to get a new skill in acting. It is not as easy as it sounds. Most of that was my Distract Skill. When I discovered Distract was more than sounds in the shadows it suddenly went to Journeyman level. I can use almost anything to distract people, including my body, and the skill works. I got around them all and got all their coin pouches,¡± she said, bringing them out. ¡°I figured that was what you were doing, but I still didn¡¯t spot you doing it.¡± She grinned at that. ¡°Trevor has been teaching me about skill synergy.¡± she said. I raised an eyebrow in a silent question. ¡°I have high Physical Agility and while my Pickpocket Skill and Sleight of Hand Skills are still in the Novice levels, they synergise so well they act like the upper Apprentice levels.¡± I realised that is probably what happened to my Repair Leather Armour and Hide Armourer skills. If I ever wanted to get Leather Armourer it would be fairly easy for me. I didn¡¯t because they needed a lot of tools and I was not settling down yet. ¡°I will need to look at my Skills and see what synergies might be good. So who is Trevor?¡± I asked. ¡°Trevor and I are teaming up in the gambling houses and in exchange for a bigger cut of the take he is helping me get some new skills, and hopefully a new class.¡± She replied. ¡°It might end up being a specialisation of the Thief Class, but I think something is close. I don¡¯t know what and Trevor won¡¯t tell me what classes he has. I am levelling Spatial Awareness trying to find out though.¡± ¡°So what happened when Loudmouth started threatening you?¡± I asked. ¡°I assume his Mental Strength suddenly broke through the act,¡± She said. ¡°You were pretty over the top.¡± I said. ¡°Yeah, that''s why I need a skill to help be convincing to people. Breakthroughs will happen less then.¡± 45. Exploration: Tabitha The next day I received a notice that there was a contract available at the Guild. It was an open Contract for all Stealth and Scout type Mercenaries to assist the Jern Guard to scout the caves where Wiremu encountered the Goblins. Darksight was a requirement. They were notifying all people on their hidden lists as well as a general notice. We could register our interest and report to the Guard headquarters. Working with the Guards is going to put off a lot of people from the lists. I was interested and so was Wiremu. We decided to report as a team. When we arrived there were about fifteen Mercenaries there. We were taken in and they verified that we had the minimum skills they wanted. Ten were chosen and Wiremu and I were part of that. They wanted five teams and we paired off and would be with three Guardsmen. The Guardsmen didn¡¯t really want the mercenaries and there wasn¡¯t a lot of trust there. They had found five entrances they wanted to explore, four of them had definite signs of Goblins and there just weren¡¯t enough Guardsmen with the skills. We were paired with a grizzly dwarven Scout Sergeant and two junior guards, one Dwarf and one human. The Sergeant had a mapping skill. The two juniors were basically there for experience and to pack in the supplies. We were expecting at least a ten day trip. I expected ten days away from my job would be a problem, but when I asked the Security Head he was pleased. They really wanted to increase good will with the Guard and he contacted the Guard and generously offered one to allow one of their stealth specialists at no cost to the guard. I would be paid by the S?lv Emporium and not the Guard. It is probably why I was chosen rather than one of the others as the Guard didn¡¯t know about my shadow affinity. Cost saving measures. We would set out in two days and the guard would supply everything except personal equipment. Wiremu was bringing T¨¡oke and a couple of shortened spears. He also had a small wooden shield especially made up. He could strengthen it with Granite and It would not be noticeable to the guards. Then he had his knives and throwing darts. He was also packing some traps. I put a rush on my order with Ulfhildr and was told my dagger would be ready. I had asked her to make my Darksteel into a dagger combined with some Deep Iron. I sold S?lv some of my Darksteel to pay for it. It would be a large heavy war knife. It was not my usual knife at all, but with the strong heavy alloy it would be better for upfront fighting. I was also wanting to experiment with my affinity on it. It would be a very desirable item for people to steal. I was not going to flaunt it. I also had a heavier set of Leathers to wear. They were nothing special as I had not yet found what I was looking for. I wasn¡¯t really sure what it was I was looking for, but I would know it when I found it. The Guard delivered us to the entrance to the cave they had found. It was a different entrance than where he had fought the Goblins. Wiremu showed me the Goblin footprints, but they could have been anything to me. Wiremu and I were obviously the Goblin fodder and were to be first in. The Sergeant would be next, he told us to call him Sergeant, charming fellow. Then the Privates were to follow. Gunner was the Dwarf and Harold the human. I took the lead first and we headed in. We would take a break every three hours and then a longer break after four of those to sleep. The first three hours were uneventful. Some of the passage was very narrow and a squeeze for the dwarves. Goblins are small. We didn¡¯t want to announce our presence by banging on rocks. Wiremu took the lead next and we came to our first split. There were three passages to choose from, two of them had the scent of goblins. The sergeant chose the one with the most recent scent. We swapped the lead again and halfway through the next session I heard Wiremu¡¯s rock click warning of danger. I figured it was that bloody Hearing Aid of his, but it may have been his Granite Sense. I went into stealth and scouted forward to see while he warned the others. About ten minutes later the passage opened into a cavern with a stream. There were about 20 Goblins trying to catch fish from the stream. Some were eating mushroom type growths. I guess they needed to scavenge far and wide for food. I couldn¡¯t see any other passages, but when Wiremu and the Sergeant came they could, as they both had Farsight as well as Darksight. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. We skirted the edge of the cavern to check out the passages. The second one we encountered had the smell of goblins so we took that. We swapped again for the fourth shift of the day. We would need somewhere to hide for a few hours of sleep. We didn¡¯t find any and ended up making a short camp in the passage. Two on watch for three hours then swap. Then we move off again. Day 2. We will call it day 2 even though the routine only takes about 18 hours. This was similar. We had three passage splits and two caverns. No goblins. We filled out water bottles in a stream and Wiremu tried eating some of the Mushroom stuff the goblins were eating. He declared it goblin only food. I engaged the Privates in some basic conversation to get to know them a bit better. The Sergeant frowned but didn¡¯t interfere. They were both Jern natives, Harold the son of a Baker and Gunner following the example of his Mother in joining the Guard. They seemed nice enough kids, not that I was physically older than they were. I think my perspective is changing. Harold also wasn¡¯t very good at hiding his growing admiration, or should I say infatuation, with me. Like I said, kids. Day 3. We found two groups of goblins. One we could bypass in a cavern but the other we met in a narrow passage. We convinced the Sergeant that Wiremu and I could hide while the goblins passed and then we could make sure none escaped to give warning while they attacked from the front. I don¡¯t think he really believed us, but he let us try. With Wiremu¡¯s camouflage and my Shadows Embrace it was easy for us to cling to the ceiling and watch them go past and not be noticed. There were about fifteen of them. We dropped down and started silently killing from the back. We were about half way through them when the sounds of fighting started. Gunner took a claw to the face, but he was patched up with a bandage and some herbal paste the Sergeant had, not wasting a potion, and we carried on. My new knife was fantastic. I hope the Sergeant counted the dead because Wiremu and I took out way more than those three did. That rest break I had the watch with Harold and learned all about growing up in a bakery. I was starting to think he should have followed in his fathers footsteps and become a Baker. It did seem to be where his passion was. Day 4. We found our first Goblin Shaman. He was in a huge cavern that was dominated by a waterfall. It looked like this was their main camp for now, probably because of the water and food, mushroom, fish and some moss and small rodent and insect type creatures. There was a guesstimate of a hundred goblins there. Some young ones so there were breeders in this group. We again skirted the edge to go around them. We had to take out a couple who came too close. Sound wasn¡¯t our problem as the waterfall dominated the cavern. We went out in a well used passage, which was a risk. The object of the task was to find out the size of the goblin problem and to do that we needed to find how many Shamans there were and if there was a chief. We started encountering goblins every couple of hours. Some singular, but most in small groups. Wiremu, T¨¡oke and I were essentially clearing the way now. We were obviously getting closer to a large group. This time when passages split there were goblin traces in all of them. We certainly couldn¡¯t stop for a rest in these passages. Eventually we came to a smallish cavern and the goblin trail passed right through. We moved off to the side and rested in our three hour shifts. Several groups of goblins moved past while I was on watch. I was on watch with Gunner this time and he was more interested in picking my brains on how to improve his Stealth and getting any tips on fighting that I could give him. I gave him a few things to practise the next day. He was pretty dedicated to moving up in the Guard, like his mother. That was also why he had volunteered for this mission. He knew it was a high risk mission, but the potential for Class and Skill growth balanced the risk for him, and his reputation, and probable promotion, from a successful mission was the bonus reward. Day 5. Pretty much the same as Day 4. The Privates were attacked from behind once and the Sergeant had to rescue them. No serious injuries, but a lesson on staying alert. Again there was nowhere to stop for the night so we pushed on. Wiremu suggested to the Sergeant that I scout ahead, but that was met with a resounding no. I don''t think he believed us about my abilities and he had been firmly taught never to split the party in hostile territory. So we battled on, and on, and on. It was well into Day 6 when we came out to an absolutely huge cavern. It was hundreds of metres across and almost a kilometre long according to the Sergeant Scout. There was a river down the centre and a lot of goblins. The Sergeant and Wiremu went to try to count, while the Privates and I found a place to rest and wait. The Sergeant returned first and Wiremu was an hour or so later. The Sergeant thought he saw about 6-8 Shamans. Wiremu counted at least 10 and he thought he saw a chief. We rested, although I''m sure nobody actually rested. The sergeant was drawing maps of our passage and the way to this place. He drew four of them and gave us all one. At least one of us needed to make it out alive. Just as we were going to head back out the way we came in a Shaman and several hundred goblins headed down that passage. We would have to find another way out. 46. Elemental: Tabitha We worked our way around the edge of the valley. When we discovered this place my Shadow Predator levelled. I had been expecting it to. I also had a lot of Skill gains. Apparently Sleight of Hand also assisted Small Blades. Stealth finally hit Master level and Shadows Embrace hit Journeyman level. They gave me free points in Physical and Spiritual Agility respectively. As we were getting near another passage Harold stuffed up. We would be angry with him but he paid for it with his life. This passage was up on the side of a wall and we had to climb to it. This was no hindrance for the goblins, they crawl everywhere easily. Harold was struggling up and missed a hold. I am not sure how, because Wiremu was making them easy for us with his Affinity Skill. Anyway, he did and he rolled all the way to the bottom of the wall landing next to a group of five goblins with several obviously broken bones. They attacked him straight away and although Wiremu¡¯s darts got three of them a yell was let loose and goblins started converging on us. We ran. Regardless of whether this was a good passage or not, it was the only one for us. I noticed Wiremu trapped and spiked the entrance to slow them down, and I gave them a blast of Intimidating Aura before I went out of sight. The passage was difficult. It was narrow and twisty, including up and down. Down was the worst. Narrow was good except when it was too narrow for us to manoeuvre. We kept running / crawling / climbing as fast as we could. I was at the rear periodically sending a blast of Intimidating Aura to keep them back, especially where we had to climb. I was trying to pace myself as this was going to be a continuous running battle over multiple days. Wiremu was in the lead. I was at the rear. There were several times when the Sergeant and I were knife fighting to keep them back. Gunner was apparently Wiremu¡¯s backup. The worst time was when we broke out into a wider cavern early on the second day of the run / fight. This was worse because here they could swarm us. Wiremu trapped and spiked the exit and we clambered to the bottom of the wall and ran for the nearest tunnel. We made it with the help of a massive Aura blast from me. There were two other smaller caverns that day as well. On the second Gunner fell and rolled to the bottom. He didn¡¯t break anything fortunately, as that would have been a death sentence, but he did sprain his ankle. Wiremu and I had to hold them off while his Sergeant cursed his clumsiness and fed him a potion. Wiremu was fighting with a shield and knife. I think his wooden frame and short spears were left behind somewhere. The shield was very effective. I caught glimpses of T¨¡oke at work as well, but my attention was elsewhere. We fought a retreat to the next tunnel. About 10m into the tunnel Wiremu created a bigger shield and held them off alone to give us all a few minutes break and to sort Gunner out. The Sergeant was grateful, maybe there was a bit of thaw there in his attitude. Then we were off again. We had passed several branches in the tunnels and I think Wiremu just chose the one that looked most likely to lead us out. I would trust Wiremu¡¯s senses over anybody else''s. I don¡¯t think the Sergeant had the same trust, but he didn¡¯t have any choice but to follow. Personally, I think it was only thanks to Wiremu¡¯s senses that we hadn¡¯t ended up in a dead end yet. I meant that in both ways, with the tunnel and us being dead. Late on the third day we hit another problem. We were all exhausted by this time. Three days of running, fighting and no sleep. Food was running out, but at least there was plenty of water. My base Physical Strength had gone up a point from the constant physical exertion. The problem was Wiremu came up behind a bunch of goblins who were fighting something else further up the passage. We couldn¡¯t stop so Wiremu and Gunner just started carving through them. The Sergeant and I had our own problems and were trading rear guard between us and a blast of Aura. I didn¡¯t have time to check, but if this didn¡¯t get my Aura to Journeyman level I was going to ... to ¡­ I don¡¯t know what. I am tired. The passage widened out. The goblins had surrounded and were attacking a shadowy thing. Their claws were hurting it, I guess goblins being monsters had some Spiritual aspect to them. The thing was also using them to heal somehow and every now and then a goblin would drop dead for no obvious reason. With my Spatial Awareness I could sense something, but it was more like a void or absence. I could tell when it sensed me as it suddenly focussed its attention on me. It may not have been precisely on me, it might have been more on my Darksteel knife. Wiremu was trying to avoid the creature in the centre but the tunnel wasn¡¯t that wide. When I neared it the creature reached out and touched the blade and was absorbed into it? Because I was touching the blade it also affected me and I stumbled. My attention and Affinity wanted to focus on the blade, but I was in the middle of a fight. My armour took several claw swipes, some of them drawing blood and I went to my knees. Then Wiremu was there getting the goblins off me and helping me into the tunnel, yelling at the Guard to protect us. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The Sergeant was at the end where the tunnel widened and Gunner was at the other end. I heard the Sergeant tell Wiremu that we needed to keep moving and to leave me as I had been possessed by the thing. I have never seen Wiremu so furious with someone. The Sergeant was told in no uncertain terms that we protected them when Gunner went down and they would do the same. The sergeant was too busy to argue properly and yelled, ¡°Two minutes!¡± Wiremu squatted down to face me and said, ¡°I will look after out here, you focus on what is happening inside.¡± I did. I focussed everything on the knife and the thing in it. I Identified it and it came back with Shadow Elemental Potential to bond: 73% Then as I was watching the potential to bond went to 72%. What the Troll shit? I had been keeping up with the mental exercises Wiremu had shown me so long ago. I also realised I had recently dumped a whole lot of points into my Mental Strength. Bonding was Mental Strength and Agility according to Wiremu. When I had thought about a bond I had imagined a house cat or small rat or mouse that could scout and that I could cuddle. Not that I would ever admit that to anybody. This cold, alien presence was not what I ever imagined. Life is about choices and grabbing opportunities, according to Trevor. Let''s see if we can grab this opportunity. Wiremu said try to make a mental connection and that it was like pushing through mud to get there. When I try to link it is like there was nothing there. He had added spare points to help. I have two spare from Shadow Predator levelling. Wait. It is a Shadow elemental. I need to do this through my Shadow Affinity. I tried to connect my Shadows to it. It seemed very slippery, something was there and I tried to grab it but it slipped away. I checked Identify. 69%. I slammed my two spare points into Mental Agility and that made it not quite so slippery. Failed again. 68%. Wiremu said nothing about the percentage changing. Again. YES! It was there suddenly and I understood. It was quite severely injured and therefore weaker to the bond. As it was healing itself it was becoming stronger and my chances were reduced. It was not that it did not want to bond, but wants and desires were not part of its make up. I would strive to improve, bond or no bond. It was now on my Status. Shadow Elemental Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry. The way it lived and healed was by syphoning energy from entities it touched with its shadows. It was incorporal so could manifest almost any size, as well as reside in Spiritually enhanced materials. The way it hunted was by binding things with its Shadows and syphoning off the energy until it died. It could be any entity, animal, mineral, monster or other elementals. I now had a new skill, Elemental Bond 1, and we could transfer energy through it. She could empower me, but she currently needed healing. I didn¡¯t have much energy at the moment. I made sure she understood not to syphon from our team, including T¨¡oke, but goblins were fair game. Yes, I designated it to be a her. This was a personal preference for me. She didn¡¯t care or even understand. My Shadow Predator had levelled again and my Shadow Manipulation had jumped to Journeyman level. Probably because she also had the skill. I was very curious about the skill Mimicry and she needed a name, but right now we had to move. I looked up at Wiremu and gave him a smile. ¡°Are you good?¡± He asked. ¡°Absolutely,¡± I replied. ¡°Let''s go,¡± he said and took the lead again. The Sergeant was giving me worried looks, but didn¡¯t protest when I took over the rear guard from him. The first thing I discovered was She could Syphon Energy through my Shadows as well as hers. I trailed Engulfing Shadows lightly behind us and She continually syphoned energy and healed up as well as raising my energy levels. It turns out the energy boost might have been my excitement rather than from Nyx. Cool name! I like it. Nyx does give me energy, but it is Spiritual not Physical or Mental. The Physical and Mental exhaustion is setting in for all of us. With Nyx I can keep my Aura and Shadows up longer. When she is resident in the knife she gets a boost when I cut a goblin. She doesn¡¯t have to stay in the knife. 47. Trapped: Tabitha We finally lost the main body of chasers. It was Wiremu¡¯s idea. Now that my Shadow''s Embrace is in the Journeyman level it can cover a small area and is much better at reducing scent and sound. It is even better with Nyx¡¯s help. He grabbed strongly smelling clothing from all of us, which was basically anything, and when we found an appropriate fork, myself and the guards went one way and I engaged Shadow¡¯s Embrace and we stayed hidden near the entrance and Wiremu took the other fork dragging the clothes on the ground to lay a scent while making a lot of noise. I think his Deceive Skill also came into play. The Sergeant was sceptical but we couldn¡¯t keep the running fight up. We were all starting to make mistakes. We all got some rest, even Wiremu when he rejoined us. The Sergeant is still giving me suspicious looks, but I think he is starting to have a bit more faith in Wiremu and at least trusts me to hold up my end, even though he is unsure about what happened. I am not planning to enlighten him, or anyone except Wiremu. Now we are back to Stealth. We are out of food. Those Mushroom things are starting to look good. Wiremu says they won¡¯t kill us. I think his poison resistance is quite high so I am not sure. Nyx is helpful when we do encounter goblins as she can bind them in her shadows and stop any escaping. I think she likes being in the knife. It is going to be awkward to carry the knife around in my day jobs and in my night jobs. It is the right knife for this though. This is the second day after we stopped being chased. Six days into the horde, three days being chased and now another two and the end is in sight. I mean the outside is in sight. We don¡¯t know how far from Jern we will be when we emerge, well the Sergeant might. The problem is actually getting out. There are several hundred goblins at this exit and two Shamans. Wiremu and I could probably Stealth it. The Sergeant may have a 50/50 chance. Gunner would have no way to do so. ¡°We could try to assassinate the Shamans,¡± was the latest idea from Wiremu. The problem is they may still swarm us. Getting out of the tunnels and into the open and being seen is to get swarmed. Wiremu is probably thinking that if he had his bow then he could in fact assassinate the Shamans successfully and I could then scatter them. The Sergeant has an idea of where we are from his mapping ability and it is a long way from Jern. He says there is a village not far away to the east. The Sergeant has thawed some. I now know he is Sergeant Royd. Gunner is downright friendly. The fact we are close to getting out has lifted everybody''s spirits. What we have to be careful of now is not making a rash mistake with the end so close. Wiremu has that look as if he is going over his Skill and Class gains and seeing if he can get anything that might help. We have all been doing the same. I have been thinking of Nyx¡¯s Skill Mimicry, which essentially allows her to imitate something. She uses it primarily to lure prey close enough for her Binding Shadows to grab hold. It allows her to manifest without being recognised as an Elemental. I have taken her out of sight and she has demonstrated. She could look like me, just made of shadows, which essentially means there is no colour except shades of grey. She could Mimicry something and lead the horde away, the trouble is, she might get trapped like she was when we found her. The goblins in large groups are a potential threat to her. She is also weak in sunlight and against light based attacks. Wiremu and I have talked on the quiet and he has levelled his Hunter Class to 10 and met all the requirements for the Monster Hunter Specialisation. He has a special Skill but it is not going to help us. It is called Regeneration and helps him recover from wounds faster. At apprentice level it will help with Bones as well. At Journeyman it will allow him to prioritise parts of his body, like head, heart etc. to keep him alive and at Master it will regenerate limbs or any missing part that he can survive. The downside is that to level it you have to get injured. I am sort of envious and sort of not. He has a lot of spare attribute points as his Spy Class also levelled, but he is getting no indication of Skills that might help us. I think he is going to experiment and place attributes where he knows it will help him but might trigger something. That is a risky way to allocate points. My own strengths are in Shadow and misdirection. With Nyx¡¯s help I could possibly blanket 80% of the Horde in Shadow and help us get past, but then what? We are stuck in the open with a horde of goblins. Intimidating Aura will be a lot less effective in the presence of the Shamans. One of us could go to the village for help, but the Sergeant doesn¡¯t think the village will be able to help. They will only have one squad of Guards and the Villagers are hunters and farmers. The village Hunters have probably encountered the goblins and got word back to Jern, but there is no guarantee of help in the short term. We were about 10 minutes back from the exit where there was a branch. I explored the branching tunnel and it dead ends after about 150m. That was when Nyx and I were experimenting. My Spatial Awareness is very close to Journeyman level and pushes out to almost 15m. I know there is nothing beyond the wall up to that distance. Suddenly, Wiremu lifted his head as if he heard something. ¡°Something is happening,¡± he said. ¡°Come on, let''s see if this is our chance.¡± We moved into the main passage killing any goblins we met. When we got to the cave entrance it was mostly deserted and there were the sounds of fighting not far away. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± the Sergeant commanded. We moved cautiously into the open, Wiremu and the Sergeant led and Gunner and I followed. When we got to where we could see there were two distinct groups fighting side by side. The first group had six dwarven sword and shield warriors furiously keeping the goblins back. Next to them were four larger armoured fighters. Two had sword and shields and they were on the sides of their formation, almost funnelling the goblins into the two centre people. One was a large human male with a two handed, double bladed axe that he swung efficiently. Darting around him and timing between his strokes was a large mountain dog. Next to them was a furiously working spear and shield person. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. They were doing well, but they were about to be surrounded and then overrun. The spearman saw this and gave a signal and the two teams adjusted into a circle formation. What they didn¡¯t know was that there were two Shamans about to arrive and ruin their day. ¡°Right,¡± said the Sergeant. ¡°While they are occupied we will make a run for the village, come on.¡± ¡°You are just going to leave these people to be overrun?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°The information is more important.¡± he replied. Wiremu and I shared a look. ¡°Indeed it is,¡± he replied. ¡°You and Gunner make a run for it and get the word back. Tabitha and I will take the rear guard and help these people.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± he queried. ¡°Absolutely,¡± I said. ¡°You just make sure those maps get back, and send some help if you can.¡± He gave me a nod as he and Gunner took off east away from the fight. Gunner looked very torn about leaving. ¡°I wish I had my bow,'''' Wiremu complained. ¡°Quit your whining,¡± I said, ¡°do you want the one on the left or the one on the right?¡± ¡°Actually, I think we should work together. There are a lot, and we are tired and hungry.¡± Wiremu seemed to have a thing for downplaying our actual condition. Exhausted and starving better described it. I nodded, ¡°Let''s go left.¡± I equipped my war knife and Wiremu had a serrated stone knife in one hand and a dart in the other. One last fight and we could rest, I hope. I spun a very light cover of shadows and Nyx started to draw in energy. I kept my shadow away from the Shamans for now as they may be able to sense it and the longer it took for them to notice us the better. We started cutting our way into the back of the goblins heading toward the Shaman on the left. The right hand Shaman was heading toward the dwarven side of their circle. Suddenly he started manifesting spears two at a time and would powerfully throw them at the Dwarves. This took them by surprise and broke their rhythm. The spears hit their shield and battered and dented them making them step back letting some goblins into the circle to do damage. At least one Dwarf went down. That is all the attention I could spare as we were now noticed and our forward progress was slowing. Wiremu had traded his dart for a shield with wicked looking spikes on the front, which were already dripping with blood. I saw T¨¡oke launch himself from Wiremu¡¯s shoulder, biting a goblin face and then launching himself on. That was new. Then he was twice the size and wrapped around a neck. I am pretty sure that the neck then broke. I guess it was quicker than suffocation. His Venom Spit was also pretty accurate, not often missing the eyes of his target. Nyx¡¯s Energy Syphon seemed slow and invisible in comparison. Every now and then her Binding Shadows would stop a goblin in place for me and every now and then a goblin would just collapse. I also caught a glimpse of her shadow manipulation. She can certainly teach me some stuff. I was following her through the Elemental Bond and we could only do small shadows with not a lot of power, but that didn¡¯t stop her. One goblin was charging toward me and he ran into two shadow spikes in his eyes and was blinded. Another suddenly stopped with blood running out of his mouth and ears. Small sharp shadow spikes can be crippling and I look forward to learning from her. My work with the knife and her syphon was keeping her well supplied in energy. She could keep going forever. I wish I could, and I wish I could transfer some of this energy to Wiremu. The Shaman we were heading for got in range of the non-Dwarf group. I suspected they were mainly Orcs from the deep communication grunts. My Spatial Awareness would be in range soon. The Shaman wasn¡¯t waiting though and launched a blast of water that washed over the whole side of the circle. Wiremu had seen it and threw his stone knife which struck the back of the shoulder of the Shaman, but then it seemed to wash out and fell to the ground. The Shaman was just in my Spatial Awareness range and I sensed the skin basically tuning into water. What I also sensed was the Venom that was on the knife stayed in the water. ¡°It has a water skin type skill, but the venom stayed in the water,¡± I said loudly to Wiremu. He nodded and I saw T¨¡oke suddenly change direction toward the Shaman and Wiremu equipped more darts. I basically tried to keep the goblins off Wiremu so he could create and throw venom darts. We also kept moving forward. I sensed T¨¡oke spitting venom at the Shaman. The Shaman must have realised we were the greater threat and focused its attention on us. All of a sudden it was like we were wading through a swamp. This actually helped T¨¡oke move faster and unseen, but he was the only one. Wiremu had good footing as he was standing on Granite, but it must be costing him in energy. At least the goblins were bogged down too. I used Intimidating Aura in a small area around us that also stopped the goblins for the moment. All of a sudden the Shaman had a large injection of Venom courtesy of T¨¡oke and was literally turning a sickly green. Not a healthy green like Orcs. The sickly green of being poisoned. The skin was turning back solid and then he sprouted a stone knife in his skull from Wiremu and he was dead. The ground was firming up again in a hurry and my Aura was causing Goblins to run now that their Shaman was dead. I looked for the other Shaman. He had made it to the Dwarf formation and it was a mess. His Skin was hard like bark. However, the large human was laying into him with his axe just like felling a tree. The head came off and the tree fell. Wiremu and I were wiped. Wiremu more than me as I had a Spiritual Energy source. I blasted Intimidating Aura as wide as I coud, sheltering the mercenaries, and all the remaining goblins started running as well. Wiremu and I collapsed where we were. T¨¡oke was making his way back to us. He was still large. I don¡¯t think he had the energy to change back yet. Two of the Orcs made their way to us. The other went to the Axeman who was trying to stop dwarves from dying. I saw a backpack with bandages and ointments and potions. Wiremu greeted them in Orcish. I don¡¯t know how he knew, but for all I know he heard the difference in their heart beats. Apparently, Orc¡¯s heartbeats are slower and stronger, I found out later. Thanks Wiremu. They had a short conversation in Orcish which I didn¡¯t understand and was too tired to care. Suddenly, I was handed some jerky, trail rations and a bottle of water. That was bliss. Long may the Orcs reign, or whatever. I think I was becoming delirious and I wanted to curl up and sleep for a week. I was helped to my feet and taken away from the bodies and given a bedroll to lie on. I crashed. 48. Canine Queen: Wiremu 48. Canine Queen: Wiremu After I helped Tabitha to a borrowed bed roll, I made sure we would be safe enough with the Orcs, and made sure they knew to leave T¨¡oke alone, then I also crashed. I woke up in the predawn the next day. I think it was only the next day. T¨¡oke was curled up on my stomach, back to his normal size. There was a fire going and a pot of something on it. My stomach told me I needed that something. I got up putting T¨¡oke on my shoulder, my armour chest piece was nearby, as I had felt safe enough to take it off. The large human male was tending the pot. Actually he was the only human in both groups. He saw me coming and dished up a bowl which he sprinkled powder over and then some honey. I figured he wasn¡¯t going to be so obvious if he was going to poison me, but I raised an eyebrow in query about what he put in it. ¡°?rt¡¯s the name,¡± he introduced himself. ¡°I am a Herbalist and Healer, that will help your stomach settle and fight any infection.¡± I was pretty sure my Regeneration would take care of any infection. I noticed all the cuts and scratches were gone and Regeneration was now level 2. ¡°Thanks,¡± I said, taking it. ¡°Herbalist and Healer ah? I wouldn¡¯t have picked that from the axe and the dog.¡± ¡°Well I started my life as a Forrester, logging these hills.¡± He gave a short whistle and the dog came over. It was a large dog. ¡°This is my bond, Kryddor.¡± He introduced her. ¡°Nice to meet you, Kryddor.¡± I said putting my hand down for her to sniff. ¡°This is my bond, T¨¡oke.¡± I sat down to eat and ?rt set out some small strips of meat for T¨¡oke. Forrester, Herbalist and Healer means ?rt has a massive amount of Lore in that head. He must be one very smart man. Forrester needed Plant and Animal Lore, Herbalist needed Herb Lore, and Healer needed Sentient Lore and Anatomy. That was amazing. I chatted with ?rt as I ate my second bowl. Skavt was on watch. She was the Orc spearman and was actually in charge of this group. The group, ?rt clarified, was himself, Kryddor and the other two Orcs, not the dwarves. Skavt was a Warrior who specialised as a Dragoon which gave her a riding bonus, although she generally still fought on foot. She had also recently managed to pick up the Scout Specialisation, which she was really proud of. It gave her a mapping skill. The other two Orcs were twins. Najprej was the older and Drugi? the younger. Both were specialised warriors in both the Sword and the Shield. Najprej was better with the shield and Drugi? with the sword. I understood there was a bit of sibling rivalry going on there. These were the calibre of mercenaries I was expecting, not the Loudmouth ones. Each had two specialisations and were closer to what I saw in the Mother¡¯s Tusks. ?rt was the odd one out as he didn¡¯t have a specialisation, but had three basic classes. Very unusual. Skavt joined us for a bowl and I learned the team was called the Canine Queens. When I asked in Orcish if that was because of Kryddor, or because of their tusks, she just smiled and said yes. The camp was waking. ?rt had managed to keep some of the dwarves alive yesterday. Of the original six, two could walk home, two would need to be carted and two were dead, including their leader. I asked what they were doing out here. Skavt replied, ¡° The Jern Guard put out a standing contract on goblins. They are paying a copper an ear, so two copper per goblin, and a minimum of five gold for a goblin monster core. Depending on the core, that could go up as high as a platinum. Word was sent to Jern about goblin sightings near here so we teamed with the ¡®Dwarven Devils¡¯ to come and look,¡± the way she said ¡®Dwarven Devils¡¯ indicated it was not a happy collaboration. ¡°We are very happy you did as we were stuck in the caves, wondering how to get past this lot. We were one of the teams on contract to the Guard to scout the caves for goblins. We were with a couple of Guardsmen. They went to get the information out and are on their way to Jern right now. We stayed to help.¡± She frowned at that, ¡°Did you find any goblins?¡± she asked. ¡°Let¡¯s just say that with what we saw there will be plenty of money to be made.¡± She frowned at what that meant too. She went to get everyone up. ?rt went to check on his patients and feed the invalids. We wouldn''t be getting underway till lunch, if then because of the patients. I decided to let Tabitha sleep. Next to my armour was stacked the shield I was using and one of my stone knives that they had found. Both had been rinsed off. The shield with the spikes and a stone knife must have caused quite some puzzlement. I put the knife in one of my empty sheaths, I hadn¡¯t re-created any yet. I decided to leave the shield for now, after all they went to the trouble of cleaning it. I noted Tabitha¡¯s knife was in a sheath lying next to her. That knife was worth more than everything here, several times over. It spoke well of Skavt¡¯s leadership that it was here and not stolen. I wonder what Nyx would do if it was stolen, as she seems to have made it her home? I am sure we will find out one day. Somebody will try. I have a lot of skill gains from the last two weeks. Too many to detail. Small Blades is now equal with Hammer in level. Monster hunter levelled in that last fight. I have ten free attribute points. I know there is an advanced Granite skill called Petrify available, if I can get my Spiritual attributes high enough. Around the 35 mark I think, for Spiritual Strength and Agility anyway. That is probably where I am going to put them, but there is no rush.
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros MHunt Total
Type Attribute Level 10 11 7 2 2 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 11 2 22 1 2 47 112.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 10 4 2 31
Perception (PP) 11 0 20 1 Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. 2 34
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 2 2 23 66.0
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 7 24
Perception (MP) 11 1 7 19
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 0 11 3 2 27 75.0
Agility (SA) 8 2 5 8 1 1 25
Perception (SP) 10 4 7 2 23
Totals 92 41 41 33 35 8 9 253
Free Points 9 0 0 0 1
Resistances: Poison +18, Pain+10, Crushing +21, Cold +20 Skills Novice: Animal Care 4, Truth Sensing 3, Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Sense Spiritual 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Monster Lore 3, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Detect Traps 4, Venom Arrow 3, Spiritual Trapping 4, Regeneration 2 Apprentice: Bond Senses 9, Fishing 5, Orcish 7, Far Sight 9, Riding 7, Unarmed Combat 7, Sewing 7, Camouflage 8, Sense Treasure 6, Mineral Lore 5, Spear 7, Animal Lore 7, Manipulate Status 7, Butchering 5, Plant Lore 5, Weapon Repair 5, Granite Shield 8, Power Strike 9, Darksight 9, Repair Leather Armour 5, Cooking 5, Imbue Venom 9 Journeyman: Hearing Aid 12, Hammer 13, Identify 11, Granite Spike 13, Trapping 10, Tracking 10, Bow 10, Skinning 10, Deceive 11, Granite Sense 10, Small Blades 13, Granite Bones 11, Hide Armourer 10, Throw Weapons 10, Quick Strike 10 Master: Stealth 16, Animal Bond 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 3 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Crushing Resistance 21, Cold Resistance 20 Skills: Novice: Growth 3, Granite Shield 4 Apprentice: Power Strike 6, Granite Spike 5, Strength Boost 7, Venom Spit 5 Journeyman: Granite Bones 11, Camouflage 12 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 16 Affinity: Granite Tabitha woke for Lunch. ?rt had made a big pot of stew so there was plenty and it was very tasty. These Herbalist cooks are fantastic. There is no way we are leaving today. We will leave early tomorrow and hopefully get to the village Kulle by nightfall. It is then three days by road back to Jern. They have horses waiting in Kulle and the Dwarven Devils have a cart. The day¡¯s rest is what Tabitha and I needed. The new leader of the Dwarven Devils is trouble. His name is Borc and he argues about everything. His main beef with Skavt is that he thinks they should have one of the monster cores. She told him a flat no. ?rt killed the wood skilled one so it belonged to the Canine Queens, and I killed the water one, so it belonged to me. That was the first I heard about what had happened to them. I was going to ask, but I assumed I would be entitled to a share once it was sold to the Guard. Apparently the Dwarven Devils had insisted that what you killed is what you got, instead of a split of everything at the end. Now it is biting them in the arse. Apparently, Skavt had also separated the goblin ears as to who killed what, as far as could be determined. She was apparently cheating them on that as well. She told me later there was a sack for Tabitha and I as well. That afternoon Tabitha went off for a walk. I think she was going to spend time going over things with Nyx. I discreetly replaced my Granite darts and knives. I really didn¡¯t want to lug that shield back, but it would raise a lot of suspicion if it disappeared. I went over my armour. It needed work, but now was not the time and I didn¡¯t have any tools. Drugi? apparently had some tools for looking after their weapons, so I borrowed them and repaired my steel knife and then went through and maintained the Canine Queen¡¯s weapons as a thankyou for watching over us and being fair. I didn¡¯t level the Skill, but it was appreciated. ?rt the Forrester went out and made a couple of travois to help transport the invalids to the village. I was liking what I was seeing in the Canine Queens, and was wondering if they wanted a fifth member. Sixth member. Don¡¯t forget Kryddor. I would definitely sound them out before we get to Jern. Maybe offer to do a couple of contracts with them as a trial. Things blew up again at dinner. Borc wasn¡¯t happy Tabitha and I were getting a cut as we were not part of their contract. Skavt reminded him the contract stated you get what you kill, therefore nobody in the contract had a claim to what we had killed. Well that wasn¡¯t good enough. He stomped over to Tabitha cursing and swearing and accusing us of poaching on their contract. I think he chose Tabitha as she looked like she was vulnerable and easy to walk over. What a fool. Tabitha let him rant for a bit without responding. He was getting more and more worked up and stepped closer to her as if he might do physical violence. I saw all the Canine Queen members move a hand to a weapon. Then everybody froze as this really low menacing growl came from the edge of the campfire light to one side of Tabitha. With my Hearing Aid I could tell the sound came from Tabitha but nobody else did. Then the Shadow moved and this huge black predator cat moved into the light beside Tabitha. Its shoulders were higher than Tabitha¡¯s waist. Fangs were visible and the tail waved slowly as it stalked forward. ¡°Now Borc, you seem to have upset my cat Nyx. That is not a smart thing to do.¡± She put her hand down by the cat¡¯s huge jaw then ruffled its head. Borc was backing away as fast as he could without taking his eyes off it. Everybody was puzzled as to how the cat got there past all their sharp senses, but the undeniable fact was, that the cat was there, it was huge and Tabitha was treating it like her very own pet kitten. I assume it was a skill of Nyx¡¯s but it was very impressive. The fur ruffled in the wind as well as when Tabitha ran her hands through it. There was even a bit of saliva dribbling from the jaw. Borc and the other Dwarf left together, I assume to guard their invalids? Not sure. Maybe they are just running. ¡°Come on girl,¡± Tabitha said to the cat, which I assume is Nyx, ¡°let¡¯s take you away from these angry people.¡± She then led Nyx out into the night. Everybody left, that was only all the members of the Canine Queen, were looking at me. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°Don¡¯t look at me. It is her cat.¡± ¡°You knew it was there,¡± Skavt accused. ¡°Seriously,¡± I said, ¡°If you want to know about Nyx you will have to talk to Tabitha.¡± ¡°Is the camp safe?¡± she asked. ¡°From Nyx? Certainly.¡± I replied. ¡°How did it get here? None of us sensed it.¡± She continued. ¡°For any details like that you will have to talk to Tabitha.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± she said, getting up, ¡°I will do so,¡± and she headed off following Tabitha and Nyx. A woman of action that one. 49. Family: Wiremu 49. Family: Wiremu We set out not long after dawn. As we were packing up, Najprej stopped by and pointed at my stone shield and asked, ¡°Can I look?¡± ¡°Sure,¡¯ I replied. She picked it up and examined it. She saw where the stone was shaped for my arm to go, but there was nothing to grip or hold it in place. ¡°How does it stay on your arm?¡± she asked. ¡°There are usually some straps, but they got ripped off,¡± I lied. I normally encase my arm in stone. ¡°Hummph,¡± she mumbled. Then she put it back and said, ¡°Thanks.¡± That brings up a good point. How am I going to carry it to Kulle? I created a couple of stone bars I could grip, or if I found some rope I could carry it on my back. ?rt had some rope I could borrow and I rigged it onto my back. I think Tabitha was laughing at me. I never asked her what she and Skavt talked about, but it all seems to be fine. Borc is very nervous. I don¡¯t think he slept much last night. ?rt took one of the first stints pulling a travois and the other Dwarf took the other one. We rotated after two hours and everybody got a turn. The trip to Kulle was uneventful. We got there after dark and had to coax the guard to let us in the gate. Kulle was on the road to Hrothgar so it had traffic, which meant it had an inn. The Canine Queen¡¯s had left their horses at the inn and that came with two rooms. They kindly let us bunk on the floor with them. We asked about the Sergeant and Gunner and apparently they had arrived in the night, two nights back and commandeered two horses and left the following dawn for Jern. That would be the day we had off after the fight. It is good to know the information got through. Skavt was planning a late start in the morning, after a leisurely breakfast at the inn. The Dwarven Devil¡¯s weren''t interested in that and hitched their cart and left at dawn with their injured, despite ?rt recommending they visit the local healer first. There weren¡¯t any horses available at the village so Skavt offered to let us double up with them. They weren''t going to rush it. ¡°You don¡¯t think the Dwarven Devils will try ambushing us do you?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Skavt said, ¡°but keep an eye out.¡± ¡°I could just let Nyx out to play,¡± said Tabitha. Everybody just looked at her. We camped early. I went out to see if I could get some fresh meat for dinner. I came back with three rabbits that I then skinned and ?rt put in the pot, with his magic herbs and spices. The next morning we passed the Dwarven Devils wagon, and nodded at them on the way past. They must have been camped not far from us. The next night we spent at a lone inn on the side of the road, conveniently a day''s ride from Jern. That night over dinner I broached the subject of joining them. ¡°I am looking to join a team,¡± I said, ¡°would you be open to another member?¡± I asked. This was not an unexpected question, they had also been thinking about it. It was obvious we got on well and had similar standards. Skavt replied, ¡°We might be open to exploring it Warren, but I think you do come with a lot of extra baggage. Should I be calling you Wiremu Hunter?¡± ¡°Preferably not in public,¡± I replied, getting a few chuckles. Skavt looked at Tabitha, ¡°So what is your deal and why is he masquerading as your brother, or is he your brother?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s say adopted brother. Kinsfolk as the Dwarves would put it. My actual brother died over six months ago as we were escaping the Empire. Wiremu and I have saved each other''s asses a few times now and we consider ourselves Kin and he needed ID.¡± Tabitha shrugged. Tabitha was using the dwarven example of Kin, but didn¡¯t realise this was a much bigger deal for the Orc Clans. ¡°To be clear,¡± Tabitha continued, ¡°I am not looking for a full time team at this time. I have a job for six months or so. I am interested in joining in some contracts, but my time is limited, so don¡¯t make me a big part of the picture here.¡± ¡°Clan is always a very important part of any decision.¡± Skavt stated, getting nods from Najprej and Drugi?. ¡°To be clear we all also have other skills to earn our way when not on contract, and we support each other in that. You know ?rt is a Herbalist and Healer, I am a Journeyman Animal Trainer. I prefer horses and other mounted creatures, but have trained dogs, cats, rats, and you name it and I have probably trained it. ?rt is helping me find a Bond.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. She nodded to the others. ¡°I am an Apprentice Jeweller,¡± said Najprej. ¡°I am an Apprentice Tailor,¡± said Drugi?. When she saw my surprise she continued, ¡°Do you have a problem with that? We like to look nice!¡± she said in a challenging way. ¡°I definitely don¡¯t have a problem with any of that,¡± I said quickly, ¡°In fact I still have some rough gems that could do with refining, at maybe a split profit?¡± ¡°Hold up,¡± Tabitha interjected. ¡°Any deal with Wiremu goes through me first. He is far too nice and gets ripped off.¡± I didn¡¯t think I was that bad. ¡°Why would we need to go through you?¡± Skavt questioned. ¡°It is my Class. Apprentice Merchant, and my job as a Merchant with the S?lv Emporium.¡± All their eyes lit up at that. Seriously, why is it that Tabitha is always the one with the desired skills. I feel like I am always hanger on, they will take me but only because Tabitha is part of it. I know that is not actually the case, but it does feel like it sometimes. ¡°So you could broker deals for the team, sell our goods, and get us discounted supplies?¡± Skavt asked, a bit too eagerly, I thought. Maybe I am being a bit too sensitive here. Tabitha¡¯s eyes narrowed, ¡°Possibly,¡± she said. ¡°As I said, I have a job and am doing other part time training.¡± Is that what she calls her gambling with Trevor? ¡°What about you, Wiremu? What do you do to earn coins when not on contract?¡± Skavt focussed back on me. ¡°Obviously I am a Hunter. So I can hunt. I can also repair weapons, as you saw, but what you don¡¯t know is I have the Skill in it at Apprentice level, so I can get paid doing it. I am also a Journeyman level Hide Armourer, and I have the Skill, Repair Leather Armour at Apprentice level.¡± Now it was my turn to have them sit up and look at me with desire. Desire for my Skills that is. ¡°Sign them up now, Skavt!¡± said Drugi?, ¡°Don¡¯t let them get away!¡± ¡°Hold on, we have barely started here.¡± She waved for Drugi? to settle down. ¡°We have seen you both fight with Small Blades. What other fighting Skills do you have?¡± Tabitha said, ¡°That¡¯s it for me. I am not much of a fighter. I¡¯m more into stealth.¡± She got a lot of disbelieving looks at that. ¡°Didn¡¯t you use that Skill that made them all run away? That was you wasn¡¯t it?¡± asked ?rt. When she nodded he continued, ¡°That is not a small thing.¡± He obviously had some sensing ability that identified her as the source. He might appear as a big silent axeman, but he was probably the smartest person here. ¡°What about you, Wiremu?¡± Skavt asked. ¡°Journeyman level I have Small Blades, Trapping, Throwing Weapons and Bow. Apprentice level Spear.¡± I replied. They were looking at me with desire again. Well, my Skills anyway. It was a good feeling. ¡°A ranged fighter, Skavt sign them now!¡± Drugi? demanded. Skavt waved her down again. ¡°Those small stone darts we found? The stone knives and unusual stone Shield?¡± She left the statement as a question. I guess if I wanted in then I needed to lay it out there. ¡°Granite Affinity.¡± I put my hand discreetly on the table, but where they could see and created a dart. ¡°So why would you want to join us?¡± ?rt asked, cooling down the excitement. ¡°With your skills, hell even with just your Affinity, you can get rich with any of the big trading houses. The Kingdom will take you in a heartbeat, in fact I think you will have pressure put on you when that Sergeant reports back. Why us?¡± ¡°I am a hunter. Around crowds and lots of people I will go stir crazy. The Empire already tried to pressure me, and still is. I don¡¯t like the cages that come with big organisations, even though they may be luxurious cages.¡± I said bluntly. ¡°Do you have any one we could verify this with?¡± Skavt asked. ¡°Ulfhildr at the S?lv Emporium and Thyrrni at¡­.¡± I looked at Tabitha. I didn¡¯t know where to find Thyrrni. ¡°She is an independent Prospector. You will probably find her through the Mercenary Guild.¡± Tabitha supplied. ¡°You could also ask Koza if you can find him,¡± I added. Suddenly all eyes focused on me again. ¡°Why Koza?¡± It was Najprej asking this time, surprisingly. ¡°Koza and Velikan gave me three weeks of intensive training.¡± I replied. ¡°Skavt, stop dicking around and sign them up. Uncle Koza doesn¡¯t train just anybody, He wouldn¡¯t even train me¡± Drugi? half demanded and half complained. ¡°That¡¯s because of your continual nagging,¡± Najprej said, ¡°and your obvious hero worship.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not true,¡± Drugi? was about to start in on her sister when Skavt interrupted. ¡°Wiremu, If you want in, you may consider yourself a provisional member. I will check with these people before we sign anything. Tabitha, we would be pleased to have you on board as well. We are fine with you being a full member and only participating occasionally for now. I don¡¯t think an auxiliary position will work. Family should be together,¡± she said, nodding to the twins who were still nudging each other. ¡°I anticipate you will become our supplies specialist.¡± ¡°I will think about it,¡± Tabitha said, ¡°and review your contract.¡± Skavt nodded. ¡°We, and I mean, you, ?rt and myself will need to talk in more depth about your skills, especially Nyx.¡± She added. ¡°Wiremu, what about you?¡± Skavt asked. ¡°I think this will be a good fit for T¨¡oke and I.¡± I said. ¡°I do come with a lot of baggage and I am signed up as Warren Carter, and you will need to remember to call me that. Both Tabitha and I are Stealth specialists with Stealth at the Master level. We might make a larger variety of contracts possible. I certainly accept the provisional membership and look forward to hearing Tabitha¡¯s review of the contract.¡± I grinned. 50. Pay: Tabitha 50. Pay: Tabitha We got into Jern in the late afternoon. We went straight to the Mercenary Guild to hand in the goblin ears and cores. The ears were getting quite ripe. Skavt declared that as we had done this prior to becoming members then they were ours and not split with the team. The Water core was considered much more valuable than the Tree Core. It was larger and in more demand. Apparently the city used it to power the enchantments to pump and clean the water under the city. The tree one would be sold. The Trading Houses unusually bid on them but as there was a big auction happening in a few months it would be kept for that. We got 8 Gold for the Core and with 83 goblin ears that was 8 silver and 3 copper. Don¡¯t ask about the odd number of ears. The Canine Queens got 5 Gold for the core and 9 Silver and 8 Copper for their ears. If it was just the goblins they would barely break even for their trouble. The core made it worth it. The Team usually takes some time off after a contract, particularly a difficult contract, which she would class this as. They would meet in two days in the Mercenary Guild¡¯s Training Yard and restart the regular training sessions. We would have a contract to review at that time as well. We left the Canine Queens and stopped at the S?lv Emporium where Tabitha let them know we were back. She would debrief with them in two days. Then we went home to rest. As the Sergeant and Gunner had made it back we felt there was no hurry to report to the guard. It could wait for tomorrow. I decided to go with Wiremu to report to the Guard. I had been technically subcontracted to them from the S?lv Emporium, but my witness was valuable and I could help divert any pressure that may be applied to Wiremu. Wiremu made me a waist holster for my War knife. Let¡¯s be honest it was Nyx¡¯s knife really. The knife lay horizontally across my lower back and I could draw it with my main arm through a slit in my shirt. I would have to get used to it, leaning back against something was uncomfortable. But I will adjust. It was mostly hidden and didn¡¯t generally get in my way. When we reported to the main Desk at the Guard Headquarters we were directed to a meeting room, which was essentially an interrogation room. Apparently the Captain would be along shortly. I didn¡¯t hear the lock click when they closed the door so I guess we weren¡¯t technically prisoners. I had a couple of lockpicks masquerading as hairpins so we could leave at any time. There were two chairs and a table so we moved the chairs to the same side of the table where we could see the door and sat down. The Captain would have to bring his own. ¡°How long do you think they will make us wait?¡± I asked Wiremu. ¡°Depends why we are here.¡± he replied. ¡°If it is to debrief and be paid I would think less than an hour. If it is for another purpose and to try and soften us up, at least two, probably three hours.¡± ¡°You know that guy behind the wall there is listening to us?¡± I pointed to a side wall. ¡°Yes,¡± he relied. ¡°Is he low level?¡± ¡°A two stripe Corporal.¡± I replied Wiremu leaned back on his chair and put his feet on the table. ¡°I am going to have a snooze. I am sure I will wake up when they arrive. Let''s see how much trouble they want to bring.¡± ¡°I bought some books on commodities to help my merchant class, and this one on negotiation techniques. I might start with that as negotiation and interrogation have a lot of crossover.¡± I set up my book on the other end of the table and we spent three hours quite productively. Wiremu actually fell asleep at one point. The door suddenly banged open. Neither Wiremu nor I were surprised. I sensed him coming and Wiremu had been awake for a half hour or so, although he hadn¡¯t moved. He would have heard the Sergeant coming. The Sergeant basically yelled, ¡°Wiremu Hunter, Come with me please!¡± Neither of us moved. ¡°Wiremu, Now please!¡± I waited a moment then I said, ¡°I think you have the wrong room Sergeant. We are Warren and Tabitha Carter waiting for the Captain.¡± I kept my voice polite although I did speak clearly and slowly as if to a simpleton. He tried again, ¡°You,¡± he pointed at Wiremu, ¡°Will come with me now!¡± Neither of us moved, again. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Eventually I said, ¡°As I explained, Sergeant, we are waiting for the Captain. Please let him know we are in Interrogation Room 3, or if he is too busy we can come back tomorrow. I am sure the corporal in the next room has told you how patient we have been. We are happy to make an appointment that suits everybody.¡± ¡°Now! With me! I will take you to the Captain!¡± I sighed. I looked at Wiremu and he shrugged. I put away my book and he got up. The Sergeant tried again. ¡°Just you!¡± he said pointing at Wiremu. ¡°No Sergeant,¡± I said as if explaining to a child, ¡°It is both or none.¡± He looked like he was going to yell again. So I said more firmly. ¡°Sergeant, if the Captain is not ready then we can come back tomorrow. I have a meeting with my Employers in the morning and we can come back with the chief Negotiator if there is a problem.¡± Start building the pressure from our side. ¡°Follow me.¡± He said. I figured they didn¡¯t want me to bring Selma. She wasn¡¯t available anyway, but they don¡¯t need to know that. The Captain''s office didn¡¯t have any chairs for his visitors. He didn¡¯t look up from what he was reading when we entered. I turned to the Sergeant and said loudly. ¡°Seriously, Sergeant you told us he was free. He is busy, don''t interrupt him, we will come back,¡± and we turned to leave. The Sergeant was blocking the door, but the Captain spoke. ¡°It is OK, Sergeant, I will deal with this. Please come in, Warren and Tabitha.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± the Sergeant said and stepped out and shut the door. We turned to the Captain. He spoke again, ¡°I am sorry about the treatment. Most criminals we catch are not very bright.¡± I spoke, ¡°That is the definition of criminals who get caught, however we are not criminals, nor did you catch us.¡± He nodded. ¡°I have here a report by Sergeant Royd, but there are some anomalies that need an explanation and apparently you left them at the end.¡± ¡°On the contrary, Captain, when we emerged from the caves we stayed behind to perform a rear guard action so the Sergeant and Private Gunner could get away with, to be quite frank, the very hard fought information.¡± I explained. ¡°The information was more than adequate?¡± He nodded, ¡°Of the three teams that have returned, only your team has a report on the main body.¡± ¡°Then the contract is complete. We will collect Warren¡¯s pay and not waste any more of your time.¡± I said. ¡°I have questions from the report to clarify first. The Sergeant said you had a bonded snake Warren.¡± Warren nodded. ¡°Why was this not declared at the start? Keeping information to yourself endangers the bond and the party.¡± ¡°Thank you for letting me know sir. I will make sure it does not happen again.¡± Warren said, totally ignoring the question. ¡°Are you aware I have a Skill that can see through your status, both of you?¡± He said. ¡°We were not, Captain.¡± I replied. ¡°How is that relevant to the contract?¡± ¡°It explains some anomalies in the report. You Warren, match very closely to a Bounty Hunter Contract that is currently active.¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t aware you were a Guild Member Captain? Isn¡¯t that a conflict of interest?¡± I said. Wiremu seemed very content to keep letting me take the lead. ¡°Indeed, but I keep apprised of major contracts. I am willing to let that go. But the Sergeant is of the impression you have a rock affinity, Warren.¡± The Captain said. ¡°I am not responsible for what impressions the Sergeant did or didn¡¯t get in the very extended and stressful time we had.¡± Wiremu said. ¡°The Kingdom would reward a person very handsomely if they came and offered such an ability.¡± He said. ¡°I am aware,¡± Wiremu said, ¡°I also know of a number of Trading Houses that would do the same or better. If I ever meet such a person I will let them know.¡± The Captain frowned, obviously not liking that we deflected everything. ¡°Is there anything else Captain, or can we collect the pay and leave?¡± I pushed. ¡°There is another concerning aspect in the report. It says that you, Tabitha, were possessed by some shadowy creature. Now I see a Class called Shadow Predator in your Status. Care to explain?¡± ¡°No, Captain, I don¡¯t care to explain. I think you will find that the contract you signed with S?lv Emporium included very specific confidentiality clauses, with specific penalties if they were breached. I believe those clauses are even stronger than the ones in the Mercenary Guild contract Warren signed. I would suggest that if you breach either contract you will end up antagonising the Guild, where there is already low trust, and a major Trading House at a time when you will soon be desperate for the support of both.¡± I am sure the Captain knew of the consequences here with a major Goblin Horde nearby. ¡°The safety of the citizens in this city is my priority. I can¡¯t let an unknown predator loose.¡± He countered. ¡°Captain, with what we saw in those tunnels, you need all the dangerous predators you can find on your side. Now where can we collect Warren''s pay?¡± The Captain didn¡¯t really have much choice. He argued a bit for form''s sake but the contracts were clear and he couldn¡¯t afford to alienate anyone with a Goblin Horde on his doorstep. We ended up getting the pay. What a rigmarole just to get a few gold. Stealing is certainly easier. I did leave the Sergeant''s badge at the desk, saying I had found it lying on the ground. What a bunch of idiots. 51. Baggage: Wiremu 51. Baggage: Wiremu I had a quiet day while Tabitha reported back to the S?lv Emporium. The following morning we met with the Canine Queens and sparred the first time. The Twins were stronger and faster than I was. Skavt was stronger, but not faster. It was like being with the Mother Tusks again, however, the difference was not so great. I was stronger and faster than ?rt. ?rt and Kryddor were going looking for herbs later that day and invited me along. I really wanted to take Rocky out for a ride as it had been over two weeks. So we headed out. I also wanted to practice with my Bow again, not having used it for a while. It was a pleasant way to spend the day. He had a high Tracking Skill as well and we traded tips. I got a couple of rabbits and then a Llama, which will let me finish my cloak. ?rt was looking out for a potential bond for Skavt. He was visiting the eagle nests up on the cliffs every couple of weeks watching for eggs and new hatchlings. I asked why a bird and he thought as she had just gained the scout class It would enhance her sight and scouting. ¡°Isn¡¯t she into training mounted animals? Horses etc? Wouldn¡¯t something she could ride be better?¡± I asked. ¡°She has tried bonding with a foal and it didn¡¯t work. Three times. Personally, I think she is too aggressive in her personality to bond with a non aggressive animal, there are certainly some compatibility issues.¡± he said. ¡°There were these large aggressive flightless birds on the plains of the empire which were large enough to ride. You wouldn¡¯t find them around here though.¡± I mused. ¡°Also the Bison from the plains would be good, but again not around here. ¡°The giant Elks could be ridden. And are aggressive in mating season. They could do some damage in a fight too. Antlers and hooves.¡± I was just thinking aloud at this point. ¡°Tabitha said she considered riding a goat once. They are normally too small, but there is a larger sub species that might do. It would be versatile as well, going placed a horse couldn¡¯t¡± ¡°Elks and Goats have possibilities.¡± ?rt mused. ¡°What about a Dire Wolf?¡± I asked. ¡°I could probably ride Velikan.¡± ?rt looked at me amused. ¡°There are no native Dire Wolves.¡± He said. ¡°Velikan was a normal mountain wolf up until he absorbed a Monster core and it didn¡¯t kill him or send him mad. Dire Wolf is a Monster species.¡± Koza did not teach me that when he taught me monster lore. That made a lot of sense. I really wanted to find Koza and quiz him on that. I certainly would when I saw him next. ¡°I have a question about the Empire¡¯s Slavery Class,¡± I asked ?rt, after all he was the smartest person I knew. ¡°Do you know much about it?¡± ¡°Not a great deal,¡± he said, ¡°I know it is supposed to be voluntary.¡± I snorted. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I thought,¡± he said. ¡°Do you know if there is a way to remove it?¡± I asked. ¡°I think there must be,¡± he said, ¡°but I don¡¯t know anyone who has delved into it. It is a Class that alters your Attributes isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Yes. You get an increase in Physical and Spiritual Attributes, in exchange for a huge decrease in Mental attributes.¡± He winced. ¡°Advanced Classes are like that,'''' he said. ¡°You get some good bonuses, but there is always a counter. I know a few people who took an Advanced Class and were quite happy. It is usually someone who wants to focus mainly on one area and is not too concerned about other areas. One girl was a Blacksmith and she can now produce some amazing legendary work, but her classes outside of that are severely limited. I know one person who regretted their choice and has had to live with it.¡± ¡°Surely there''s a way to remove a class?¡± I wondered aloud. ¡°I figure there probably is, but I have no idea how, or how costly it might be.¡± ?rt said. ¡°Is this something you want to do?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I said. ¡°I spent three years watching them make ¡°voluntary¡¯ slaves, and I could easily have ended up as one.¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°I figure if anyone knows, it will be the Empire, but I bet it is hidden deep.¡± ¡°Do you know of any ex-slaves or escaped slaves?¡± I queried. ¡°No,'''' he said, ¡°but we are pretty isolated here. There might be some in Hrothgar or one of the other larger cities.¡± ¡°What about countering the Class with another one that reversed the changes?¡± I continued. ¡°Can¡¯t say I have thought about that,¡± He said. ¡°You will need to go to one of the Learning Centres to find out more, probably in Kirghiz, the Capital.¡± I nodded. ¡°You are pretty strong on this?¡± he observed. ¡°Yeah. I figured one of the reasons we are out here is to get to know each other before we sign anything. This is something you should know.¡± I replied. He nodded. ¡°The Orcs have a blood feud against the Empire, so Skavt and the twins won''t have a problem in general with this. You taking off to the Capital might be more of an issue.¡± ¡°Neither Tabitha nor I think staying in one place for an extended period is a good idea until the heat dies down on my contract. She has other reasons to keep moving as well. That might mean a short term contract is the only option.¡± I said. ¡°Some of that baggage, huh?¡± he said. I nodded. The conversation then drifted to other topics. We got back late in the afternoon. It was a very pleasant day and ?rt was good company. As I was riding Rocky I bought the whole Llama back, skinned it and sold most of the meat to the local butcher. That night I updated Tabitha on my conversation with ?rt. She just nodded. The next day was spent curing the Llama hide. I also spent some time examining the knives I had purchased from the S?lv Emporium. I had been frequently using the steel alloy knives. They were the knives I mainly used in the tunnels, swapping with the stone knives as I felt the need. I had been getting more and more comfortable with them. The Granite components were Silicon and the unusual one was the ground Topaz. The silicon helped with hardness and strength and the Topaz also increased the hardness, but there was more to it. The Topaz was a gem found in Granite and I think it was that which was triggering my affinity. I didn¡¯t manage to discover anything that day despite several hours spent trying everything I could think of. Maybe there was a skill I needed? Maybe I needed to talk to Najprej. She is an Apprentice jeweller. The next morning after training Skavt said she was in talks about an escort contract for a group of miners. It would be a three week contract. We would be escorting about fifteen miners and ten wagons to an established mine which would take about a week. We would then have a three day rest at the mine facilities before escorting back the miners going off shift and the ore loaded wagons. They have five of their own guards, but want extra guards on the road with the increased goblin activity. ¡°This will be a good contract to see how we work together over a longer period, Wiremu.¡± Skavt said to me. ¡°I won¡¯t be available,¡± said Tabitha. She was joining us for the morning sparring before going to work, or to sleep, depending on which part of her job she was working. ¡°I figured that,¡± Svat said. ¡°We do have a list of supplies we will need.¡± she said, handing it to Tabitha. ¡°I have noted the normal price we would pay beside the items, If you could match that or do better that would be fantastic.¡± Tabitha scanned down the list, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t be a problem, where do you want them delivered?¡± ¡°The stable where I work would be good. I rent a storage room from them where we store Canine Queen supplies. We call it our Throne Room.¡± ¡°I should finalise the contract today and we should be leaving at the start of next week, so plan on that. Wiremu and Tabitha, after this contract we can discuss membership options. Everybody take a few days off, I will be in touch.¡± She wound up the meeting and people started leaving. Before I left she pulled me aside. She was also getting a bit of strife from the Dwarven Devils disputing the contract between them with the Mercenary Guild. The Mercenary Guild will mediate contract disputes if both parties agree, or if it is specified in the contract. They charge a fee for this of course. In this case the contract did not force any party to mediation and Skavt was not inclined to agree to it. However, Skavt did warn me that Borc will probably have made the connection between me and the bounty for Wiremu Hunter and I should watch my back. The Dwarven Devils were on roughly the same level as the Canine Queens in fighting terms, so they are probably stronger and faster than I am. He has also seen T¨¡oke in action and is smart enough to work a counter to that. The obvious counter is to kill T¨¡oke first, and do it hard and fast, which will also cripple me. Borc might be a loudmouth, but he was several levels higher than the original Loudmouth that tried to take me. He might also want a bit of revenge on Tabitha. The beginning of the week was four days away. Borc would almost certainly strike before we left Jern if he was going to. Maybe I should just leave town and go hunting for a few days. Come to think about it, my Fishing Skill needs levelling. I will finish my Cloak today because we are basically in autumn now. I will warn Tabitha and then T¨¡oke and I will go fishing for a few days starting tomorrow morning. With an actual fishing rod. Tabitha was working as a merchant today, so I stopped by the Emporium and had a word with her, bought a nice fishing rod and went home to finish my cloak. 52. Garbage: Tabitha 52. Garbage: Tabitha Bloody Wiremu! Sure it¡¯s fine for him to go fishing for a few days and hope his problems go away. They won¡¯t bloody go away! He has basically dumped them on me to sort out. The Dwarven Devils are not going to stop just because he is out of the city for a few days. They are going to look at me, left on my own and vulnerable and think, ¡®the best way to control him is to have a hostage.¡¯ I am not going to be a bloody hostage and I can''t disappear fishing for several days. I have a Job or three. Once I finish here at the Emporium, Trevor and I are going to hit a Gambling House, then I have an acquisition to make for the S?lv Emporium and I have tomorrow off to sleep and take Dusk for a long ride. That night Trevor and I are Gambling again, I really need to pick up an acting skill. I am getting better at hiding my mannerisms. Day three I am back at the Emporium as a merchant, nothing planned that night so I was going to solo a Gambling House for a few hours and get an early night. Then I would see the Canine Queens off, assuming they get the contract and then back to being a merchant. When the hell am I going to fit in dealing with 2 - 4 kidnappers? Not idiot kidnappers either. Kidnappers I have to take seriously or I will end up dead or a hostage. No, he is not dumping this on me. When I get home tonight he is not going fishing tomorrow, that is for sure. Well, shit. I got home after work and he had finished his cloak early, taken Rocky and his fishing gear and left. I have half a mind to go after him. The house is well trapped, so if they attempt something here I will have plenty of warning. Nyx and I have some tricks worked out for various scenarios. Different from the pussycat. I still smile when I remember the look on everyone''s faces, especially Borc. He will be looking for revenge, almost certainly. Maybe we will bring out the pussycat again. I got ready to go out. I was meeting Trevor at a bit of a dive tonight. I usually dressed young and innocent looking, but not for this crowd. This crowd needed to know I was not to be pushed around. I made sure weapons were visible and put on a dark jacket. It was in a seedier part of town, ideal for a kidnapping. Hint hint, you stupid Devils. But I got there without incident. Trevor and I made a moderate amount. My Shadow manipulation was good for manipulating some Spiritually enhanced Dice now. The good expensive dice were still trouble, but I wasn¡¯t in a good or expensive place. Sleight of Hand finally went to Apprentice level. The last few times we were out I was trying to copy the people around me, Acting Skill take note! I was especially interested in their small give away movements, to learn how, and what they were. This also helped me distract them from my own give away movements. Distract being a deliberate choice of words here. I had another job to do tonight, but I needed to get home to change. So there I was walking down the middle of a dark street and suddenly two thrown knives hit me from two different directions, both poisoned. I dropped to the ground and four figures, three Dwarves and one human, ran toward me from four different directions. When you are going against people who are at least as skilled as you are then to win you need an advantage. The advantage they thought they brought was overwhelming force, four against one and a surprise attack. Wiremu was a master at trapping to get the advantage, but I was a master at misdirection and ambush. Well, Journeyman level anyway. My body disappeared, which means Nyx who was masquerading as me faded into the ground. The thing with ambush is when you spring it you need to hit hard and fast. No quarter is given. The human was the one below me and my war knife decapitated him as I came down from the roof. At the same time Wiremu¡¯s arrow flew past and I heard it hit flesh in the alley beyond us. It was quickly followed by a Venom Arrow, either to make sure or he knew it hadn¡¯t been a kill shot. T¨¡oke was wrapped around the neck of another Dwarf. He was strangling him, but the venom would kill him first, although the Dwarf was bringing a knife up. Yes, I made sure I went and brought overwhelming force as well as an ambush. You can never have too many advantages and this takes precedence over fishing. That left Borc and another Dwarf free. Borc was struggling against Nyx¡¯s Binding Shadows and would break free soon, but the other Dwarf was coming at me with double knives. I blasted the area with Intimidating Aura. The Dwarf barely hesitated, but he did hesitate and that meant he missed his strike and I got a cut on his leg on the way past as I rolled under his swipe. My Spatial Awareness sensed Wiremu¡¯s arrow hit Borc in the shoulder just as he broke free from Nyx. It also caught an incoming knife toward me from the shadows. I might be able to sense these things but my reaction speed is still a function of Physical Agility. So that means it is pretty good and the knife only lightly sliced through my arm. Unfortunately the knife was poisoned. The Dwarf I was fighting started to come at me again as he could see I had been distracted. His foot suddenly came down on a Granite Spike. I don¡¯t know if that was T¨¡oke or Wiremu. I suspect T¨¡oke as Wiremu is on the rooftops somewhere. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Borc decided he had had enough and decided to make a run for it, and there was still a knife thrower in the shadows somewhere. I sent Nyx after the knife thrower as they were the greater danger to me and the least likely to be able to break her bindings. I went for the Dwarf I was fighting while he was distracted with the Spike but the tough bastard had just thrown his knife at me and I didn¡¯t have time to move more than a little. Instead of going through my heart it went through my upper shoulder. The Dwarf then caught a face full of Venom Spit. That meant he was done, which was good because I needed to rest a bit. I am not sure if it was the poison or the BLOODY KNIFE in my shoulder. Probably both. I pulled out the knife and pressed against the wound to reduce the bleeding. I then pulled out a potion and took a swig. It should help stop the poison and reduce the bleeding. I hope that was the right bottle. Maybe it was just the alcohol flask. I took both to be sure. I could hear the sounds of a struggle in the alley with the knife thrower. Nyx assured me he was bound tight and she was sucking energy as fast as she could. Well that was my woosy interpretation of the impression I got through the bond. I sensed T¨¡oke heading over to help. Nyx would normally spend up to a week syphoning energy from a creature that size. She could do it in a day and a half, but we didn¡¯t have time for the fast food, let alone a leisurely meal. I assume Wiremu will have gone after Borc. I checked the first alley where Wiremu had shot his arrows. I found a stealth type human. It looked like Wiremu could only see the arm and so had put an arrow in it and when she fell he could only see a leg, so put Venom into it. She had crawled about five metres before collapsing dead. I dragged her to the entrance. I went around and got all their coin pouches, but their weapons and armour were not for me. I sat against a wall to rest for a bit and try to sort out this knife wound. I couldn¡¯t bind it myself so I packed rags against it and tried to rig my jacket so it put pressure on it. The potion had slowed the bleeding, but it was still bleeding. It would be show time soon and what I couldn¡¯t show was weakness. About ten minutes later I sensed Trevor coming with two others. They were pulling a small hand cart. I had been hoping Wiremu would get here first. I rose to greet him, still very much on edge and in pain. What they didn¡¯t know was T¨¡oke was now in the shadows behind them. His camouflage makes it hard even for me to find him. ¡°Hello. I thought you said four?¡± He said seeing the three bodies. ¡°There is one in that alley and one in the alley over there,'''' I pointed with my good hand. ¡°There were two uninvited extra¡¯s,¡± I replied. ¡°Two?¡± He queried only counting five bodies. ¡°One did a runner. Hopefully he''ll be back soon.¡± Trevor was well connected and I had asked about body disposal having seen Nyx followed here. Trevor nodded to the two workers he brought who started to move the bodies. ¡°I knew those two,¡± he said, pointing to the two humans. ¡°Both were very good at their jobs.¡± ¡°The trick is not to give them a chance to do their jobs.¡± I said watching him closely. The deal was they would get all the weapons and armour in exchange for disposing of the bodies. They were being overpaid in my book, but I was in a rush. The thing with Trevor is that he is very good at card games and he only lets you see what he wants you to see. I was trying to be like him and show no weakness here. I didn''t know how well connected Travor was or who he had brought. ¡°You are getting good, girl. Your brother has some skills too, I assume it was him who helped here.¡± I didn¡¯t react to that. Trevor smiled, ¡°There might be repercussions for this. Those two,¡± he pointed to the humans, ¡°did a number of contracts for one of the crime bosses here. Rumour has it they were on permanent retainer. They will be missed. But we are just here to help with the garbage, nothing more.¡± Then Borc¡¯s body rolled off the roof and landed on the cart. There was no sign of anybody there. ¡°Warning duly noted.¡± Trevor said. They loaded the last body and retreated back down the alley. Wiremu helped me back to our cottage. He also helped me bandage my shoulder. We might need to shift houses. I still had another job to do tonight. I was still pretty much on edge, sore and poisoned. I hate to think what would have happened If I hadn¡¯t had the potion. However, I was not in a good state to do more work. I might delay it till tomorrow night. Or take a few sick days. Shadow Predator went up a level, though. 53. Shake Up: Wiremu

53. Shake Up: Wiremu

So I didn¡¯t get to go fishing. Tabitha went to see the healer at S?lv Emporium. She got another potion and the wound rebandaged with a herbal pad to help the healing process and to fight infection. It was a very deep wound and would take well over a week to heal. She would have very limited mobility in the arm during that time. She is not happy and mutters about how much I owe her. A nice warm bear skin cloak would be a good start apparently. I might have enough left over bear pelt for another one. T¨¡oke and I had spent our time exploring our bond further, while looking after Tabitha. T¨¡oke had actually been stabbed in the fight we had as well as Tabitha. Most of it had been mitigated by a combination of the Shakeskin, and Granite Bones, along with the difficulty of stabbing something that is strangling you without stabbing yourself. He had managed to pick up Regeneration through the bond. I was really pleased about that as I don¡¯t really know how to treat his injuries. I really wanted Snakeskin, but it was different from a Skill. It wasn¡¯t a Skill for T¨¡oke, it was a natural ability. I knew it could be done as Koza had a Tough Hide Skill from Velikan. I was thinking it was more like getting Bond Senses, which also wasn¡¯t a Skill of T¨¡oke¡¯s but a sharing of a natural ability. When I got Bond Senses T¨¡oke was mapping a building with his Scent and when my scent matched one of his then the Skill kind of snapped into place. We tried scraping my skin across rough surfaces while concentrating on the Bond connection. It felt like the right idea, but there was something more needed. Maybe a stressful situation? It was clear from our fight the other night that with the effect of our affinities and bonds we could fight at twice our levels quite effectively. You might almost say three times our levels with two against six. It is not a direct comparison, but is certainly an indication of our abilities. It is one reason why people with affinities are so sought after. The surprise factor had a big effect on the outcome. If we were attacked without warning it would be very different. That is why our sensing abilities are so important to our survival and why we shouldn''t let their full extent become known. We decided to test the stress factor. I was also looking for a Skill that would affect an area. I had the feeling from Identify that there was a Skill that could do that. I was thinking along the lines of a tremor or shake Skill. I figured a tremor skill was going to be a function of Spiritual Strength alone. I had ten ability points available so I put six of them into Spiritual Strength to bring it up to 35. I hope I didn¡¯t waste them. We went out to a Granite formation that afternoon. I brought some basic mining equipment in case I sensed some gems. Let''s see if we can test a full range of abilities. I started with Granite Sense to get to know the rock and where the weak points and cracks were. Treasure sense indicated the presence of a couple of small gems. Can I crack this granite open? That¡¯s probably a bit ambitious. Let''s see if we can widen the biggest crack. I focused on the crack and tried to force the rock to move wider using my Spiritual Strength. No effect after several tries. I tried to slide the rock against each other in different directions, that was a definite no. I realised I had myself confused. I was going to just shake it like a tremor. Vibrations. Start small and let it build. I got a bit of vibration going and Granite Sense showed the crack was marginally wider, maybe. Now let''s try a go all out approach and slam everything into it from the get go. Success. Unfortunately I was standing at the bottom of the cliff and all the loose material on the top came free and down on top of me. I avoided the initial slam but got caught and rolled down the hill in the rubble. I was bruised and scraped. This is what I was going to try in order to get the SnakeSkin skill, but in a more controlled manner. Thanks Granite Bones for no breaks. T¨¡oke was with me and went for a tumble too and I had to dig him out. I think what saved T¨¡oke from serious injury was his use of Granite Shield. Fortunately Rocky was not in the path. That was actually quite dangerous, especially if I had ended up buried like T¨¡oke. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Snakeskin 1, Granite Quake 1 and Bond Senses to Journeyman level. Regeneration might get a level too, we will have to see when it completes its work in an hour or two. Maybe longer if these bruises are as bad as they feel. Snakeskin was like the other body modification skills with an active and a passive part. It wasn¡¯t actually what I was expecting. I was expecting increased resistance to scrapes and cuts, but it was more than that. The passive effect was resistance to scrapes, or more correctly resistance to friction and a sensitivity to temperature. I think it was this temperature sensitivity that tipped Bond Senses to Journeyman level. The active part was much more fascinating. I activated it and as you would expect a layer of scales appeared on my skin. They were small and relatively soft at this point, getting bigger and harder with the level of the Skill. What wasn¡¯t obvious was the layer under the scales that secreted a light oil. I instinctively knew from the Skill this would help me adjust the friction against the scales. Adjusting the friction was what helped T¨¡oke move along the ground. This would grow with the skill. The Snakeskin was a whole body affair at the moment, but it would become more flexible in Apprentice and Journeyman levels. Although it was over my whole body I could adjust the friction levels in different parts. Strong friction on my hands for grip, but slick on my legs etc. This has big possibilities. The most obvious is in Unarmed Combat. I guess that would have to be naked unarmed combat, so probably not a frequent occurrence. Granite Quake was quite a strong Skill from the start. I got the impression from Identify that we had skipped over the Tremor Skill because of my 35 in Spiritual Strength and the effort I put in. It produced a quake, in rock. It was most efficient in Granite, but also in other rocks as less efficient. Size, and severity were a function of Spiritual Strength, but with more efficiency as the Skill levelled. Shape was a function of Spiritual Agility. Damn this would have been handy in those goblin tunnels, especially after I get a feel for the effects in different rocks and can be assured I don''t bury myself. I might need to spend some time with Sn?frid the Gnome Engineer and get a handle on structural strength. I went back up to look at the Granite face. At least the part that wasn¡¯t buried. I felt like an idiot. That rock slide could have seriously injured or killed T¨¡oke or myself, all because I did not look up. I really do feel like a Rock Brain. I applied Granite Sense to the rock and could see a number of additional cracks. A few more applications might break it apart. The earth above didn¡¯t look stable so I would leave it for now. I moved to a different set of Granite, with nothing above it. First I practised climbing all over it with my Snakeskin. Increased friction in my hands did make it easier. I sensed the whole rock with my Granite Sense working out where the cracks and weak points were and what gems were in there. Then I chose my spot and started practising with Granite Quake. I started soft and worked it up, sensing what the effects were. I was trying to get to a particular gem which seemed quite large. It was really just for practice. I tried limiting it and focussing it into certain areas but with limited success. I think it was the low level of the Skill hampering me. So I pushed it. I tried to put strong controls around it to focus it. A moderate Quake which was focused was more effective than a general area Quake. This levelled the Skill very quickly. I tried general area quakes as well as that was the initial reason for the skill. But the Skill would be useless to me underground or in unstable areas without focus. I had to take several breaks and it wasn¡¯t interesting, but it is what I needed. I kept at it until it was at Apprentice Level as that gave me a much greater level of control and a greater strength. In my breaks I practised with Snakeskin. I stripped right down to the buff and climbed the rock with hands and feet with high friction and then slid down in oily skin trying to control my speed with the friction. I have quite a few more bruises to demonstrate my lack of success, but it was quite fun at times. The Skill mitigated the scratches and scrapes. I got it to level 4 54. Miners: Wiremu

54. Miners: Wiremu

Tabitha came to see us off on our contract. When Skavt saw her injury and found out that the Dwarven Devils had tried to kidnap her, she was angry. She was angry that they would dare, and she was very angry at me for not coming to get them to help. If I am to be part of this team I need to get it in my thick head that team members help each other. We are never to take on two people as high levelled as Borc on our own again. We may not have told her some of the finer details of the fight, like how many opponents there were. She did however have a point. Because there were six of them and not the expected four, Tabitha nearly lost her life. That was an unnecessary risk when we could have had a team with us. It wouldn¡¯t have happened if we had more people. It was a cold, showery day when we met to join the mining caravan. Fifteen miners, ten wagons, twelve wagon drivers and a cook and two horse specialists, all watched by five guards? When the Canine Queens saw my cloak, I suddenly had another four to make. When they heard about Tabitha¡¯s injury, that became my punishment for not calling them to help. I am feeling a little ganged up on. I am going to need to go hunting sometime. We were all mounted, moved out mid morning. It was good to be taking Rocky. We would be following the road to Hrothgar for two days then another three days on a road constructed by the mining company. Skavt had the Scout Class and was quite proud of it. It was available to her because of her riding Class and she had learned Throwing Weapons and chosen Farsight. Once Throwing Weapons was at Journeyman level the Class became available. She wanted it for the mapping Skill it came with. She was a rider and an animal trainer and went all over the place and Scouting new places levelled the Class. So far she had just been around Jern so the Class was proving harder to level than she expected. She was loving the Mapping Skill and what she could do with it. She would never get lost again. She was a Scout but she was not a stealth Scout and she wasn¡¯t a tracker. She was a hard front line fighter with a riding / fighting specialisation Dragoon. Dragoons apparently, generally rode to battle but usually fought on foot. She was keen to try mounted fighting and had been practising, mainly with charges and spear thrusts, and some javelin throws from horseback. She and I would share the Scouting. Usually the Miners didn¡¯t bother with a Scout as the road was fairly safe. If they were attacked, the Miners could fight. They were strong, but quite slow, according to the Head of their Guards. ?rt and Kryddor would be the best to give warning at the wagons when I was out scouting. They were right, the two days on the road to Hrothgar were uneventful. The private road was narrower and windier than the main road, but serviceable enough. It started winding its way up into the mountains. These miners were keen to keep levelling their cold resistances and we started with a morning swim if we were close to a stream. My Cold Resistance had really slowed down in levelling, and that was normal. Winter was coming. What I discovered was that Snakeskin transmitted temperature much easier than my normal skin. So T¨¡oke was practically about 3 or 4 points behind in resistances than it would appear. I would need to make more effort to level it. Fortunately I now had a way to make me more susceptible to cold and going for a dip in my Snakeskin sped up the levelling again and bumped Snakeskin into Apprentice. I realise that T¨¡oke being cold blooded was unable to get these resistances from himself and this was a weakness. If we ever had to fight a snake monster, Cold was the way to go. We didn¡¯t see any goblin signs. Lots of bears, cougars, goats and the big horned sheep. I brought meat back to supplement the meals. Everybody was grateful. I asked the Dwarves, and they were all dwarves, to help me learn dwarvish. The Canine Queen¡¯s were all helping me with Orcish which was crawling towards Journeyman. Dwarvish seemed harder. By the time we got to the mine, which was actually the size of a village, my Dwarvish was at level 2. My aim was to get it to Apprentice by the time we got back to Jern. The mine was a walled permanent workers village. There was a monthly supply from Jern, with a change of shift. There were three shifts, two months on and then one month off. We had three days off at the mine while they unloaded the supplies and loaded the ore. It was mostly iron ore, but there were pockets of other metals and the occasional Spiritually Enhanced Material. It was quite an extensive mine and had been operating for four decades so far. Every three months the company Prospector would visit to guide their digging and the estimate was another one to two decades of the good material. I wanted to see their operation, but on the first day off Skvat, ?rt and Kryddor wanted to go with one of the company hunters to hunt a Yak from a herd that was nearby. One adult Yak would supply meat for almost a week. If we helped we could have the pelt and I had the best Skinning Skill. T¨¡oke decided to stay with Najprej and Drugi? in the visitors hut, by the fire. Yak were like a large bull type creature with horns and thick fur. The fur was too thick and long for clothing, but made for a good sleeping pad and soft floor coverings. Looking at the Yaks, they were huge. Their shoulder height was taller than I was. The males were bigger than the females and there were a number of not quite full sized younglings. Teenagers, I supposed you would call them. We tagged an older male who seemed to be slowing down. He certainly wasn¡¯t going to be taken down by anything as simple as an arrow. We would need to separate him from the herd first. Skvat had her javelins and a spear and I had three spears and my bow. The Company Hunter, Ruben, had a spear. This would normally take all three hunters, and then still be tough, with too high a risk of injury. They would normally go after easier prey like goats and sheep. ?rt had his axe, but he and Kryddor would take the main task of separating him from the herd and turned toward us. We would then try and take him down. ?rt and Kryddor did their job well without panicking the herd too badly. With the big bull stampeding towards us Skavt and I moved in on each side on our horses at a gallop. This was new for me. I put a couple of arrows in his neck trying to get an artery. Ok, the truth is, two missed entirely and two hit the neck. Shooting from a galloping horse is difficult. Skavt had a better idea to slow him down by going for the legs and her first javelin made him stumble slightly. I put away my bow and got a spear. I threw it hard, Throwing Skill kicked in and somehow it still missed entirely. My second spear pierced the front leg on my side. Skavt had put two more javelins on her side and the bull slowed and decided to stop running and start attacking. Ruben had been keeping up on his mount and slid off and grabbed its attention with a Skill powered spear thrust. That went deep into his chest but must have missed the heart. The Yak tried to get him with its horns but he was an experienced Hunter and avoided it. I dismounted then and came in with my last Spear. Quick Strike and Power Strike to the neck did finally open an artery. It didn¡¯t stop him. He turned on me and I wasn¡¯t as quick as Ruben and got flung away. He was turning to charge and trample me when Skavt¡¯s spear thrust into his brain and that was the end. I picked myself up slowly. Ruben and ?rt were coming fast expecting me to have broken something. Granite Bones for the save again, although I think this time the bones were bruised. Hopefully not fractured. The muscles certainly felt like mince meat and I think the skin was only intact because of Snakeskin. ¡°How the fuck are you standing, boy!¡± exclaimed Ruben. ¡°I ¡­ actually I might need to sit for a bit,¡± I said unsteadily. ?rt caught me before I collapsed and lowered me to the ground. He was pulling a potion from his belt but I waved him away. I needed to level Regeneration, and a potion wouldn¡¯t do that. Plus they were expensive, even if ?rt had a deal with the Alchemist Healer and supplied a lot of the ingredients. ¡°Just let me sit for a half hour and then I can hopefully be well enough to start skinning. ?rt and Ruben went to collect the horses. Skavt came and sat with me for a bit and watched the herd of Yaks in the distance. The others were in hearing distance when she said, ¡°You know, I am inclined to try riding one of those.¡± ¡°The Yaks?¡± I queried. She nodded with a grin and a light in her eyes. ¡°Not again,¡± ?rt said with a pained expression. ¡°Remember what happened the last time you tried riding a wild beast,¡± he reminded her. ¡°It was fun,¡± she said with a wider grin. ¡°You had two cracked ribs and were very lucky not to crack your skull,¡± he said. ¡°It was fun.¡± she said. ¡°Where¡¯s my horse?¡± ¡°It is lucky you didn¡¯t need that potion, boy, because we will need it now.¡± ?rt said sagely. We all watched as Skavt rode up to the herd gently and circled them obviously looking for a likely candidate. Ruben and I both had Farsight so we had no problem seeing. I don¡¯t think ?rt wanted to look. Then she moved in on the herd and they moved away and this increased the pace until they were all at a full run. I am sure Skavt gave a whoop of joy as she moved in. This deduction came from her actions. All Hearing Aid could pick up was the noise of a stampeding herd of beasts. Then she leapt from her horse onto one of the Yaks. At least she chose a teenager one. It tried to run from her, obviously unsuccessfully and then slowed and started bucking furiously. Somehow Skavt sayed on. Her riding Skill must be Master level. This went on for a long time and still she stuck it. Then it tried to rub her off against other herd members and then another series of bucking. Eventually, the beast was tiring and slowing. Then she slapped the side and the Yak snorted and pawed at the ground. Then I swear she turned the beast and rode it back to us. ¡°Fucking Troll shit sandwich. Did she just bond with it?¡± ?rt stared amazed. ¡°I have never seen anyone bond like that!¡± ¡°What a Ride!¡± she yelled when she was close enough for all to hear. ¡°Yak boy here got my Riding Skill to Master level!¡± Her grin couldn¡¯t get any wider. She brought him to a stop close by and slid off. He wasn¡¯t fully grown yet and his shoulders were at her head height. She was not a short person. ¡°You''re going to need a name, aren''t you boy.¡± she patted the Yak. The Yak lowered its head to graze. ¡°Okse, that''s a good name.¡± ¡°There is nothing subtle about you,¡± I said. Skavt grinned again, actually the original grin hadn¡¯t gone away. She grinned wider. ¡°Everyone is going to know we are coming and they had better get out of the way!¡± The horns are already impressive and Okse¡¯s size is impressive and he is not yet fully grown. They are going to be an impressive team. I am imagining them ploughing through hordes of goblins. ¡°Right,¡± I said, ¡°let''s get skinning and get back.¡± ?rt said ¡°Kryddor and I will round up your horse, Skavt. Remember that one? It is the small skinny animal you use to ride.¡± ¡°The short furred one, right? I remember, Thanks,¡± Skavt grinned even more. She was looking over Okse, legs, hooves, fur etc. Just like a good animal trainer. Okse just kept grazing. It was over two hours of work to skin and butcher the old Yak. I skinned and Ruben butchered. We got back to the Mine village in the late afternoon. I was still moving carefully. I think it would take a good night''s sleep to recover properly and that is if I didn¡¯t fracture anything. If I fractured something I might need that potion after all. The next morning I was fine so no fractures. I think Skavt slept in the open with Okse. I borrowed some solution to cure the yak hide and set it to dry. I say ¡®borrowed,¡¯ but I have no intention to return it. The hide was huge. Three generous sleeping pads, no problem, probably four. The next day was our last before heading back in the morning. Everyone was frantically loading wagons etc. It looked like I wasn''t going to get a tour of the mine. It was a bit disappointing, but them''s the breaks. There will be other chances. Heading back with wagons loaded with Ore was a very different experience to coming. Each wagon had their own brakes and needed to be carefully managed down the inclines, which was basically the whole way to the main road. This is where the wagon drivers earned their pay. It was a much slower trip. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The trip back went without a fight, which was fantastic. Dwarvish made it to Apprentice, so simple sentences. My Orcish was almost fluent in normal conversation, so very nearly Journeyman level. What was most beneficial for me was my conversations with Najpraj on gemstones. As an Apprentice Jeweller Najprej had an early apprentice level knowledge of Gemstone Lore. This was a specialised subset of Mineral Lore. This meant she had a general knowledge of gems and a good knowledge of common gems she had worked with. She was interested in talking to me because there was almost no knowledge of gems in relation to Affinities. She could tell me about Topaz. It was one of the harder gems, not much below diamond, however it was also considered brittle. I learned more about its crystal shape and how best to refine and shape the gem, along with its enchanting properties. Topaz was often used as a component in alloy, like my knives, to make it harder, but also so they would hold the enchantments better. Topaz was best for enchantments around hardness and corrosion resistance. To a lesser extent Topaz worked with heat and healing enchantments, but there are better gems for that. Because Topaz is quite common it is used often in weapons and armour. My knives weren¡¯t enchanted, but according to Najprej they could be without a lot of extra material. My Affinity was almost certainly reacting to Topaz. Najprej was going to refine some of the other Gems I got from the Granite so I could test my Affinity against those as well. She would refine the Diamond and Pyrope as well and I could see what happens about gems from other rock types. She would have a Diamond as payment, and we would sell the others. Cost sharing to be discussed with Tabitha of course, but don¡¯t tell Tabitha about the diamond.
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros MHunt Total
Type Attribute Level 10 11 7 2 2 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 11 2 22 1 2 47 114.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 10 4 2 33
Perception (PP) 11 0 20 1 2 34
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 2 2 25
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 7 24 68.0
Perception (MP) 11 1 7 19
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 6 11 3 2 35 83.0
Agility (SA) 8 2 5 8 1 1 25
Perception (SP) 10 4 7 2 23
Totals 92 41 47 33 35 8 9 265
Free points 3 0 0 0 1
Resistances: Poison +18, Crushing +21, Cold +22, Pain +9 Skills: Novice: Animal Care 4, Truth Sensing 3, Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Sense Spiritual 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Monster Lore 3, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Detect Traps 4, Venom Arrow 3, Spiritual Trapping 4, Regeneration 4 Apprentice: Fishing 5, Orcish 9, Far Sight 9, Riding 7, Unarmed Combat 8, Sewing 7, Camouflage 8, Sense Treasure 6, Mineral Lore 5, Spear 8, Animal Lore 8, Manipulate Status 8, Butchering 7, Plant Lore 6, Weapon Repair 5, Granite Shield 8, Power Strike 9, Darksight 9, Repair Leather Armour 5, Cooking 6, Imbue Venom 9, Granite Quake 5, Snakeskin 5, Dwarvish 5 Journeyman: Hearing Aid 12, Hammer 13, Identify 11, Granite Spike 13, Trapping 10, Tracking 10, Bow 10, Skinning 10, Deceive 11, Granite Sense 10, Small Blades 13, Granite Bones 11, Hide Armourer 10, Throw Weapons 10, Quick Strike 10, Bond Senses 10 Master: Stealth 16, Animal Bond 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 3 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Crushing Resistance 21, Cold Resistance 22 Skills: Novice: Growth 3, Regeneration 2 Apprentice: Power Strike 6, Granite Spike 5, Strength Boost 7, Venom Spit 5, Granite Shield 5 Journeyman: Granite Bones 12, Camouflage 12 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 16 Affinity: Granite 55. Crime Boss: Tabitha 55. Crime Boss: Tabitha Wiremu is away for three weeks and I have to carry on here. Even with the potions my injury is going to take a week to heal. It was a very deep knife wound and I am lucky I am alive. After the three days when Wiremu left I had some movement back in my arm, just be careful with the shoulder. I now had a Pain Resistance and a Poison Resistance, both only at level 1, and I have no desire to level them. I know they might save my life, but it is seriously painful. I really do want to avoid fights. I am limited to playing Merchant while I heal. I generally find being a Merchant boring. I try to make it interesting by using Sentient Lore and Identify to analyse customers and try playing different types of salesperson to make the sale. Some of my colleagues are more aggressive and some are more subtle. Sometimes a persuasive skill will work, but it may well turn people off. Some of my colleagues, particularly the ones with the Influence Skill, will set themselves up as an example to follow. Others are more of a storyteller personality. So I have been trying them all on different customers, slowly figuring out which will work best on the different customers. That is how I finally got my acting Skill, at work as a merchant. The skill is called Mimic and I am sure Nyx had an influence there. I can mimic people I have observed closely over a period of time. My work colleagues for example. I have been observing Trevor for weeks. Obviously Wiremu and, surprisingly, Warren. With this Skill I could direct Nyx to imitate Wiremu¡¯s mannerisms very closely. This also took our Elemental Bond to the Apprentice level. My goal over the next few weeks is to closely observe and then Mimic different people in all different areas of life. From the housewife to the high end call girls. Actually the call girls, both high end and not, are a top priority as males of almost all species are a sucker for that. I say almost all species because Elves in particular are not, and there is a variety in males, despite what people say. Wiremu is smart enough not to fall for it. My sex life has been quite restrained here in Jern. Trevor and I have had a couple of liaisons, but they are very guarded. Neither willing to let the other in beyond the surface. A couple of one night stands with pickups in the gambling houses and that has been it. The male one thought he had picked me up and I let them continue to think that. The female one, I picked up and made it obvious. I haven¡¯t seen Wiremu with anyone. He is more of a one partner person and into longer term relationships, so with us moving on he won¡¯t commit easily. I mostly used my Shadows and Spatial Awareness to watch the Street Girls and their customers and Pimps. I practised in the Shadows and occasionally had Nyx see if she could fool people. That was fairly blatant and obvious to Mimc. We would work from there to the more subtle. Yes, I also picked up some new techniques for my own sex life. Faking orgasims would now be easy, but I hope it would be unnecessary. I also focussed on Mimicking people in the gambling houses. There were labourers to merchants to nobles. I practised on everybody and the Skill was soon at Apprentice level. This helped me mimic the more subtle things and I was picking up more things that were required to be successful, like dress clues, jewellery and hair styles etc. Nyx and I were working on my Shadow manipulation as well. The sharp spikes I could do, but I was nowhere near as fast or accurate as she was. I wanted to mimic the feel of a hand as well, as a hand on the shoulder could be scary at night and distract more people. I was testing how much pressure I could exert and what I could pick up. I could pick up and hold single coins, but that was my limit so far. When I tried to pickpocket using it I was successful and levelled Pickpocket. I tried to form some lock picks using shadows, but they weren¡¯t strong enough. Then I realised what an idiot I was and filled the lock with shadow and effectively made a fake key. Small locks and well oiled locks were fine. With stiff locks I couldn''t add enough pressure to it. I would need to start carrying around a small vial of oil. Practice with my Shadow Manipulation meant I could get the oil right into the places it was needed in both locks and hinges, regardless of which side of the wall the hinges were. I would start carrying around vials of different liquids and powders. Acids, poisons, and different lubricants would all be useful. This would be quite a game changer for me. Wiremu had been gone for about two weeks and I was heading home from riding Dusk, after working at the S?lv Emporium all day. I was planning to get dressed up and go to a top class gambling house tonight, mainly just to watch people. It was not long after dark and as I approached the door I sensed someone in the house. I didn¡¯t recognise him. He was very good if he got past Wiremu¡¯s traps without triggering them. I didn¡¯t hesitate because there was almost certainly somebody else watching each door, but they would be outside my Spatial Awareness range and I certainly didn¡¯t want to give them an indication of what that was. I entered as normal and said as I did, ¡°Hello there. You are lucky my brother¡¯s away or you would be having a much more violent reception.¡± I moved into the room, a small knife palmed and ready for violence. He was sitting at our table, seemingly calm, but as much on trigger as myself I imagine. ¡°Most people are usually surprised to see me in their house,¡± he responded. He had a smooth deep voice. He was human. I put a shocked expression on my face and exclaimed in mock surprise, ¡°Oh my! There¡¯s a strange man in my house! What will I do?¡± Then in a more normal tone I added, ¡°Do you get caught in other people''s houses often? I can¡¯t imagine that is good for your reputation.¡± All this time I was pushing hard with my Spatial Awareness trying to get something from his status. He had a small smile at my antics and said, ¡°I only get caught when I want to be caught.¡± ¡°I am honoured that you wanted me to catch you, but I am not interested in a catch like you, so I am going to let you go.¡± I said as I indicated the door. ¡°I will go after I pass on the invitation I have for you.¡± he said. ¡°Most of my many suitors, invite me out in more public places. This is most unseemly.¡± ¡°Alas, it is not from myself. I am but the messenger in this instance.¡± He rose to his feet and placed a piece of paper on the table. ¡°I strongly recommend you don¡¯t be late. Maybe afterwards I can extend a personal invitation. I do believe that would be very enjoyable.¡± He had a smile of anticipation. And exited out the door and disappeared across the street. The paper was an invitation to a meeting with one of the local crime bosses, Fett, to meet at an address in lower Jern at 2am. I had seen him around, always with three or four bodyguards. He was a frequent visitor to some of the gambling houses. Maybe he owned them, I am not sure. I had ended up in a card game with him once, but bowed out very quickly as that was not good for my health. He was a big human. It was probably muscle once, but he had a lot of fat on top of any muscle now. He was a violent man and not a man to take no for an answer. This meeting was not going to go well regardless of any intentions. All my backup was out of town otherwise I definitely would have called on Wiremu and the Canine Queens for help. I could run. I could get protection from the S?lv Emporium. Doing that would severely hamper my future opportunities in this town. If I don¡¯t go to the meeting they will target those close to me. The bottom line is am I prey or a Predator? Predators hunt smart and strike unexpectedly. I have almost six hours till 2am. It is time to hunt. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Twenty minutes later I was armed and armoured and hunting. By that I mean I was in a mini skirt and halter top and walking a street trying to catch one particular man. This was a route Fett took often, but I didn''t have time to plan this properly. Thank the fuck for that Cold Resistance. I had been out here for over three hours and it was now getting close to midnight. I was starting to think he had taken another route when I saw his carriage. Showtime. Mimicking the most successful prostitute I had seen, I moved out into the street far enough they had to slow the carriage there by grabbing attention. I half fell out of the way of the carriage making sure to show a lot of leg and a bit of butt. I didn¡¯t have a lot of cleavage so we worked with what we could. I hid my smile when I heard the command to stop the carriage. There were two bodyguards on the front and two on the back, but it appeared only Fett was in the carriage. ¡°Hello, hello, I haven¡¯t seen you before.¡± Fett had a higher voice than you would expect on a man so large. ¡°Hi there, can you help me up please?¡± I said in a tone that had surprise, but also a hint of a prostitute seeing a potential client. He would expect that. I raised a hand and he helped me up. ¡°Can I offer you a lift?¡± It was more a statement than a question. I gave him my sunniest smile, ¡°I would love that.¡± I suffered his grope as he helped me into his carriage, closing the door and telling his driver / bodyguard to carry on. I moved into his embrace as if for a kiss and suddenly he couldn¡¯t breath. Fancy that. A grown man choking on a bit of shadow. I slammed Shadows Embrace around us, as that was getting quite good at muffling sound. He started thrashing around. They would expect some movement back here, but I had to try to keep him from banging things too much. He was a strong man and Physical Strength is my weakest attribute. I grabbed the War Knife from my back holster and used the hilt to try for a knockout blow, but he was too tough. I then tried to break his elbows. I didn¡¯t want to stab him if I could help it as there would be no hiding the blood. At least he couldn¡¯t yell with Shadow blocking his airway. I got some poison into his eyes. Eventually he lost consciousness. I kept it up until I was quite sure he was dead. Then I broke his neck to make sure. These strong Physical types can take a lot before actually dying. I made sure. The next part was going to be a bit on the fly. I didn¡¯t know Fett well, I had only seen him a few times in the distance and briefly across a card table and tonight. I didn¡¯t know much about his mannerisms or heard his voice much. I kept the carriage rocking for a while. I stopped after a while and Nyx and I got ready. When we were nearing the address I was given I yelled, ¡°Hold up, I need a piss!¡± in my best Fett voice of course. The carriage stopped by the alley that I had timed it too and Fett got out and went to the entrance and stood half in the shadow against the wall taking a piss. I left Nyx standing there in Fett¡¯s image while I scurried to where I had stashed my armour and hurried into it. I left the skirt and halter top in the alley as I didn¡¯t want to see them again. I joined Nyx and we went back into the carriage. I could have taken off at that point, but seeing as Nyx and I had fooled the bodyguard I was going to see if I could take it the whole way. We pulled up to the address a bit before 1am. As I got out of the carriage I said, ¡°Leave the girl, I will be back for more later.¡± The bodyguards led the way into a room which was private for me. A weaselly fellow came and said, ¡°Boric will be here at one with payment from his rounds. He has been short the last two payments.¡± I nodded, ¡°The girl Tabitha will be here at two. We think she killed Stefan and Olga. It might be fun finding out eh?¡± He grinned. I grunted. He continued, ¡°I have a word just come in from Longstrider in Yelets putting some claim on her and her brother.¡± I just looked at him, ¡°Yeah,¡± he agreed. ¡°Longstrider is not here. Larson is coming at three about this auction the trading houses are doing. He thinks we can make some good coin.¡± I nodded again, getting a puzzled look from the guy. The Crime Boss has a secretary and I don''t even know his name. ¡°Let me know when Boric is here,¡± I said, moving to the booze and pouring a cup. Apparently that was the right thing to say and do. He nodded and left. Maybe this wouldn¡¯t work. Maybe I need to just bail. My room has two doors. One of my bodyguards is outside the door I entered from and the other door leads to a meeting room. Two of my guards are there already. There is a chair and a table near the door to my room and then an open area for people to stand. A nervous looking man arrived in the meeting room. Already there were my two guards, Weasel and about six others who looked like they belonged, including my messenger boy from earlier. Weasel knocked on the door and I went in and stood by the table. I was pushing with this Spatial Awareness as it was supposed to penetrate statuses and I really needed that right now. Then it did. Some were still partially hidden but the bodyguards were open to me. They were both Guards, one with a Brawler Specialisation and one with a blunt weapon specialist. Weasel was still partly hidden, but from what I could see he was a bloody administrator with a forgery specialisation. Most were thieves with specialisations like Swindler, Grifter, Cutpurse, etc There was one Assassin I needed to watch. Messenger boy was a Thief, Burglar combo but with something else I couldn¡¯t see. Explains him getting past the traps. Boric was an open book, he was just a Merchant and Overseer. I looked at him and said in my best Fett voice, ¡°Wait outside. I have an announcement for Members only.¡± He couldn¡¯t leave fast enough. Everybody else was looking at me very expectantly. Then I announced in Fett''s voice, ¡°There has been a change of leadership.¡± and I started ramping up the Intimidating Aura. I then let Nyx fade the image of Fett I was wearing and go back into her knife. The Assassin moved first and fast, but I was expecting that. I avoided her blade and she caught a face full of acid. I blasted the Intimidating Aura. Everybody was still as she died loudly over the next few minutes. Once she was silent I eased up on the Aura and said in my own voice, ¡°As I said there has been a change in leadership.¡± Messenger Boy immediately recognised my voice and looked at me in shock. A small grin appeared on his face. Everybody else was still in shock. ¡°For those of you a bit slow on the uptake, Fett is dead. I killed him earlier this evening.¡± The two bodyguards in the room were trading worried and puzzled looks. I continued, ¡°Who was Fetts second in command?¡± Several people looked at the dead assassin. ¡°Right, that makes this easy. You,¡± I pointed at the Weasel guy, ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Vesle, ah Miss¡­?¡± he replied. If I am going to put on a show, go big or go home. ¡°You can call me Blacksteel.¡± I could see several people with scoffing looks. I continued, ¡°If you''re ever in doubt about who I am you can ask for proof,¡± I activated Sleight of Hand and Small Blades and whipped out my War knife and slammed it into the table top near Vesle. He jumped back. ¡°This,¡± I said, ¡°is a Blacksteel war knife. It is one of a kind. It is also enchanted.¡± I had Nyx move the shadows around it in an ominous way. I had her do it so those with the skill Sense Spiritual will see it wasn¡¯t me doing that. I levered it out of the table. To those still with greedy looks I pointed to the dead Assassin and said, ¡°Ambition is good, knowing your limits is healthy.¡± That brought reality back to them, for now. ¡°You can just call me Black for convenience.¡± ¡°Vesle, am I right in that you organise this place?¡± He nodded. ¡°Good. Bring the latest records and you and,¡± I pointed to Messenger boy, ¡°What''s your name?¡± ¡°Nijel¡± ¡°You and Nijel will meet with me in the back room now. All other business is deferred. Vesle will be in touch. Now get.¡± As people started to leave I turned to the bodyguards, ¡°You will go and meet with the other bodyguards and tell them what has happened. If you still want to work for me you will meet here after I have met with these two. If any of you don¡¯t want to work for me you be gone for good. If I ever see you again, you won¡¯t ever see anything again. If you do want to keep working, then there will be some additional training required. Go.¡± I let Nijel and Vesle go first into the room and I followed. It didn¡¯t make any difference for me but it removed the temptation of attempting a backstab for them. I had chosen Nijel because he knew my real identity and as far as I know he was the only one. Hopefully he will end up being my liaison here. If he didn¡¯t then I would probably have to kill him. 56. Administration: Tabitha 56. Administration: Tabitha I had several skill notifications and a new class, but now was hardly the time to stop. Firstly I needed to find out about Nijel. I turned to him, ¡°What¡¯s your position here?¡± ¡°I run the Burglar specialists. There are four of us. It is mostly a steal to order operation.¡± he replied. ¡°I see, and how long have you been doing that?¡± ¡°Two and a half years. I was one of the specialists before that for a year and a half.¡± I raised my eyebrow for more information, he continued, ¡°Before that I was in Hrothgar, where I grew up in the street gangs.¡± ¡°Will you work under me?¡± I asked. He looked me in the eye, ¡°Yes.¡± Damn, I wish I had a truth sensing Skill. ¡°You are second in command until further notice.¡± He nodded with a small smile. I turned to Vesle, ¡°How is this guild, gang, group¡­ whatever it is called, structured?¡± ¡°We are currently known as Fett¡¯s Fingers,¡± Vesle supplied. I rolled my eyes. ¡°That''s the first thing that is changing. Put the word out we are now the Shadow Guild.¡± Vesle nodded and got out a pen and paper and made a note. ¡°The Shadow Guild is structured around Specialisations and functions,¡± he said, the suckup weasel. He continued, ¡°The Burglar and Grifters. The Grifters mostly circulate the gambling houses and Fett headed that himself. We own two Gambling Houses, the Lucky Cat and Destiny¡¯s Desire.¡± I had been in both. The Lucky Cat is a dive, but Destiny¡¯s Desire was a mid level establishment, although the reputation had been dropping. He continued, ¡°there are three other gambling houses that pay us for protection. We have a Protection Arm, which organises most of our fighters, and supplies most of our bouncers. They also run the monthly Fighting Rings. Fett headed that as well, but his second is an Orc, Modrica who did most of the work.¡± I nodded, ¡°I will need to meet with him next. Carry on,¡± ¡°We also own a whore house, Quenby¡¯s Queens and run protection at three others. We also run protection along the main pick up streets which the Pimps pay a cut for and at a number of bars on this side of town. The Street gangs are organised under Pedar and he organises training for the talented and collects their dues. Those are the main sources of income.¡± he concluded. ¡°But not everything.¡± I said. ¡°You said you mostly burgle places on order¡± I looked at Nijel, and he nodded. ¡°So who takes the orders?¡± I looked at Vesle, ¡°Is it you?¡± He nodded. ¡°So we also have an information network,¡± I stated. ¡°So this Lars who is coming to report on the Trading houses, he is part of that?¡± ¡°Larson, yes,¡± Vesle said, starting to look a bit nervous. My gambling practice is helping me read him, I guess Fett didn¡¯t care about this. ¡°I am going to make a guess that you ran the information business, but few knew that?¡± He nodded reluctantly. ¡°I am also going to suggest that is how you carried out your forgery business under Fett¡¯s nose, without providing him a cut.¡± Vesle was open-mouthed in shock and started to back away. I continued, ¡°I am no Fett. I want you to continue, but you will pay your dues. Nijel will oversee that.¡± I looked at Nijel who was looking at me very thoughtfully. He nodded. ¡°What about drugs?¡± I asked. Vesle was happier at the change of topic. ¡°Haarkon has the drug trade tied up tight in this city. Fett was trying to muscle in but didn¡¯t have a reliable supplier and finding access to the right sort of alchemist with a supply of ingredients was even harder.¡± ¡°Who is the main competition?¡± ¡°Ingvar heads up the Dwarven Rogues who generally cover the other side of the town. They give preference to dwarves and their leadership is entirely dwarven. We do clash, but it is mostly at street gang level.¡± ¡°Where is the money?¡± I asked. This was probably the most important question. ¡°The legit businesses have accounts at various treasuries and we legitimise other money through them, especially the gambling houses. Fett had a chest hidden at his place for usual coin access. Only Fett knew where it was. I have a small chest, for expenses.¡± He replied. I was thinking I was going to need Wiremu to find this chest. ¡°We will go to Fett¡¯s place after I talk to Modrica. Anything else I need to know right now?¡± They both shook their heads. ¡°Right let¡¯s go and sort these guards.¡± I went first this time watching them carefully in my senses. Back in the meeting room were all four bodyguards and the largest Orc I had ever seen. She topped Koza by another head at least. Yes it was a her and nobody had corrected me earlier. I would have been surprised, except for my Spatial Awareness. ¡°Modrica¡± I greeted her. It was obvious the guards were going to take their lead from her. ¡°Where¡¯s Fett?¡± She asked. ¡°His body is in the carriage outside.¡± I said, getting surprised looks from the bodyguards. They weren¡¯t too bright if they didn¡¯t even check. I already had all the valuables off him. She nodded to one of the guards who went to check. ¡°So you¡¯re Black? Don¡¯t look like much,¡± she said. ¡°It takes more than muscle to run a guild like this.¡± I replied. She just stared at me. I suppose she was deciding whether she could work with me or if she would break me. I didn¡¯t have anything that would work on her, especially not in the time it would take for her to break me. She must have made a decision and nodded at me. ¡®What do you want?¡± she asked. ¡°I want you to take over as head of Protection.¡± I said. ¡°Nijel is number two for the Guild. For now carry on as normal.¡± Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°I make changes?¡± She asked. ¡°You''re the head.¡± I said. She spun and punched the nearest guard in the head and he went down with his skull obviously deformed and a broken neck. She looked back at me and I nodded. The guard came back from the carriage with the body. ¡°We leave it here as a Statement.¡± Modrica declared. ¡°Nijel and I are going to Fett¡¯s place now.¡± I said. Vesle looked relieved not to be included. ¡°I come.¡± Modrica stated. We headed back to the carriage. Nijel and I got in and Modrica and a guard on the front and a guard on the back. I engaged Shadow¡¯s Embrace, but only lightly focussing on the Sound muffling. Nijel definitely noticed the change in light. ¡°At least you weren¡¯t late,¡± he said with a small smile. ¡°I do prefer to be early,¡± I replied. ¡°I am assuming you want your identity to remain a secret?¡± he continued. I nodded, ¡°Is that going to be a problem?¡± ¡°We can make it work,¡± he said. ¡°I was a bit worried when you pulled the Blacksteel knife, but if you keep your face hidden and use it as your symbol it might work. The Shadow Guild, run by a shadowy figure called Black with a Blacksteel knife is an image we can push.¡± That was good, because I was hoping to have Nyx do most of the appearances. He then started to give me a run down on the major players in the Guild and who might cause trouble. There would be fewer now that I had Modrica onside. He wasn¡¯t finished when we pulled up to Fett¡¯s mansion. It was a modest mansion, but a mansion nonetheless. It was on the edge of the rich area, also on the edge of our ¡®territory¡¯. It was a two story building and as we approached I sensed it went down as well, like most buildings in Jern. The carriage pulled up to the gate and Modrica issued orders and the gates opened and she ordered all staff and security to meet in the front parlour. It was apparent everybody was used to operating through the night. We pulled up to the covered entrance and disembarked. I could sense at least two levels below us. I was shrouded, with a hood up and went to meet the staff and guards. There were two staff, apparently all the other work was done by contractors. The head of staff was, surprisingly, an Elf. Llawr was his name and was a slimy piece of work. He had the Merchant and Overseer classes, with a Charlatan Specialisation. I had immediate suspicions about his persuasive skills. Then the other staff member came in. She was also an Elf with the glassy eyed look of a slave. Slavery was illegal in the Kirghiz Kingdom. I had not yet worked with Modrica, but I knew the Orcish general attitude to slavery, so I used Distract to whisper in her ear, ¡°Knockout Llawr and restrain the other elf.¡± I didn¡¯t want him using any persuasive skills on me. She didn¡¯t hesitate and as Llawr came toward me he was punched in the head, but not as hard as the last person she punched, and she grabbed the elf and stopped her reacting. She did try to go to her masters'' defence. ¡°Everybody Stop!¡± I commanded, channelling my best Branik. I couldn¡¯t really Mimic Branik, I think it was more the Intimidating Aura I projected. ¡°Who is the head guard here?¡± A sturdy looking Dwarf stepped forward, ¡°Axill, is the name, Madame.¡± ¡°You can just call me Black. I am Fett¡¯s successor and took over the Guild and this mansion. We are now called the Shadow Guild. Nijel is second in command. Modrica is the head of Protection. Does anybody here have a problem with that?¡± Silence. I let it drag out a bit. ¡°Modrica, do you have a problem with Axill being in charge here?¡± ¡°No, Black.¡± she replied. ¡°Axill, who did you take orders from?¡± I asked. ¡°Fett¡± ¡°Are the guards stationed here permanently?¡± ¡°No, Black. Modrica and I rotated them around, except Fett had his favourites for the Bodyguard detail.¡± Axill replied. ¡°Are you stationed here permanently?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, Black.¡± ¡°You now take orders from Modrica.¡± I knew I was putting a lot of power in her hands. I was not getting any negative vibes from Nijel, not that he knew I could sense him. She could easily take over the whole guild as she headed basically all the fighters. ¡°Everybody back to your stations except Axill and two guards,¡± I ordered. Axill indicated which guards should stay and Modrica passed the Elf to one of them. ¡°How long have you been stationed here Axill?¡± I asked. ¡°Two years.¡± ¡°Tell me about Llawr.¡± I commanded. ¡°He was here and tight with Fett when I came. Fett would not tolerate any harm to him, or even hear words against him. He has access to the money chest and we knew he was taking what he wanted, but we couldn''t go against Fett and Fett wouldn¡¯t listen.¡± Axill explained. I squatted down above Llawr and stripped him of his valuables and two small daggers. ¡°What about the girl?¡± I asked. ¡°Eyslk is her name. Slave to Llawr, not that it is ever said. Did all the scut work. Occasionally shared Llawr or Fett¡¯s bed, sometimes passed to Fett¡¯s head bodyguard.¡± I figured that was the one no longer alive. I indicated toward Llawr, ¡°Bind and gag him. I don¡¯t want him to be able to speak.¡± One of the guards left to get ropes. I turned to Eyslk, ¡°Do you understand I am in charge?¡± I asked. She nodded. She had two Classes, Treasurer and Maid. I assume, Treasurer was from her preslavery days, she must have worked in a Treasury or area of responsibility with coins. What a waste of talent. ¡°I am now Llawr¡¯s boss. What are your orders about me.¡± ¡°To do what you say unless Llawr has said otherwise.¡± she replied. ¡°What will you do if Llawr is tied up?¡± I asked. ¡°Free him.¡± ¡°What will you do if he dies?¡± I figured I knew what was coming. ¡°I am to kill myself.¡± This was not unheard off as standing orders for slaves, to stop the Master being killed and the slaves stolen. There was only a short period it would work. The compulsion would fade after ten minutes or so depending on the strength of the bond, then the slave would be passive waiting for a new owner. ¡°Is there a place we can lock her up safely for now?¡± I asked Axill. ¡°There is a holding room on this level, but the main dungeon is two levels down.¡± He replied. Great, I now own a dungeon. ¡°Put her in the holding cell for now.¡± I didn¡¯t know what other standing orders she had. ¡°We will take Llawr to the Dungeon and you can give me a tour on the way.¡± The upper floor was basically taken over by Llawr. The door was locked and trapped but didn¡¯t look difficult to get through. I shared a look with Nijel and he thought the same. We would come back later to explore. The ground floor was the living areas, kitchen and public meeting rooms. The first underground floor was basically bedrooms. Fett¡¯s room was very luxurious but very gaudy. It would need a complete strip out and renovation. One side of the first underground floor had a loading dock, like the Emporium had but smaller. The second underground floor had the wash areas as well as storage and a dungeon. The dungeon had three cells and an interrogation room. We left Llawr bound and gagged in one cell. We left a guard with orders that if the gag comes off he was to be killed immediately regardless of other consequences. I didn¡¯t know what I wanted to do with this place. I didn¡¯t know what I wanted to do with Eyslk. We could easily stop her from killing herself, but then what? She would be waiting for a new master. I didn¡¯t want a slave. I knew Wiremu would want to try and get the class removed and her freed, but we didn¡¯t know how and what would we do with her in the meantime? 57. Treasure Hunt: Tabitha 57. Treasure Hunt: Tabitha I needed to consult. Initially I would consult with Nijel, Modrica and probably Axill as he has been here in the mansion the longest. Wiremu wasn¡¯t due back for another week. I probably needed to consult with my security boss at S?lv Emporium. I didn¡¯t think I would need Nyx in the short term so I told her she could start having a leisurely meal on Llawr. I turned to Nijel. ¡°Setup a meeting with Modrica, Axill, you and myself in a half hour up stairs.¡± He nodded and left with Axill who had been giving me the tour. They went to find Modrica who had not come with us. I picked a bedroom and shut the door. I needed to sort out Classes and Skills. My new specialisation was a top tier one with five Attribute points per level. It was called Racketeer which seemed to be a specialist Class for those in organised crime.Three of the attribute points were assigned, one to each of the Mental Attributes. There were two free attributes. I had never heard of it before, nor the Skill it came with. Adjuster 1. It gave me the ability to adjust small things. At Novice level it was just verbal and a subtle adjustment to attitudes. Apprentice level I could make small adjustments to written agreements as well. At Journeyman Level I could make small adjustments to the physical world around me. I am not sure what that actually meant right now. I could see the potential, particularly to agreements, but I would have to think this through. It was not an easy skill to use like Skavt¡¯s mapping. Using this would depend on my wits. I had a lot of Skill level ups. Particularly, Spatial Awareness, Mimic, Elemental Bond, Coax, Distract and Shadow Manipulation. I had levelled Thief and Shadow Predator. I had a lot of free attribute points from all this. From my assassination of Fett, I knew I had to spend some on Physical Strength. I brought it up to 20 even though I knew no new Skills would become available. I still had 10 points available. Identify was telling me that wasn¡¯t enough to get me a new skill. I am not sure I need another skill right now. I could bolster some of my existing skills with better attributes though. Shadows was strongly focussed on Spiritual and then Mental so I brought Spiritual Strength and Agility both up to 30.
Tabitha Carter Class Thief Merch SPred Rider Rack Total
Type Attribute Level 12 7 8 2 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 2 3 4 2 20 93.0
Agility (PA) 12 3 12 8 2 37
Perception (PP) 11 4 12 7 2 36
Mental Strength (MS) 8 3 4 4 1 1 21 78.0
Agility (MA) 12 2 1 7 2 This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. 1 1 26 Pain R +1
Perception (MP) 10 1 12 7 1 31
Spiritual Strength (SS) 9 1 6 3 11 30 85.0
Agility (SA) 10 1 5 3 11 30
Perception (SP) 10 4 5 2 4 25
Totals 91 21 60 33 40 8 3 172
Free Points 0 2 0 0 2
Resistances: Cold +15, Poison +1 Skills Novice: Rampage 4, Sewing 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Parry 4, Knockout Strike 4, Trapping 1, Sentient Lore 4, Adjuster 1 Apprentice: Appraise 9, Lock Pick 7, Detect Traps 7, Detect Spiritual 6, Unarmed Combat 7, Disarm Traps 8, Swords 5, Cooking 7, Animal Care 6, Blunt Weapon 5, Confuse Status 7, Detect Spiritual Traps 6, Disarm Spiritual Traps 5, Coax 7, Sleight of Hand 6, Elemental Bond 6, Mimic 7, Pickpocket 5 Journeyman: Dark Sight 14, Riding 11, Identify 10, Distract 11, Dwarvish 11, Bargain 10, Engulfing Shadows 10, Shadows Embrace 11, Intimidating Aura 10, Shadow Manipulation 11, Small Blades 10, Spatial Awareness 10 Master: Stealth 15 Affinity: Shadow Bond: Nyx: Shadow Elemental Skills: Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry. Time to go to the meeting and look for opportunities to adjust things. It was now about 3:30am and I had Merchant work at 7:30. I would need a couple of hours of sleep. Let''s do this. Axill, Modrica and Nijel were waiting when I entered. ¡°Ok first question. Where are the money chests?¡± Nijel, being a burglar, had a sensing Skill for hidden places and he mentioned two he had noticed on the tour. He thought both were too small for the main coin chest. In addition to those I had sensed two others and one was a well shielded one in Fett¡¯s bedroom. With time I am sure my Spatial Awareness could sense through it, but we didn¡¯t have time. I emptied Llawr¡¯s coin purse on the table and he had several items that would help, including the key for his rooms. He had a Treasure ID for the Kirghiz Treasure House which was probably the largest of the Kingdom¡¯s Treasuries. I assumed it was personal and we would see how we could get access to it, Eyslk might be the key to that. It might also be a reason to keep him alive for a few days. We went on a treasure hunt. We checked the two Nijel found on this level first. I knew what was in there before Nijel opened them, but it was good to see him in action. One had a coin stash of several Platinum in small coins. Obviously for small transactions etc. The other was harder to open and contained ID¡¯s for four accounts at different Treasuries. We would need to get them amended. I am thinking my forger friend could make a last will and testament for Fett, and probably Llawr. Nijel would put an order in with Vesle after we finished here. We went to the lowest level next to the other one I sensed and I opened that. The trap was easy and the shadow key made it simple. I could sense Nijel¡¯s puzzlement at how quickly I opened it. I ignored him. There were a number of gold and Platinum coins and two different ID papers. This was Fett''s escape stash. His escape tunnel would be nearby. I found the entrance off in one corner of the bath areas. We went for a quick look and it came out in the loading bay area on the first underground area. Fett¡¯s storage was locked up tight. There were multiple traps, fortunately Nijel had seen this setup before and we negotiated through it. I got a level in the Skill. The lock itself was the most complicated I had ever seen. Nijel said he could do it, but it could take an hour or more. I had to oil the inside of the lock, but on the fifth attempt my Shadow Manipulation got it. Half the chest was filled with coins, mostly gold and platinum and a couple of Cargonite. The other half had Spiritually enhanced and, in some cases, enchanted weapons and armour. There was a very thin Blacksteel stiletto that I appropriated. Most of the rest wasn¡¯t suitable for me or Wiremu so I let Nijel and Modrica choose something each as a signing bonus. Modrica chose some gloves with knuckle studs. Her punch was a one hit kill now and she is enhancing it? I guess there are a lot tougher people out there than me. Nijel chose a pair of enchanted throwing knives. They were just good a steel alloy but were enchanted to return to the scabbard which made them almost invaluable. Axill only got a few platinum, as he was not as important as the other two and needed to be shown as less. We took enough to cover us for the week, although coin should flow in not out. They also had access to the small coin stash. I locked it again, although we didn¡¯t set the traps again. Time to find out what was happening upstairs. Llawr¡¯s floor was divided into three main areas. One was a very luxurious apartment and very tastefully done. The second part was a storage area and it had mostly alchemical ingredients. The third was a very complicated alchemy lab. Neither Llawr nor Eyslk were alchemists so it was a puzzle. There did not seem to be evidence of anyone else being here. Was he preparing to enter the drug trade? Some of the ingredients looked very rare. Eyslk might be able to tell us, although it is likely she would have been banned from doing so. When we were back in the meeting room, I asked a key question I had. ¡°What do we do about Eyslk?¡± ¡°Kill her,¡± from Modrica. ¡°She has information we need.¡± argued Axill ¡°Does anyone here have experience with having a slave?¡± Nijel asked. ¡°Without some experience as a slave master, or being able to bond, nobody here could pick her slave bond up so we can get the information she has.¡± With that knowledge I knew I could pick up her slave bond. Identify was telling me I could. Did I want to? I would need to consult with Wiremu first. ¡°Bad experiences. Fuck with brain. Mercy to kill¡± Modrica was very strong on this and probably quite right. ¡°We have a few days to decide. Keep them separate and both locked up. Treat Eyslk well. From tomorrow Llawr will feel very lethargic and get worse as the week progresses. We will have a decision by then.¡± I concluded. I set up a message drop system to pass important messages to Nijel and organised a full leadership meeting for two nights away. I slunk into bed at 5am to get a couple of hours of sleep before work. 58. Mess: Wiremu 58. Mess: Wiremu I had a nice three weeks of generally peaceful travel and I get back to Jern to discover Tabitha has got herself entangled in one hell of a mess. I still don¡¯t understand how she became one of the top three crime lords in Jern, basically overnight. What the fuck was she thinking? Her predecessor Fett must have been one hated bastard to have nobody want to avenge him and they would take an untried girl instead? I know Tabitha can be convincing, but hell, really? When I got back Tabitha had already had a full ¡®leadership¡¯ meeting with her new Shadow Guild, and survived. I asked Skavt about Modrica and found out she was a loner and rogue away from the clans. Rogues were considered very unstable and unpredictable. I went to see this slave she had locked up. She had already had a S?lv Emporium negotiator question her and got some information. He had had some experience questioning unwilling Imperiel slaves and you can get information from them if you carefully word the questions arround their previous instructions. Apparently Tabitha has a new skill that helped the negotiator by twisting meanings and intentions slightly. They got more than expected. When I was there I met her second in command, a smooth talking fellow named Nijel. Seemed competent enough and seemed to be doing most of the day to day running of it. He figured out who I was quick enough even though I was cloaked up. He knows ¡®Black¡¯s¡¯ real identity so it was not a surprise. The S?lv Emporium negotiator was in agreement with Modrica about the slave. He thought that nobody would want to live with those memories. I can see their point. Tabitha is struggling with the decision though. She sees it as basically killing an abused victim. The choice is kill her or Tabitha take over her slave bond in the hope of finding a way to help her. According to her, the slave master has about a day and a half left under Nyx¡¯s ministrations. He is basically unconscious now and even if Nyx stopped he wouldn¡¯t survive without some very expensive healing and there would still be permanent damage. Tabitha can be very hard and very soft. I am glad it is not my decision. What a mess. ¡®Black¡¯ also took me to meet her forger, a real weasley bastard I thought. He had forged documents and bribed some treasure clerks to get access to the previous bosses¡¯ accounts. She wanted me to meet him as he ran their spy network. We took an instant dislike to each other. Tabitha wants me to find out how he does what he does as she doesn¡¯t trust him. I can understand the mistrust. My Truth Sensing levelled just by being near him. Enough about her mess. I have a contract to join the Canine Queens. Tabitha is looking it over for me. I guess I should really learn to read. I know my letters enough to read signs, but I have never gone further than that. Spy would help me learn, but I would rather go fishing. It is a permanent contract for us both but with several termination clauses. I wonder when Tabitha will tell Skavt they are offering a contract to a crime lord to join them? I guess she will make one hell of a supply officer. I am not even sure she wants to join now, or that the Canine Queens will have her. We were going to wait in Jern until the auction and our big payday. I think it will now be only a big payday for me, and small change for Tabitha. I still want my coin. I question whether we will now move on. I still want to find a way to combat slavery. How many others are being abused daily like this Eyslk girl? I will still be going to the capital to find a way to combat slavery with or without Tabitha. The answer will probably be in some dusty tome. I should probably learn to read. What a mess. Whatever happened to my simple life hunting? Maybe I should just go fishing for a week. The Canine Queens don¡¯t have anything lined up for now so everyone is concentrating on their professions. My profession is technically hunting so¡­ I will feel guilty leaving Tabitha in the lurch. I switched to some town clothes to blend in and used Facade to change some things. I then followed the weasel for a couple of days. He met with a lot of people. I could see and listen in from a long way off and some he bribed, some he got jobs from. He seemed to have connections everywhere and knew everyone. I followed a couple of the people he met with at random, but they just seemed to be normal people, most just dealing on the side for some extra coin. I identified several key people. I am not sure if they were part of the Shadow Guild or not. He had an office where he did most of his work in the main business area. He advertised himself as a Consultant without specifying what he consulted on. He would be in the office most mornings and out and about in the afternoons. I checked out his office and he had quite a large cache of Spiritually Enhanced materials, from paper and ink to waxes and strings and a number I couldn''t identify. He mainly forged Treasury documents, contract amendments and ID papers from what I could see. There were a couple of letters he was altering before forwarding on. I couldn¡¯t see any pattern. He probably didn¡¯t keep the sensitive stuff at the office. After the first day following the weasel Tabitha came through in a foul mood, grabbed her riding gear and left. There was no sign of Eyslk so I think she killed her. That was a hard decision and I didn''t know what I would do. It has only been a week and this Shadow Guild is changing her and not for the better. I needed to clear my head so I spent a day at the Blacksmiths getting paid to repair weapons. Simple stuff. I made Tabitha a cloak from the spare Bear and Llama hide I had. That perked her up. In fact she loved it. She could hide in the hood and it wouldn¡¯t hamper her senses. I was a bit envious of that. I would need to go hunting for hides to make cloaks for the others in the Canine Queens. I signed onto the Canine Queens as a member. Tabitha decided she couldn¡¯t. They did sign a supply contract with her, which they were all pleased about. I was really happy with the Queens, but worry over Tabitha did put a damper on things. ?rt said he could teach me to read. He was a member of the ¡°Lore Society¡± and they had access to books and scrolls. To become a member you had to have at least four Lore Skills in Apprentice or above and at least one in Journeyman level. We started with a scroll in Plant Lore to help raise that while I learned. I did hint that Monster Lore was my lowest Lore skill. We are starting with Plant. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I fell into a routine with the Canine Queens. Morning training and then a variety of things. One day it was mounted training with Skavt, then a day with ?rt. I think he thought I slacked off on reading when he wasn¡¯t around. I joined the twins for a simple contract clearing pests from a farm. I spent half a day with Najperj trying to sense gems. I spent some time levelling the Leather Armour Repair Skill and that paid a lot more than the Weapon Repair. A week quickly went by and I was enjoying it. The only downside was I felt I was getting further apart from Tabitha. There were growing sightings of Goblins and then the bounty went up as well as specific quests about them. The weather was turning too and snow wasn¡¯t far away. I had levelled Cold Resistance to 24 and T¨¡oke could now operate fine in the frosty weather. He certainly preferred not too though. Skavt decided we would take one of the Goblin Contracts. She felt that with Oske, T¨¡oke and myself on the team that we were OK to do it alone. Before we left I made an effort to spend some time with Tabitha. She had renegotiated her contract with the S?lv Emporium and was only working as a merchant three days a week and was no longer part of their security team. Instead she was providing information on contract to them. She seemed to be getting more and more isolated from people she knew and there didn¡¯t seem much I could do about it. The village with the goblin report was a three day ride away. We could be a week scouting the land around it, trying to find the exit. The city guards were collapsing the tunnels where they could find them. The idea was to leave one or two exits and build kill zones outside them. Goblins could dig, but they were not great at it. Talking with ?rt and Skavt the goblins weren¡¯t a direct threat to Jern, unless they got inside the walls. It is the surrounding countryside and villages that would be devastated and it would take decades to recover, if ever. Goblins prefer to live underground and the reason they were coming out was they had used up their food sources. To a goblin anything they could fit in their mouth was a food source, hence the potential devastation to the area. There were a lot of different contracts becoming available, not just goblin extermination. A lot of villages were scraping together what they could to enhance their defences, or improve their defence enchantments. The limited number of enchanters in the city could pretty much ask for anything in payment and were very busy. As usual it was the poorer villages that were missing out, with the towns and the rich estates and mines getting the resources. The village we were approaching was typical. It had a wooden palisade with a watch tower at either end. There was a narrow wooden walkway along the inside of the palisade to allow defenders up to defend the walls, but it was not really wide enough to fight from. This village was better than most and had a stone wall on one side. This would keep out most ground beasts and quite a few monsters. Without enchantments the goblins would just climb them. This is exactly what was happening when we came into sight of the village. We wouldn''t need to find the goblins, they were attacking the village. The defenders were doing everything they could to fight them off. Archers were in the watchtowers, villagers were on the walls and throwing stones and oil, then throwing torches to light the oil. Fortunately, the goblins were dumb and were only attacking from one side but it was still a losing battle for the villagers. Skavt started issuing orders straight away. ¡°Wiremu and I will do a mounted charge along the base of the wall, clearing out as much as possible, making a gap and giving the defenders a break. You three get to the wall and work your way along it keeping the wall at your back so you don¡¯t get surrounded. You should get support from above. We will then reverse our charge back to you.¡± Skavt and I had been practising our mounted fighting, including a charge. She and Oske were a sight. Mounted on an almost fully grown Yak bull whose shoulders were taller than I am, with sharp pointed horns, wielding a spear, charging at you with the ground thundering, was a very intimidating sight, even when you know it is only for practice. She got a longer spear made but in my mind the spear is almost superfluous. Now we are doing it for real. I positioned Rocky behind Oske and on the outside away from the wall. I would mainly be there to keep goblins off her flank. I had a spear ready as well, although I had practised with both spear and bow from Rocky¡¯s back. Oske in full charge was just as awesome as I imagined. His head down he just ploughed through everything, an unstoppable force. Rocky and I did our part, but the cheering from the walls wasn¡¯t for us. We came to the end of the goblins and Skavt slowed Oske down and started him in a turn. He wasn¡¯t the most agile beast. I had Rocky follow and switched sides so I was again on the outside as we went back at a slower pace. My off hand was now away from the wall so I hooked the spear back into its holder and created a Granite Shield to bash with and started throwing darts. The slower pace meant more work for the riders. I am glad I had the darts premade. The others were in their standard formation with ?rt and his two handed axe flanked by a twin on either side with their shields and swords. Kryddor was darting in and out but he was also protecting the horses who were behind them. T¨¡oke had gone with Najprej and was helping Kryddor keep the goblins from the horses. They were carving their way towards us with steady efficiency. Oske was flicking his head, skewering the goblins and often throwing their bodies to get them off his horns. Skavt was a steady constant thrusting with her spear and I was throwing darts and bashing those who were too close. This was a good team. This fight was one where we excelled, but I was very happy to be a part of them. The goblins finally broke and ran. I figured they would be easy to track back to their cave. The villagers welcomed us with cheering and smiles. Oske was the star of the show and Skavt had no problem finding helpers to wash him down. We decided to stay the night in the village before tracking the goblins to their cave. I helped pile bodies to be burned and looked at the walls wondering if there was anything I could do to strengthen their defences. The problem was the goblins'' ability to climb. If I created a row of spikes they would just climb over or around them. A spiked pit trap at the bottom of the wall would take out the first wave, but there was no way I could do that around the whole wall. Spikes on top of the wall will hinder and hurt the defenders. I could make the stone wall more difficult to climb by smoothing everything out, but this attack had been against a wooden part of the wall. Enchanted was really the best solution. That evening I went out without being seen and smoothed the top third of the stone wall anyway. It might help and only cost me energy. I just hoped there were no teenagers who had climbed down for a quickie and now wouldn¡¯t be able to climb back. I doubted it, straight after a goblin attack, but you never know with teenagers and their hormones. We tracked the goblins in the morning. The cave entrance was about two hours away and I doubt we would have found it without tracking them. It was a very narrow crack in the rock. The Guild had sent us with an alchemical explosive if we found an entrance, but I convinced Skavt to let me try first. Granite Quake seemed to collapse everything well enough, and now we had a spare potion for us. The trip back was fairly uneventful and Skavt went to hand in the quest and get paid. 59. Army: Wiremu 59. Army: Wiremu One of the kill zones that was setup was at the exit where I met the Canine Queens. They were using the town Kulle as a supply base and had set up fortifications around the exit. Two shamans above ground were unusual, so the logic was that this would be a major exit for the goblins. Guards were being stationed down there and then the contract went out to the mercenaries to be stationed at Kulle and to run patrols from there and be on call for the kill zone. Skavt got us a month-long contract stationed at Kulle. The coin wasn¡¯t great, but it was all expenses paid, including accommodation, food, mount care, and access to the Guard weapon and armour repairs. We all considered it as us doing our bit to help the district. We left two weeks after getting back from the village contract. I was seeing Tabitha less and less. She would often not be home for several days. I tried to get her to come with us, even for just a couple of weeks to give her a break. She claimed she couldn¡¯t leave for that long and there was always some issue that needed her. I couldn¡¯t even guilt her into it over neglect of Dusk. Apparently there was some unrest between the crime organisations and some internal people that needed watching. I was quite concerned as I am sure she was understating her issues and I couldn¡¯t really help. It was a grey overcast day when we rode out from Jern and then the first snow started to fall. The three days'' travel to Kulle were uneventful except for T¨¡oke the traitor. It turned out he much preferred to travel snuggled up in the fur on Oske¡¯s back than with me. The snow continued the whole trip and there was a good covering on the ground by the time we arrived in Kulle. The morning snow baths bumped my cold resistance to 25 and that was only because of the weakness of Snakeskin to the cold. This would be straight out miserable without Cold Resistance. It was still wet and there were grumblings from the other team members about not yet having nice fancy DRY cloaks like mine. Instead of waiting to hunt for the hides I might try buying some from a merchant and make them cloaks. There will be an influx of merchants passing through Kulle. Kulle had changed. The was a contingent of the Royal Kirghiz Army up from Hrothgar. They were manning the Kill Zone. Apparently they had accounted for several hundred goblins so far and another two shamans. The army camp was closer to the Kill Zone and there was a new road leading up there. Kulle had several merchant wagons, army supply personnel and off duty soldiers present in addition to the normal residents. We reported to the Jern Guard house as our contract was with them, not the army. We were told to find some empty bunks in one of the new longhouses built for the purpose. These were outside the village walls as there was no room inside them. There were also new stables set up by the longhouses. We were to report back here in the morning and we would be assigned a patrol route. Patrol routes were normally about a three day circuit, then we would have one day off and then be assigned another route or to re-run the circuit. We were very definitely told that we were not there to fight goblins, but to get word back here, or to the army camp, whichever was closer. If the big bell outside rang then there was a major sighting and we were to form up in the muster area outside the walls and wait for orders. It may not be the army calling for help, it may be one of the patrols or villages. We stabled our mounts and found some bunks. We then familiarised ourselves with the place, particularly the cookhouse. We had the afternoon off so I went into the village to check out the merchants and maybe the tavern. I figured the merchants would be charging a premium, but it was worth a look. The army personnel were a mixture of Orc, Dwarf and Human, and mostly male, but not exclusively. There were more female Orcs than females of any of the other races in army uniform. The merchants did have hides as they were buying them cheap from the local hunters and incoming patrols to take on their return journey. I found a brown bear pelt and three wolf pelts that looked up to standard. It felt really wrong to be paying for them rather than hunting them for free. However, they were cured already and I could just make the cloaks. The merchant was really pleased with the sale from which I gathered that I paid too much. As I was leaving I had to step aside for four mounted soldiers. Three were obviously guarding the fourth, a human. When I asked the merchant about them I was told that she was one of two people with the army that had an Affinity. She was Lieutenant Kelda and she had a Fire Affinity. There was also an Orc Captain called Tor who had an earth Affinity. I really wanted to talk with them, but there was no way I wanted to be conscripted into the Army. I headed out to spend the rest of the afternoon making cloaks. I worked late and everybody had a cloak for the patrol. They were not lined like mine yet, but they would keep the rain and snow off. Darksight was a very good perception Skill for working at night. Our first three day patrol ranged south of Kulle and the kill zone. It was generally uneventful, which is what you want. On the way back to Kulle I hunted a Bighorn sheep which we took back to the cooks. I started the curing process on the hide and after we get back from the next patrol I can line some of their cloaks. The second patrol was north and east. We were riding along a ridge and I saw an army watchtower on a distant hill. I assumed it was above the camp or the kill zone. I waved and got a wave back. Najprej asked who I was waving to and I pointed out the watchtower. She could barely see the tower, let alone the soldiers. Farsight had its advantages. Two patrols down and we were a quarter of the way through our contract. When we got back there was some excitement as apparently the army had defeated two more Shamans. Our third patrol was a repeat of our first route and just as exciting, yes including the Bighorn sheep. Our fourth patrol was into the hills on the other side of the kill zone. It was early on Day 2 when we saw the group of goblins in the valley. Then there was another and another and then there was a constant stream of them and I counted four Shamans. Skavt said, ¡°Wiremu, you are the fastest rider. Can you make it to the Army camp?¡± I nodded. The camp was between us and Kulle. ¡°Go.¡± she commanded. Rocky and I took off. T¨¡oke was still on Oske so he was staying with them. We gave the estimated positions of the goblins a wide berth and went as fast as the terrain allowed. It was going to take a good four hours of hard riding. It was difficult terrain. The watchtower saw me when I was about a half hour out and alerted the gate that something was up. A Lieutenant was waiting for me when I arrived with a fully armed squad and there were signs of more getting prepared. ¡°A thousand Goblins and four Shamans about four hours ride west!¡± I yelled. The Lieutenant nodded and a soldier took off running and the bell started ringing. ¡°OK, rider, come and show me on the map.¡± The Lieutenant seemed to be in charge. I knew the Kingdom had ten person squads in their army but I didn¡¯t know much more. Apparently there are twenty squads to a platoon under a Lieutenant and there were three platoons here under Captain Tor. There was always one platoon on shift at the Kill Site and one ready for backup here at camp with one off duty, but on call at the ringing of the bell. There were only two affinity users and the Captain was on duty at the Kill Site. The Ready Platoon was mounting up and the off duty Platoon became the ready Platoon. Lieutenant Kelda would be coming with us and she came with her own squad. Lieutenant Aaren was in charge. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. We were underway in less than half an hour which I thought was pretty impressive. We left at a more measured pace toward what we hoped was an intercept position. On the way the two Lieutenants quizzed me again on what I had seen. We would be intercepting them at around dusk at best, night at worst. Goblins could obviously see in the dark, but not all the army could and the horses would be hampered. With our master level Animal Bond I was getting a good sense of where T¨¡oke was and I assumed they would be tracking the horde. I was able to give good directions and when I was asked how I knew, the answer of my Animal Bond was accepted. Then one of the army Scouts came back and confirmed the horde''s position and speed. The scout led us to a ravine and we dismounted. Those without a form of Dark Sight would make camp and guard the horses and be ready for the injured. That was about a quarter of the soldiers. We would advance on foot from here. I could sense T¨¡oke was on the other side of the horde. I was told to stay with the ranged soldiers as I had my bow with me. I did have one of my shorter spears with me. As we advanced we occasionally stepped over dead goblins, I assume it was the army¡¯s stealth units giving us the best chance at a surprise attack. There was a signal given that I missed and all of a sudden the front line was charging forward. The soldiers could carve through the goblins as easily as my team could. Lieutenant Kelda¡¯s job was to take out the Sharmans and to save her energy for that. I was constantly using my bow now and fortunately the army had spare quivers I could use. I noticed the archer next to me would occasionally use Triple Shot to get more than one goblin at a time. I watched her carefully using my Sense Spiritual Skill to try to sense how she was doing it. Then I would try to replicate it. I knew it was supposed to mainly use Spiritual Agility and Identify was telling me I had enough attributes if only I could trigger it. It took many tries, but I finally managed it. Sense Spiritual went to Apprentice level too, giving me a point in Spiritual Perception. Triple shot created two additional arrows alongside the physical one. In Novice they were very narrow spread, basically tripling the damage. As the skill levelled I could be more flexible with the spread. My neighbour could take two goblins with one triple shot. At Apprentice I could vary the type of arrows, i.e. I would be able to use Venom Arrow with it. At Journeyman level I could vary the arrows more. For example, have them trail the physical arrow to get a target behind the first target. For now triple the damage was overkill on goblins that would go down in one shot, however, I wanted to level it. Then the fire balls started lighting up the mountain. I hoped to hell that was our Lieutenant and not a goblin Shaman. It was, but it was not without a response. The ground shook and water was splashing everywhere, and that was making things dangerous as it was freezing on hitting the ground and making ice patches. My shoes developed stone spikes under them so I was not in as much danger as others. I saw both soldiers and goblins slip on the ice, but mainly soldiers as goblins had claws on their hands and feet. The front line was breaking up a bit but they were well trained, closing gaps and getting the wounded to the back. I think the Lieutenant was having some trouble against the two Sharmans she had engaged, and there were at least two more out there somewhere. I kept getting a glimpse of one of the shamans as he ducked in and out of trees to avoid the fireballs. I didn¡¯t grab an arrow this time but formed a Venom Arrow. I had to time this right as there would be quite a flight time for the arrow. My first two missed, but my third got him with a full load of venom in the back. That slowed him down and he caught a fireball in the face. I now also have Longbow 1. I am not as excited about that as I am with Triple shot but we will take it and use it. Goblin Shit. I think the Lieutenant has all three Shamans on her and she has been throwing a lot of energy around. I started working my way up the line toward her. When I could finally see, the soldiers around her were a torn up mess and that included her special protection squad. She had a shield she was using and ducking among the trees the same as the shamans. Most of the soldiers around her were injured or dead and she was getting more isolated from the platoon. She clipped a Shaman who went down at least temporarily, but she still had the Water Shaman and it looked like a Death Shaman, as the ground around him wilted and died as he walked. The Death Shaman was throwing small globs of something, maybe disease? Where they landed things were shriveling up and dying too. The Lieutenants'' fireballs were getting less frequent and weaker. Surely, she has more attack skills than just fireballs? I snapped an arrow at the Death Shaman, missing but making him duck for cover. I shot a venom arrow at the water shaman remembering the other water shaman and the effectiveness of the venom. I think I might have clipped him. The Lieutenant was distracted looking at me, stupid fool girl, as the Third Shaman she had clipped was lining up a stone spear at her back. He had a stone Affinity like me, probably why he was still moving after taking a fireball. I was at a full sprint across the battlefield at this point and yelled a warning, but I was too late and she took the spear in the shoulder. She did manage to return a fireball and it clipped him again. That was impressive with a spear in her. The other Lieutenant and a soldier were behind me as well, coming as fast as they could. I shot a Venom Arrow into the Death Shaman and I am pretty sure it didn¡¯t do anything. Maybe poison was his thing. I discarded my bow and grabbed my spear and created a shield. I charged in for a power strike with the shield on the Death Shaman. He bounced back but not before getting one of those globs on me. Fortunately it was on my armour and while it was not doing nice things to it, this was Troll Hide armour. I was blasted off my feet by water. I threw my spear at the Water Shaman and it penetrated, but he did that watery shield thing, so only the Imbued Venom stuck. It would all count. The other Lieutenant and the soldier had reached the Fire girl. But I could do with some help here. My Granite Sense warned me about an incoming rock spear. That was new and I managed to dive out of the way, grabbing a knife. All three Shamans were focused on me, I couldn¡¯t keep this up. Where was the bloody Army when you needed them? I knew T¨¡oke could sense I was in trouble and was coming as fast as he could. I hoped he was still on Oske as I could do with the power of the bull¡­ Shit, I got caught in a water blast. I rolled as fast as I could and then the Fire Girl was back and the Water Shaman took a firebolt, it was only weak but it sizzled him badly. While I rolled I was trying to spike the Rock Shaman who kept avoiding it, then I realised what an idiot I was and spiked the Death / Poison Shaman who couldn¡¯t sense it coming. A Granite Spike in the foot slowed him down. The Fire Girl had the attention of the Water Shaman so that only left me two. I had to keep moving or Rock Shaman would spike me as I batted a spear away with my shield and took another poison glob. Some splashed on my hand this time. I could feel it eating through the Snakeskin. Where is that Water Shaman when you need him for a wash down? I closed the gap with the Death Shaman slowing him with a spike in his other foot, and then a Power shield strike and my stone knife decapitated him. I took a spear through the thigh, and it bounced off the bone. Then T¨¡oke was there to save the day and the Shaman was strangled by a two metre long Venom Serpent and was then injected with a full dose of venom. I looked for Fire Girl and Water Shaman. The Water Shaman was definitely worse for wear, but had blasted the Fire Girl and the two soldiers and I think she was dead or unconscious. The other Lieutenant was trying to get his shield up. I looked for my bow, or any bow would do. I threw a knife and it added to the Poison stacking in him, but it was going to be too slow, T¨¡oke saved the day again. Getting hit by a two metre long snake from the side was enough to throw him off balance and he went down and T¨¡oke gave him the final injection. The Lieutenant Aron? Arren? Aaren. That''s it. He was looking like he would attack T¨¡oke so I yelled, ¡°Stop! That¡¯s my bond!¡± He looked at me as if I was crazy, and T¨¡oke did look huge! A two metre long snake is a big snake. He was longer than I was tall. His mouth was open showing his impressive fangs and dripping blood and venom. T¨¡oke came over to me and watched as I pulled the spear and bound my leg as tight as I could. I used the Shaman¡¯s spear as a crutch to get back to my feet. T¨¡oke only had to deal with two goblins during that time. I had just got to my feet and the ground started to shake again. Was there another Shaman? No it was just Oske chasing goblins with a grinning Skavt on him. The crazy woman. Better yet, following them were ?rt and Kryddor with Najprej and Drugi?. They formed up around me. ?rt wanted to look at my leg, but I pointed to Fire Girl first. Why the hell can¡¯t I remember her name? ?rt went and spoke to Lieutenant Aaren and then looked at the girl and the unmoving soldier next to her. I leaned on Drugi? and we made our way over. I was feeling hot and sweaty. I remember getting some of that Death Poison on me. I ended up collapsing next to Fire Girl and passed out. 60. Lieutenant Kelda: Wiremu

60. Lieutenant Kelda: Wiremu

I woke by a campfire with some of the other wounded. T¨¡oke was there and still in his two metre long form. I am not sure why. Kryddor was there as well lying at my feet and I saw ?rt helping with some of the other wounded. I had a quick look at my status before I officially woke up. I saw both Dark Sight and Farsight were now Journeyman Level giving me a base point in Physical Perception each. Imbue Venom was also Journeyman and Regeneration now Apprentice Level. A few other skills had also gone up. I also had three new monster kills and Monster Hunter went up a Level. Two of the kills were T¨¡oke¡¯s but I guess we were a team. I raised my head to look around and that was a bad idea as the world started spinning. I lay back down. Kryddor saw me and gave a small yip to get ?rts attention. He came over straight away. ¡°Lie back down.¡± He commanded. ¡°You should have told me you had Death Toxin on you. It is very lucky you are still with us. I think your Snakeskin delayed its effects and you must have good poison resistance.¡± I nodded. ¡°I shoved a general health potion down you, and the Lieutenant had a specific anti-toxin potion. I think T¨¡oke has been sharing energy to keep you alive?¡± That last was a question. I checked and he was sharing energy through our Animal Bond so I nodded. ¡°That is a Master Level Bond ability,¡± he said, impressed. ¡°You will still feel weak for a day or so till it works out of your system. I am surprised you are awake already.¡± ¡°Regeneration.¡± I said quietly in explanation. ¡°Right, Monster Hunter Class. I had forgotten. You might get several levels on it by the time it clears the poison and heals the leg.¡± He said. ¡°Death Shamans are only ever taken out with ranged weapons. I have never heard of anyone decapitating one and surviving afterwards. It would be a good story, but no one will ever believe you. I will get you something to eat.¡± He left to get some stew from the cook pot. Now I realised why T¨¡oke was still large. He had been using his energy to keep me alive. I communicated my thanks and appreciation through our Bond. He returned with a bowl of stew and thick bread. ¡°Where is your bow?¡± he asked. ¡°Dropped during the fight,¡± I replied. He nodded and gave a short whistle. Kryddor yipped a response and trotted off, presumably to find and fetch my bow back. The spear was easily replaced, the bow was not. I felt a change and noticed that Poison Resistance had gone up. Regeneration was not the only thing that might get several levels. I must have drifted off again, because when I came too dawn was in progress and T¨¡oke had reduced to his normal size and was hidden again. Kryddor was asleep beside me and both my bow and spear were next to me. Poison Resistance was up again to 17 and Regeneration up to 6. My thigh throbbed and ached but it was bandaged properly. My armour was going to need more repair, but I would be dead without it. If my armour had not resisted the initial glob of Death Toxin, I would have been dead. I saw Drugi? by the cook pot and got her attention. She brought me a bowl. ¡°Is everybody OK?¡± I asked. ¡°Yep.¡± she said cheerfully, ¡°you''re the only idiot.¡± ¡°What about the soldiers?¡± ¡°Half the platoon is dead or injured. Most of the deaths were around the Fire Lieutenant. The other Lieutenant is not happy with how the battle went and the number of casualties. Half the wounded will be up this morning after the potions have worked. Word has been sent to the camp for help getting the others back.¡± She looked at me. ¡°He is talking you up as the hero of the battle. Apparently you tried to solo three Shamans?¡± she quirked an eyebrow up in question. ¡°It wasn¡¯t the brightest idea I have ever had. I did think I would have some help from the army, but apparently they were busy.¡± I replied. ¡°Apparently. How many Monster kills did you get?¡± ¡°Three,¡± I replied, ¡°but two were T¨¡oke¡¯s.¡± She nodded. ¡°They still count as ours. Our contract specifically excludes core and ear rewards, because they don¡¯t want us fighting.¡± ¡°Or they want to pay for this deployment.¡± I snuck in. She nodded, ¡°However, I will let Skavt know and we will see what she can wrangle from the army. You did save their precious fire princess.¡± She grinned. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°So she lived? That''s good. What¡¯s her name again?¡± I asked ¡°Lieutenant Kelda. You might get a date out of her, being her hero and all.¡± She winked. She was enjoying this. ¡°Riiiight. Like that¡¯s going to happen.¡± The army support arrived just before lunch. They brought extra pack horses with slings between them for those who still couldn¡¯t walk. I took one look at them and decided I was good enough to ride Rocky. The poison had been dealt with and Poison Resistance topped out at 18. Regeneration was hard at work on my leg. It could be a week before it was fully functional. ?rt helped me up on Rocky. It would be a slow trip back to the army camp. T¨¡oke decided to ride on Oske again. Skavt said at the start of the fight T¨¡oke was on Oske¡¯s head spitting poison as Oske trampled goblins. Then T¨¡oke suddenly left and they figured I was in trouble. We were about an hour into our slow march and Lieutenant Kelda guided her horse alongside. There were two unhappy guardsmen behind her. My team drifted away to give us some space. Yes, I saw Drugi? wink as she went to talk to Skavt. ¡°Hello, you¡¯re Warren Carter I believe?¡± She started the conversation. ¡°Hello Lieutenant. Good to see you up.¡± I responded. She had a shoulder bandaged and the entire arm immobilised. ¡°Please call me Kelda when I am not on duty.¡± I caught Drugi?¡¯s grin. Yes, everybody was listening even though they pretended not to be. ¡°Then Warren is fine.¡± She looked young up close. Possibly younger than me, not that I was quite sure how old I was these days. I think this is my nineteenth winter? Maybe it is the twentieth? Whatever. ¡°I wanted to say thank you. Apparently, I wouldn¡¯t be alive without your intervention.¡± She said. How the hell do you respond to that? ¡°You''re welcome. We all did what we could.¡± ¡°I am told you can do quite a lot. Is your Snake bond here?¡± ¡°His name is T¨¡oke and I think he is buried deep in Oske¡¯s fur.¡± I indicated to the yak who towered over all the other animals. ¡°Well I owe him thanks as well.¡± She paused. ¡°I am told you have an affinity.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I queried. ¡°Lieutenant Aaren saw you create a stone shield.¡± ¡°I am not very happy with that knowledge being out there.¡± I responded. ¡°Why?¡± she seemed genuinely puzzled. ¡°You can get a lot of help with skills and classes and life can be a lot easier.¡± ¡°I have all the help I need,'''' I indicated to the Canine Queens. ¡°And I don¡¯t like what is demanded for that help, for example, compulsory military service?¡± She was silent for a long time. Then she said, ¡°I got my affinity when I was nine. My parents were crafters in Hrothgar and we lived in a good house. I was playing with the kitchen fire and I ended up burning down the house. Only my mum was home and she got out but we lost everything. The Kingdom stepped in and offered us a bigger and better house and my parents a monthly stipend from the King. I was given tutors and could no longer play with my friends. I was told I could only use my affinity in a special room with supervision. The catch was that when I turned 18 I had to join the army for five years. If I didn¡¯t want to stay in the army after that the Kingdom would offer me another job. I would always be on call to the army. My parents accepted the deal. I am near the end of my first year of service. I have only been training so far. They sent me up here to get a monster kill safely in the kill zone. That would eventually make the Monster Hunter Class available and hopefully I would get the Regeneration Skill. They want me to be less fragile.¡± ¡°Did you get a kill?¡± I asked. ¡°The Shaman I killed back there was my first, but I have to wait to level my Warrior Class to 10 before I will be able to get the specialisation. That seems a long way away.¡± she said. ¡°I am a bit puzzled why you have a Warrior Class? I would have thought Archer would be better with your affinity?¡± I was puzzled. ¡°I don¡¯t have Farsight.¡± She sounded like there was an unhappy history there. ¡°I wasn¡¯t supposed to get into danger. This was my first fight.¡± I looked at her in surprise, ¡°Then you did amazingly well for your first fight. Getting that fireball away after taking the spear was amazing and saved my butt.¡± ¡°Lieutenant Aaron didn¡¯t think I did well. He just gave me a long list of my mistakes, from wasting energy and not aiming, to poor shield work, to not being aware of my surroundings,¡± her voice lowered, ¡°to getting my men killed and the list went on.¡± She had obviously just been raked over the coals and probably sent to thank me as the hero. ¡°Your men were meant to protect you, not the other way around. You did enough and came out the other side alive and wiser.¡± ¡°You can fight. Will you train me?¡± She asked. ¡°You are in the army and they have plenty of trainers. I don¡¯t think they would be happy for you to be trained by a mercenary. Especially a mercenary who is not even a citizen of the kingdom.¡± ¡°You are not a Kirghiz citizen?¡± she asked bewildered. She had definitely been sheltered. ¡°Officially I am a citizen of the Nystad Empire.¡± The shock on her face was worth it. She would have grown up with them as the enemy and with Hrothgar on the border, skirmishes were common. ¡°I might add that I am not a citizen in good standing there. Quite the opposite in fact, but I am technically a citizen.¡± She obviously didn¡¯t know what to say after that and decided something needed checking and rode forward up the column. Drugi? rode up and slapped me on the shoulder saying in Orcish, ¡°You were doing great there for a while ¡®Warren¡¯, but you blew it at the end.¡± She grinned and rode forward herself. 61. Training Camp: Wiremu 61. Training Camp: Wiremu We arrived at the Army camp about an hour before dusk. We were offered some tents for the night and Skavt accepted. The Army wanted to ¡®debrief¡¯ whatever that meant. I think Skavt saw I was in no condition to ride anymore today. ?rt rebandaged my leg and Najprej and Drugi? hunted up some food for us. I pretty much crashed after that. We had packed up in the morning when a soldier came and said the Captain wanted to see us. We trooped off after the messenger, well the others trooped, I limped. My leg was noticeably better, but it would take a few days to heal. The command tent was near the gate facing the Kill Zone. Captain Tor was the skinniest and wiriest Orc I have ever seen. With him was Lieutenant Aaren. T¨¡oke was hidden in my shoulder armour and Kryddor came with us. Okse was left in charge of the other mounts. He was happy if he had something to munch on. I don¡¯t think that Yak ever stopped eating. I guess he was still growing. ¡°Come in and take a seat.¡± Captain Tor had a deep voice like most Orcs. There were three seats. Najprej insisted I take one because of my leg so I sat next to Skavt and Drugi? was on the other side. Najprej and ?rt stood behind. Kryddor came and sat at my feet. Lieutenant Aaren started with, ¡°Please walk us through finding the goblins and the fight from your side.¡± There was a Dwarven soldier at a side table ready to take notes. Skavt talked them through the patrol, and the sighting and then what they did after I was sent to the camp, which was to shadow the goblins. When they heard the attack start they moved in at the rear of the horde. When she finished, the Lieutenant turned to me and said to walk them through the fight as it involved me. ¡°I am a hunter so I joined the archers.¡± I walked them through following the lead of the archer next to me, but nothing about Skills, especially new Skills. I talked to them about seeing the back of the Shaman, but nothing about putting a Venom Arrow in him. I saw him get taken by a fire bolt and then that the area where the Shamans fought had been devastated so I decided to go and help. When I said I discarded my bow and picked up a shield I was stopped. The Captain said, ¡°Lieutenant Aaren said he saw you create a stone shield.¡± I said, ¡°It is true I picked up a shield.¡± ¡°Not made a shield?¡± the Captain said. I switched to Orcish as I figured the Lieutenant and the Dwarf scribe wouldn¡¯t understand, but my team and Captain Tor would. ¡°I will only admit to picking up a shield,¡± ¡°Why¡± the Captain asked in the same language. ¡°Because I want to be left alone.¡± I replied still in Orcish. The Captain was silent for quite a while. Everybody waited for him. Eventually he said in Common, ¡°Carry on with your story.¡± It amused me that he said story, not a report or an account. The rest was straight forward, the darts and knives were from my bandolier, no mention of a spike war, I decapitated the Shaman and then T¨¡oke saved my ass. Actually, he saved all our asses. I put it more politely than that. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°So T¨¡oke is your two metre long serpent bond?¡± the Captain asked ¡°Well, he is a snake but he is not two metres long.¡± I put my hand to my shoulder and T¨¡oke came out in all his half metre long glory. I think the Captain was amused. The Lieutenant was fuming at my fabrications. ¡°Let it be recorded that T¨¡oke is a snake of about a half metre length and only 50-60 mm wide.¡± the Captain said to the Dwarf. The Lieutenant might be fuming, but he knew when to keep his mouth shut. The Captain again looked at me. ¡°Give me your assessment of Lieutenant Kelda.¡± I decided not to sugar coat it. ¡°She is too young. She has been over protected. She hardly knows her Affinity at all, for fuck sake she only had one attack Skill that I saw. Seriously Fireball or bolt or whatever it is called. She didn¡¯t even use any martial skills. She has had caution pumped into her from childhood and now she seems almost scared of her Affinity. My assessment is that Warrior is the wrong class for her and she will not fit the standard Army mould. She will break before that and you will lose a powerful Affinity user.¡± That was too much for Lieutenant Arren. He burst out, ¡°We have been training Soldiers and Affinity users for decades. We are not going to listen to an upstart foreign mercenary who won¡¯t even admit to his own Affinity.¡± He was interrupted by the Captain who gave one of those, almost subsonic, growls Orcs were known for. I was wondering if I could make a Granite Spike long enough to go up the Lieutenants arse. I probably could but the Captain continued, ¡°Lieutenant Kelba will be on light duties for at least two weeks. Would you be able to work with her on her Affinity in those weeks?¡± ¡°I will only be on light duties for a week and we have a contract with the Jern Guard, not the army. Any renegotiations will need to go through Skavt.¡± I replied. Skavt said ¡° The Canine Queens are fully capable to continue our contractual responsibilities, even if our idiot member is recuperating.¡± ¡°The Kirghiz Army has the authority to take over contracts if deemed necessary. I will send word to the Guard in Kulle of your meritorious service and that you will operate from here for the remainder of your term. How long is that?¡± ¡°Two weeks,¡± she replied. ¡°Convenient. As of now you are under contract to the Kirghiz Army. In about an hour there is a squad of Scouts and two squads of soldiers leaving to track the Goblin Hoard to find their exit and to close it. I want you to be part of that escort and replace one of those squads. Expect to be gone three or more days. We had 23 killed in that fight and another six need limbs to be regrown. We are short handed if there is a major breakout. Those who are on light duty can report to the training ground and see Sergeant Henrik for supplies.¡± We looked at Skavt. She checked with us and we didn¡¯t have any objections so she turned to the Captain. ¡°Very well, but I want to make it very clear that all the members of the Canine Queens are under my command, not yours. That includes those members on light duty.¡± I appreciated Skavt saying that and making it clear I wasn¡¯t under their orders. I imagine Army types like ordering everybody around. ¡°Lieutenant Kelda will train with you, Warren, but she will have two guards with her at all times. Very well, dismissed.¡± We left the tent. The other¡¯s were basically ready to go, they just needed food. I got the feeling T¨¡oke was undecided whether to go or stay. He really likes Oske. In the end he decided to stay with me. Drugi? gave me a nudge and a wink before she left. I went back to the visitors tent we were assigned and unloaded Rocky, then asked directions to the training grounds. 62. Playing with Fire: Wiremu

62. Playing with Fire: Wiremu

The training grounds were outside the wooden palistrade that surrounded the camp and was basically a bare patch of ground with a couple of squads training. Sergeant Henrik was a grizzled Dwarf and took one look at me limping toward him and then at the bandaged Lieutenant with her two guards and waved us toward the archery range and turned his back on us. Lieutenant started to head there and I stopped her. ¡°Hold up. What do you normally do to train?¡± I asked. ¡°For my Affinity I generally throw Firebolts at the archery targets.¡± she replied. ¡°Well that is useless.¡± I said. ¡°Our first training session is going to be in the cookhouse.¡± ¡°You mean the mess? I don¡¯t understand?¡± she said, puzzled. ¡°You have an Affinity with fire. I don¡¯t see any fire here.¡± I stated. ¡°I make the fire.¡± she said. ¡°And that is your first mistake.¡± I said. ¡°Did you get your Affinity by making fire?¡± She shook her head, ¡°I manipulated fire.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± I said. ¡°For you manipulating existing fire is easier than spending a shit ton of energy creating it. You ran out of energy in that fight. Therefore we need to find ways to reduce your energy cost. Manipulating an existing fire is one way to do that. Plus the mess is warmer and they have food and drink.¡± She led the way to the mess and we got a drink and sat at a table. I got a candle so it would look like we were doing something. ¡°First up, I need to know about your existing Classes and Skills. This is both Skills with your Affinity and those without as we need to find a synergy between them.¡± She was hesitant at first, but then started, ¡°the first Class I got was Cook. I had a rebellious period in my early teens and went and got a job in a kitchen, and got the Class Cook. Cook only gave three Attribute points a Level and all pre-assigned, but I didn¡¯t care. I don¡¯t think they minded either as almost any starter Class is OK. What I got a lot of flak for, is that I ¡®wasted¡¯ my first Perception Skill on Taster. Just before I had to join the Army I specialised Cook into Chef. After I joined the Army I was weak and useless, so they trained me until I got the Warrior Class. It took longer than other recruits but they wanted me to get the Physical and Mental Strength bonuses and learn to fight. They insisted I take Darksight as my second Perception Skill. It is handy, but seriously I can just make light.¡± she demonstrated making a flame on her hand. ¡°The Army tries to fit everyone into the same mould.¡± I said. ¡°You will need to know that mould and fit in, to some extent. But you also need to make your Skills your own. What Skills do you have? Start with the highest and work down.¡± ¡°Journeyman: Cooking. ¡°Apprentice: Herb Lore, Fire Manipulation, Identify, Small Blades, Regulate Temperature, Baker, Taster, Flaming Touch, Firebolt, Butcher, Plant Lore, Elemental Lore, Shield. ¡°Novice: Animal Lore, Darksight, Sense Spiritual, Spiritual Lore, Monster Lore, Sword.¡± ¡°Tell me about Fire Manipulation.¡± ¡°Novice is just that, manipulating and changing fire, but only at the source. Apprentice level I can move it from the source and keep it going the distance increases with the Level. Journeyman I will be able to increase the amount of fire at an increasing distance from the source. Master expands on all the above and I can pick up and keep a small flame going all the time at no cost.¡± ¡°Regulate Temperature?¡± I asked. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°Novice it is only my own body temperature. At Apprentice it is items around me. Flames are easiest but other things I touch as well. At Journeyman Level it will mean I can do it without touching at increasing distances. At Master I can take it to more extreme levels, possibly up to melting some metals.¡± ¡°Can you cool things as well?¡± ¡°Yes, It is the same cost.¡± she replied. ¡°Can you freeze this cup of water?¡± I asked. I did point to her cup of tea, not mine. She looked like she hadn¡¯t thought of that and touched the tea to try. It was a cold winter''s day so freezing was not too far below room temperature. She got it to be very cold, but not quite frozen. ¡°There seems to be a barrier or something stopping it from actually freezing.¡± She said. ¡°That¡¯s good to know. It may change at Journeyman Level, it may not. Fire is normally for heating things up, so there may be a limit. It is good to know and test the limits. We will go to the Weapon Repairer next and see how hot you can make something. Flaming Touch. Is that what you showed me before with the flame on your hand?¡± I asked. She nodded. ¡°At Novice I could only set things alight that I touched. At Apprentice I can make flames bigger or smaller and on various parts of my body. At Journeyman Level it can extend to things I am touching.¡± ¡°Can you manipulate that flame with Fire Manipulation?¡± She shook her head. ¡°What about with Regulate Temperature?¡± ¡°Hang on,¡± she said. She made a flame on her hand. I could feel the heat increase from where I sat and then reduce. She was grinning like she had a new toy. ¡°Great,'''' I said, ¡°That will be very useful for close-in defence. How much of your body can you do at once?¡± She looked embarrassed, ¡°All of it, but clothes don¡¯t survive.¡± I nodded. ¡°Can you just do your hair?¡± She nodded so I said, ¡°show me.¡± She had shoulder length hair and leaned forward so it was falling forward and not touching her clothes and then it turned to flame. I said, ¡°Don¡¯t stop, Make it hotter.¡± She did and the ground below her hair started to smoulder. ¡°Ok, stop now. Make a flame with your hand again.¡± I pricked up a small piece of wood from the fire and put it in the flame. Nothing happened and she was about to say ¡®I told you so¡¯, when I said ¡°Make it hotter. Keep going,¡± It was quite hot and then the wood started to smoke and then caught alight. She stopped her Flaming Touch and the wood kept burning and she used her Fire Manipulation on it. I said, ¡°You need to always carry some easily flammable material on you, whether it is straw or paper or something easy to light. You also need to practise quickly lighting them and manipulating the flame in your defence. You also need to invest in some flame proof clothing. At least shoulders and arms. Chainmail is a good easy start but there must be better options from Monster materials around. I assume you have good heat and flame resistances?¡± She nodded. ¡°We can experiment with Firebolt later, but making a smaller hotter bolt may not cost any more and in fact may cost less than your current bolts. Aiming is still a problem, especially without the bonuses of Farsight.¡± ¡°I could actually get Farsight now. Warrior levelled in the fight and I have not assigned the attributes. They were pushing me to Physical Strength and Agility, not Perception.¡± ¡°It is your decision, not the Army¡¯s or anyone else''s. I suggest you grab Farsight now as you are essentially a ranged fighter and the bonuses will help greatly. I have other ideas as well we can discuss, but practice will have to wait till your shoulder is better.¡± ¡°I have done it.¡± She said quietly as if afraid of being heard. ¡°Good. When your shoulder is healed, learn the bow. Get the Archer Class if you can. A flaming arrow will be much more efficient than a firebolt as the energy for the movement comes from the bow. Get the arrows hot enough and you will burn through most leather armour. The Skill Longbow will increase the distance and Triple Shot will increase the hitting power. Bow will need to be level 10 before you can get those. ¡°Try to get the Throw Weapon Skill as well and experiment with different materials and liquids that burn.¡± She looked puzzled. ¡°Seriously, you are a Chef. You know oil burns. Throwing a pot of oil and lighting it up will be very effective.¡± The good news is I got a new Skill from this, Tutor 1 with bonuses in tutoring a person or small group in a Skill. The bad news was my Spy Class was throwing me warnings. It hadn¡¯t levelled, but Truth Sensing had. Something wasn¡¯t right. I know if I had been asked about my Skills and Classes I wouldn¡¯t have said everything even if they had the best intentions. Maybe it was that, maybe it was something else. I was very puzzled that she had not been taught any of this. Even the remote villagers used oil to defend their walls and lit it using torches. Surely the Army has had Fire Affinities before. I don¡¯t understand why she has been kept in the dark about this. There must be something in the background causing this. Maybe politics? Enemy interference? My Spy Class has definitely been triggered. Captain Tor is using me to get around some restriction he has been put under. I had better watch my back. 63. War: Tabitha 63. War: Tabitha Wiremu went away for a month. That is good, because this has gotten ugly. The alchemy lab we found in Llawr¡¯s space turned out to be a sham. I should have guessed. He had the bloody Charlatan Class. They specialise in selling fake goods and remedies. The trouble is the person he was scamming was Jern¡¯s one and only Drug Lord, Haarkon. Haarkon is now out for blood and it doesn¡¯t seem to matter whose. I can¡¯t hand Llawr over to him because all that is left is an unrecognisable dried up husk. Nyx is well fed for a long time. I doubt Haarkon would be happy with that anyway. His reputation has been severely tarnished. He is after the death of our Guild and it doesn¡¯t matter who is now in charge of it. Actually it does matter who is in charge of it, as this leader is putting up a much stronger defence and counter attack than the previous fattso would even dream of. I have been out hunting most nights in the last month, either defending our assets and personal, or organising attacks. I am coordinating with Modrica and Vesle mostly. Pedar is coordinating the street gangs to run interference and distractions for our operations. Or he was until he got targeted. His replacement is not nearly so good. Nijel has been given the task of the defence of our legitimate businesses and has been quite successful. . The mansion was fire bombed two weeks ago and the top two floors gutted. They would call that a victory. They don¡¯t know that I couldn¡¯t care less about it. I was more concerned with the three fighters we lost there. Axill got out but it is going to take three months to get his arm regrown. The Guild is footing the considerable cost of that. This war is going to come down to personnel not property. We are on top of the butcher''s bill tally. Modrica has lost seven very good fighters, in addition to the ones at the mansion, and two more who are maimed out of action. She also has a new scar to add to her collection. We have lost eleven non fighters to Haarkon action and a number of street kids. I personally have accounted for twenty three of his fighters and three of his leaders, and that is on top of Modrica and her fighters who have accounted for at least the same. The trouble is we don¡¯t know how big Haarkon¡¯s operation is. We think he is at least twice as large as we are. Hopefully he is getting thin on personnel, or at least the good ones. My Racketeering and Shadow Predator classes have both levelled twice and I had almost every Skill go up in the past month since Wiremu left. I used to never use Rampage before and now I can¡¯t track how many times it has saved my butt. I am careful with it as the slump afterwards is crippling but it is shortened by energy transferred from Nyx. The boost to the attributes now that it is mid-Apprentice has been literally a lifesaver. Black has really made a name for herself and the War Knife symbol gets plastered on the walls near our attacks so they know it was the Shadow Guild. The symbol has been changed slightly to have blood dripping off the tip. I am not sure whose idea that was, probably one of the street kids as they are our symbol painters. However, we are now in the end game. This is certainly the end for me. Haarkon has made a deal with Ingvar of the Dwarven Rouges who were our counterpart across town. Vasle discovered Haarkon¡¯s major supply centre for the distribution of the drugs. When I went in I saw they made some of the drugs there too with several alchemy labs present. Real ones, I checked. This was a full on operation for us, all hands on deck and outside our normal operations area. We paid the Dwarven Rogues to have the night off, but apparently Haarkon offered them more. Probably our territory. I was kind of expecting this but I was really hoping we could stall it until Wiremu gets back, as I really need him. We had fought our way in and now we were fighting a losing battle back out. The flames of the warehouse behind me were at least some consolation that it has cost them dearly. Maybe it is that that made Haarkon so desperate. It has cost us dearly. We probably only have half our fighting force left and I am pretty sure I saw Modrica just go down, although I am a bit busy to pay too much attention to anything other than my survival right now. They are not letting me out of their sight, with constant attacks and ranged people on the roof. Nyx is confusing them but not enough. They have seen enough of my tricks to be on to them now. I had given the signal to scatter as soon as we got close to our territory. I will probably never know how many made it. I have seen Haarkon and Ingvar on the street personally with their bodyguards. This is all or nothing for all of us. It is also why we are losing so badly. Haarkon and Ingvar and their elites are all focusing on me. They want Black dead. I am trying to make it to the building where I first took over the Guild as it is the nearest Guild House to where I am. We have fortified it. Engulfing Shadows is on full strength with billowing clouds of shadows to distract, and this is allowing Nyx to syphon energy. Shadows Embrace is also on full so I hopefully look like just another billowing shadow cloud. Unfortunately there are two people chasing me with the skills to penetrate the Shadows. They are being used as spotters. Nyx injured one of them but she is not good at direct damage and it only slowed them down. One of the archers on the roof is also a key danger. She must have an advanced archery skill as she can fire one arrow and a rain of arrows blankets a two metre radius. She is targeting shadow clouds and being directed by a spotter. Needless to say my armour is looking like rags and I am leaking blood, which is leaving a trail for their dogs to follow. I am not sure I am going to make it out of this one. I am trying to judge when I can trigger Rampage. Too soon and I am dead, but things are getting desperate. They are trying to get people ahead of me and I am trying to not be obvious about where I am headed so it is a zigzag route. I have already surprised two who were sent forward. One lost his head to the War Knife and the other was blinded by Nyx. I at least had some warning from Spatial Awareness, they didn¡¯t. Actually, I hope they weren''t just randoms out for an evening stroll? No, they were too well armed for that and it is three in the morning. I hope they weren''t Guardsmen. Can¡¯t stop now. I am two blocks over from the house and moving parallel when I trigger Rampage and dart right towards the house. A rain of arrows falls where I would have been if I had carried on down the street. I drop a vial of pepper to upset the dogs, just because I am feeling vindictive. They are all right behind me and I am not going to lose them now. I am losing a lot of blood. I also think one of the knives that scratched me might have been poisoned. The house and anybody who is in it is not going to be enough to hold off this lot. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. I made a mad dash across the street and dived through a window taking the glass with me. My Shadow Manipulation had disarmed the trap as soon as it came into my Spatial Awareness. I rearmed it as I rolled across the floor to the trap door to the safe room below. I dropped the knife, but I didn¡¯t have time to stop now as I heard the trap trigger and a meaty thud. I slammed the trap door shut behind me and threw the bolts. Rampage had about a minute to go as I crouched waiting. My Shadow manipulation was poised. I heard boots thudding above me and orders being shouted. I could tell when they found the knife. Just as Rampage finished, Shadow Manipulation triggered the trap and I collapsed in a heap as the ground shook around me. Way back when I first set out from Yelets, Branik from the Mothers Tusks instructed Wiremu to teach me Trapping. The Skill has lingered at level 1 ever since because trapping was not my thing. When I triggered this trap the Skill jumped to level 5 Apprentice. We had not used traps as a weapon in this war. We had the normal traps on our buildings and that was it. However, I did have the Skill and I had watched Wiremu use traps very effectively for our entire time together. I had learned a thing or two. I also knew a friendly Explosives Engineer. Our Guild actually owned this entire block and the adjacent buildings were empty on purpose. The other tenants were warned at the start of the war to vacate, so if they were here, that was on them. Yes, I took out the entire block in the hope of getting all the leaders. I was only expecting Haakon, but if I got Ingvar as well that was a bonus. I was huddled in a ball suffering Rampage withdrawal and hoping the walls wouldn¡¯t cave in on me. I would need rescuing to get out. That was Nijel¡¯s job if I was alive. If we were successful in taking out Haakon then Black could stay dead and Nijel would take over as Boss. Blacks career as a Crime Lord would have lasted less than two extremely violent months and came to an equally violent end. I am sure there is a lesson there somewhere. Nijel wouldn¡¯t be far away with the fighters he had to protect the legitimate businesses. The explosion would attract the Guard so he may have to wait before digging me out. I don¡¯t think he would leave me here to die. He better not. When I came out of my withdrawal, I triggered Shadows Embrace to hide myself from the Guards who would be going through the rubble looking for survivors. The Guards knew there was a Crime Lord war on, but with the goblin threat they had limited resources and restricted themselves to trying to protect the innocent. Hopefully it will be over now, but I wouldn¡¯t know until I got out, if I got out. I bound my leaks and waited in the dark. Darksight was Master Level now so the dark didn¡¯t matter. It was the following night and I was bored out of my brain, hungry, thirsty and thinking I should start digging myself out, when I heard noises above. I might have lost the War Knife, but that didn¡¯t mean I didn¡¯t have any knives. I armed myself and waited. The trapdoor wasn¡¯t opened but rather it was smashed in. Nijel¡¯s face appeared and smiled. He helped me up. There was only one other cloaked person with him. ¡°All is good,¡± he said. ¡°I will explain when we get safe. Your place?¡± I knew he meant my and Wiremu¡¯s cottage as I was supposed to be dead. ¡°What about them?¡± I nodded to his helper. ¡°She also wants to stay dead, and to work for you rather than the Guild.¡± I looked at her and she pulled the hood back. Modrica had lost a tusk and had half her head bandaged which included an eye. She obviously also had other injuries. I nodded, ¡°Good, lets go.¡± At the cottage I lit the fire and put water on to boil. I realised I hadn¡¯t been here for over a week. I showed Modrica the spare room and she dumped her small bag there. We then sat in the kitchen and Nijel explained what happened from his perspective. ¡°I saw you go into the building. At least I assumed it was you, as the shadow everybody was chasing disappeared through a window without triggering the trap. Well done on baiting Ingvar out. He and his goons followed you in, I think he was trying to put on a good show for Haakon. However, that meant Haakon and his goons stayed back across the street. Ingvar appeared at the door waving your War Knife, which had me worried, but it enticed Haarkon out into the street then your trap went off. Holy Troll shit girl! The whole block?¡± ¡°I wanted to make sure,¡± I said. ¡°Well, you caught some of their stealth and ranged people as well, as they were moving through to cover the back. The blast killed Ingvar and the shock wave and debris killed some of Haakon''s crowd and we got down there and made sure none of them survived. I found the War Knife before the Guard arrived and we backed off.¡± He pulled the knife out and laid it on the table. He continued, ¡°Early this evening we had a guild meeting and I showed the knife and made a stirring speech about your death and how the Guild would go on in your memory, etc etc. Those with me that saw Ingvar with the knife backed up your death.¡± ¡°You''re going to ask to keep the knife aren''t you?¡± I asked. He nodded and I thought about it for a few minutes. ¡°I will get a replica made from steel and blackened if you need a symbol.¡± He nodded. Nyx was actually quite happy living in the thinner stiletto shaped Blacksteel Knife I looted from Fett''s treasure chest. It was also a better knife for me. However, apart from the War Knife having sentimental value it was also worth a shit ton of coin. ¡°There is a caravan heading to Hrothgar in a couple of weeks. I am going to try to get on it, that will get us out of town for a while. It should be back just before the auction as it is a two month round trip. That will get us out of your hair and you can get the Guild in order. I assume that will be an expanded Guild?¡± He smiled. I nodded, ¡°Here are the bank and ownership documents, you are the Boss now. I will be back and I will check up on you. If you need help in the future then ask. I will also ask if I need help. You might call it an unwritten mutual assistance agreement.¡± He nodded and we shook on it. As he went to leave I added, ¡°By the way, I have already withdrawn what I consider to be reasonable compensation for my work from the accounts. You might also want to disarm the other two safe houses I trapped. You might get some coin back on those explosives.¡± He left with a bit of a shocked look on his face. Wait till he sees how much coin I took. Wiremu will be happy I am out of the crime business. I am not sure what he will think of our new flatmate. I need a week to just relax. I am also going to go for some long rides. Dusk has been neglected. 64. Traders: Wiremu 64. Traders: Wiremu We have finished our time with the Army, thankfully. We are now on the three day ride back to Jern. I spent a week full time with the Lieutenant. I taught her a lot and she was keen to learn. I didn¡¯t just stick to Army approved subjects either. We did do affinity stuff, she found some chainmail and we did a couple of runs at being a Human Fireball and seeing how hot she could become. The chainmail didn¡¯t glow, but I bet when she got to Journeyman Level in the Skill it would. Yes, I was looking at the chainmail and not the bare skin under it, although I will admit I was starting to have more interest than just professional. I blame Drugi?. The Army Armourer would not alter her knife, so I did using his tools and Weapon Repair. I removed the wood and leather handle and replaced it with a metal one. She could now increase the temperature of the knife without it bursting into flame. A hot knife would penetrate leather armour and hide much easier. We did the same to her sword. She is to practise her flaming touch to extend onto the knife. It was a Journeyman level ability, but practice will help level it. Eventually I said she should get an all metal shield as well and extend Flaming Touch to that. Before that she should coat both in tar or something similar so she could light them if necessary. Oh and we practised with Firebolt, making it smaller and hotter and we practised on moving targets, I gave her my practice trap I use to use with my bow. I was just being nice. On less army approved topics she learned Throw Weapons, using her one good hand. It will need a lot of practice, but it is a start. I also taught her Stealth. I made her practice by losing her guards. They were just a normal squad assigned to her so they had no special skills. Once she was moderately successful I told the guards what she was doing to make it harder for her. She was grumpy at me for that but rose to the challenge and I think the guards enjoyed the game. She told me she got a new skill from the game called Blend. She didn¡¯t tell me all the details but it helps her to blend into the background. Sounds useful. I also taught her the mental exercises to prepare her to get a bond. I told her some of the benefits in shared skills, but only some. I showed her Snakeskin and that was when I learned it was weak to heat as well as cold. It makes sense as T¨¡oke needs external heat to warm his body. I got the beginning of a Heat Resistance and we had some accidents which resulted in me getting Fire Resistance and upping my Pain Resistance and making Regeneration work harder. I found out Snakeskin is partially resistant to fire, but not heat. I can work on levelling those now as there are all sorts of monsters in the world. Back to a bond I said she needs to wait to get a bond that is at least fire resistant. When my week was up I joined the Canine Queens again and the Lieutenant was left to practice alone. We were assigned a schedule to help at the Kill Zone. The fortifications were wooden, but with earth packed behind as a ramp. I assume this was the Captain''s Earth Affinity in action. It made the wooden palisade very strong and easy access to the top for the Army. There was one minor outbreak while we were on duty and I got to see the Captain in action. He has an earth spike which wasn''t nearly as strong as mine, but still effective against the weak goblins. He also had an Earthquake Skill which was very effective in the soil. More interestingly, he had a Dust Cloud that blinded them. That was something I could work on myself. On our off times, I still met with Lieutenant Kelda which was strongly encouraged by Drugi?. Tutor hit the Apprentice stage and I could now teach skills that were not quite at Journeyman level. She had the attributes so I taught her Status Manipulation. That was hard work as I was pushing the Tutor Skill, but she got it eventually. I also told her why I thought she needed it and my suspicions that someone or some faction was deliberately trying to cripple her skills and classes. This wasn¡¯t a complete surprise to her. She wasn¡¯t dumb, just not confident enough, and sneaky enough, to combat the pressure. I think I might have helped change that. Which is probably what the Captain wanted. Now I was looking forward to a few weeks off to finally do some fishing. We should get to Jern later this afternoon and my concerns about Tabitha have risen to the top of my mind again. It is not that I had forgotten about her, but when you are fighting for your life, or tutoring a pretty Lieutenant, you have to concentrate. I mustn¡¯t let Drugi? hear me call her that. I suppose I will have to put off fishing and help Tabitha deal with whatever it is she is dealing with. I am starting to think that there is a fish god who is protecting his subjects by stopping me going fishing. Maybe I will get Tabitha to point out the people who are causing her trouble and go all murder crazy on them. I wonder why she hasn¡¯t done that? The consequences probably outweigh the benefits, although it is not like her to think like that. ¡°Rider coming fast,¡± I warn the others as Hearing Aid picked up a fast paced horse somewhere ahead. We all move to the side a bit to leave plenty of room. All of a sudden a familiar black horse came flying around the corner, the rider hunched down and one of my bear hide cloaks flapping in the wind. Those cloaks are heavy, it takes an awful lot to get them flapping. We all stop and wait as Tabitha starts reigning in Dusk and turns to catch us back up. She has a big smile on her face and a weight is lifted from my mind. If Tabitha is this far from Jern it means she left hours ago. She looks relaxed and happy. Maybe she went murder crazy on the fish god and I will get to go fishing afterall? Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Hello stranger.¡± I greet her. ¡°You¡¯re the strange one,¡± she responds and greets everyone. Even T¨¡oke emerges from Oske¡¯s fur to say hi. ¡°What are you doing out this far?¡± I ask. ¡°Trying to level my Riding Class. It takes quite an effort.¡± She says. We all start catching up as we head back to Jern. It is fantastic she is out of the crime business. She doesn¡¯t say how, but I will get that later. Drugi? started telling fantasies about pretty Lieutenants and handsome tutors mooning over each other. I can tell Tabitha will be prying the truth out of me later. Apparently we also have a new flatmate who insists the house is up at dawn for sparring and snow baths. How the hell Tabitha let her stay, I don¡¯t know. It was a very pleasant trip back to Jern with lots of laughter and smiles. It was a huge weight off my mind. We got to Jern mid-afternoon and Tabitha invited us all for a meal at a local tavern, a good one. Her treat and she has a business offer to make. She and I split off to unload at our cottage and Skavt went to report to the Guild. We will meet at 7 tonight. I met Modrica who was missing a tusk and had a still healing and stitched wound down her face. She had a patch over one eye. She would have lost the eye if Tabitha hadn¡¯t paid for Jern¡¯s top healer and some very expensive potions. Now she should be able to take the patch off in about a month. She is one mountain of an Orc and apparently she has Unarmed Combat at Masters Level. No wonder Tabitha hasn¡¯t kicked her out and puts up with the morning training. Actually, there is some sort of mutual connection there. It is good Tabitha has someone else to watch her back. No that is the wrong phrase because with Spatial Awareness she can watch her own back, literally. It is good she has someone else to back her up. We had a longer chat about recent events and future plans and her proposition to the Canine Queens. I guess it will be our proposition as I will be the silent partner. I was in favour. She has a lot of coin available to invest from her recent exploits. Apparently crime does pay. We dressed up a bit, dropped the horses back to the stable and then walked to the Tavern. Tabitha paid for a private room and our own waitress. It was a fun meal. The funny stories were told and there was plenty of ale. Eventually Tabitha laid out her plans. She had tried to get a job back at the S?lv Emporium, but apparently they considered her too unreliable as a regular employee. So she is starting her own venture, a fledgling trading house called Elemental Traders. She is not yet a Journeyman Merchant so she needed a Sponsor to the Merchant Guild which she negotiated with the S?lv Emporium. She was paying them for the privilege. There was a caravan going to Hrothgar in two weeks. It would be the last one able to do the round trip before the auction and a lot of trading houses were joining to get goods back in time for the auction. She had bought two wagons and draft horses. One wagon is full of alchemical ingredients which suddenly became available cheap and will get a good price in Hrothgar. She told me later they were ¡®appropriated¡¯ from a dead drug lord''s warehouse. The second is only partially full at the moment with goods to trade at the villages on the way. She is planning to fill it up with barrels of Ale to sell to the taverns at Kulle to sell to the soldiers. Then it will be half empty. She is not expecting to get anything in Hrothgar worthy of the auction, but there will be plenty of goods available to bring back to sell to people who come to the auction. Jern will be very busy and the right goods will turn a good profit. She is thinking of the high class people and goods like fine wines and other luxury items. What she needs is guards. Usually each wagon would provide a fighter per wagon, but there is the threat of goblins so the minimum is two per wagon. She would like to hire the Canine Queens for that task. Elemental Traders would also like to have the Canine Queens on retainer so they could get first option on their services, but that could be negotiated after this contract. She handed a two month escort contract to Skavt, who raised her eyebrows at how much the Elemental Traders were offering. Tabitha sweetened the deal by offering to sell the Canine Queens goods at half commission and transfer the current supply contract to the Elemental Traders. We now had a two month contract starting in two weeks time. That is enough time for some fishing. Except there was my armour that needed repairing, and silent partner apparently didn¡¯t mean inactive partner. I only ended up with three days fishing. That fish god was tenacious in keeping me away from his fish. Modrica would drive one of the wagons and for the other she hired an elderly Dwarf called Vresig. He had been injured in a mining accident and never had it treated properly. He didn¡¯t want it treated now he was quite happy being a grumpy Dwarf. Each party was responsible for their own food and other supplies. The Caravan Master hired the Scouts, organised the order of wagons and we would take his direction in the defence of the wagons. The wagons wouldn¡¯t stop once they started, until they camped for the night. If we were not stopping at a village then any trading had to happen while the wagons were on the move. The route to Hrothgar was well established and there were regular camping spots for caravans on the road. Mustering of the wagons happened the day before we left. As we were technically part of the S?lv Emporium we were placed in line next to their eight wagons. Tabitha knew a lot of them and seemed to get on well. There would be twenty three wagons in total, after the caravan master turned one away as not being in good enough repair to make the trip. Over fifty guards. We had a meeting and went over the caravan signals and what to do in various scenarios. This was old news to most of them, but we needed it. 65. Mental: Tabitha 65. Mental: Tabitha I am hoping when we pass through Kulle I will get to meet this mysterious Lieutenant Kelda. She sounds a bit young for Wiremu. I know they are about the same age, but in life experience he has had a hard life and she sounds sheltered and spent her life wrapped in wool. I guess the army will knock that out of her in due course. I will reserve judgement until I meet her. One of my goals for the trip to Hrothgar is to increase my Sword Skills. I didn¡¯t really have the strength when I first started with the sword, but I have invested over ten points into Physical Strength since then. It should be plenty for the sword even though I am still weak compared to Skavt and the twins. The twins are sword users, especially Drugi?. They shouldn¡¯t have a problem training their boss. I really like Drugi?, she and I could have a lot of fun picking on Wiremu. I bought a new sword to use. I still have my brother Warren¡¯s sword, but this one is better quality and better suited for me. Identify tells me that the Duel Wield Skill is close. It apparently takes a minimum of 20 Physical Strength, 30 Physical Agility and 30 Mental Agility. I am short one point in Mental Agility and look at that, I have one point available to spend. All I have to do now is practice to trigger the skill. I am thinking of practising with two knives, and with a sword and a knife. My Physical Agility is my highest attribute and this will make good use of it and my Spatial Awareness should make it absolutely amazing. I am not sleeping well. I used to lie awake thinking of Warren, but now Eyslk and a host of others keep me awake as well. It is Mental Strength that keeps me going, but it doesn¡¯t take away from the pain and emotions surrounding what I have done or not done, and people I have not kept safe or not helped. Especially Eyslk. I used to keep myself busy so I didn¡¯t think about it, but now I am faced with long hours on the road with nothing else to occupy my mind. Maybe Hrothgar will have a Mental specialist who can help me. I have done some terrible things. Things I would never have dreamed of doing when I left Yelets. Cold blooded murder, and not just of those who I thought deserved it either. Torture. I let Nyx suck the life out of someone! I am a terrible person. Only Wiremu knows everything I have done. I don¡¯t know how he can stand to be around me. I really need more attribute points as I need to bolster my Mental Strength or I will lose it. I am good at hiding things now. Mimic is almost Journeyman Level. Wiremu is off doing his own scouting. I don¡¯t know why he has not got the specialisation as a Scout. He must be missing something. More likely he never thought about it and never put some dedicated effort into it. I might remind him as the extra attributes and specialised Skills are always useful. Even though his Prospecting Class has sat at 2 for months he still got 8 attributes for it and Treasure Sense. I think he needs a boot in the backside. He is likely to boot me back if I don¡¯t look at my own Skills and Classes. I think I really want a Class that will help people. Like Healer, except I don¡¯t really want to be around sick people. I made a lot of money in the last few months, maybe I could give some to charity. That just feels like not enough. I want to do something to help, you know, mitigate for some of my bad stuff. Killing goblins helps people. I think I have had enough killing for a while. That was part of the reason for this trip. To get away from killing. Hopefully by the end of this trip Merchant will be at Journeyman level and I can see what specialisations are available. Looking at my classes most of them are around making coins, both legally and illegally. A small bit of effort on my part and I could get the Burglar Specialisation like Nijel. Nothing around here to burgle. I could probably get the Grifter Specialisation as well although that is very close to Racketeer. When Specialisations are close like that the experience goes to the existing class rather than unlocking a new one. I don¡¯t know why. I wonder if there is a god out there? The Empire had a state religion with priests. I always assumed it was a scam and a way to control people. I don¡¯t know if Priest was just what they were called or if it was a Class. If it was a Class would that mean there was a god or gods? Jern didn¡¯t have a temple or anything. Maybe there is only Wiremu¡¯s fish god that he curses when he can¡¯t go fishing. This is called mental distraction and this is only the first day on the road. I need a proper distraction so I speed up Dusk in order to catch the twins. They will be my main training partners. ¡°Hi ya,¡± I greet them. They nod back with smiles. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°So here''s a question,¡± I started. ¡°Is there a god?¡± They look at each other, then Najprej says, ¡°You have just broken one of the primary rules of being in a caravan. It is the first day. You are not allowed to get bored and ask existential questions until at least the second half of the trip. It¡¯s a rule!¡± ¡°Really?¡± I ask in disbelief. They both nod. ¡°Are there a lot of rules like this I don¡¯t know about?¡± ¡°Hundreds,¡± said Drugi?, ¡°but don¡¯t worry, we will teach you!¡± I knew they were the right people to come to for a distraction. After all it¡¯s a Journeyman level Skill of mine. I survived the first day. The second day we travelled up and down the caravan looking at the other people for potential hookups for the trip. That''s another rule. What happens on a caravan stays on the caravan. It is quite common to find someone, or multiple someones, to make the trip more interesting. I never knew the importance of the size and shape of the tusk in Orc standards of beauty. Fascinating. My Sentient Lore Skill went up. The twins found it fascinating that I was rating the females as well as the males. Maybe I helped raise their Lore as well. At sparring on the third day I got the Dual Wield Skill. It was as good as I thought it would be. We were due in Kulle that afternoon. We would have a full day''s break there to rest the horses. I think it was actually because the army was there and a lot of the merchants had things to sell to them. We camped outside Kulle. I sold all the ale, except two kegs for the trip. I seriously didn¡¯t need to make money on this trip. In fact we could live very well for the rest of our lives. But that is not the merchant way, or the code of the thief. Yes I made a profit on the ale. I sold a few other bits and pieces for a good price. Good for me that is. It was enough to tip Merchant to Level 9. One more to Journeyman level. I did have the conversation with Wiremu about the Scout class. He hadn¡¯t realised and two days of determined Scouting later, he had another Specialisation and the Mapping Skill. Yes! I finally one upped him on skill advice! He was hoping to see the Lieutenant while he was here, ¡°Just to check on her Skills, of course,¡± but civilians were not allowed in the camp and he was not on contract anymore. He sent word in but the camp was in a busy state because they were expecting another Platoon to arrive. He basically wasted the whole day off waiting to see if she would arrive, but to no avail. We left at dawn the following day. The second day on the road after Kulle we passed the incoming Platoon. There was an important looking Elf with them. The rumour was that he was an Air Affinity user. I don¡¯t put too much stock in rumours, but he certainly thought he was important. There was a moderately sized town called Halvv?gs about halfway to Hrothgar and we would spend two nights there. It was then a full seven day run to Hrothgar with no stops longer than overnight. Training every morning with Modrica was doing my Unarmed Combat the world of good. It hit Journeyman level before we got to Halvv?gs. I am pretty sure Wiremu¡¯s did as well. My Sword was up to Level 8, so progress was showing and slowing on all of them. Wiremu suggested I talk to ?rt about what I might learn to do that is good, or at least not negative. ?rt suggested I look into learning a craft, to make something with my hands. I am not sure about that. I think I would rather make coin and buy whatever it is. He had other suggestions, like drawing or painting or learning a musical instrument. The musical instrument idea caught my interest. There were a couple of musicians in the caravan. One played a mouth organ thing and the other a stringed instrument called a Lute. The Lute interested me, the basics seemed easy enough and the Lutist was keen to show me. She let me have a go on her Lute and showed me some simple chords and a simple song. She thought I had quite a nice singing voice too. Then we snuck off together and had one of those interesting times that stays with the caravan. We would often meet and practise the Lute and sing together along with some other fun. She drove a wagon for one of the other Merchants based out of Hrothgar and I would join her on her wagon some days and we would chat and she would teach me a new song or way of playing. Halvv?gs was a mining and smelting town. Not a very pleasant place to be. I picked up a load for my half empty wagon. A small mining company had a load of metal they needed to deliver to some crafters in Hrothgar so I took the contract for a fixed cartage fee. My last name is Carter so I guess one of my ancestors used to cart goods? Funny that I get a last name from some ancestor¡¯s job, yet Wiremu gets a last name from his first Class. Here in Kirghiz no one seems to have last names. Lieutenant Kelda is just Kelda. I don¡¯t know what they do if there are two Keldas. Now that my Sentient Lore is Apprentice Level I think it is prompting these sorts of questions. I managed to find a Lute in Halvv?gs so some evenings we would play duets and she would teach me different ways to make music. The Mimic Skill was very handy in helping me learn to play the Lute. I would Mimic what she did until I had it in muscle memory. It made the trip very pleasant and the time pass quicker. I was feeling lighter in myself as well. I asked if she wanted a job with the Elemental Traders, but she had a family in Hrothgar to get to and only took the occasional travelling job. It was what I needed and she enjoyed it as well. Nearing Hrothgar my Lute Skill was Level 6 and I got a Skill called Performance. I wasn¡¯t really performing, we were just all singing together around the campfire. 66. Hrothgar: Wiremu 66. Hrothgar: Wiremu What a boring trip. I know you don¡¯t want to be fighting all day every day, but travel is long. I could have kicked myself when Tabitha suggested I make an effort to get the Scout Specialisation. I should have been doing that ages ago. The Mapping Skill is good. At the Apprentice level it will accept information from more than my sight Skills. Treasure Sense and Granite Sense would both be great to have on the maps. Granite Sense will make the map more like Thyrrni¡¯s Ground Mapping Skill. That is the benefit of the Affinity to enhance other skills as well. No wonder Affinity users are in such demand. I looked at what other Specialisations might be available to me. The other close one is the Ranger Specialisation. Rangers often come from the Forrester or Hunter Classes or similar. The focus is to care for the forest or whatever environment you are in. I had all the Skills apparently but not at the needed level. I needed both Plant and Animal Lore but I needed one of them to be at Journeyman Level. They were both at Mid-Apprentice and I found them very hard to level. Plant Lore had gone up with the reading ?rt had given me, so I guess I needed to do more of that. I remember Thyrrni saying she had the Drawing Skill to be able to draw her maps to sell. I found a Cartographer in Halvv?gs that sold maps. Apparently, Cartographer is a class around making and copying maps. I could get the Class if I trained under him for a year. With most Basic Classes you need to be trained by a Journeyman Level person. This is always the case for the higher level Classes. Simple ones like Quarry Worker and Riding could be learned by doing if you are inclined towards it. Then when you get that Class to Journeyman Level yourself, you can train others, and specialise if you meet the requirements. There was no way I was going to spend a year in a dusty office copying maps. However, I did pay him to teach me the Map Making Skill. According to him, this was better than the Drawing Skill. The Drawing Skill is all about making things look nice. The Map Making Skill was all about accuracy. Getting scale and distance right, how to represent heights and depths and what a contour was. I learned some commonly used symbols and about making a legend and scale and naming conventions. It took most of the day but I got it and it was a good Skill. It would need to be Apprentice Level before I wasn¡¯t embarrassed about showing my maps to others. I also bought some supplies off him to practise with. This would give me something to do on the last long stretch to Hrothgar. I am pleased Tabitha has found some peace and enjoyment on this trip. I know it is temporary and the nightmares will never truly go away. Maybe music will help long term. I am glad ?rt could help. As we neared Hrothgar I was getting nostalgic. The Mother¡¯s Tusks played a big part in starting what has turned out to be a massive growth time. Most people would take ten years to get their main class to Journeyman Level. Counting my time in the Quarry I took four and most of it in less than one. I amassed the Skills to specialise straight away and I now have three Basic Classes and three Specialisations. There were definitely special circumstances and opportunities. The Affinity definitely speeds things up and makes more opportunities available. I am thinking a quieter life is in order for a while, maybe some fishing, but I don¡¯t always get a say in that. There is still a Goblin Horde under Jern somewhere and a Bounty out on me. The fish god is also against me. Without my Affinity, I would be dead at the first Field Troll, or earlier. I doubt I would have made the climb out of the quarry. Without T¨¡oke I would be dead in the quarry or a slave. T¨¡oke deserves better. Now that I am rich, maybe I should buy him a chicken farm. Eggs are still his favourite. It will need to be near a lake so I can give the finger to the fish god and go fishing. We will also need somewhere to house his favourite sleeping pad, Oske. Nearing Hrothgar I am a bit nervous about two things. I am a bit nervous about meeting Branik, Kopje and Sme?ka of the Mothers Tusks. For all, I know they will be away on Contract, but I am not sure how they will react. I am mostly nervous because we are so close to Kirsk and I still have a large bounty. I have been trying to get Manipulate Status to Journeyman level, but it is stuck at Level 9. All Bounty Hunters will have some sort of Skill to pierce through a Status. I know because it is a Specialisation available to me, except I don¡¯t have a skill like that and therefore don¡¯t meet the criteria. I don¡¯t think I really want to be hunting people anyway. I will take it if it comes, but it is not where I want to focus. Hunting and exploring are the things I am keen on. Seeing new places and creatures, both above and below ground. I think I might try to get the Ranger Specialisation. I meet all the requirements except the Lore level. Hrothgar is huge. The city is sprawling well outside the walls. I can see strong fortifications up into the mountain pass with my Farsight. That is where the Empire would come from. There are walls on the Kirghiz side too but the city outgrew them a long time ago. More of the city is above ground as well. I can see some three and four-story buildings. Actually, that one might be six stories. The buildings outside the walls are mostly stone, I guess to provide some protection in case of a monster attack. The new city boundary is a wide river which seems to run around the edge. Many buildings next to the river are warehouses and a lot of the traffic and movement of goods in and out of the city seems to be by boat and barges. The main roads are wide, and about four wagons could pass each other. Off the main roads, they narrow to one or two wagons and there are a lot of alleys for pedestrians only. Jern was a majority Dwarven city, Hrothgar is supposed to have a lot of Orcs but I have seen a lot of different races, many I couldn''t even name. Those two have wings and beaks, and that guy looks like he has gills like a fish on his neck. There are Orcs, Dwarves, Humans, Elves and Gnomes as well as many others. The Caravan staging area is on the outskirts of the city just across the first bridge we came to. The Caravan would be leaving for Jern again in two weeks. This was one of the regular caravans that ran between Jern and Hrothgar. Tabitha signed on for the return trip and for yard space to store the wagons and stable space for the pack Horses. Then we left with our mounts to find more suitable accommodation and stabling. We walked as Modrica and Vresig were with us. When it started to get busy and harder to move through the crowd we had Skavt mount Oske and they made a path. We found an Inn that looked reasonable and a nearby Stable that had room. The Stables were not sure they had stalls big enough for Oske. A corner of the yard had a roofed area and he would be fine there. ¡°Just make sure he has plenty of food.¡± were her final instructions. The Inn, Hrothgar¡¯s Hrano or just Hrano for short, was a three-story structure going up and one story down. We made sure the Bonds were welcome and as there were five of us in the Canine Queens plus two bonds and Tabitha, Modrica and Vresig of the Elemental Traders she booked out the entire top floor for us for the two weeks. There were ten rooms on that floor so there was a couple of rooms spare but we could spread out. Everybody except Modrica, Tabitha and I had relatives or friends to catch up with over the two weeks so most of us would go and do our own thing, catching up as we saw each other. Tabitha, Modrica and I would sort the cargo. I think I was just tagging along as muscle, but that seemed redundant next to Modrica. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Tabitha wanted to offload the cargo as soon as possible so the next morning we grabbed a wagon to deliver the metal and asked around about the alchemy ingredients. Apparently there is an Alchemy Society in Hrothgar where we could advertise what we have for sale to a targeted audience. It turned out the Society would take it all if we sold it to them at a reduced price. Tabitha had it assessed and haggled for a bit then accepted the deal. This was her first bulk wholesale transaction and was enough to get her Merchant to Journeyman Level. Goods sold in two days, I can have some time off while Tabatha organises goods for the return trip. I wanted to have a look around the city and see if I can find the Mother¡¯s Tusks. This would mean a trip to the Mercenary Guild. It turns out there are three guild offices in three different locations around the city. The Head office is inside the walls, so the first thing is to buy some clothes to blend in. I don¡¯t want to stand out. I also got a haircut and beard trim into the latest styles in Hrothgar. A moderately successful city mercenary was the look I was going for. I left my large weapons at the Inn but made sure my knives were prominent and my Throwing Weapons were full and headed out. There wasn¡¯t snow on the ground here, but it was still winter. For the sake of blending in, I left my bear hide cloak at the Inn and wore a long leather coat I purchased. I wasn¡¯t nearly as warm and there was no place for T¨¡oke on my shoulder. It did have deep pockets so I lined one with fur for T¨¡oke to curl up in. Inside the walls might be called Old Hrothgar, but it was definitely a more expensive part of town. People were better dressed, the shops were flashier and selling a, well I won¡¯t call them a higher quality of goods, but they were a more expensive quality of goods. The Mercenary Guild had a four-story building near the centre which was a major trading hub. It would be bound to have several stories underground as well. I showed my Guild membership to the doorman. I got a small frown when he saw I was an Imperial, but he didn¡¯t say anything. The ground floor was a Tavern and trade centre. The first floor up was the main Guild administration and Jobs area. The first floor down had the fighting rings and training area. I went up. I showed my ID at the counter, again getting a small negative vibe. It makes me think the Empire has done something recently. ¡°I am looking to find the Mother¡¯s Tusks,¡± I said. That got a much stronger negative reaction. ¡°They won¡¯t be working for any Imperials and they certainly won¡¯t be hiring any,¡± was the grumpy response. ¡°That is fine, I am not looking for a job. I am more looking to settle a debt.¡± That got a very negative reaction and I realised how it could be taken. ¡°I am the one who owes the debt,¡± I clarified. That made more sense to the Dwarf but he wasn¡¯t friendly. ¡°If you leave a note I can get word to them.¡± ¡°Very well, please address it to Branik, Kopje or Sme?ka.¡± There was another reaction to Sme?ka¡¯s name. Something must have happened. Something to do with the Empire. ¡°Please tell them that Warren and Tabitha Carter are in town and would like to meet them at the Sweet Drinks Tavern near the southwest market at 7 pm Tomorrow.¡± He wrote that down and I passed over a few coins and left. Something was very wrong. Branik will know Warren is dead and is expecting Tabitha at some point. I probably need the other members of the Canine Queens to get information for us, they¡¯re not hampered by being Imperial citizens and have the advantage of being Orcs. However, I doubt I will see them for a few days. I walked normally down the street, but I was trying to see whether I had someone following me. The city was just too busy and confusing to me and I couldn¡¯t tell. I left the central part and meandered around doing small bits of shopping. I didn¡¯t want to lead anyone back to our accommodation so I found an Inn and went in and registered for the night, forking over the coin. It was only lunchtime so I had lunch at their bar and then left again. This city was far too busy. There seemed to be nowhere where there weren''t people. Man, I hate cities. I had come so far that I saw another branch of the Mercenary Guild. I figured I would go into the tavern and buy some drinks and see if I can get any information from the half drunk. The Orc on the door almost didn¡¯t let me in. Something is definitely up. I sat at the bar. The barman was a human and she served me my ale. ¡°I just got into town, and there seem to be more anti-imperial feelings than normal. Did something happen?¡± I asked. She frowned, ¡°Where have you been?¡± ¡°Jern,¡± I replied, ¡° been dealing with a Goblin Horde up there.¡± She winced, ¡°Nasty business that. I heard the army had gone up there.¡± I nodded, ¡°Four platoons. We contracted to the Jern Guard for a couple of missions.¡± ¡°Who is we?¡± ¡°That would be my sister and me.¡± I decided to leave the Canine Queens out of it for now. This was the Mercenary Guild and all information is for sale and I might be being followed. ¡°What has the Empire been up to in order to rile the Orcs?¡± I brought the conversation back to where I wanted it to go. ¡°About three months ago four Imperial Bounty Hunters came through looking to fulfil a Platinum level bounty and targeted the Tusks as knowing something. When the dust settled two of the Bounty Hunters and three of the Tusks were dead.¡± She sounded upset even now. ¡°I am acquainted with some of the Tusks, do you know who died?¡± She rattled off three names. Two I didn¡¯t know but the third was Sme?ka. I could still picture his smile and always cheerful attitude. This would complicate things with Branik. ¡°What about the other two Bounty Hunters?¡± I asked. ¡°The Army arrested them for the murder of innocent citizens and chucked them back across the river with a ban for life from re-entering the Kingdom.¡± she said. ¡°They got off lightly then.¡± I commented before I meant to. She nodded, ¡°Indeed.¡± She then went to serve other customers and I pondered this information. There will be Imperial informants very active in the city. They will have the Carters as people of interest as they know Tabitha was on the Caravan and hired by the Mothers Tusks. The Caravan Master at the time would have told them everything he knew. If Branik gets my message she will treat my invite like it is a trap. Would they blame me for Sme?ka¡¯s death? My gut feeling is they wouldn¡¯t, but I blame myself, at least partially. They were hunting me. It was late afternoon so I went to the Inn where I booked for the night, ordered room service for dinner and went to my room as if I had settled in for the night. I waited for the city to quiet down. It was after midnight before I decided it was as quiet as it would get. I slipped out the window and stealthed a circular route back to the Hrano. Tabitha was up, or maybe she just got in herself, so I went for a chat. Modrica heard us talking and joined us. I shared what I knew and we discussed what to do. Tabitha decided she and Modrica would go and meet Branik and I would stay here till they knew where things lay with them. I was to keep out of sight all day. She knew how uncomfortable I was in a city. However, this was her hunting ground. I guess I had some reading to do and a Map Making Skill to level. 67. The Carter Identity: Tabitha 67. The Carter Identity: Tabitha I am sure there is a lot more to what happened than the bare bones information Wiremu found out. It is time to make my own inquiries. It is also time to activate my new identity. I had purchased a Kirghiz identity in Jern and set up separate accounts with the Kirghiz Treasury. I was planning to become a member of the Mercenary Guild under that identity here in Hrothgar where I wasn¡¯t known. I was planning to use it for my clandestine activities to separate them from the Elemental Traders. With the Anti-Empire sentiment growing I might have to switch them around. I had chosen a single name in typical Kirghiz style, Skygge. Tabitha Carter was already known as a Thief in Jern and had access to non-public jobs. If I transfer Elemental Traders to Skygge this should facilitate working in Kirghiz. I will need to convince Wiremu to get a Kirghiz identity as well. We should have done that at the start. Luckily money was no object as these things were expensive. The hardest part is finding the right contacts, I never thought I would miss Vesle. Meanwhile, all the blame for Tabitha¡¯s thieving can be put onto the Empire. ¡°Oh, you were robbed by that Tabitha Carter Thief? Did you know she¡¯s a bloody Imperial?¡± It was supposed to be the other way around but that won¡¯t work now. I guess I have really left my home country behind. I need to register Skygge with the Merchant Guild and then with the Mercenary Guild, but not as a mercenary, as a trader and be able to post jobs and sell to mercenaries in their trading hall. That is a lot to do today but the sooner the Elemental Traders are separated from the Carter identity the better. I checked with Wiremu before I left and he chose the name Sten. ?rt and Kryddor were there so I brought them up to speed so they could pass on the information. We might need backup tonight. It is unlikely, but it is best to be prepared. ?rt knew how to contact the others. Modrica and I left for a very busy day. Having Modrica with me helped me in getting information. She was huge and towered over everybody. The wound had healed and she had some sight back in the eye, but she was left with this massive scar right down her face including the eye and still missing tusk. She was very intimidating. She was also an Orc, so it wasn''t so hard finding information about an Orc mercenary company with the backing of an intimidating Orc. The disagreement with the Bounty Hunters was much more than a local brawl. It was a full-on street battle that the Army had to come and break up. Two of the Bounty Hunters had affinities and the other two had bonds. It was not clear how it started but when it hit the streets the building the Mother¡¯s Tusks used as a headquarters was ablaze. Apparently, a Bounty Hunter and her wolf bond died along with a Water Affinity Hunter. There was a hawk diving them which was assumed as a bond for one of the others and there appeared to be an affinity which could melt rock. The Mother¡¯s Tusks headquarters wasn¡¯t just fire damaged, part of a stone wall was melted. There was a big political argument happening afterwards with accusations being thrown between the Empire and the Kingdom. This was an Empire-sponsored Team and they did not like losing an Affinity user. They were demanding the Mother¡¯s Tusks be handed over to face justice. The Kingdom was responding and wanting compensation for the destruction of property and the unnecessary deaths of three upstanding citizens by incompetent Bounty Hunters who couldn¡¯t even locate the right target. Border tensions were rising. I could see it was not a good time for the Kingdom to have 800 plus troops and three affinity users stationed three weeks away dealing with the Goblin Horde. I registered as Skygge with the Merchants Guild as an owner for Elemental Traders. I also registered as a Trader with the Mercenary Guild. There were some documents that will need altering when we get back to Jern and once I get Wiremu¡¯s new ID. I got a lead on a contact to get a new ID for Wiremu, but these things don¡¯t happen overnight. It is nearing the time for the meeting. Skavt insisted on joining us and the other Canine Queens will be nearby. I really needed someone to watch the outside of The Sweet Drinks Tavern but Wiremu is the only one, stealthy and observant enough and I don¡¯t think it is a good idea for him to be nearby yet. Nyx can tell me where people are but identifying actions and who might be looking is way beyond her capabilities. She is totally alien in her outlook, mostly just identifying threats and meals. The evening crowd in the Tavern seemed normal and semi-boisterous. There was a group of Dwarves celebrating on one side and a drunk elf at the bar arguing with the Orc bartender. I saw ?rt at the bar, but there was no sign of Kryddor or the twins. It was about three-quarters full so we got a table with a view of the door and the back exit. I sat with my back to the door because it made no difference to my senses and it meant whoever came in looking for me would need to spend some time looking. Skavt sat opposite and Modrica at the end. There were three other seats at the table, one each next to me and Skavt and one at the end. Shortly after the appointed time three heavily armed Orcs and a human entered the Tavern. I recognised Branik and Kopje and I signalled Skavt and Modrica that this was them. They immediately stood and locked eyes with the newcomers. I remember Branik being big and towering over me. Modrica still topped her in height and build. I rose as well after the others and turned to face them. They were heading over and people were actively getting out of their way. ¡°Branik, Kopje,¡± I greet them. ¡°Tabitha,¡± She responded. ¡°I see you finally made it. You''ve grown.¡± She wasn¡¯t talking physically. ¡°This is Modrica and Skavt.¡± I introduced them. ¡°Mercenaries?¡± she asked. Skavt nodded, but Modrica just curled up a lip and gave one of her deep guttural growls only Orcs could do, obviously denying it. It did nothing to lower the tension, in fact possibly the opposite. ¡°This is Hitro, a co-owner of the Mothers Tusks,¡± she indicated to the male Orc next to her and then indicated toward the male human, ¡°Spionera, of the Royal Army.¡± That didn¡¯t do anything to lower the tension either. Hitro had a strong athletic build. Obviously very competent with specialisations in Sword and Bounty Hunter and that was all I could read. Spionera¡¯s Status was unreadable, just like the drunk elf at the bar and one of the Dwarves celebrating. ¡°Come and have a seat. We heard about Sme?ka. That is very sad news, he was a great guy.¡± I started the conversation. ¡°He was,¡± Branik said. ¡°He was also Hitro¡¯s brother.¡± Skavt said something in Orcish and Hitro replied. I really need to learn that language. Branik, Kopje and Spionera took seats. We all sat except Hitro who stayed standing. ¡°The message said it was from Warren?¡± Kopje asked. ¡°My adopted brother.¡± I replied. I was very conscious we were in a public place. He nodded. Spionara spoke, ¡°We would like to speak to your brother, as there is a large diplomatic incident around some recent events of which he was the target.¡± ¡°We have recently become aware of that. It would depend on the nature of that conversation. All my brother has ever wanted to do was to be left alone to hunt and fish. The Empire wouldn¡¯t let him do that. It is sounding like the Kingdom won¡¯t either.¡± I replied. Spionara replied, ¡°It was a very strong Bounty Hunter team that was sent from the Empire. Coupled with some reports coming in from Jern concerning a Hunter with a certain unusual bond single-handedly taking down three Shamans. The report is unclear whether he may or may not have an affinity. Match that with an earlier report from a Scout with the Jern Guard about a Hunter with the same bond and his sister showing some very unusual Skills in a scouting contract. You can see where we would like a discussion about avoiding further diplomatic incidents and perhaps help in resolving this one.¡± ¡°Do you get reports from the Guard as well as the Army?¡± I queried. ¡°All reports of interesting Skills and events come to us so we can keep an eye on things.¡± He said. Shit, he wasn¡¯t just Royal Army, he was Royal Army Intelligence. And quite high up as well I would expect. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°We came to meet Branik and Kopje and are just passing through.¡± I then turned to Branik, ¡°You brought him for a reason?¡± ¡°Several. If this was a trap he could hopefully defuse it without levelling the building. The Mother¡¯s Tusks are currently on contract with the Royal Army. The Army requested to be here. Apparently, they tracked your brother to an Inn yesterday but he wasn¡¯t there when they went to meet him for breakfast.¡± She had a small grin when she said that. ¡°What about us?¡± I asked Branik. ¡°Where do my brother and I stand with the Mother¡¯s Tusks?¡± ¡°There has been a lot of trouble surrounding him. As far as we are aware it has all been initiated by the Empire. The Mother¡¯s Tusks are grateful for both of your actions last Spring. Having said that we cannot currently pay you your share as we have had significant extra expenses. To counter affinity users we needed enchanted equipment.¡± ¡°We are not in need of the coin. Consider it a donation to the Tusks, including the beast core share.¡± I responded. ¡°That is very generous,¡± Hitro said. ¡°Is there somewhere private we can talk to you and your brother?¡± Spionara said, glancing at Skavt and Modrica as well as the surroundings. ¡°More private than this? Yes. In private? No. Modrica works for me and me alone. Skavt leads the Mercenary group the Canine Queens of which my brother is a permanent member.¡± That got some surprised looks. ¡°We can use the Mother¡¯s Tusks headquarters. Repairs are almost complete.¡± Branik offered. ¡°That works for us, tomorrow midday?¡± I said. It was agreed and Spionara took his leave. I noticed the Elf was still there and probably listening to everything we said. ¡°Now that the obvious influence has gone, how good are we with the Mother¡¯s Tusks?¡± I asked Branik and Hitro. Branik replied, ¡°You both were making considerable progress when we parted and if the reports are even close to true I would be looking to recruit. I see I have been beaten to it.¡± She nodded to Skavt. ¡°You didn¡¯t mention anything about yourself and a Mercenary team?¡± ¡°I am sticking to being a Merchant for now. It suits me better.¡± I said that mainly for our extra ears. ¡°I might be open to a supply contract, although it is going to take a while before I have permanent offices.¡± ¡°We have established supply contracts in place. We are in need of more enchanted or Spiritually enhanced equipment if you have access to any. Or better yet an Enchanter,¡± she said. ¡°There is an auction in Jern in about two months with a lot of Spiritually Enhanced materials. I don¡¯t have access to crafters for them nor to an Enchanter at this point. We are planning to be back in Jern for the auction so I can bid on material if your current suppliers have access to crafters. Just get me a list of what you need.¡± I replied. ¡°There are a lot of Merchants and Crafters heading there, despite the Goblins. I will let you know. We will catch up tomorrow in a less public area.¡± Branik concluded the conversation. Kopje and Skavt exchanged a few words in Orcish, Branik spoke to Modrica in Orcish but only got a nod in response, and they departed. Now the question was, do we mind being followed back to our actual Inn? The Army will find us in due course anyway. The main question was, who else might be following us? ¡°Let''s go with Plan B.¡± I said loud enough for ?rt to hear. Plan A was us just heading back to the Inn and that was never going to happen. In plan B Skavt will take a different route to Modrica but the routes were close to each other and I would disappear to check both for tails. ?rt would watch to see who left after us. We all got up and Skavt went to the front entrance and Modrica and I went to the back. I disappeared into the shadows as soon as we left the light and she meandered along her route in the centre of the street. There was a watcher on each door and I left them unconscious in an alley, after taking the few valuables they had. I kept diligent watch the whole way in case there were sneakier people around. The twins would escort ?rt back later. Because of the surprise about the Canine Queens, I figured they were still unknown. I kept watching outside the Hrano Inn till they returned in case. Clear for another night, probably our last. We updated Wiremu and bunked down wondering what the Army wanted. At least they weren¡¯t trying to detain us, yet. No doubt there would be pressure to get whatever they wanted. I hope they didn¡¯t want to sacrifice us to the Empire. It didn¡¯t seem so, but you never know. I dressed up as a junior apprentice running errands and left early using my mimic ability. I circled the Mothers Tusks headquarters which was a small workshop-type building with upstairs accommodation, a typical building in the tradesman district. The rear yard was set up as a small training and sparring area and I would find out what was inside in due course. The building was made of stone and there was evidence of new stone work on the front wall. It was solid, but not finished. As of mid-morning, there were three watchers that I could see, one of whom I knocked out the night before. Once we went in there I could not see how we could get out without being tailed, therefore we need to prepare for our location to be known. Wiremu was spending the morning setting up some warning traps on our floor of the Hrano. I switched disguises and Mimicked a Housewife out shopping and thought I might have spotted a fourth watcher. I wasn¡¯t so sure about that one. The housewife wearily took the shopping back to the Hrano and then I got changed. Showtime. Wiremu was dressed very similarly to the first day he made enquiries. I dressed more as a merchant as I had publicly stated that was what I was last night at the Tavern. The Canine Queens were dressed in mercenary smart, but prepped for a fight, except for Kryddor who just lounged with his tongue out as normal. We formed up and walked to the Mothers Tusk¡¯s headquarters. We got there a few minutes late and Branik showed me in. The front part of the building which would have been a shop section was fitted out to be a lounge and meeting area. Kopje and Hitro were there with Spionera, two human soldiers and the Dwarf from the tavern. Spionera did not introduce any of them. Spionara started, ¡°As you are aware the Empire is making a big fuss over the loss of two of their Bounty Hunters, supposedly here on a legitimate Mercenary Guild Contract. What you are probably not aware of is that this is only the latest in a long line of incidents and incursions that have happened in the last year or so. The loss of an affinity user is a big loss. There might be only one person in ten thousand who will awaken an affinity. What we see now is an opportunity to put a stop to them and hopefully clean this city of some of the agents here.¡± ¡°Go on,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°What we would like to do is talk you, Warren Carter, up as the saviour of Jern and hold a big banquet and award Ceremony with honorary citizenship of the Kirghiz Kingdom.¡± ¡°So you want us to be the bait in a trap,¡± I said. ¡°Yes and no,¡± he replied. ¡°While we acknowledge you have a lot of Skills, you don¡¯t know our teams or codes and to be quite frank we consider that you would be too unpredictable to do what we see as necessary.¡± That got a few raised eyebrows from Branik and Kopje and a few knowing smiles from the Canine Queens. He continued, ¡°What we want to do is substitute two of our own to play the Carter siblings, and we would rather you were a long way away and in fact never use that identity again.¡± ¡°That is my birth identity,¡± I said. ¡°What do we get in exchange?¡± ¡°We would obviously set you up with new authentic Kirghiz Kingdom citizenship.¡± When he saw my frown at the obvious inadequacy of the compensation he continued, ¡°You are a Merchant, we can set you up with a job or government contracts if you prefer. These would be in the capitol or one of the other cities, as we want you to stay well away from here or Jern.¡± ¡°That might be Ok for me, but what about Warren?¡± They had not made the connection to the Elemental Traders, so that was good. ¡°What do you want?¡± he asked. ¡°A chicken farm near some good fishing spots.¡± Wiremu replied, getting some confused looks. Then he smiled, ¡°Just kidding, sort of. Tabitha is the wizard with coins between us so she will negotiate for both of us.¡± ¡°Very well, while Tabitha and I discuss this, can you please relate your experiences with the Goblins, starting with your first discovery of them? These two,¡± He indicated the human, male and female soldiers, ¡°will need to be able to retell the stories with as few verifiable errors as possible.¡± Wiremu sat with them and related his contract and finding the Goblins. No mention of an Affinity. Then he went through the scouting trip and then the fight with the army platoon against the Shamans. Then I went through my version of the scouting trip, and in between about my job as a merchant with the S?lv Emporium. I live a very boring life. I am not sure they actually believed that, but I don''t actually care. Like all dealings with the government, they are not offering much compensation. An ID, which I might use as a backup, but which Wiremu needs. The trouble with government ID¡¯s is they will track them. Then there were only promises of contracts. Some of those promises were written down as recommendations, but at the end of the day, they were only promises. They were as useful to me as the bits of metal the army would give the fake me as a ¡®Medal of Honour¡¯. I would milk these promises for everything I could get, but I was not expecting much. Then Wiremu and I swapped clothes with the two ¡®soldiers¡¯ that obviously weren¡¯t soldiers. T¨¡oke surprised them when he came out of the pocket. Once they were dressed as us they asked us to move and spar with them as they obviously worked to copy our movements and mannerisms etc. They obviously had high acting skills. The Canine Queens were to return to the Inn without us and we were to escort the ¡®Carter¡¯ siblings to the Gate to the inner city where we would meet an honour guard to parade them to the main Army Headquarters. Wiremu and I ditched them when we got to the gate and met the Honour Guard. We were supposed to go all the way to the Headquarters and get changed there but I didn¡¯t trust them that much. An easy way for us to stay out of sight would be to detain us, ¡®for our own safety.¡¯ Besides, authentic army uniforms will probably be quite valuable on the Black Market. We will see if they turn up with their Identifications and promises. They should, as we can still scuttle their plans, so I figure they will play nice. We just have to be careful. It might also just be my overactive Mental Agility making me suspicious. Skygge booked a nice Inn for us to stay in for the remaining week and I would be Skygge from now on. Wiremu checked in on the Canine Queens and they went back for the last few day''s holidays, while I looked for cargo for my wagons. 68. Kulle: Wiremu 68. Kulle: Wiremu Tabitha came through with my Sten ID. The Army delivered official IDs as well, which we put aside as spares. Tabitha did better than I expected and the Government ID came with accounts at the Kirghiz Treasury in which a monthly Stipend would be deposited, equivalent to a Lieutenant''s wage for three years. She said she was going for five, but they argued that after two years it would no longer matter. Three was a compromise. I would just let mine accumulate as a backup. The Caravan had too many wagons for the trip to Jern as the camping spots were not large enough and too many merchants wanted to get there for the auction. They had to split into two, one following a day behind the other. We were in the first lot with about thirty wagons. Twenty-five wagons were following. The Caravan Master was therefore short-staffed. Tabitha subcontracted me out to the Caravan Master as a Scout and she still kept the minimum of two guards to a wagon. The Goblin threat is not going away soon, and nobody wants to go into the caves to hunt them. Tabitha had one wagon full of expensive alcohol, wines, spirits, ciders with spiritually enhanced ingredients, and a lot of dwarven whisky. That was the wagon that needed guarding against theft. The other wagon was miscellaneous luxury goods and foods, particularly rare herbs and spices, that wouldn''t spoil. The other wagons in the caravan were a mixture of expensive goods for auction and supply goods like us. The mood was totally different to the trip down as there was significant tension between some of the Merchants. I spent my days away from it all scouting in the peace and quiet of the wilds. It was very relaxing after being in the city. This requirement of the Army that I get away from Hrothgar and Jern for a couple of years was a concern. I discussed it briefly with Skavt who said we would have a longer discussion in Jern. I didn¡¯t want to break from the Canine Queens if I could help it. There are signs of spring in the new growth and lambs being born. Snow is retreating from the lower parts. Spring will be fully on us when we get to Jern. We made Halvv?g in good time and without incident. From now on the goblin threat was an increased risk. We were two days out from Kulle when we started seeing signs of goblins. There only seemed to be small bands roaming around, which were only a treat to small wildlife. Large groups, especially with a Shaman were threats to small villages as we had already seen. However, small groups indicated that everything was not contained. The Caravan Master had the Scouts keep close and doubled the guards overnight. Kulle was shut up tight. The commander was not pleased to see the caravan and even less pleased to find out there was an equal-sized one a day behind. There was no room in the Kulle walls for that many wagons and draft animals. The Longhouses we stayed in the first time now had a palisade wall around it, but it was not enchanted like the main wall. It would barely slow any Goblins down. The Guard Commander spoke to everybody from the top of the wall. The Guard had enacted the Emergency Monster Protocols and all Mercenaries were immediately drafted to the town defence. The Merchants were welcome in the town as long as they would help in the emergency. All wagons would stay outside and all draft animals would have to stay in the Longhouse area. If they didn¡¯t like it they were welcome to go to Jern and lay a complaint. Half the guards claimed not to be Mercenaries, but direct employees of Merchant and Trading houses. For some of them, it may even have been true. Some of the biggest groups of Merchants from the larger Trading Houses planned to take their guards and push on to Jern. The Caravan Master wished them luck as he unhitched his wagons and took his guards into the Town. Tabitha didn¡¯t hesitate to do the same. The wagons were parked close to the Longhouse area and the archers on the walls discouraged looting from those not coming in. About fifteen wagons got back on the road in the late afternoon. Tabitha, Modrica and Vrsig were rostered on the walls. As the Canine Queens were an established group with mounts we would be heading out with a group of Guards in the morning. Five days ago there was a major event at the Kill Site and they sent for reinforcements. Guards and Mercenaries went up there. Three days ago the Army set off the emergency explosives which was always their plan for a last-ditch attempt to close the tunnel and kill everything if it went bad. The explosions were heard from Kulle. The watchtowers reported seeing small groups of Goblins two days ago and Kulle fought off a Goblin attack yesterday. They had heard nothing from the Army. At dawn, we would ride out with a squad of Guardsmen to find out what was happening if we could. Messages were sent to Jern as soon as the explosions were heard but it would be another three days at the earliest before reinforcements could arrive, assuming Jern was not under siege or they were attacked on the road or any number of other things. I was thinking Hrothgar celebrating the Saviour of Jern was a little premature. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. We prepped in the pre-dawn. I hit the Guard up for some extra quivers of arrows and ?rt raided their medical supplies. ?rt would be the group medic and I would be the Scout. The Guard had one archer and six melee types, four with shields with a Sergeant in charge. It would normally take about four hours to get up there on the nice road they built, but we would be moving more cautiously. It was only a half hour in when we met our first group of six Goblins. The Guard Archer and I had three down before Oske trampled the rest. If only it was all going to be so easy. We stopped several times while I went ahead on foot to investigate. The last thing we wanted was to be embroiled in a big fight. We avoided one Shaman with a large group of Goblins. We efficiently took out several smaller groups. The watchtower on the hill above the Kill Site was standing but abandoned. The Kill Site was just a crater in the ground. Instead of collapsing the tunnel, it seems to have opened it. There was still the occasional group of Goblins coming out. We would investigate the Army camp before attempting to close it. The camp palisade wall was still standing and manned, so there were some Army personnel alive. There were Goblins swarming around it like flies on a carcass waiting to feed. It looks like they have been repelled in every attempt so far. I didn¡¯t see any Shamans, but there must have been some otherwise the goblins would have scattered for easier prey. It was late afternoon by this time. I reported back to the Sergeant who was keen to make contact with them. We moved away to find a defensible campsite and then the Sergeant and I would go in again and see if we could communicate. T¨¡oke could probably slip in, but then what? He could carry a message, but they might also kill him. I could lob an arrow in with a message easier using Longbow. The Sergeant claimed to have Stealth but it must be so low-levelled as it was practically useless. The Sergeant wanted me to send in a message to let them know we were here and if they had ways to communicate. He wrote on some parchment and I told him to add that if they spoke loudly on the wall I would hear them. I didn¡¯t tell him the level of my Hearing Aid, but with the distance, he knew it was up there. I put the arrow near one of the wall guards. He got a fright. This Darksight Farsight Combo was well worth having. The Guard called a buddy who scurried off to whoever was in charge. Lieutenant Aaren arrived on the wall. The short story was that Goblins started pouring from the opening and several Shamans arrived and made a second exit. Goblins came faster than they could kill them and were weakening the wall enchantments and climbing over one another to get to the top of the Kill barrier. There was fighting on the top of the wall and the call went out to Kulle. The flow slowed to a trickle for a while, and then there were waves coming for two days. Then several Shamans came from behind the Army and the Scouts only got a very short warning out. While the Soldiers were fighting on two fronts a large stone armoured Goblin arrived which they thought was the Chief. He did something like a massive quake and broke the fortifications. That was when Captain Tor triggered the explosives. They think they got the Chief in the blast. But made a retreat to the camp. Captain Tor is still unconscious and Lieutenant Awyr is missing an arm. Lieutenant Kelda is the only operative affinity user and the only reason they are still alive. There are 450 able Soldiers in the camp and 100 wounded. There are at least five Shamans in the area around them. They don¡¯t expect to be able to repel many more attacks as the enchantments are damaged. They were planning to make a fighting retreat to Kulle at dawn. The Sergeant informed me Lieutenant Awyr is an air affinity user. He didn¡¯t have much parchment with him and I had left my Map Making supplies in Kulle because, why would I need them? He wrote an acknowledgement and said that we would get word back to Kulle. I put the arrow in the wall next to the Lieutenant and we retreated back to the others. The Sergeant dispatched the two non-shield bearers to take the message back to Kulle so they can expect them. Mobile melee fighters were what they were, and this was the type of job they were used to. The Sergeant wanted to stay and help but he really had no idea how. I looked at Skavt for permission. She nodded so I spoke up. ¡°The problem is not the Goblins as such. Without the Shamans the Goblins will disperse. The Shamans only have about the same health as you or I. If we can get them with surprise attacks, which means without any defensive Skills active, they will go down fairly easily. That is my speciality,¡± I said. ¡°I am a Hunter and Monster Hunter, with high Stealth and high impact ranged attacks.¡± I touched my bow. ¡°If I can take out one or two Shamans before dawn that will make the retreat possible with a lot fewer casualties. What I will need is a defensive line I can retreat to if I am discovered or after I make a hit and have a horde on my tail. Is that something you can do?¡± I was looking at the Sergeant, but I was really talking to Skavt. The Sergeant was well out of his depth. The Sergeant nodded, ¡°Where is the best to do that?¡± he asked. ¡°Skavt knows best what terrain and how to organise it.¡± and just like that the Canine Queens were in charge. With the Guard''s four shields and the twins, we had a good shield line. Oske and Skavt were the backup cavalry. 69. Monster Hunting: Wiremu 69. Monster Hunting: Wiremu T¨¡oke and I are now trying to stealth through a goblin-infested forest to find a Shaman. It is not as easy as it sounds, and it does not sound easy. It is only a light forest with wide gaps between trees and sparse undergrowth. Stealth and Camouflage are getting a serious workout. T¨¡oke is up ahead as my scout, as he finds it easier to move unnoticed for some reason. It might be the size difference. Maybe. The smell of goblins is everywhere. When underground, they are active whenever they feel like it. Above ground, they are more active at night, so in some respects, this would be easier during the day. In other ways, not so much. I think they are about to launch an attack on the wall. Without Camouflage, this would be impossible. Darksight and Hearing Aid are helping me avoid the worst groups. I have a knife in one hand and a dart in the other. My bow is over my shoulder with a small quiver. I dash to the next tree throwing a dart ahead of me, catching a goblin in the eye and then my knife is at his throat to make sure. I can see a Shaman through the trees with a large number of Goblins. I hope he will send them against the wall, leaving him relatively vulnerable. I put my knife away and ready my bow while dashing to the next tree. I saw T¨¡oke drop on a goblin from above and wrap himself around the goblin¡¯s neck. I knew through the bond he had locked his joints using Granite Bones, so strangling the goblin is not costing him any energy or venom. The goblin''s claws were barely scratching the Snakeskin. He has got scary smart. I put it down to how much time he is hanging around me. Genius can rub off. I line up a triple shot with two Venom Arrows. I need the extra arrows to align vertically rather than horizontally. Otherwise, they won¡¯t make it through the gap in the trees. Damn, he moved. I also think I need to be a bit closer. I lower the bow without taking the shot. I move to the next cover, which is a fallen log. I am lying flat and have Camouflage active as a group of four goblins walk past. They nearly stepped on me but passed without noticing me, although I think one did take an extra sniff. I move to the stump of a tree and kneel. I have a good view of the back of the Shaman. I line up Triple Shot again as T¨¡oke joins me. This time I take the shot, and it hits with all three arrows. The two Venom Arrows get absorbed into the Shaman, and the physical arrow lodges deep. If he is one of the Death Shamans, it won¡¯t kill him. If he is any other type of Shamna, this should be a kill shot. He turns to me and points at me, yells and staggers. Time to go as he has a lot of goblins around him. Goblins are quick, but this is not their normal environment. I run. Fast. T¨¡oke is on my shoulder, facing behind me. Every now and then, he spits Venom at a goblin. There is no stealth now. It just comes down to speed. The Goblins are yelling, and I am dodging the ones coming in from the side as I dodge around trees. My knife is swiping at some, and I am throwing darts as I have the opportunity. Suddenly I feel claws in the back of my armour, and T¨¡oke lunges for a strike. The claws fall away, but I miss a throw and a goblin charges in from the side. I stumble, but his claws don¡¯t penetrate my Troll Leather Armour. Don¡¯t ever stint on armour. His claws don¡¯t penetrate, but his teeth do, and I still stumble forward. I put my hand on his head and trigger a Granite Spike, and I am off again. However, it gave my chasers a chance to catch up, and two landed on my back. T¨¡oke takes care of one, and the other sinks his teeth into my shoulder. I just keep going because if I stop, I am dead. I see the shield line ahead. The Twins are in the centre and have a gap ready for me. I feel more claws skim off my armour, and then something latches onto my arm and takes a bite as I rush past the twins. They close the gap behind me. I roll on the ground and dislodge the two goblins that came with me. ?rt beheads one, and Kryddor rips the throat out of the other. The shield line is busy, but I take the time to check my status for the monster kill. Yes! I got him. That means these goblins should scatter quite quickly. I miss Tabitha and her Aura, or they would be gone by now. I picked myself up to see if I could help and saw Oske charging across the front of the shield line. He scattered the goblins almost as well as Tabitha. ?rt starts looking at my wounds and wiping the blood. The arm worries me the most, but I have full movement. The Sergeant comes up to me to check if I am OK. I think he thinks I am crazy. Maybe I am. I grin at him. ¡°One down,¡± I said. ¡°At this rate, we might get three before dawn.¡± The second one turned out to be the easiest. Two Shamans and their goblins were attacking the camp wall. They were not looking behind them. Kelda was on the wall throwing oil and lighting it to excellent effect. I snuck up behind a nature Shaman, stabbed his brain with everything I had, including Power Strike, and then pumped in two Granite Spikes. I threw a dart at the eye of the other Shaman but missed, and it was sticking out the side of his nose. He turned to me, which was not an opportunity missed by those on the wall as two arrows and a fire bolt went his way. I couldn¡¯t stop to watch, as I had attracted attention. I gave the wall a quick wave before taking off with a dozen goblins on my tail. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have as big a head start as last time, so this was a rolling fight rather than a sprint. I had a shield on one arm this time and a knife on the other. Power Strike with the shield was effective and Quick Strike with the knife. I just had to keep moving and not get tripped and swarmed. I didn¡¯t make it to the shield wall this time. Skavt and Oske had to come and save my ass. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I made sure to grin at the Sergeant again. This time I had taken a hit that split my lip, and my teeth were bloody when I grinned, just to add to the crazy. Actually, I think I had taken quite a few hits this time, and I had a lot of aches. I told them about the second kill and that I hoped the wall had taken out a third Shaman. The Sergeant, Skavt and ?rt were worried about me doing it again. The Sergeant I could understand as I was purposefully winding him up and acting crazy. Skavt and ?rt were different, and I considered them carefully. We would try one more, but I would be extra cautious. We had been very successful, and now I was tired and sore. Mistakes became much more likely. I used to be a sensible person. A sensible person would have stopped while they were ahead. When did I become the gambler to keep taking risks? That is Tabitha¡¯s role. We moved around to the other side of the camp, near the gate. The gate was looking very fragile. There were a lot of Goblins here. Too many. Dawn was about two hours away. I figured I would try to get a count on the number of Shamans and the types if I could. I wasn¡¯t going to stir up this lot. I ended up hiding in trees mostly. Goblins could climb them at the click of the claws, but they didn¡¯t. I think trees were largely new and unknown, so it didn¡¯t occur to them. I got in a position where I could see and what I saw was the Goblin Chief. He had certainly been caught in the blast. He only had one arm. He had stone armour that was cracked and crumbling in many places. He was big, like Modrica big. I put aside the fact I should be able to make stone armour. Surely it is a modification to the Granite Shield Skill. I wanted to know what he was doing. Five dead Goblins were at his feet, and one was standing in front of him. He was moving and making noises. Then he suddenly grabbed a goblin beside him, broke its neck, and added it to the dead pile. He kept moving and grunting and growling, then grabbed another goblin, broke its neck and added it to the dead pile. The goblin standing before him looked zoned out and unaware of his surroundings. When he grabbed another goblin, I realised his movements and sounds were repetitive. Not rhythmic at all but in a repetitive pattern. I strained with my Sense Spiritual. It was barely Apprentice level, but I needed some clue about what was happening. Something was happening at the Spiritual level, but my Skill was too low, or I was too far away, or something. When the eleventh goblin died, that seemed to be the final one. He made a sudden violent movement and ripped his claws across the front of the goblin standing before him, so the goblins'' blood flowed freely. The goblin changed. He seemed to grow, his skin stretched, and the blood flowing from him stopped and seemed to reverse. I pulled my vision back to take in the scene better and suddenly realised the Goblin Chief had just created a new Shaman with a blood affinity. Holy shit! That was some sort of ritual. One Shaman was worth much more than eleven goblins. How often can he do that? The Chief certainly looked drained, in the Spiritual and the Physical. Could he do one a day? One an hour? It made a big difference. One a year was probably too much to ask. While there were a lot of regular goblins, his supply wasn¡¯t unlimited. Then the realisation struck me. The Chief just made a monster core. Was this something only Goblins could do? The new Shaman was not heading to the walls but the tunnels. The monster core is probably small and needs time to grow, and he will probably breed. We need to find the breeding areas and wipe them out. There will be some reason it is not happening. Going into the tunnels is probably a big reason. Without Tabatha¡¯s and my affinities, we would not have survived the tunnels. That was a ritual of some sort. Ritual magic was never talked about or discussed. The Sentient races must know about it, which means it is being suppressed. If the governments knew how to make Monster Cores, they would be, so there is more to it. I knew from T¨¡oke that monster cores had the power to change a creature fundamentally. The horror stories were too frequent and varied for there not to be some truth to them. Therefore it is probably not just government propaganda. I needed to put this to one side and take down a Goblin Chief. Even damaged as he was, a single Triple Shot would not do it. He looks to be in remarkable condition for a being in the blast that created the crater in the Kill Zone. Even allowing for his stone armour, surviving that is remarkable. I need to discuss this with Skavt and ?rt. ?rt is the brains, Skavt is the tactics. I started making my way back very carefully. Maybe I do have a semblance of common sense left. We now only had an hour before the Army started their retreat. We ripped some cloth to write on to warn them the Chief was still alive, and I put it near a Sentry. We thought we would need all the Affinity users working together to take down the Chief. We didn¡¯t know what the Army¡¯s priority was, to get their wounded out or to take down the Goblins. They were down to half-strength, but I was betting they would prioritise killing the Chief. This was the Army, and they had a job to do and the opportunity to do it. ?rt took that bet. Healers always prioritise the wounded. My camp chores will be done for me until we return to Jern. 70. Fighting Retreat: Wiremu 70. Fighting Retreat: Wiremu About a half hour before dawn, Lieutenant Aaren appeared on the wall and loudly said, ¡°In one hour, we will make a fighting retreat to Jern with the wounded. We hope this will draw out the Chief and have 100 of our best and all of our affinity users prepared to take him down. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.¡± He then went back down. He could have told us which affinity users were active. Was the Captain up? He was the most experienced one here. We were all prepared as well. Skavt was in charge, and the Guards were very nervous. She set some basic priorities but mostly asked them to guard our backs, and if we dismounted, they were to guard the horses. The Archer she put under me, and I said the priorities were the Shamans and the Chief. We mounted up and waited. At the appointed time, the gates opened, and the Vanguard marched out behind shields. It looks like they were going for a rectangle formation with shields surrounding them. Three layers of fighters, then the wounded and non-combatants. Ten people wide was wider than the road, but I guess they would change formation after the worst of the fighting. Goblins started in from all sides. When the first Shaman appeared, the Archers immediately targeted them. The first one went down under an overkill of arrows. I think the Sergeants thought it was a waste as well. My Hearing Aid picked up a lot of shouting about keeping to their target areas. We were in a copse of trees quite a way back. Even then, we were getting intermittent attacks. The last of the Army left the Gates, and they were making steady progress. Then masses of goblins started swarming in from both sides. I was starting to think the Chief had some intelligence. All down the line, intermittent soldiers threw something into the masses, charging them, and a series of explosions happened. I hoped they kept some of those Alchemical mixtures for the Chief fight. The shield wall was holding, although injuries were starting to happen. The archers were still trying to target the Shamans, but it wasn¡¯t easy, as they were only a bit larger than the standard goblin and looked the same. They were mixed into the swarm and were starting to have an effect. The Army discipline was good, but getting splattered with Death Toxin will always ruin your day. There were surges of water and fire and wooden and rock spears. I think I also saw a swarm of insects from a Summoner Shaman. No sign of the Chief. Suddenly there was a mounted charge from the open gates of the camp. They aimed to the left of the bait. The charging soldiers were their attack group and must have spotted the Chief. Skavt had us move in that direction as well. This was the first time I had seen a massed cavalry charge, which was impressive. The front was five wide, and when they cleared the gates, they spread out in an arrow formation and kept riding over everything in their way. One or two would go down occasionally, but goblins were vulnerable to a charge. Sharmans, however, were not vulnerable when they saw them coming. We could see the Chief now; he had two Shamans with him and a swarm of goblins. I think the Army was planning to ride right through them if they could. We were now side on to the charge and moderately busy with stray goblins ourselves. Skavt kept us moving closer at a trot. She and Oske were our point, and T¨¡oke was on Oske. The Twins were on either side of her, and then the Army. ?rt, the Army Archer and I were riding behind Skavt and the twins as I was in an Archer role. I could see the army nearing the Shaman''s range when suddenly, a strong gust of wind knocked all the Goblins, except the Chief, off balance. Air affinity would set the gust going and let it blow, giving it a longer range than others. This let them pound in closer. But the Army didn¡¯t just stop there. Immediately following the wind was a fireball aimed at the Chief, obviously trying to stop him from using skills as long as possible. The Chief ducked, but it did stop him from using his Skills, and the fireball caught the goblins behind him. It was a good bit of coordination, obviously preplanned and worked right up until a line of rock spikes appeared in front of the five in the lead, taking out the horses at a minimum. They obviously had no counter for him, which meant the Captain wasn¡¯t awake. I yelled at Skavt, ¡°Get me down there, and I can counter the Chief.¡± That got some puzzled looks from the Guard, but Skavt just signalled our own charge, and we were off. One of the advantages we had was that all the attention was on the army, not on us. I was riding behind Najprej, next to ?rt, who was riding behind Skavt, and I had a Guard warrior on the other side, which was the outer edge of our formation. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. I saw the remaining Army charge smash into the main body of goblins, and a bunch of explosions were centred around the Chief and the Shamans. One of the Shamans was water, and one was death. The Death Shaman did not reappear after the explosions, but goblins and army alike were blasted with water and a massive quake. I now thought I was being a bit too ambitious when I said I would try to counter the Chief, but I had to do something. Several goblins lost their heads for no apparent reason, I am assuming an air blade of some sort, but it was stopped dead, hitting a rock wall in front of the Chief. Two objects were lobbed over the wall and then burst into flame over the Chief, who yelled in anger. From our position on the side, we could see the Chief and the ground aflame and continuing to burn. Kelda has been practising. The Chief had started this fight in a bad way, with only one arm and severely damaged armour, and I suspect internal damage as well. Then we were there and ploughing through goblins. Skavt had aimed Oske directly at the Chief. This meant Najprej bowled over the Water Shaman, and I know Rocky¡¯s hooves broke something, but we weren¡¯t stopping now. Oske caught the Chief dead centre on his horns. One horn hit a hard piece of armour and spun him, but the other pierced just below the rib cage, and Oske lifted his head, so he left the ground. He faced Scavt and got a face full of Venom from T¨¡oke and a spear thrust in the neck from Skavt. Then Oske lowered his head, and he slipped off the horn, and Oske trampled over him like the Bull he was. Then ?rt rode over him, and the Sergeant bringing up the rear also went over him. He was left lying broken on the ground, and Kelda blasted the place with fire, and she didn¡¯t hold back. It looks like I don¡¯t need to counter the Chief after all. Skavt kept us going, although it was no longer a full charge. She then started to turn Oske. The goblins were starting to scatter with the Chief and Shamans down. One of the officers yelled to form up to go and help the main body of troops. Most of the soldiers recognised Oske from our previous stay at the camp, and we were greeted by many. Oske was the hero. We are not sure yet who got the Monster Kill, but in the Army¡¯s eyes, Scavt and Oske were the heroes of the day. Of the original one hundred, less than fifty soldiers formed a new line. The ten or so soldiers who had lost their mounts and were OK formed a group on foot to fight off the stragglers and went looking for survivors or to finish off any, not quite dead, goblins. Skavt had us join the end of the line, and the officer started us back at a trot toward the main formation of troops. As we got closer, we started picking up speed, then we were at a full charge, and this time we were all hitting the back of the goblins. We split into two groups, and a group swept down each side of the main column raising cheers from the embattled soldiers. The goblins scattered, and I spied several Shamans doing the same. I tagged one with my Longbow Skill, but it wasn''t a kill shot. The Army took the time to assess and sort the wounded. Skavt also had us stop for a while. I checked my Status, and Monster Hunter had levelled. Very few other Skills had gone up except Riding, which was now Journeyman. I wasn¡¯t offered the Riding Class like Tabitha. I guess it is not my thing. Triple Shot went to Apprentice, and there were some other minor rises. ?rt was very surprised to have a Monster Kill in his Status. We figured it must have been his horse which landed the killing blow on the Chief. Skavt was a bit miffed at not getting it, as she and Oske did all the damage. The new damage anyway, not the damage still healing from the explosion. While ?rt had Monster Lore, his basic Class was Forrester, and that was not a prerequisite for Monster Hunter, so Monster Hunter was not available to him. He did get a Specialisation open to him called Forrest Guardian. It was a top-tier specialisation and gave a special Skill called Forest Aura. It seemed a lot more flexible than Tabitha¡¯s aura as it could project a sense of peace and calmness or fear. It probably was not as powerful as Tabitha¡¯s Intimidating Aura, but he was overjoyed as he often tried to calm patients. He said at Journeyman Level Forest Aura could also be used to alter the Pain Resistances of others within the Aura. That is, he could alter them both up and down. He went off to help with the wounded and practice. The twins and Skavt all had various level increases but nothing startling. I met Kelda, and we had a good conversation. She was now recognised as a full Lieutenant in the Army. Previously she was a Special Lieutenant, which meant something like a Trainee, especially for the Affinity Users who thought they were Special but couldn¡¯t do the job. Lieutenant Aaren had not survived the charge against the Goblin Chief, so she was now in charge of what remained of her Platoon. She now had no one over her to direct her training. She was only responsible to the Captain or, in this case, the senior Lieutenant. A weary and wounded group arrived in Kulle, but we arrived victorious. There were still a lot of roaming Goblins and several Shamans out there, but the biggest threat was dealt with. The Jern Guard Commander relaxed the threat level, releasing us Mercenaries. The Army was going to spend a few days in Kulle before heading back to Hrothgar. They might send another contingent to help mop up, or they might not. That was up to the command in Hrothgar. The Caravan Master reformed the wagons that wanted to go to Jern, and we would leave in two days at dawn. Tabitha had had a quiet time in Kulle, watching from the walls. She called it boring. I did find out she had been joining the other musicians in the Tavern and performing in the evenings. I went to see her the night before we left, and she was getting good on the Lute and helped in the singing a couple of times. I recognised her use of the Distract Skill. It was very, very good. 71. Entertaining: Tabitha 71. Entertaining: Tabitha While Wiremu is off Monster hunting, I am stuck here in Kulle like a caged Predator. I am in two minds about going. I quite like not fighting. There is an entertainment Troupe here in Kulle who were heading up to Jern to earn some money busking for the rich and hopefully get a Tavern, or preferably a rich Trading House, to hire them. There were four Musicians and a Singer. I didn¡¯t even know Singer was a Class, although Identify had hinted that I might learn the Musician Class with some training. I watched them busk for the crowds crammed into the walls of Kulle. Their frontman was an Orc called Zabavno. He had a repertoire of funny stories and jokes and would entertain the crowd between songs. They had a Dwarf on some hand drums, a human with a Recorder, and an elf with a Fiddle. The Singer was also an elf, and she could reach some really high notes. I discovered that Zabavno was a bit of a jack of all trades and would play the Tambourine and join the singing. Duets with him and the elf Singer were amazing as he had the typical Orc bass notes, and with the elven soprano on top, it was a spellbinding performance. When they saw my Lute, they invited me to join them after their performance when they were messing around, playing some familiar Tavern songs and getting the crowd to join in the singing. I played the Lute with the ones I knew and added some percussion sounds with my Distract Skill when I didn''t know the songs. They were rapt when they heard that and wanted me to keep going. Apparently, it has a name and is called Beat Boxing, don''t ask me why it is called that. It makes no sense to me. After the first song where I was, ¡®Beat Boxing,¡¯ Zabavno brought me forward to introduce me to the crowd and encouraged me to keep it up. I activated the Mimic Skill and started mimicking him; the crowd thought it was hilarious. We did several more songs, and I got the hang of using the Distract Skill while playing the Lute. When Zabavno launched into a longer story about a barman and a noble''s daughter, I started mimicking his actions behind his back, and the crowd went wild. When he spun around to look, I was acting all innocent. He winked at me, and we turned it into a game. It was an enormous amount of fun. When he got to a particularly lewd part of the story, I used Distract to add some appropriate sound effects, and I saw one woman laughing so hard she fell over. Eventually, we had to stop because we were exhausted. The crowd just wanted us to keep going, but Zabavno expertly wound things down, and we escaped into the Tavern for a drink. I introduced myself as Skygge of the Elemental Traders. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Whatever it is you do for those Traders,¡± Zabavno said, ¡°you are wasted there. Two months with me, and I can train you in the Entertainers Class, and we can name our price in the capital!¡± I didn¡¯t even know there was an Entertainers Class, but Zabavno must be at least Journeyman level in it. Identify was telling me two months was a little light on what I had to learn for the Class, but it was certainly easier and shorter than many apprenticeships. He went on to introduce me to the rest of the group. Trummer was the dwarf on drums. She had only joined the group about two months ago in Hrothgar. Manus was the human on the recorder. He had been with Zabavno for three years, and they had written a lot of the material for the stories and jokes. He could play several different instruments but liked the wind instruments the best. Canwr was the Singer, and she and the Fiddle player, Bwa, were a couple. Zabavno loudly declared that the Barman and the Noble¡¯s Daughter story was based on them. They hotly denied it and said none of it was true, apart from Canwr being the daughter of a noble. They had been with Zabavno for almost two years. They seemed like a good bunch. I got a level in Lute and two levels in performance from the afternoon. They really, really wanted me to join them. It was a very tempting offer and seemed like it would be a lot of fun. Zabavno even offered to talk to my boss at Elemental Traders to negotiate a way out of my contract. I said we would see when we got to Jern. I did emphasise that I was committed up until the auction. When I mentioned my brother Sten was here, they all wanted to meet him. When I said he was out scouting the Army camp with his Mercenary group, that sobered things up. Then Modrica found me as it was almost time for our shift on the walls. The fact that we even had a shift on the walls meant I was a fighter, and Modrica¡¯s looming presence with her scars and the fact she was obviously with me, made a big statement. Zabavno asked her something in Orcish, and she replied. He then went very quiet. Things are not so simple that I can just run away and join some entertainers. As we walked to our shift, I asked Modrica what Zabavno had said. ¡°He asked about our relationship.¡± she stated. ¡°And you said?¡± ¡°Krvne sestre, which means Clan and Blood Sisters through battle.¡± she replied. I nodded. We were definitely that. ¡°You had better start teaching me some Orcish, sister.¡± She nodded. 72. Preparation: Tabitha 72. Preparation: Tabitha We had the evening shift of four hours from 6 pm to 10 pm. Near the end of the shift, two riders were coming fast from the direction of the army camp. They were being chased, but the watchtower''s archers soon took care of that. Word went out that the Army was leaving their camp at dawn to make for Kulle. They were expected from lunchtime. Everybody was to be ready for action from mid-morning on. Modrica and I were waiting with our assigned non-military reserves. The Guard had all their Scouts out by dawn and several very strong patrols to minimise surprises. Zabavano and the team were busking again, trying to ease the tension. Lunchtime came and went. Early afternoon the report came that the Army had defeated the Goblin Chief and would be here in a couple of hours. We stood down. The gates were opened with a strong contingent of guards, and they warned us that there were still large groups of Goblins roaming around. I checked on our wagons. I raided the Alcohol wagon for some celebratory supplies. Modrica stayed to watch over the wagons with the increase in personnel outside the gates. The Army arrived late afternoon and set up camp outside the walls. The Canine Queens seemed to be intact. Word went out that Skavt and Oske were the heroes, and the celebrations began. I will get the real story from them later, as I am sure it was not that simple. I introduced Wiremu and the team to Zabavno and the group, and we celebrated together courtesy of Elemental Traders. Getting back to Jern was the task, and we got in the first Caravan on the road. Arriving in Jern three days later was a lot like coming home. We still had our rental cottage, and it was less than a month from now for the auction, which had now turned into a week-long series of events. I let Nijel know I was back out of courtesy and found out he had adopted the title Shadow Lord and promoted Axill as his second. He was working up the legends of the infamous Black and pushing the shadow theme. It seemed to be working for him. Time to build the Elemental Traders. I fixed the irregularity with the paperwork; it definitely belongs to Skygge and no other, especially not an Imperial. The Canine Queens are discussing the longer-term contract I gave them as lead Guards in a travelling Caravan. Putting together a roving caravan is not easy. Regular routes are easier as you can take orders and establish agents in major towns. Hence most roving groups are small, with only a couple of wagons and many low-end goods for villagers and towns. This means they are also not profitable or barely profitable. To be successful, you need additional services that will be in demand, and that can be charged. A travelling Healer / Herbalist is one such service that will always be in demand, and this is part of the proposal to the Canine Queens, part that will significantly increase their income from this contract. An Entertainment Troupe is another add-on service that will significantly add value to the roving Caravan. I haven¡¯t broached it with Zabavno yet. I got him to appoint me as his agent and used my contacts with the Shadow Guild to get them into various taverns two nights a week and a Gambling house one night a week. They were rapt with that. What they didn¡¯t have was any accommodation. Jern was packed out with all those who had retreated from the Goblins and the incoming visitors for the auctions. I sold off the two wagon loads of goods easily enough, and we parked them out the back of the cottage and outfitted them to be comfortable enough accommodations. What they wanted was for me to join them in their shows. I decided some might be fun, but I said I would only join them for the Gambling Houses'' shows. I also needed to set aside two weekly practice sessions to work with them and learn their ways. They needed to decide on a name for the group. Because of the influx of visitors to Jern, there was more variety of species around than normal. It looked more like Hrothgar. I didn¡¯t see any of the Merpeople with gills, but I saw two very richly dressed Avions with wings and beaks. There was also a smattering of Beastkin, which you don¡¯t normally see this far north. Beastkin predominated to the south of the Kirghiz Kingdom in what was known as the Barbarian City States. That meant they were self-governed cities doing their own thing. What caught my attention was an elderly Catkin gentleman sitting on a blanket at the edge of one of the markets selling small trinkets with enchantments on them. I didn¡¯t know much about the Enchanting profession, and I figured novice and apprentice Enchanters had to upskill somehow, but these seemed almost frivolous or of no purpose. A ring with a sharp enchantment? Fingerless gloves with a heat enchantment? A necklace with a repel water enchantment? Repel water would normally be on a coat or hat. A nose ring with a scent enchantment? Then it hit me. These trinkets weren¡¯t designed for humans but Beastkin. A ring with the Sharp enchantment makes more sense when you have claws, as do fingerless gloves. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The question then is, why is he trying to sell them in a non-Beastkin area rather than trinkets for humanoids? I sat on the blanket beside him and picked up a nose ring. It is too big for me, but I wonder how much it would enhance my smell. ¡°Greetings, Grandfather.¡± I say. ¡°Welcome, young cub. May I help you with anything in particular?¡± The voice was low but smoothed with something like a purr. ¡°I am looking for a gift for my brother,¡± I said, ¡°what do you have for humanoids?¡± ¡°Alas, we are sold out at the moment. I can take commissions,¡± he replied. ¡°What level of enchanting are we talking about?¡± I asked. ¡°Journeyman Level Basic Enchanting, with all the common physical effects, toughness, sharpness, heat, cool, light etc. Specialised in Resistance Enchanting, Apprentice Level, we can add or increase Resistances to common things, Heat, Fire, Cold, and Water. Apprentice Level in Skill Enchanting, but only some Skills, Small Blades, Bow, Shield, Stealth, Camouflage, Lockpick, Sword and a few others. The durability of the enchantments depends on the quality of the Spiritual Material we can access, among other things.¡± ¡°The Enchanter is a Beastkin?¡± I asked. He nodded. ¡°Would specialised Beastkin Enchanting also be available?¡± ¡°Indeed, but that is specialised work.¡± He replied. It had only been a rumour to me, but Beastkin were known as natural enchanters. They could enchant some items with things that are natural to their species. Toughened Hide, Night Vision, etc. The enchantment would wear out faster the more you used it, but it could be a one-off lifesaver or a surprise finisher. ¡°Why is it you are in Jern, Grandfather? This would seem to be well outside your normal area.¡± I was curious. ¡°We were being pressured to join a Trading House, and they were making it almost impossible to get the Spiritual Materials we needed to continue. We heard about this auction, so our small Pride made the journey to purchase what we needed.¡± He replied. ¡°Have you engaged a broker yet to purchase what you need?¡± I query. ¡°Not yet. We are negotiating the deposit required.¡± was the answer. I figured there was more involved here. They were broke and had no Spiritual materials to do more enchanting, and the brokers wanted a good percentage upfront. I would have to be very careful here. This was a classic situation to manoeuvre people into and offer a loan to tide them over, which is then never able to be paid back, and you have an indebted enchanter at your beck and call. Anything that smelled like that would have this Pride running for the hills. Of course, I could see the huge benefit of having an enchanter attached to Elemental Traders. This would have to happen very, very carefully. Skittish bloody cats. Grandfather¡¯s attention was drawn across the street. I saw some thugs moving from vendor to vendor, obviously collecting the ¡®Street Tax¡¯. My Spatial Awareness picked up a slight increase in his heartbeat. They were very broke if they couldn¡¯t even afford the tax. This added complexity as they could easily become enchanters to a crime lord, assuming the ¡®tax collectors¡¯ had any intelligence. That was not guaranteed. I couldn¡¯t tell which Crime Lord. While the Shadow Guild was a major force, Nijel had missed out on a monopoly. ¡°Grandfather, I have a potential commission, but I would need to speak with the enchanter to see if they can perform the task.¡± I saw his suspicion. ¡°I am willing to pay for their time.¡± I put some coins on the mat, which should be plenty for the tax, and quite a few left over. ¡°That is a lot of time you are paying for,¡± he commented. ¡°We will need to meet in private, and it is to ensure continued privacy whether or not we proceed. Do you have somewhere we could meet?.¡± He looked at me and then said, ¡°Tomorrow at noon. The Pride is camped on the North West Green, and one of our wagons is enchanted for privacy.¡± ¡°Thank you, Grandfather. I will meet you there.¡± I got up and walked away. I stayed in range and observed when the ¡®tax collectors¡¯ visited him. I sensed their surprise and mild annoyance that he had the coin. Unfortunately, these weren¡¯t the dumb ones. I couldn¡¯t tell who they belonged to and I wasn¡¯t going to bother following them at this stage. They would start upping his ¡®tax¡¯ and applying other pressure. I would see what tomorrow would bring. 73. Spiritual Energy: Tabitha 73. Spiritual Energy: Tabitha I scouted out the Pride¡¯s wagons in the early evening. They had four small wagons, one of which was the Enchanter''s work and storage area. They were a family group, as you would expect. Grandfather, a middle-aged couple with three adult children, one of whom was mated, with a litter of three toddlers scampering around. Yes, Catkin toddlers were cute but massive balls of energy. I was observing from a distance, so I couldn''t tell which one was the enchanter. Probably there was an Enchanter and an Apprentice if Grandfather was right about the Journeyman level. The Father and two brothers were obviously the main security judging by their equipment. I was betting on the Mother being the Enchanter and the daughter the apprentice, but we will see tomorrow. I decided I would bring Modrica to the meeting to give the appearance of security. Hopefully, this would raise me from a random lady in the street to a moderately successful merchant. I told Modrica to bring the Spiritually enhanced gloves with the knuckle studs, and we would also see what can be added to that. I knew Catkin was not a physically big race. The tallest of them came up to my shoulders, and that was one of the brothers, the mated one, I thought. It barely looked like he came to Modrica¡¯s waist. It was probably her chest, but all the others were shorter. I am not sure bringing Modrica was such a good idea, as the Pride was definitely nervous. I was greeted by the Grandfather flanked by the Father and Brother mentioned above. ¡°Come,¡± said the Grandfather, ¡°We always start with a cup of tea. Come sit by the fire.¡± We moved to the fire, and we were introduced to them. T¨¡tt¨¡ was the Grandfather''s name, but he was quite happy to be called Grandfather. His son was App¨¡, who was mated to Am''m¨¡, and they had three children, Mutalil, who was mated to Anni and had three cubs. Mayakku was the daughter and the enchanter, according to my Spatial Awareness. The other son was Ilaiya, who wasn¡¯t there. I was astonished that the daughter was the Enchanter and the Mother the apprentice. They must have invested very heavily in her training. We exchanged chit-chat, and I guess this was their way of assessing potential clients. Modrica just sat with her cup of tea, letting me carry the conversation. Nothing unusual there. Eventually, they decided it was time for business, and I was invited into the Enchanters wagon with Mayakku and Am''m¨¡. They waited for me to take the lead. ¡°I am looking for some specialised Enchanting, and I am not even sure if it is possible. Have you worked with Blacksteel before?¡± I started. ¡°I had the opportunity to enchant a Blacksteel broach when I was still training,¡± Mayakku replied. I reached into my boot sheath and pulled out the Blacksteel Stiletto knife I acquired from the old Crime Lord, who was an idiot. Their eyes went wide, and they both took a sharp breath in surprise. Like Mother, like daughter, I suppose. ¡°I am looking to enchant this. What can you offer in enchantments?¡± I asked. ¡°May I?¡± Mayakku asked to pick up the knife. I nodded, and she spent some time examining it. I am assuming she had some specialised senses in play. ¡°I could put three, maybe four enchantments on here, depending on the complexity of the enchantment. Because we would be enchanting directly onto the Blacksteel, no additional Spiritual material is required. The Enchantments will also last a lot longer than usual. Basic durability and sharpness enchantments will probably last over a year before they need renewing. The energy in the enchantment will need to be refreshed regularly.¡± ¡°I can do Resistance Enchantments to increase your resistance to Heat or Cold etc. The energy will deplete depending on how often it is used. It would take me two or three sessions to fully charge an enchantment on Blacksteel so that the energy will last four or five times longer than on an ordinary knife.¡± ¡°Skill Enchantments?¡± I asked, ¡°I can do the common Skills. I can give a bonus to Small Blades. Stealth and Camouflage are the other two most requested for knives of this sort.¡± she replied. ¡°What about Natural Enchantments?¡± I asked. ¡°Being Catkin, I can add Toughened Hide, Quick Strike, Speed Boost, Ambush and Night Vision. Be aware that the less compatible you are to the skill, the more energy it will take from the enchantment.¡± Night Vision was the natural Beastkin version of Darksight. It wasn¡¯t as good as Darksight as it relied on enhancing the existing light and was useless in the pitch dark. However, it was a good secondary option for those who didn¡¯t have Darksight, and it could be enchanted. ¡°Can you enchant a Return to Sheath option?¡± I asked, ¡°No, that is a Master Level Enchantment.¡± ¡°What about Self Repair?¡± ¡°No. Not on Blacksteel. I can enchant it on ordinary materials.¡± was the reply. ¡°Now we come to the tricky part,¡± I said, getting some puzzled looks. ¡°Wait a moment. I need to check on Modrica.¡± My Spatial Awareness had picked up something I had to verify with my own eyes. I got up, opened the wagon door, and stepped out where I could see. Modrica was still seated by the fire, but she had three Catkin kittens climbing all over her. She was smiling and playing with them. Their mother Anni was there as well as Appa and Mutalil, the father. When Modrica saw me looking, she gave me a sheepish grin. One of the kittens lost grip on her hair and rolled off her shoulder toward the fire, but Modrica caught them and tickled their stomach before letting them go, and they scrambled back up toward their siblings. I gave Modrica a big grin and a thumbs up before going back into the trailer. Mayakku and Am''m¨¡ had followed me and seen it. When I sat down again, I said, ¡°I very much hope we can come to a longer-term agreement. That is the first time I have seen Modrica playing with children and having fun. I would do much for my Sister.¡± ¡°Your sister? She is not your employee?¡± Am''m¨¡ asked. ¡°Modrica is nobody''s employee, although we do pretend that is the case, sometimes, to give a certain impression.¡± I replied. ¡°Like today?¡± I nodded. ¡°All impressions were re-made when you presented the knife.¡± Am''m¨¡ said. I smiled. They hadn¡¯t seen anything yet. ¡°As I said, now we come to the difficult part.¡± They both looked bewildered. Until now, we¡¯ve had a normal Enchanter to Client conversation. All be it over an unusual item. ¡°I want to talk about Spiritual Energy and to empower and recharge enchantments.¡± They looked confused as this was an exclusive Enchanter''s ability and a major source of repeat business. ¡°I have a Skill that can transfer Spiritual Energy, and I want to know if you can enchant something that I can refill.¡± I didn¡¯t like talking about Nyx as a skill, but I didn''t want to freak them out. Yet. ¡°That is most unusual,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°Enchanters often change the Receive Energy rune to restrict who can recharge an enchantment. Good for repeat business, you know.¡± she said with a smile. ¡°A standard rune will allow any enchanter with the skill to recharge it. To be able to charge it with a different skill¡­. ¡° her voice drifted off as she got lost in thought. ¡°May I see the Skill in action? '''' she asked, reaching behind her for a short wooden plank marked with runes. ¡°This is a simple rune sequence for training purposes. It has the basic Receive Energy rune,¡± she pointed to one end of the board. ¡°I don¡¯t expect it to be able to accept your energy, but it will enable me to see the differences.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I put my hand over the end of the wood, and the shadow darkened as Nyx made her presence felt. I had Nyx transfer a small amount of energy to the rune. As expected, it dissipated into the surrounding area. ¡°Wait!¡± Mayakku said, looking intently at my hand and the rune. ¡°Do it again, please.¡± I had Nyx repeat the transfer, and this time whatever sensing Skills Mayakku had in play, and I suspect she had all of them working, she saw what was happening. She suddenly jerked back to the wagon wall as far as she could from me. Her hand trembled a bit, as did her voice when she said breathlessly, ¡°That¡¯s not a Skill.¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± I stated. Am''m¨¡ was looking very confused at us, particularly her daughter. I slipped two gold coins on the table and said, ¡°This is why I am paying for discretion.¡± I did put a bit of Intimidating Aura behind the words. I waited for a few minutes for Mayakku to calm down. ¡°The question is, can you help me, or rather, as this is outside of any enchanter''s expertise, are you willing to work with us to help make it happen?¡± I asked. She took some time to think. I saw her gather up her courage, ¡°Can I see it one more time?¡± she asked. That was a good sign. I had Nyx do it again. She didn¡¯t get so close this time but was observing very carefully. Am''m¨¡ was, too, but she obviously didn¡¯t have the skills or levels to sense this. ¡°It is like raw Spiritual Energy. Not refined through the Enchanter¡¯s Skill.¡± Her eyes widened. ¡°It is like energy from a Monster Core or some Gems.¡± ¡°Can you enchant using Monster Cores or Gems?¡± I asked. She shook her head, ¡°I would need the Core Enchanting or Gem Enchanting Specialisations, and I have never had the opportunity.¡± Those Skills are usually locked up tight in the Government and Trading houses. I doubted I would find such an enchanter. Still, we have a direction in which to go. I had a vision of a skill like Toughened Hide on the knife that Nyx empowered to be constantly on, just like having the original Skill. The enchantment would need to be renewed yearly, but that was a small thing. Nyx is my potential energy source. It is going to take some work to upskill Mayakku. The questions are, do I think she has the potential and is she willing to work with Nyx? Her mind is puzzling over the problem, and she did identify the first issue, being the type of energy. I am sure she realises cracking this will boost her levels significantly, but it may take some time. It also looks like I might need to find some Monster Cores to help her learn Core Enchanting. That will be expensive unless I can convince Wiremu to go Monster Hunting. I will need a better return on my investment than just the potential of continuous enchantments. First, let¡¯s find out if she is willing to work with Nyx, and then we can negotiate a deal. ¡°You have some good senses and a sharp curious mind.¡± I said to Mayakku. ¡°Is this something you want to work on?¡± Mayakku looked up at me, eyes shining. Her mind was definitely engaged with the issue. ¡°Yes, I would love to.¡± her eyes flickered to Am''m¨¡. ¡°So you know it isn''t me who you need to work with. It is Nyx, a Shadow Elemental.¡± I said. Am''m¨¡¡¯s eyes grew wide as she came to understand what was happening. ¡°What I think I should do is leave you to discuss it. I would ask that you not discuss it outside this wagon.¡± I put the stiletto back in the boot sheath. ¡°I am a co-owner of a small trading company called Elemental Traders,¡± At least they got the connection with the name. ¡°We can also broker some materials for you at a reasonable fee if you give me a list.¡± Their eyes lit up. ¡°If you take on this project, it could take months to solve, and Elemental Traders are going on the road after the auction. If you want in, we will need a long-term agreement.¡± I rose to my feet. I gave them the address of our cottage as that was the only office I had. I stepped out of the wagon as a commotion was starting. It was the four thugs from the market. Grandfather T¨¡tt¨¡, App¨¡, Mutalil and the brother I had not met were facing them. He looked very young, still an early teen and not yet gained his first Class. His hair was standing up on the back of his neck, and he barely had control over his rage. ¡°We caught the cub sniffing around, old man. That''s not good for his health.¡± The speaker was a very stocky dwarf, obviously leading the other two humans and one dwarf. The lead dwarf and a human both had a Brawler Class, which is quite a versatile fighting Class and quite easy to pick up. The other two had a Guard Class, which was a good class for thugs and Guards. While there, I noted that Grandfather T¨¡tt¨¡ had a Merchant Class with a Spiritual Goods specialisation. It would be good to have him work for me. App¨¡ and Mutalil had both specialised their Guard Classes into Sentry, their main role in the Pride. The young one who had not yet gotten a class was undoubtedly being trained. ¡°We didn¡¯t see you today at the market, old man. We kept your spot for you, but you never came. We will need compensation for keeping the spot open for you, though.¡± the dwarf said. ¡°You should ask before going to the effort of keeping a spot as it was unnecessary, and we don¡¯t pay for unnecessary things.¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ said. That wiped the smile from the dwarf, ¡°Everybody pays, old man. We wouldn¡¯t want something nasty to happen to the cubs, now would we?¡± I sensed Am''m¨¡ grab the gold coins I had left on the table and move toward the group, but I put up a hand to stop her. Modrica was getting involved. Modrica stood up and moved up beside the Catkin. She loomed over everybody. I saw the Thugs reassessing their position. She rumbled two words, ¡°No pay.¡± ¡°Who the hell are you? Everybody pays. You don¡¯t mess with our organisation. We will roll over you without¡­.¡± The dwarf had to stop as he suddenly had no breath. Modrica had punched him in the gut, followed by a cross to the jaw that threw him sideways, and he was out cold. She was obviously pulling her punches and had taken off her gloves. ¡°I mess with whoever I like.¡± She declared, looking at the three still standing. ¡°You tell your boss Modrica the Merciless says no.¡± I heard a mutter from the back of the Thugs, ¡°Shit, the fighting pit legend.¡± They were already backing off, one of them grabbing the collar of the unconscious dwarf and dragging him. App¨¡ and Mutalil were carefully watching the thugs retreat, T¨¡tt¨¡ was carefully reassessing Modrica, and the teenager looked at her with something like worship. I moved forward as the thugs disappeared down a side street. ¡°I don¡¯t think you will have further trouble, but if you would like to relocate, I can rent you some space at the back of our cottage. It will be tight as an entertainment troupe is currently renting two wagons, but it is probably better than here.¡± I made the offer. Yes, I had ulterior motives. ¡°What is the rental?¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ asked. ¡°I want to hire you as a purchasing agent till the end of the auction. The rental can come out of your cut.¡± I offered. His specialisation was worth it. ¡°You will need to discuss it.¡± I nodded toward Mayakku. ¡°I will leave you to do so. Modrica will probably hang around for a bit.¡± She nodded at that. I took my leave. Their wagons rolled up to the cottage before dusk. We shuffled things around to make room for them. T¨¡tt¨¡ would start work for me the next day. Wiremu wasn¡¯t around, but I ensured they were introduced to T¨¡oke, so there was no misunderstanding. Zabavno made them welcome and eased them through the shock of meeting T¨¡oke by letting them know he was partial to eggs. That bloody snake is living a charmed life. That weekend I finished performing with the Comedic Rhythm at one of the Gambling houses. Yes, they finally chose a name. I wasn¡¯t that fussed about it, but it summed up their two main strengths, comedy and song. I saw Nijel and Axill waiting for me as we exited the house. Some of their goons were around in the shadows. Zabavno sensed the tense atmosphere. Actually, I think the elves might have been more sensitive there. Nijel was dressed in a full Shadow Lord outfit and Axill in full bodyguard mode. I figured the show was for the goon squad watchers. I told Zabavno and the group to wait by the door and went forward to meet them. I think they thought I was crazy. I made sure my body language was full of respect. If this was a show, we needed to play our part. ¡°Greetings to the esteemed Shadow Lord.¡± I tried not to let any sarcasm through, but it was hard. ¡°You have been interfering in our business.¡± Nijel replied. ¡°You are referring to the Enchanter?¡± I asked. He nodded. ¡°You would never get them to work for you through debt and pressure. They had too much pride and would have fled and we both would have lost them.¡± ¡°Really?¡± he said in partial disbelief. ¡°How did you get them onside then?¡± ¡°Curiosity. Give them a puzzle and a way to work for what they get.¡± I had gotten a level in Sentient Lore when I worked that out. I had my Adjuster and Coax skills working flat out here. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what, we are here till after the Auction, so about another three weeks. I will broker some discounted enchanting for you in that time.¡± ¡°Material costs only.¡± ¡°First item, Material costs only, then 10% discount on retail.¡± ¡°50¡± ¡°Material Costs and 15% on enchanting costs. And that can be a standard discount for the Shadow Guild.¡± He thought about it for a moment, then nodded, and we shook on it. He then pulled out a list and handed it to me, and Axill produced a small sack of items. ¡°That is probably three weeks of full-time enchanting right there,¡± I said. They just smiled. ¡°I will let you know when the first items are ready using our old communication system and the cost. Payment on pickup.¡± We shook again and parted ways. I went back to Zabavno and got some looks. I guess they weren¡¯t used to watching street deals with Crime Bosses. I guess I was also carrying a sack of stolen goods. 74. Fishing: Wiremu 74. Fishing: Wiremu I returned from my fishing trip to find our backyard chock full of wagons with people everywhere. I almost turned around and went back to the fishing hole. I had bought enough fish so that I could smoke some for later, but there was nowhere left for me to set up a smokehouse. We chucked them on the fire, and I had a meal with the Catkin and got to know them. T¨¡oke came and joined us. They didn¡¯t seem too wary of him. Modrica came out shortly after as well and was attacked by the kittens. She didn¡¯t seem to mind, and it was highly unusual for people to be that comfortable around her. I knew that Tabitha and the Entertainers were performing at one of the Gaming Houses tonight. There was a young teenager there, Ilaiya, who didn¡¯t have his first Class yet. He seemed to have a bit of hero worship going on with Modrica. His father and brother were training him to be a Guard like they were, but he was struggling and didn¡¯t appear to be very engaged in the training. I invited him to go fishing for a few days next week, and he seemed keen enough. I told him to tell his father we would work on some basic survival skills, but the main one would be fishing. He seemed quite excited, and I had another excuse to go fishing. The next morning there wasn¡¯t anywhere left in the yard to spar so we moved out into the street. It was predawn, and there was almost no traffic. All the Catkin adults joined us, including the Enchanter. Ilaiya had already gotten the Skill Unarmed Combat, but the Catkin style was very different from anything I had seen. They had claws and teeth, and they made good use of them. Sparing against App¨¡ was a learning experience for me. After the first round, I engaged Snakeskin to help limit the scratches. I was interested in how I could get claws because if I could make scratches, then I could also Imbue Venom. Maybe small Granite Spikes on my knuckles? I might try to experiment. I am not often unarmed, so my Unarmed Combat Skill is mostly there to support me in a general melee. I spent the day maintaining my equipment and catching up with T¨¡oke and Tabitha. Tabitha wanted the Catkin to join our little convoy, but they were wary of committing. She thought it was great I was taking the kid fishing and strongly hinted at me taking him on as an apprentice Hunter. When I reminded her it took me three years to learn enough to get the Class. She just became more enthusiastic. I know with the Tutor Skill that should reduce the time and I suspected the Catkin had some natural ability in the area, possibly speeding it up again. It was still at least a two-year commitment I wasn''t sure I wanted to make, and then there is the continued training after getting the Class. All the training in Lore etc. that I missed out on. I am sure the kid would be enthusiastic and the family ecstatic if I offered because once the kid had the class he could level it and pass it on to the next generation, which is what they seem to do. It would be a major boon for them but a big commitment for me. The weather was turning bad so we delayed the fishing trip for a few days and Skavt was OK for us to all join them for sparring at the Guild Training ground. I think she wanted to learn how to spar against Catkin as well. Never waste an opportunity to learn. The kid, Ilaiya had stars in his eyes training with all these successful mercenaries. I think his father and older brother were also elevated in his eyes, as they were holding their own in the training and trading tips. One of the things to watch out for in insular family groups is losing how you fit in the wider world and not having the same chances to learn and grow. The Catkin seemed to be managing it OK and the teenager is having his eyes opened. I had been trying to create Granite Dust, quite unsuccessfully. I wasn¡¯t sure what I was doing wrong. From my time in the quarry, I knew it was something that got into your eyes and nose and was a pain. But I didn¡¯t seem to be able to create it. My attributes were enough to now get Petrification. It was a very slow skill to use, so unsuitable for combat. I used it on each of my spear shafts, slowly Petrifying the core of the wood. It took me all night to do one shaft, but the result was a much stronger spear. Wood on the outside layer and petrified rock on the inside was a good mix. I tried the same with his spearheads, but the process of Petrification was to convert organic material into stone and my stone spearheads had no organic material. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. What I did discover was that if I put three points into my Mental Strength all my Spiritual attributes were enough to give me the Skill Granite Wall. The Skill was very energy intensive, even for a small wall. The size and shape could vary, but it sucked a lot of energy. If I had this Skill in the Goblin tunnels, I could have just walled off the tunnel. Identify told me I wasn¡¯t far from getting Granite Manipulation. Some more Spiritual Agility and Spiritual Perception, and I would be there. I was a bit envious of Kelda having Fire Manipulation so easily. I guess Granite was much harder to Manipulate than Fire. It sort of made sense. I had spent a lot of time working on Skills for my Hunter and Granite affinity but seemed to be neglecting some of my other Classes. On the upcoming fishing trip, I was planning to take some tools with me and do some Prospecting with my Treasure Sense. I felt I was neglecting my Spy Class. I had barely used the Veneer Skill since getting it. My Manipulate Status Skill was stuck at the top of the Apprentice Level and needed the push to Journeyman. My Truth Sensing Skill hadn''t moved for a long while. My Identify Skill indicated that many better Spy-related skills required Sentient Lore at various levels. I was heading back into the Empire, so I would need to train all these skills to a much higher level. Especially Manipulate Status and a stronger Disguise Skill. Maybe I should follow Tabatha¡¯s example and start gambling. But first and most importantly, fishing. I told Ilaiya that we would be leaving at dawn tomorrow. The young lad was very keen, although he had not been promised anything beyond a fishing trip and some survival skills. T¨¡oke would come with us. There were still a lot of Goblins and a few Shamans roaming around. I was confident I could escape anything I couldn¡¯t handle, but not if I was trying to protect the kid as well. Hence T¨¡oke was coming as a backup. T¨¡oke was also keen to do some hunting. We left at Dawn. I rode Rocky, and Ilaiya was happy to trot alongside. I had my bow, three upgraded spears, and my usual knives, darts and fishing pole. Ilaiya had two knives and a small backpack. The fishing hole was about a six-hour ride, but I figured we would take all day to get there, and I would teach the kid some stuff on the way. After about 2 hours, we were out of sight of the city and stopped for a drink, and I started teaching a basic Stealth Skill. I showed him some basic Skills and then rode Rocky at a slow walk while Ilaiya practised the skills, trying to stay out of sight. I punished his carelessness with a thrown rock that left a bruise and then yelled additional pointers when I thought he should have done better. I obviously knew where he was at all times with Hearing Aid, but he didn¡¯t know that. I didn¡¯t expect him to get the skill that day. It had taken me over a week of constant practice to get the Stealth Skill when I was his age. He was doing better than I did on my first day. Ilaiya was well-versed in setting up a camp. We went over gear maintenance before we retired for the night. The next morning we started with sparring. Ilaiya already had Unarmed Combat from training with his family. I am not sure how Catkin can ever be considered to be unarmed, but anyway, we sparred, and I showed him a couple of things to practice. I then taught him the Small Blade drills I was taught and had him practice. After breakfast, we went through some signals for several emergency situations, both if he got in trouble or if I thought there was something we couldn¡¯t handle. The wilderness was not a safe place. I then showed him how to make some simple snare traps, and we looked for good places to set them up. It was mid-morning before I settled down to fish while Ilaiya practised sneaking up on things and went about his exploring on his own. I was a bit envious when I saw him downstream suddenly strike into the water and pull out a fish on the end of his claws. We checked the traps in the late afternoon, and I was surprised one of them had caught a rabbit. We took it back to camp, and I talked him through skinning it. I think he was worse than I was when I started. The pelt was unusable, so I then talked him through butchering it, and he wanted to cook it for dinner, so I let him. He seemed happy eating a half-burnt and half-raw rabbit. I had fish. T¨¡oke had also found something to eat and curled up by the fire, digesting whatever was in his extended stomach. 75. Fighting: Wiremu 75. Fighting: Wiremu After the morning routine, we decided to explore further and perhaps see if there was anything easy to hunt. I loaded Rocky with the possibility of not returning, as we might find a better place to fish. I was riding Rocky on a slow walk with Ilaiya practising his Stealth and T¨¡oke riding on my shoulder. With all my senses active, I was alert for danger as Goblins were a problem. After the first two hours, I felt something wasn¡¯t right. I had my three spears on my back, but I got my bow from its holder on Rocky and kept it in my hand. I gave Ilaiya the beware signal, and T¨¡oke became more active. Half an hour later Hearing Aid heard something strange, and I didn¡¯t mess around, giving Ilaiya the emergency ¡°Get to Jern ASAP¡± signal, and I went to kick Rocky into a gallop when several things happened. First, a loud Screech sounded above and behind me, stunning me for a second. A large bird landed on T¨¡oke, grabbing him with its claws and beak, and took off again. As it left, I could see it was a hawk. It had T¨¡oke¡¯s body in its claws, and its beak had clamped just behind his head so he couldn¡¯t move as it rose back up into the sky. Hearing Aid had been overloaded momentarily by the Screech, but I could hear heavy thudding footsteps coming in fast from the right, so I dove off Rocky to the left, which meant the arrow coming for my back only pierced my shoulder. It must have been some sort of power shot as it went straight through the Troll hide armour and lodged against my shoulder bone. If I didn¡¯t have Granite Bones, it would have made a mess of the bone and carried right on going. I think it probably chipped the Granite Bones. I fell and rolled, snapping the shaft of the arrow off, but it left the head still lodged against my bone. Suddenly molten rock was spraying everywhere. Rocky protected me from the worst of it, but there was no way he survived. Lava was still going everywhere and burning holes in my armour and skin. The string on the bow was melted, and while I wanted to return fire to the Archer, the arrow in my shoulder and broken string made that impossible, so I dropped the bow and grabbed a spear. I kept rolling all the while to make it difficult for both attackers. The thumping footsteps were a Humanoid-shaped form of molten lava. This attack was the surviving members of the empire''s bounty hunting team that had clashed with the Mothers Tusks in Hrothgar. I assume the Hawk had found us, but this was no time to ponder. The Lava mountain had a huge rock club he tried to smash me with. I rolled out of the way, but when it hit the ground, it splashed lava everywhere, and more of my armour was burned and shredded. I engaged Snakeskin to stop my flesh from burning. This was a temporary measure as Snakeskin was weak to heat. I launched my spear at him in a throw with Power Strike, and it pierced the lava armour, and he roared at me. He aimed a hand at me as I created a large Granite Shield, and lava spewed out at me. I caught most of it on the shield, but it was melting the Granite. I was still moving out of the main flow when I heard the hawk screech again, and Farsight caught T¨¡oke falling or being dropped from a height. I was rolling again and narrowly escaped two of the three arrows from a Triple Shot from the Archer. The arrow that caught me in the thigh was a Spiritual Arrow, but there didn¡¯t seem to be anything added like my Venom Arrow, fortunately. It still limited my movement. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. This lava dude was expending huge amounts of energy. He seemed to be the type to charge in with overwhelming force. I wasn¡¯t sure I could last till he ran out of energy. My armour was in tatters, and I had multiple burns and two arrows in me. I created a smaller Granite Shield and grabbed another spear. I heard the Hawk cry again and saw in my peripheral vision that it was diving in an attack. My Bond with T¨¡oke indicated he had multiple broken bones, but he was still in the fight. If I could get Venom past the lava armour, that would help, but the armour was very thick, and my darts wouldn¡¯t do it, and even with my spear and knives, I thought the lava would burn away the venom before it got through. I tried to spike the giant, but the Lava dude must have had some sort of rock-sensing ability as he moved away from the spikes, and I had the sudden urge to roll, and where I was standing was turned into a pool of lava. I caught sight of the Archer repositioning as she jumped from tree to tree to get in a good position. She had some sort of feather covering and a glide ability, based on what I saw. She was obviously bonded to the hawk. Now that I had seen her, I needed to try to keep track of her. She was hopefully vulnerable to the darts if I could get them past the feathers. The lava man was coming at me again with his club. I moved to put Lava man between the Archer and me and brought my shield up to deflect the club. It was a powered strike, so I was happy I just deflected, but it seemed to spray more lava than normal, and I had to suffer the lava hitting me while I retaliated with three Quick Strikes with my spear. They didn¡¯t get through the thick lava armour, but Lavaman moved away from the strikes giving me a chance to dive into the woods nearby and run deeper. This would complicate things for both the Archer and Lavaman, I hoped. Lavaman was angrily pounding after me. If I didn¡¯t have the arrow wound in my leg, I could have easily outrun Lavaman. I doubted that was true for the Archer. I ducked behind a tree, and two of the three arrows of a Triple Shot thudded into the tree, and the third passed behind me. I had lost track of the Archer, so now Hearing Aid picked her up again. Lavaman was coming as fast as he could, obviously not worried about burning the forest down. Archer was circling behind me, and I was running out of options. T¨¡oke was still locked in a fight with the Hawk and had several claw wounds as the Hawk kept dive-bombing him while he tried to catch it. The Hawk¡¯s feathers weren¡¯t immune to T¨¡oke¡¯s Venom Spit. It was becoming more erratic in its flight. I needed to get the Archer on the ground because when T¨¡oke turned the tables on the Hawk, I needed to be able to stop the Archer from going to help. I threw three darts in quick succession toward the Archer''s position. None of them hit, but it made the Archer more careful, especially about long jumps. I kept moving to stay out of Lavaman''s reach, and I could tell Lavaman was getting more frustrated. He must be using a lot of energy to keep that armour up. I kept peppering the Archer with darts. I was pretty sure one even hit them. The Archer was returning fire, but generally not with Skills, obviously conserving energy. I fought a moving fight while I waited for T¨¡oke to down the Hawk. Then it happened. T¨¡oke got his fangs into the Hawk, and his body wrapped around it, and he triggered Grow, bringing the Hawk to the ground. The Archer suddenly stopped, obviously getting feedback through her bond, and I stepped out from behind the tree and threw the spear with everything I had. Even then, the Archer moved, but the spear pinned her leg to the tree crushing bones and holding her in place. Unfortunately, this exposed me to Lavaman, and lava hit me from the side, burning everything. When I moved out of the flow, the lava club caught me on the side of the head, and I went flying, and everything went black. 76. Pain: Wiremu 76. Pain: Wiremu When I came swam back to consciousness, I was in a world of pain. Everything hurt. I was naked, and my hands were bound behind me in metal cuffs. From the burns, I thought the cuffs had been melted into place. Both my legs had been broken, deliberately, to restrict my movement. We were in a cave, but my cuffs were fixed to a metal plate which I was also lying on. The plate was on a wooden cart so I couldn¡¯t touch the rock. My pain resistance had jumped 10 points, but I still didn¡¯t think it was helping. My heat and fire resistance had also jumped up. The Skills, Granite Shield, Spear and Power Strike have gone to Journeyman level. Regeneration was working hard and was probably the only reason I was awake now. They had removed the arrowhead from my shoulder, but nothing had been bandaged and I had lost a lot of blood. I reached out through my bond, and T¨¡oke was healing, and he was heading toward me, but he was a long way away. To put it in human terms, T¨¡oke was pissed. He was still in his large form as he could move faster that way, although it slowed his healing. Both his Growth and Regeneration had moved to the Apprentice levels, and he was well over three metres long now. About a half hour later, I finally felt up to raising my head to check my surroundings, hopefully without being seen. It wasn¡¯t a deep cave, and I was at the rear of it. The Archer was at the cave entrance, and she had her leg bandaged and splintered, and from the healing rate, she had taken a potion or something. She was just holding herself, rocking gently and continually weeping. It was a sorrowful sight as she mourned the loss of her bond. I didn¡¯t feel much compassion as this was what they wanted to do to me. There was a large man there also tending a small cooking fire. He didn¡¯t have any armour on, just a simple shirt and trousers. I guessed this was Lavaman outside his armour. This was confirmed when he reached into the fire to lift the pot out with his bare hands. His Heat and Fire Resistance must be through the roof. He didn¡¯t seem to have any weapons except a belt knife. On closer inspection, it was one of the knives that I had purchased from the S?lv Emporium. I carefully lay my head back down before I was seen. The world had also started spinning. I needed to wait for an opportunity, or preferably, rescue. Hopefully, Ilaiya had gotten back to Jern and raised the alarm. I wasn¡¯t going to put all my hopes in that, as I knew from when I was that age I had visions of being the rescuing hero. I really hoped Ilaiya was more sensible than I was. This kidnapping had been thought through. I obviously wasn¡¯t the first live capture they had done, and with an affinity too. The metal plate I was chained to and lying on would stop Granite Spike from penetrating through to the floor. I was pretty sure I could slip the cuffs with the help of Snakeskin oil, but my broken legs were a big problem. It would take Regeneration several days to fix them, assuming they wouldn¡¯t periodically re-break them. They probably would. I would need to wait for an opportunity. At least they seem to want to keep me alive. I heard Lavaman say, ¡°There is some stew ready. The kid''s snake is still out there and probably hunting us. I can smash it easy enough, but I need your Hawk Eyes to find it for me.¡± There was a sniff, and the Archer said, ¡°What about the Catkin that got away?¡± ¡°We will need to keep moving fast to stay ahead of any pursuit. We will move out as soon as we have eaten, and maybe an hour for me to regain some energy. If you guide me through the night, I can generate enough light to follow. That kid almost ran me right out of energy.¡± Lavaman replied. Maybe I made a mistake trying to take out the Archer. If I had kept the dodge game going, I might have had a shot at Lavaman. It was a pretty dangerous dodge game. Anyway, I needed to stop her from going to the aid of the hawk. Even if she didn¡¯t get there in time to save the hawk, she would have been able to take out T¨¡oke while he was weak. I was just sorry I missed the kill shot with the spear. ¡°We won¡¯t be moving that fast. Even with the high-grade potion, it will be a few days before my bones knit back together, assuming nothing breaks it again. This job has been cursed from the beginning,¡± the Archer said. ¡°Eyes on the prize. We have the prize, now all we need to do is to deliver it relatively undamaged, and Smythe will come through for us. If he dies, we only get the coin.¡± Lavaman said. ¡°At this stage, the coin is enough for me. I am tempted to kill him and be done with it all.¡± The Archer sounded bitter and fed up. ¡°That is the last resort. I will let you break a few bones when he comes around before we knock him out again. Just don¡¯t kill him or permanently maim him,¡± Lavaman said. ¡°Make sure you use a club or something as well. If he''s anything like me, he will have some Skills that can trigger on touch.¡± Damn, I was hoping to Spike her. This was going to get tricky. One arm was only semi-operable with the arrow wound in the shoulder, both legs were broken, and I was chained to a metal plate. In a cart. I assumed the lava man would probably pull the cart as there was no sign of a beast around. What would happen if I disabled the cart? I could Spike the wheels. I really didn¡¯t want to be knocked out again, as there was a good chance I would never wake up. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I tried to focus on making a stone knife, but concentrating was hard. I think I might have to add a concussion to my list of injuries. I failed to make the knife. I tried to make a dart and was successful, but that was the limit of my abilities without a rest. I triggered Snakeskin on the hand and forearm of my only good hand and started oiling it to work it loose. It wasn¡¯t going to be easy. I only had a maximum of an hour before they checked on me and started breaking things. Before then, I needed a hand loose, some weapons and to be able to sit up without the world spinning on me. It took me fifteen minutes to work for my hand to come loose without wrecking anything. I did lose a lot of scales. I could lift my head without the world spinning, but I didn''t want to do anything that might alert them to my being awake. I was really wanting Regeneration to get to Journeyman level so I could tell it to focus on one thing, like my head, instead of spreading its effect over all my injuries. I made a knife and a stone wrap for my thighs to try to stop the bones from moving. I was going to need every bit of energy to out last Lavaman. The longer I could delay, the more likely T¨¡oke would get here. On the other hand, the longer I delayed, the more energy Lavaman would have. Win or lose, this was going to hurt. They waited the full hour, obviously expecting me to be still unconscious. It was Lavaman that came to check on me, or maybe he came to start hauling the cart. He definitely had a strength-focused approach to his Attributes. He didn¡¯t have any armour on. It seems like he relied on his Lava Armour which was good for me if he was low on energy. The Archer seemed more mobile and perception based, so the spear I had put in her leg should significantly slow her down. Before Lavaman got too close, I reached over the side of the cart with my free hand and spiked the cart axle, which broke off the wheel and the cart tipped. Lavaman shouted to the Archer and started making his lava club. I rolled with the tip bringing the steel plate with me. Lucky for me, it wasn¡¯t attached to the cart, but even if it had been, I would have tried to bring the cart as well. This was using the shoulder with the arrow, so the pain was spiking. I rolled over onto my knees with the steel plate on my back and created a Granite Shield between my back and the steel plate for insulation. The Lava club hit the Steel plate and bounced. Curled tight on my knees, my back took the force. As I only had one hand on the chain, there was enough leeway to bring the arm by my side. I tried to distract Lavaman by creating a row of spikes now I was on the rock floor. He sensed them and stepped away, and sprayed me with lava. The plate kept the lava off me and I hoped he couldn¡¯t get the lava hot enough to melt the steel. The Granite Shield was only partially successful as an insulator, and my skin and back felt like they were being cooked. I created a Granite Wall to take the Lava for a while. Before it melted. This was a battle of endurance between Lavaman and me. My aim was to keep him so low on energy that he couldn''t create his Armour, which would make him vulnerable to Venom. Archer lady was coming armed with a knife. I couldn¡¯t see Lavaman, but Granite Sense and Hearing Aid could pinpoint the Archer limping forward. Lavaman yelled a warning to her, but it was too late. I Spiked her good foot, but I didn¡¯t just Spike it. I shaped the top of the Granite into a T so she couldn¡¯t just pull her foot off it. Hopefully, I pinned her to the ground to concentrate on Lavaman, who was changing tactics. Lavaman stopped spewing lava and power smashed what was left of my Granite wall with his club. I assume the club was like my spikes and only needed energy to create it and not to keep it going. He created a tiny lava pool under the Spike, holding the Archer and allowing her to roll away. Hopefully, she is too injured to rejoin the fight, although it did hear her drinking something, which I assume was a potion. I was a bit busy to do anything else to her as the floor beneath me was turning into lava. This was going to hurt. I created a Granite Shield under me, but I couldn¡¯t stay here. I pushed off the ground as hard as possible with my good arm, using a Power Strike to give it extra strength. That got me to my feet and moving back towards the Lavaman, without putting too much pressure on my broken bones. The bones still ground together as I stepped backwards toward Lavaman. I was trying to pin him with the steel plate, but my momentum was stopped after receiving a Power bash with his club. I think the club broke with the amount of lava that splashed off to the side, but my momentum was stopped, and I had to take a step forward, making my bones grind together and my leg collapse under me. At least I was outside of his lava pit. The club came at me again. Hopefully, he had to make a new club. This time it came at me from the side. The club broke against the edge of the metal plate and splashed lava all down my side on my bare skin, and it just burned. I triggered Snakeskin to stop the burning, even though it worsened the heat. Then I released Snakeskin as soon as I could. The momentum from the hit tilted the steel plate to the side, half-turning me, and I saw him for the first time. He hadn¡¯t created his lava armour, and I took the opportunity to throw my Venom Imbued knife at his centre of mass. It hit and went into the hilt, but he will have a very high Physical Constitution. I hoped I hit something critical like his lungs, but I couldn''t be sure as I was trying to get the steel back between us, causing my wounded shoulder to flare up. I was at the end of what I could do. The only damage I had done to him was a non-fatal stab wound; even Tabitha survived one of those. The club smashed against the steel and flattened me onto the floor. My mind was a haze of pain. I was battered, broken and burned. I could do no more and basically expected him to finish me off. I saw his foot enter my vision. Then his other food, but instead of kicking the steel off me to finish me, he seemed to stagger. I felt a pull on the Animal Bond for strength. T¨¡oke had arrived. I funnelled everything I had left through to him. I hoped I had kept Lavaman out of energy, or T¨¡oke wouldn¡¯t stand a chance. Then T¨¡oke was thrown onto the floor beside me. Shit, he was big now. He must be over four metres long. A lava club came down to smash T¨¡oke but crashed against his Granite Shield, and then T¨¡oke spat Venom and launched himself back at lava man with a Power Strike and Strength Boost. I saw Lavaman¡¯s feet stagger. I was getting tunnel vision and was going to lose consciousness soon. There must be something else I could do. While he struggled with T¨¡oke, I spiked his feet and capped them with a T so he couldn¡¯t pull off. He fell over. T¨¡oke was wrapped around his neck, with his fangs buried into his shoulder. Lavaman had flaming hands burning T¨¡oke as he tried to remove him from his neck. I think T¨¡oke had used Granite Bones to lock his joints, so he was not going anywhere. As Lavaman was on the ground, I put a Granite Spike into his chest before I finally passed out. 77. Pain Resistance: Wiremu 77. Pain Resistance: Wiremu I don¡¯t know how long it was before I awoke. The first thing I saw was Lavaman¡¯s dead eyes staring at me. I was still naked and trapped under the steel plate. T¨¡oke was coiled up by my head, still in his 4m long form. His body had burns and was missing scales, and I could see where his form wasn¡¯t consistent, indicating broken bones. He was alive, and I was alive. As soon as I tried to move, I wasn¡¯t sure I wanted to be alive. The pain was excruciating, and I was in a much worse state than T¨¡oke. I tried to move out from under the steel plate. One of my hands was still chained to it, so it wasn¡¯t easy, and I only partially succeeded. I managed to look around the cave before the world started spinning again. The Archer was lying near the entrance with a broken neck and fang marks. I think T¨¡oke finished her before he tackled Lavaman. She was the easy prey. There was no immediate danger, and even if there was, there was not much I could do about it. I lay back and rested in a haze of pain. I might have passed out again. When I woke up next, it was dark. I figured I needed to get my hand out from this chain, but I didn¡¯t have any energy. T¨¡oke was still in the same place, I assume, regenerating like me. Hearing Aid then picked up hoof beats from outside the cave. I still had a dart I hadn¡¯t used, and I palmed it. Then I heard voices and relaxed. The cavalry had arrived to save the day. I heard ?rt whisper, ¡°The trail ends there.¡± He has the highest tracking Skill of the Canine Queens, especially paired with Kryddor. Skavt whispered, ¡°Najprej, you and I first.¡± Tabitha said, ¡°Let me get closer, and I can sense what is in there.¡± I heard the heavy footsteps of Skavt and Najprej with shields walking closer. Then Tabitha spoke loudly, ¡°?rt, we need the first aid kit. Wiremu and T¨¡oke are alive but badly injured. Nobody else is alive in there.¡± And the footsteps became a run. Tabitha arrived first, and she and Skavt finished lifting the steel plate off me. Najprej pried open the cuff holding me to the plate, and then the pain lessened when ?rt arrived as his Aura adjusted our Pain Resistance. Maybe the Pain Resistance was working even though it didn¡¯t feel like it. He passed a potion to Tabitha, who fed it to me. ?rt fed one to T¨¡oke. I almost passed out again when ?rt splintered and strapped my broken legs. They strapped my shoulder and burns with some sort of paste, and T¨¡oke got the same treatment and was told not to change size till ?rt cleared him too. Ilaiya was there, hovering in the background. It turns out he is more responsible than I was at his age. He made it back to his father, who got word to Modrica, and she alerted everybody. Ilaiya had led them back to where we had been attacked, and ?rt and Kryddor took it from there. The devastation at the fight scene and Rocky¡¯s body worried them all. Ilaiya didn¡¯t come into the cave. I think the dead Archer at the entrance was the first dead sentient he had seen up close, and it shocked him. I doubt he will be allowed to go fishing with me again for a very long time. They had brought a stretcher and carried T¨¡oke and me to a temporary camp by a small stream. We settled in for the remainder of the night. I got given a blanket with Scavt saying this was so they didn¡¯t have to look at my ugly arse. Anyway, my beautiful arse is covered in bandages, as I had burns everywhere. In the morning, they looted the cave. They did not find much. The Archer had my bow, and Lavaman had one of my knives, but everything else, including their gear, seemed to be buried under piles of still scorching rock. I knew my armour had been burned off, but nothing was salvageable, including all the gear Rocky had been carrying. I was reduced to a bow and a knife. I am still amazed at the amount of energy Lava must have taken and how much energy Lavaman must have had. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. It took three long slow days of trekking to get back to Jern. After the first day, Tabitha took Ilaiya and went on ahead. When we got there, I was told I would be in bed for another week, or possibly two, for my bones to knit back together. T¨¡oke¡¯s bones were in a similar state, although they would heal sooner, in ?rt¡¯s opinion. ?rt borrowed caravan space from the Catkin to stay in, so he was around full-time. The Cathkin had two sleeping wagons, but usually, all slept together in one of them unless someone was sick or one of the ladies was in heat. ?rt started to teach me Sentient Lore while I was bedridden, and Tabitha brought me some of the simpler armour repair jobs from the Leatherworker to keep me occupied. Being stuck in bed was boring. I had a few skill increases in the fight, but it was mostly Regeneration, which hit Journeyman Level, and my Pain, Heat and Fire Resistances increased the most. All in all, very few gains and no rewards. Rocky was a big loss. I am not going to rush out and get another horse. I think I just need time to process things for a bit. T¨¡oke was pretty much up and about after the first week. My burns and shoulder were 90% healed, but Granite Bones will take longer. Auction week and my big payday came and went with me in bed, reading a book on the different sentient races. Tabitha said we made more than expected as the bidding was intense over much of the material. Once I get up, I must go shopping for more weapons and armour. Late the second week, I was up and moving gently around the cottage and yard. It will probably be another two weeks before I am back to sparring. I spend a lot of my time outside doing my leather repair and chatting with the Catkin and the entertainment troupe, Comedic Rhythm. The Catkin have signed with Elemental Traders until we get to Kirghiz City. The Canine Queens have also signed on as far as Kirghiz for now. Tabitha is planning to take the high road to the coastal city of Obalno and then the coastal road south to Kirghiz. It will keep us away from Hrothgar and the border with the Empire, and there are a good number of mid-sized towns along the base of the mountain range and one larger coastal city along with the associated villages. The head of Comedic Rhythm, Zabavno, is having second thoughts about joining us. He was keen for Tabbitha, or Skygge as he knows her, to join their show. Then he found out she was a deadly fighter with a ¡°Krvne Sestre¡± or Blood Sister relationship with Modrica, has ties to the criminal underworld, and owns Elemental Traders. Then he finds out high-level Imperial Bounty Hunters are hunting her brother. As an Orc, he knows the whole meaning of what it takes to become a Blood Brother or Sister. He has the regular Orc hatred for the empire, but he also saw the state I was brought back in. He is not a violent man. He has spent his life learning to entertain people, which is his passion. So you can see why he is having second thoughts. I have spent some time with him and his number two, the human Manus, to try and settle them down. I am not sure how successful I was. I know both Tabitha and I could use some entertainment in our lives. The last twelve months have been very intense. Tabbitha and T¨¡tt¨¡ are rushing around organising wagons, beasts and goods. So far, there are six wagons for general trading goods, one Healer Wagon, one for the Canine Queens and one for Tabitha and me. The Catkin have four wagons, but they are already set up and ready to go. If the Comedic Rhythm joins us, that will be two more wagons. Thirteen, maybe fifteen, wagons means thirty to thirty-five horses. We will need nine or ten wagon drivers and a specialist to look after the animals. Then Tabitha learns we will need an additional two wagons just for supplies for people and animals. The usual ratio is one guard per wagon, so we will need another eight to ten guards. We will have over forty people by the time she is done. I am not sure she knew what she was getting into. When I talked to Tabitha that night, she and T¨¡tt¨¡ had managed to hire an experienced Caravan Master who had been on the route before and had two experienced guards and a scout with her. She had several good references, including some time working for the S?lv Emporium. This has taken the load off Tabitha, and she can concentrate on being the Master merchant. I am planning to go shopping tomorrow for some gear. I am walking OK now, but Tabitha insisted Modrica accompany me as she was busy. I know I will never get armour as good as the Troll hide, but I have some ideas, depending on what I can find. I ended up with two sets of moderate-weight leather armour. To beef it up, I bought a chainmail vest and some steel greaves and cuisses that can strap onto the shins and thighs, respectively. Mayakku, the enchanter from the Catkin, has offered me an excellent price to add some basic enchantments to the armour, including a basic self-repair on the main sections. I am not sure about that after all the effort I went to learn Repair Leather Armour. I got some backup knives, spear shafts and T¨¡oke and I are ready to go. End of Book 2 Statuses Wiremu Hunter
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros MHunt Scout Total
Type Attribute Level 10 11 7 2 4 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 11 2 22 1 4 49 121.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 10 4 4 35
Perception (PP) 11 2 20 1 2 1 37
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 5 4 30 74.0
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 7 1 25
Perception (MP) 11 1 7 19
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 6 11 3 4 37 87.0
Agility (SA) 8 2 5 8 1 1 25
Perception (SP) 10 5 7 2 1 25
Totals 92 44 50 33 35 This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. 8 17 3 282
Free points 0 0 0 0 3 2
Resistances: Poison +18, Crushing +21, Cold +26, Pain +28, Heat +20, Fire +12 Skills: Novice: Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Monster Lore 4, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Detect Traps 4, Spiritual Trapping 4, Longbow 4, Veneer 1, Petrification 3, Granite Wall 4 Apprentice: Fishing 8, Sewing 8, Camouflage 9, Sense Treasure 6, Mineral Lore 5, Animal Lore 8, Manipulate Status 9, Butchering 7, Plant Lore 8, Weapon Repair 7, Repair Leather Armour 6, Cooking 7, Granite Quake 5, Dwarvish 8, Animal Care 6, Sense Spiritual 6, Venom Arrow 6, Truth Sensing 6, Tutor 7, Mapping 7, Map Making 5, Triple Shot 5 Journeyman: Hearing Aid 12, Hammer 13, Identify 11, Granite Spike 13, Trapping 10, Tracking 10, Bow 11, Skinning 10, Deceive 11, Granite Sense 11, Small Blades 13, Granite Bones 12, Hide Armourer 10, Throw Weapons 12, Quick Strike 10, Bond Senses 10, Orcish 11, Darksight 10, Far Sight 10, Imbue Venom 10, Unarmed Combat 10, Riding 10, Spear 11, Granite Shield 11, Power Strike 10, Snakeskin 10, Regeneration 10 Master: Stealth 16, Animal Bond 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 8 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +21, Cold +26, Heat +20, Fire +12, Pain +10 Skills: Apprentice: Power Strike 8, Granite Spike 5, Strength Boost 7, Venom Spit 6, Granite Shield 6, Growth 7, Regeneration 7 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 17 Affinity: Granite Tabitha Carter
Tabitha Carter Class Thief Merch SPred Rider Rack Total
Type Attribute Level 12 10 10 3 3 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 2 3 2 7 2 5 30 111.0
Agility (PA) 12 3 12 10 3 40
Perception (PP) 11 5 12 10 3 41
Mental Strength (MS) 8 3 4 6 1 3 25 93.0
Agility (MA) 12 2 1 10 2 1 4 32
Perception (MP) 10 1 12 10 3 36
Spiritual Strength (SS) 9 1 6 3 11 30 90.0
Agility (SA) 10 1 5 3 11 30
Perception (SP) 10 4 5 2 9 30
Totals 91 22 60 46 50 10 15 173
Free Points 0 4 0 2 0
Resistances: Cold +18, Poison +3, Pain +4 Skills Novice: Sewing 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Adjuster 4, Dual Wield 2, Performance 4, Orcish 4 Apprentice: Appraise 9, Lock Pick 9, Detect Traps 9, Detect Spiritual 8, Swords 8, Cooking 7, Animal Care 7, Blunt Weapon 9, Confuse Status 9, Detect Spiritual Traps 9, Disarm Spiritual Traps 8, Coax 8, Sleight of Hand 8, Elemental Bond 9, Mimic 9, Pickpocket 5, Rampage 7, Parry 6, Knockout Strike 8, Trapping 5, Sentient Lore 6, Lute 8, Journeyman: Riding 11, Identify 11, Distract 13, Dwarvish 12, Bargain 11, Engulfing Shadows 12, Shadows Embrace 13, Intimidating Aura 11, Shadow Manipulation 12, Small Blades 13, Spatial Awareness 11, Disarm Traps 10, Unarmed Combat 10, Master: Stealth 16, Darksight 15 Affinity: Shadow Bond: Nyx, Shadow Elemental Skills: Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry. Intermission: King Dad Intermission: King Dad This is the end of Book 2. Thank you for reading this far. If you have made it here you have obviously enjoyed it. Thank you also to those who have taken the time to note corrections and grammar issues. English is my first language, but that does not mean I am any good at it. I will go back and make edits to the earlier chapters to make a better read for those who follow. You will also be pleased to note I have invested in a grammar program. I started this story on a whim, I worked the bones of a system and started writing scenes to see how that would work out in different scenarios. Hence, Wiremu was born. Things have grown as the story progressed and the world became more complex. Book 1 was fully written before I posted the first chapter. Book 2 was about 60% done when I started posting it. You will be pleased to know Book 3 is well advanced, but there will still be a break before I start posting it. I like to know where things are heading before I start. These characters are hard to keep on track. One early review commented that this book was all about Skills. Skills are certainly a big part as I like figuring out how to solve a problem using current skills and figuring out new ways to use a Skill. Seriously, who doesn¡¯t want to figure out how to use Intimidating Aura to keep the mossies away? Do you want a bit of Dad advice? You also have a bunch of skills, so figure out different ways of using them. Your Skills aren¡¯t in a handy list like Wiremu or Tabitha, but they are certainly more real. Remember, if you decide to go sliding naked down rock faces, you deserve everything you get. Consequences are also real. There are spoilers ahead. But not too many, I hope. Up till now, we have only two perspectives on the world, Wiremu and Tabitha. Book 3 will introduce a third perspective. I find it quite challenging to limit the perspectives. I can¡¯t suddenly switch to the villain''s viewpoint and set up the trap for a random example¡­. All we can do is follow our heroes as they stumble into it. I still like it. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. One thing to remember about this world is that there is no fast travel. Although there is fast communication through a specialised type of Enchanting. It takes a month for a caravan to travel between Jern and Hrothgar. Jern to Obalno is 6 months for a caravan or 3 months for a fast courier. Our heroes take a year to go from Jern to Obalno, making significant stops in the towns in between. Obalno is taking all of Book 3, so they are not going to get to the Kirghiz Capital until Book 4. In Kirghiz I was planning to meet back up with Lieutenant Kelda and sort out her little problem, along with learning about Advanced Classes and some hints about Rituals and Monster Cores. Then we will head back to the Empire, probably from the Barbarian City States in the South. Yes, I have a map in my head. No, Wiremu is refusing to draw it for me. End of Spoilers I am looking for a bond for Lieutenant Kelda, so if you want to go to my discord you can let me know some suggestions. Fire related or fireproof. No, she is not getting a Phoenix or a dragon and that is final. Dad has spoken. Discord https://discord.gg/FgDA7Wy3ad I find it pretty amazing I have written 77 chapters and 160k words. It is even more impressive that you have read this far. I was a High School dropout (we call it College here in NZ). I barely passed English, as you can probably tell. I was bored at school, so I quit and got a job. I never intended to go to University. I did end up going to Uni later in life. I was 24 the first time and 32 the second. I am obviously a slow learner. More Dad advice for you, don¡¯t let school define you. Seriously, if I can write this, you can do something even more impressive. I am not going to tell you it is easy, though. It is hard work. When I went to Uni the second time, I had a wife and two kids. When I graduated, I had a wife and four kids. The same wife with two new kids. That was tough, especially as all four kids were in preschool. You have to knuckle down and do what is necessary if that is where you want to go. Dad advice is over. Take it or leave it as you please. I know my kids do. King Dad 78. Retirement: Ruku

78. Retirement: Ruku

I pulled my lanky frame up onto my small outrigger canoe. I had a fish on the end of my spear and a small sack with the rest of my catch tied to my belt. I emptied the sack into the flax basket on the canoe. I had recently taken up weaving to try and make them for myself and give me something to do in my retirement. It wasn¡¯t going well. I wrapped a lavalava around me. I usually swam only wearing a utility belt, in this case, only holding a knife and the sack. Nakedness wasn¡¯t taboo in the village, but I didn¡¯t want to upset anyone or give the village herbalist any excuse to chase me to become her fourth, or maybe fifth, husband. It seemed any mature human male would be in her sights. I avoid her now. Luckily, I had Regeneration in the Journeyman Levels, and that fixed most things. It did tend to leave a lot of scars, though. I picked this village to retire in because it was close to the coastal city of Obalno, which was a major trading port and shipyard for northern Kirghiz and a major base for the Kirghiz Navy. Mostly I picked it because it reminded me of the village I grew up in. That village was much further south, right on the border with the Barbarian City states, which were mostly Animalkin-controlled. That was where I bonded with Opo and awakened my Water affinity. Opo might have been an ordinary Bottlenose Dolphin, but our partnership spanned over thirty-five years. I had initially been trained in the Fishing Class as a boy in the village, and after I bonded with Opo, I specialised in the Diving class, which gave me the special Skill, Oxygen Efficiency. That was now at Master Level, and I could spend about an hour underwater performing normal activities. Because I was born on the Kirghiz side of the border and had an affinity, military service was compulsory. Opo and I joined the Royal Marines in the Kirghiz Navy, and I found I liked military life. The Navy initially trained me as a basic Warrior. I then specialised as a Commando getting the Skill, Enhance Attribute. This enabled me to choose an attribute to enhance at no cost. The amount of enhancement and time it was active depended on the level of the Skill. There was a high cost if you pushed it beyond the time limit, which I had done on occasion. We spent thirty years protecting the coastal shipping from monsters, pirates, various border skirmishes and one war. Opo was invaluable as a scout, and I specialised in Aquatic Infiltration. That basically meant I swam to the ship, town, or monster and spearheaded the attack. My first monster kill was manning a harpoon on the ship as we were trying to move a junior Krakken from the shipping lanes. Because the Navy had crammed some Lore into my brain and fast-levelled Warrior, I got the Monster Hunter Class with the Regeneration Skill. As I moved up the ranks, I got the Leadership Specialisation which came with an awesome Skill, Inspiring Aura. This can inspire not only fellow warriors but also craftsmen. The ship''s carpenters only got us home after one disastrous trip by doing some very creative repairs that they are sure would not have happened without the Aura. The last few years, I had been based in Obalno, training the next generation of Commandos, and the Navy had made sure I had the Trainer Class for this. Hence the Navy was not very happy when I retired at the young age of fifty-two. I retired at such a young age because of Opo''s death. After all, we had been through, for him to be taken out by a mutated Great White Shark was devastating. I had been so close to getting there to help, but Opo¡¯s regeneration couldn¡¯t cope with the damage. It was like all the colour had been sucked out of the world. Nothing mattered anymore. Some would be impressed by my Status, but I couldn¡¯t raise the energy. A lot of my Skills came through my bond with Opo, and looking at it was just another reminder. I did a quick check anyway, but it had been months since I had levelled anything.
Ruku Class Fish Diver War Comdo MHunt Lead Trainer Total
Type Attribute Level 14 9 12 9 7 9 5 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 12 7 14 3 24 9 7 76 188.0
Agility (PA) 10 5 14 9 10 9 7 64
Perception (PP) 11 2 10 9 0 9 2 5 48
Mental Strength (MS) 12 8 0 3 A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. 12 7 9 51 115.0
Agility (MA) 12 5 3 9 5 34
Perception (MP) 9 2 5 9 5 30
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 5 9 8 0 7 42 118.0
Agility (SA) 10 5 5 3 5 4 3 3 5 43
Perception (SP) 8 2 8 1 9 5 33
Totals 94 39 56 36 60 45 34 32 25 421
Free Points 0 0 0 0 1 4
Resistances: Pressure +35, Cold +49, Poison +7, Pain +26, Skills: Novice: Cooking 4, Weaving 4, Carpentry 4 Apprentice: Shield Bash 8, Sewing 6, Coach 7, Skill Book 5 Sailing 8, Throw Weapons 9, Stealth 9, Harpoon 7 Animal Lore 6, Monster Lore 5 Orcish 7, Barbarian Common 8. Journeyman: Sword 11, Shield 12, Axe 10, Piercing Strike 14, Camouflage 10, Fast strike 13, Unarmed Combat 12 Sonar 13, Farsight 10, Tasty 11, Ocean Sense 10, Sense Spiritual 12 Interrogate Status 12, Hide Status 13, Identify 12 Tough Hide 11, Water Sprint 10, Spear Fishing 10, Repair Weapon 11, Regeneration 12 Water Surge 12, Refreshing Mist 10, Hydrate 11, Whirlpool Shield10 Inspiring Aura 10, Enhance Attribute 11 Dwarvish 14, Mer 10 Aquatic Lore 10 Master: Darksight 16, Animal Bond 15, Spear 15, Small Blades 16, Fishing 15, Water Manipulation 15, Oxygen Efficiency 15, Affinity: Water Monster Kills: 6 I noticed that if I spent a couple of points on Physical Perception, I could get a fifth perception skill. I had Darksight, Farsight, Sonar and Tasty. There wasn¡¯t anything I was interested in at the moment. Most people were confused about the Tasty Sense, but it was essentially the underwater equivalent of the Sense of Smell. Unfortunately, it also highlighted how bad my cooking was. That was something else I had tried and failed at in this retirement. The Tasty Skill was keeping me at least semi-motivated to improve my cooking. My Ocean Sense was telling me there was a storm coming. This was sort of a situational awareness Skill giving a general sense of what was around me, and with my years of practice, I was getting good at interpreting it. I raised the sail on my canoe and headed back toward the village. I pulled the canoe up the beach and took my catch to the evening market, keeping a few of the better fish for dinner. With my Refreshing Mist Skill, I could keep things fresh for quite a while. Even if the main purpose of the Skill was to refresh weary soldiers, that didn¡¯t mean it couldn¡¯t be used for other things. I went to my small hut on the edge of the village, where I could sit, enjoy the sunset, and watch the storm clouds build on the horizon. When I arrived here two and a half years ago, I bought the hut, but my attempts at Carpentry had probably decreased its value. It was something else I had tried and failed to learn, probably because my heart wasn¡¯t in it. What I did enjoy in the village were the kids. They were fun, and I helped them get up to mischief, all in the name of building their Skills, of course. That is what I told their parents anyway. I wasn¡¯t the most popular among the adults in the village. I would be very popular if they knew about my Inspiring Aura Skill and Trainer Class, but my Hide Status Skill was strong, and I wasn¡¯t interested in people putting demands on me. I had to head to Obalno tomorrow anyway to act as a ¡°Consultant¡± to the Royal Marines to help them select the next batch of Commando Trainees. I would go back later to help with some of their training. This was the deal I had negotiated with the Navy on my retirement. Obalno was a two-day caravan ride away, but I could easily get there in a day with my military training and Attribute levels. The storm passed over during the night, and the ground was wet. There would probably be showers as well. I hoisted my pack onto my back and started the gentle six-hour jog to Obalno. I timed it so I would get there mid-afternoon. The City guards were doing basic inspections at the gate, but they just waved me through when they saw my Military ID. I knew that even though I was in civilian clothes, there were definite giveaways that identified someone who had spent many years in the military. I slowed to a walk through the city, looking at the changes since I had last been there. I approached the gate to the Navy Base and showed my ID. Both Guards snapped to attention and saluted me. ¡°Yes, Sir! Major Ruku, Sir! The Captain is waiting.¡± I thanked them. I think the stories about me are growing over time. It wasn¡¯t even a fully grown Octopod. I think it is good I retired, but I know I need to get some direction back in my life. I was assigned a room in the visiting Officers section, left my gear there, and went to report to Captain Tait. Tait and I were in the same Commando Team during the Two Year War with the Nystad Empire. The war ended about fifteen years ago. We were stationed in Kirghiz City then, and the Empire brought a fleet to blockade the Kirghiz River to stop supplies from getting to and from Kirghiz, located about 30km upstream from the river mouth. The Nystad fleet had no answer to the Aquatic Infiltration commando teams, and we had sunk or disabled several ships before they even knew we were there. Then the Obalno Fleet arrived at the same time as the Kirghiz Fleet came out of the river, and I don¡¯t think many of those empire ships got back home. Maybe they learned not to mess with the Kirghiz Navy, but I doubt it. Our careers had crossed paths several times since then, and Tait was a good friend. He and his wife were major support when my wife left me ten years ago, taking our two children with her. I think she was sick of me being away at sea all the time. At least the kids don¡¯t hate me, and we get on OK when I visit. They are young adults now making their own way in the world. 79. Intelligence: Ruku

79. Intelligence: Ruku

When I enter Tait¡¯s office, I find he is not alone. I recognise Major Sione from Military Intelligence. He is one of the minority Merpeople in the Kingdom, easily recognisable by the gills on the side of his neck and his bluish skin tone. I had worked with Major Sione before as the Aquatic Infiltration Commandos were a tool commonly employed by Military Intelligence, even though we often complained about their lack of intelligence. ¡°Ruku!¡± Tait greeted me coming around from his desk to shake my hand. ¡°We don¡¯t see you enough these days. You¡¯re coming to dinner with the missus and me tonight, right?¡± I smile and nod. He continued, ¡°You remember Major Sione?¡± The Major and I greet each other. ¡°The Major has a small project for you,¡± Tait said, nodding to the Major. ¡°As you know, we try to keep track of various people with affinities,¡± Major Sione has a higher voice than you would expect. ¡°There is a group of people who recently arrived in the city, and we strongly suspect there is an affinity user among them, and we would like you to investigate.¡± He pulsed a puzzled tone through his Sonar. The Mer regularly communicate, or enhance their communication, through Sonar pulses, although not generally in mixed company. I picked up Sonar through my bond with Opo, but it has been invaluable when dealing with the Mer. ¡°That is not my strong area,¡± I replied. ¡°We know. I would normally get an advanced warning of an affinity user coming to town, but there is nothing on this one. If it is an affinity user, we want to know how they slipped through the checks and have a threat assessment on them. If they are not an affinity user we really want to know how they are doing what they are doing.¡± He continued. ¡°What are they doing?¡± I asked. ¡°We think it is some type of Shadow Puppetry, implying a Shadow affinity user, but it is not that simple. Some of it appears to be normal Shadow Puppetry, but others do not, and there is no clear connection with the puppeteer. We haven¡¯t even identified a key person in the group.¡± He replied. ¡°Wait up,¡± Tait said, ¡°are you talking about the new performers at the Bardic Concert Hall? The Comedic Rhythm? My wife saw that and couldn¡¯t stop raving about it.¡± ¡°Indeed. I went and saw the show myself, but even with my senses, I couldn¡¯t tell whether it was the Orc frontman, his female human sidekick or a shadowy person off stage that was the main person, or in fact, what they were even doing. It is an outstanding show, and there are layers upon layers of distractions and misdirections there.¡± He said. ¡°If your senses couldn¡¯t determine what was going on, I am not sure what you think I can do.¡± I replied. ¡°You have a very high Mental Strength, we suspect it is even over 50, but we are not sure.¡± He was fishing there. ¡°You also have a very straightforward, no-nonsense personality. The Comedic Rhythm travels with a Caravan run by the Elemental Traders. They are a small Trading house out of Jern, and the head trader is called Skygge, a human female with the same build and general proportions as the female sidekick in the show. I haven¡¯t determined if it is the same person yet. We think you would be a good fit to get to know them, maybe attach yourself to the caravan and find out what is going on for us.¡± The Major was asking for quite a great effort and commitment here. ¡°You would be paid a weekly consultant rate.¡± He was also apparently willing to pay for it. ¡°What about the Commando training?¡± I asked. ¡°Captain Tait will find someone to cover for you.¡± Captain Tait was not happy to hear that. ¡°What information am I getting, specifically?¡± I asked. ¡°I want an updated information dossier on all the key personnel and a threat assessment. I have sent for any existing information from HQ and a wider search on any known Shadow Affinity users, but it will be two to three weeks before I hear back. Even if HQ knows about it, they will want updated information.¡± He replied. ¡°If they are in a Caravan, when are they moving on?¡± I asked. ¡°We are not sure, but we know they will be here for another month as they have sold out shows three nights a week for that long.¡± Then the Major passed over a folder. ¡°This is what we currently know about them.¡± Then he passed an envelope. ¡°Two tickets to tomorrow night''s show.¡± ¡°OK, I will see what I can do.¡± The Major and I shook hands, exchanging a Sonar Pulse each, and he left. Captain Tait gave me a big smile. ¡°Two tickets, did he say? You don¡¯t have anyone else to take, do you? And you owe me for all the extra work I am about to have.¡± ¡°Alright, you old sea dog. You can come. How are Helga and the kids?¡± I asked, and the conversation turned to general topics. I read the information that night. The Elemental Traders took a three-month lease on a warehouse and yard on the city''s south side. There was a small Pride of Catkin with an enchanter living there and looking after security with other rotating guards. Most of the others were staying at a nearby inn and using the warehouse for business. The main players were the mysterious owner with an unidentified partner. A mercenary outfit called the Canine Queens consisted of three orcs and two humans, one of whom also ran a herbal clinic. Then there was the Comedic Rhythm with an Orc frontman, Zabavno, a dwarf, two humans and two elves. It was a strange mix and even stranger when you added in the Catkin. At least the Caravan Master was a known quantity, Selma. She was an experienced dwarven caravan master with a known history. Then there were miscellaneous guards, wagon drivers, a beast master and a carpenter, all typical for a caravan of that size. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. It was a puzzle how the Elemental Traders pulled together such a diverse group and held them together. The main focus for me was the Comedic Rhythm group. I decided to move to an Inn on the south side of town to be closer to the action. I wasn¡¯t an actor, nor did I have any special stealth skills, so I would be playing the role I normally played, a retired Marine. There was no point in doing anything else. I bought a new shirt and jacket for the show as the Bardic Concert Hall was a fancier place than I would normally go to. I met Tait in the bar before the show. Our tickets gave us a small table on the upper balcony area, and a bar was set up there for the patrons on our level. It was amazing how Military Intelligence got such good tickets to a sold-out show. Best not to question these things. The show was amazing. The rapport between the Orc and the Human sidekick was amazing. The singing and stories all with hilarious sound effects. Then there were the shadows. They had the spotlights coming from different angles and switching on and off, but there was definitely something moving the shadows into different shapes. I tried using my Sense Spiritual Skill as it was at Journeyman Level, and I couldn''t figure out how they were doing it. Not that I expected to. Then we had a half-hour intermission. According to the programme, the second half was an extended story about a barman and a noble''s daughter. Tait went to get us some new drinks as I looked at the crowd. Everyone was in good spirits and smiling and having a good time. So why was my Ocean Sense tingling that there was an anomaly in the environment? Then I spotted him. He was seated on our level at a table by himself, and he seemed almost bored. People were avoiding him, probably because of the snake curled on the table, licking the salt off the peanuts in the small bowl in front of him. It was an unusual bond and unusual to bring a bond to a place like this. I switched to my Sense Spiritual Skill, which clarified that it was not a usual bond. It was a Monster bond. Since my Sense Spiritual had got to Journeyman Level, I could tell the difference between a Monster and an Animal as the Spiritual energy was concentrated around a core of a monster. That had helped me track Monsters in the past, as they often just looked like ordinary animals. Our team had to put down a Bond once after it had gone mad, transforming into a Monster. It had killed its Mer partner and gone on a rampage. One of my squad mates got the Monster kill for that. Tait returned to the table with two mugs of ale. I grabbed them both and went to meet this strange human, telling a complaining Tait he would need to get another one. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Ruku. You looked like you were on your own and could do with an ale.¡± I greeted the stranger. Up close, he was a lot younger than I initially thought. About the same age as my kids. The snake was observing me carefully. It was almost certainly venomous, but nothing I hadn''t dealt with before. ¡°Thanks,¡± he said, indicating the spare seat. ¡°I am Sten, and this is T¨¡oke. T¨¡oke helps keep my thousands of admiring fans at bay so I can get some peace.¡± He smiled to show he wasn¡¯t serious, but I understood he preferred to be alone. I took a chance and used Interrogate Status on him. It was a Skill I needed to acquire to get the Trainer Class, and I used it extensively in training. It was less detectable than Identify and gave more information. It gave the same Class information as Identify, but I could also use it to focus on a Skill or, at Journeyman Level, up to five Skills. When we are training for a Skillset, knowing how the recruit was doing was very handy. In this case, I just set it for the top five skills. Sten had a strange mix of Classes and Skills. His Specialisations were Monster Hunter, Scout, and Prospector. His Basic Classes were Hunter and Miner. His top skills were Stealth 16, Animal Bond 15, Small Blades 13, Hearing Aid 13, and Hammer 13. Sten didn¡¯t seem to notice the Skill use. Normally it was a sight Skill that reached the Master levels first, not Stealth, and it is unusual to have Hearing Aid as the highest Perception Skill. I could understand the strong Animal Bond with the monster on the table. A puzzle. There was no way I would use the skill on the snake, T¨¡oke. Monsters seemed to have a natural sensitivity when people interrogated their Status, and I had the scars to prove it. ¡°Nice to meet you and T¨¡oke. Are you enjoying the show? You don¡¯t seem as enthused as most of the people here.¡± I was curious. ¡°It is a terrific show,¡± Sten said. ¡°This is not the first time I have seen it. I might ask you a question. T¨¡oke frightens most people. Why not you?¡± ¡°Two reasons. Firstly, I am a pretty thick-skulled ex-Marine, so not much frightens me. Secondly, I know what it is like to have a close bond. My bond partner of thirty-five years passed away two years ago. For what it is worth, don¡¯t take your partnership for granted and make the most of it.¡± That stopped the conversation for a bit. The intermission was over, and Sten indicated I could watch the second half from his table. The Barman and the Noble''s Daughter was hilarious. They incorporated some common Tavern Songs and got everyone singing, and it was a real puzzle how they pulled it off with so few people. Most of it was the Orc, Zabavno, as the narrator and the Human male, Manus and the human female listed in the program as Princess. It was obviously just a stage name. The rest was clever lighting and shadows with the musicians and singer in the background. They got a well-deserved standing ovation. Sten had stood and clapped with the rest of us, but while he was smiling, he had obviously seen it before. When things had died down and people started to head to the exits, I asked, ¡°So you said you had seen it before? Are you a big fan, or is there another reason?¡± Sten replied, ¡°I have been travelling with them for a while, so I have watched them develop it from a funny story into a full production.¡± ¡°Really?¡± I said excitedly. ¡°So you can spill all the backstage secrets!¡± He laughed. ¡°Not likely. That would be worth more than my life!¡± ¡°I bet,¡± I replied. ¡°So what is your role, stagehand?¡± ¡°I am part of the Mercenary group providing security. One of us is always here as some fans can get a bit over-enthusiastic,¡± he replied. I nodded. That made him one of the Humans with the Canine Queens, although Sione¡¯s report said nothing about a Monster snake bond. ¡°Do you need to head over there then?¡± I asked. ¡°The backstage and dressing rooms are fairly secure. It will be a while to get changed and pack up. What brought you along tonight? You don¡¯t seem to be with anyone?¡± ¡°I came to town to do consultant work for the Marine Corp. New crop of trainees. One of the other officers had a spare ticket, so I lucked in. There he is now. Tait!¡± I got his attention, but he was caught in the flow of people to the exit. ¡°I¡¯ll catch up with you tomorrow!¡± I gave him a wave, and he signalled he had heard me. I sat back down. ¡°I have some time. Do you want another ale?¡± ¡°Why not?¡± Sten replied, and we made our way to the bar. We got chatting, and I talked about the village I had retired to and the kids there. He was interested in coming fishing with me. He perked up when he heard I had a Master level Fishing Skill and was keen for some tips. He was off duty this weekend, so I offered to host him in the village, and we could go fishing. I warned him it was about a six-hour jog, but that didn¡¯t phase him. I didn¡¯t think it would with his Hunter Class. We set a time and place to meet on Friday and head down together. I reported to the Navy base the next day and left an update for Major Sione. I then helped Tait weed out some of the less able applicants. I was looking forward to a weekend fishing with some company. 80. Weekend Fishing: Ruku It was early afternoon on Friday when I met up with Sten outside their warehouse. To my surprise, there was two Catkin there as well. ¡°Hi Ruku,¡± Sten greeted me. ¡°This is App¨¡ and his son Ilaiya. When I said I was going fishing, they also wanted to come. I said it would depend on you, so it is OK if it is too much.¡± ¡°Greetings all. You are all welcome, but the cabin is a bit small. Someone might have to sleep on the porch.¡± I replied. ¡°It is also a bit of a run to get there. Are you Ok with that?¡± I was particularly concerned for the young lad as he was only a young teen and had no Class yet. ¡°Thanks Ruku,¡± App¨¡ said. ¡°Ilaiya and I will bring a couple of our horses.¡± The lad made a face at that, but there was no way he was going to last the first two hours otherwise. I wasn¡¯t sure if App¨¡ was riding so that the boy wasn¡¯t the only one or if he wouldn¡¯t run well either. I suspect it was the former, as I thought Catkin preferred using their paws rather than riding. I let Sten set the pace, and he set out at only slightly less than my usual pace. The horses trotted alongside. I wondered where T¨¡oke was, but I eventually saw him poke out his head from Sten¡¯s shoulder. We chatted about general things. Sten would often point out plants or animals to the lad and give a brief description. I wondered if he was training the lad. Sten had a pretty fancy bow with him. The lad, Ilaiya, had a couple of knives, and App¨¡ had a sword and a knife. We loaded all the baggage onto the horses, including my backpack, which was nice. The Catkin chatted about some of their travels. Ilaiya was pretty taken with one of the Orcs travelling with them by the name of Modrica. I got that she was some sort of master at Unarmed Combat and used to fight in what I gathered were illegal fighting pits in Jern. He had a bit of hero worship going on and was quite proud that his Unarmed Combat had just reached Apprentice level. His father was silent during that part of the conversation. I got the impression that almost anything to motivate the teenager to learn would be OK with him. I shared some of the lighter moments of my career as a Commando. That impressed the lad too. I gather it wasn''t too hard to impress the lad. We got into the village after dark. I scored some leftover meat from the evening market, which was just packing up and we went to the cabin, and I lit the fire. App¨¡ offered to cook, which was fine by me. Apparently, he had the highest Cooking Skill out of all of us. However, the Herbalist, ?rt, was the best cook in the caravan, and you didn¡¯t want to miss one of his meals. In the morning, we skipped the training for early morning fishing. I led them to a set of rocks jutting out that usually had a good number of fish. As we were fishing, I mentioned a reef, a short sail out, where we could fish and dive, and I learned something significant. Sten couldn¡¯t swim, and not only that, he had a skill that increased the density of his bones so he wouldn¡¯t naturally float like most humans. He had to actively swim to stay afloat. I put Interrogate Status on the task, and it came back with ¡°Toughened Bones.¡± I had never heard of that skill. Most people with strengthened bones that I had heard of are ones with an affinity for metal, rock, or the Bone affinity itself. The world is a big place, and there are plenty of skills I haven¡¯t heard of, but he also had a lot of stone-throwing darts in a belt across his chest. The Catkin were not keen on sailing either. Mid-morning, I showed Sten and Ilaiya where they could hunt small game, and I sat down to fish with App¨¡. ¡°It is strange for Catkin to be this far north. How did you end up here, App¨¡?¡± I asked. ¡°We were being shut out of access to enchanting materials, so we heard about a big auction in Jern and made the trip. We were fortunate to meet with the Elemental Traders, and they employed T¨¡tt¨¡ as a purchasing agent, and we were able to get resupplied. We decided to stick with them until we get to Kirghiz City.¡± He replied. ¡°I heard there was a Goblin Horde in Jern. I hope you were there after it had been dealt with.¡± ¡°I wish. It was in full swing when we arrived, and the Army was there as well. Fortunately, we got to Jern safely and stayed in the walls until the Chief was killed. The Canine Queens were in the thick of it, though.¡± App¨¡ replied. ¡°Really?¡± I prompted. ¡°Yes. Skavt and Oske were hailed as the heroes who killed the Chief.¡± He was getting enthusiastic in his tone now. ¡°Sorry, I am not sure who Skavt and Oske are?¡± I asked. Skavt was in Sione¡¯s dossier, but Oske wasn¡¯t. ¡°Skavt is the leader of the Canine Queens, and Oske is her Bond. He is this big massive Yak bull. They apparently rode right over the chief.¡± App¨¡ was a fan of the Canine Queens, it appeared. We had heard that the Army had dealt with the Horde, which happened ten to twelve months ago, but we are a long way away, and the news is sketchy. A caravan between here and Jern would normally be about six months of travel, so they had obviously made longer stops at towns on the way. ¡°There must be a lot more to that story.¡± I said, knowing that there always is. App¨¡ said that the Canine Queens were part of a caravan from Hrothgar and were conscripted to help when the Goblins busted out of the Army Kill Zone and were besieged them in their camp. When the Army broke out of their camp, it lured the Chief out, and he apparently defeated the Army¡¯s charge and affinity users, and the Canine Queens charged from behind and surprised them, killing the chief. That sounded very simplistic to me, and I wasn''t sure how much was true. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. What gave it a ring of truth were the arguments that followed with the Army. The Canine Queens claimed four monster kills, three Shamans and the Chief, but the Army had taken off with the cores they should have. Apparently, they did get some compensation from the Army, but they were grumpy that it wasn''t enough. That did sound like the Army to me. Same with the Navy. ¡°Three Shamans and the Chief? That sounds like a lot.¡± I queried. App¨¡ nodded. ¡°Apparently, Skavt didn¡¯t get the kill for the chief, but ?rt the healer, was riding behind her. She was quite annoyed about that. Najprej also killed a Shaman near the Chief, and sometime before the Chief battle, Sten killed two Shamans. I am not clear on those details, and he doesn¡¯t talk about it, but apparently, it was verified by a Sergeant from the Jern Guard.¡± ¡°Fascinating.¡± I thought the Canine Queens must be a cut above the average mercenary. So why are they wandering the backwaters of the Kingdom? There were very lucrative contracts available from the big cities, and the major trading houses would be in a bidding war over them. Yet they are working for a small, little-known trading company? It didn¡¯t make sense. ¡°Is Sten training Ilaiya in a class?¡± I asked. App¨¡ smiled, ¡°Yes, the Hunter Class. He didn¡¯t want to at first but felt guilty after almost getting Ilaiya killed by Empire Bounty Hunters. He said Ilaiya was talented, and it may take less than two years. We are hoping Ilaiya can get the class before we get to Kirghiz City.¡± ¡°Bounty Hunters?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know why they attacked Sten and T¨¡oke. The Canine Queens wouldn¡¯t talk about it. Sten¡¯s sister was very upset when I asked. Apparently, there were two, one with a hawk bond and one with a Lava affinity. Sten and T¨¡oke killed them both but were gravely wounded and took weeks to heal.¡± The Military regularly updated us on known threats of our neighbours, which especially included everything we could get on their affinity users. There was only one known Lava affinity user anywhere. Derek Collier has extreme damage output and extreme armour defence. Alessia Striker and her bond Aurora were also on the list for perception and extreme ranged attacks. She was known to work with Derek on occasion. If this could be verified, this was major. This also meant Sten and T¨¡oke were extreme-level threats. Sione needed to verify if this was true ASAP. Well, ASAP after our fishing weekend. Sten seems nice enough. The Catkin get on with both him and T¨¡oke. App¨¡ is letting him train Ilaiya. Yet, Sten apparently killed empire mercenaries. We need to get him onside. I had been silent for too long. ¡°Sorry, that is a little mind-blowing. I have tangled with the empire, obviously, as a commando. Taking out an affinity user is very difficult. Do you know how?¡± ¡°No, and I advise not asking either, as everyone gets very grumpy at you.¡± App¨¡ replied. ¡°You said Sten has a sister? Is she with the caravan?¡± I asked. App¨¡ chuckled. ¡°She is not just with the caravan. She organised the whole thing. His sister is Skygge, owner of the Elemental Traders.¡± Right. Well, that explained why the Canine Queens were with the Elemental Traders. I moved the topic back to fishing as I think my mind was a little stunned right now. We all got back to the village in the late afternoon. We sold out excess fish in the evening market and Sten encouraged Ilaiya to sell his three rabbit pelts. The local leatherworker bought them for a few coins. The next day we went to another of my better fishing spots. This time I left them on the rocks fishing and took my spear and sack and swam out to collect some shellfish and lobsters. I joined them at lunchtime and we lit a fire on the beach and cooked some seafood for lunch. Sten noticed my use of Refreshing Mists to keep the catch cool and asked, ¡°What Skill is that? It looks very handy.¡± ¡°Refreshing Mists. It came from my affinity for water and I have mostly used it to refresh soldiers.¡± My water affinity was relatively common knowledge and I was sure I was on our neighbouring countries'' watch lists, so I figured there was no point in hiding it. ¡°What is it like having an affinity?¡± Sten asked. ¡°It has been very useful. Obviously, as a Marine Commando, I am in my element,¡± I indicated the ocean. ¡°Half my abilities are support abilities so it is nice being able to help. I can obviously do harm as well.¡± ¡°I have come across Shamans with a Water Affinity. They could almost turn their skin into a water-type shield and then they had a water surge ability, but no other apparent abilities.¡± he said. ¡°Water Surge was one of my first Skills,¡± I said. ¡°It is Ok to throw people off balance, but not a huge amount else.¡± There were other uses but I wasn¡¯t going to give everything away. ¡°I can do a Whirlpool shield which sounds similar, but not quite the same as it is external to my skin. Are you sure it altered their skin?¡± Sten nodded. ¡°It washed away the wound and my knife fell out, but T¨¡oke¡¯s venom stayed affecting him.¡± ¡°Interesting. I wonder how they did that. I might have to experiment.¡± ¡°I thought the Kingdom would have a list of affinities and how they are used.¡± Sten was curious. ¡°The Marines gave me some basic training, but affinities are quite personal, and while there is some overlap of skills, there will also be differences from person to person. Other water users may have more aggressive applications than me, but it is best if you learn things yourself. I take that approach when I am training others now, giving the best results rather than forcing people into a mould.¡± I replied. ¡°Doesn''t the military like people in a mould?¡± Sten asked. ¡°To a certain extent. The Marines train basic Warrior classes as we then have known specialisations, like Commando. But affinities are more personal and should be treated as such. They are also much rarer, so we are never going to have a squad of Water users, for example.¡± Sten nodded and seemed to be satisfied for now. The afternoon went pleasantly. The next morning we would be heading back to Obalno. 81. Dinner: Ruku 81. Dinner: Ruku I wore my new shirt and jacket to dinner with the Catkin and Sten. I think this was a way for them to thank me for the weekend. It was a home affair at the Catkin Wagons where they live. They are parked in the yard of the warehouse the Elemental Traders have leased. My report to Sione about the weekend had him all in a fluster. He was no longer content to wait for the normal communications to work through the bureaucracy but visited the communication enchanters and sent emergency messages to Kirghiz, Jern and Hrothgar. Jern is a quiet city with only a glorified recruiting office with a single intelligence officer. Hrothgar normally handles most of that area. After all, they are only a month¡¯s march away. I was let in by the gate guard and was greeted by the strangest sounds. It was like a catfight, but not a catfight. There were screeches and hisses and the occasional words and laughter from obviously young Catkin but intermingled was the rumbling and bass voice of an Orc. I upped the power to my Sonar. It was always on as a soft, gentle pulse, and it didn¡¯t cost me anything these days at that level, and it was undetectable to anyone else. It had saved my life several times by giving me an early warning. Unfortunately, it bounces off objects, so it is much less effective on land than at sea. It was a reflex reaction to the unknown for me to increase its power. It didn¡¯t pick up what was making the noise, but it did pick up an anomaly in the shadows over by the warehouse. I looked carefully with my Master Level Darksight Skill, but I didn¡¯t see anything. Sonar was saying something was there, and I had been in enough difficult situations to pay attention when something wasn¡¯t right. I was about to raise the Sonar again when Sten approached me. ¡°Ruku, welcome. So glad you could make it,¡± he said. Straightforward honesty is my usual go-to, and I saw no reason to change that now. ¡°Thanks, Sten. I appreciate the invitation. Do you realise there is something hiding in the shadows over there?¡± I figured if he knew about it, then that would be fine. If he didn''t know about it, then I would have an ally in investigating it, and I said it loud enough so that if it were sentient, it would know we were on to it, and it could choose to attack or run. It really should start running. ¡°Really?¡± he asked, surprised. He looked over and obviously couldn¡¯t see anything either. ¡°How do you know?¡± ¡°I have a sonar sensing skill. Not much gets past it.¡± I put my hand on my knife. Sten examined the area intently, then suddenly relaxed. ¡°It is OK. It is one of our team practising a Skill.¡± ¡°Maybe we should flush them out and check. It is very unusual.¡± I said, not taking my eyes off the area. ¡°It is fine,¡± Sten said. ¡°It took a bit for Hearing Aid to penetrate, but I know who it is.¡± He raised his voice a bit. ¡°Maybe she will join us for dinner?¡± Then he turned to me. ¡°It really is fine. Come and meet the Catkin.¡± He shot a grumpy look at the shadow and steered me toward the wagons. I was going to be on edge for a while, but I managed to greet everybody and learn their names. Am''m¨¡ was Ilaiya¡¯s mother and had cooked today. Mutalil and Anni were his brother and sister-in-law, and they had the triplets who were play fighting with the biggest Orc I had ever seen. That had been the noise as I entered the yard. App¨¡ was there as well as Ilaiya''s sister Mayakku who was also the enchanter. Ilaiya¡¯s grandfather, T¨¡tt¨¡, was still working and would be along later. The Orc was the famous Modrica I had heard about all weekend. We sat around the fire and chatted while dinner finished cooking. Eventually, the play fight ended, and the kittens were sent to wash before dinner, and I finally got to meet Modrica. She was huge and covered in scars. One scar looked like it should have taken out her eye. That must have cost a packet to heal. That is one advantage of being in the Military, free healing. Modrica didn¡¯t say much, and everybody seemed to be used to her just sitting there. Two people came to join us from the Warehouse just before dinner was about to be served. One was T¨¡tt¨¡, and the other was Skygge, Sten¡¯s sister. Skygge was slim, of medium height, with dark hair and moderately dark skin, although not as dark as Sten. Sten being a hunter, would be outdoors more, so that was natural. Skygge moved with a smooth grace that indicated high Physical Agility. That was unusual for a merchant. She wore dark clothes, but well-tailored and of good quality. I didn¡¯t miss the knife hilts from each boot, even though they were partially hidden. The overall impression I got was that she was a reasonably accomplished knife fighter as well as a merchant. How true that impression was is debatable, as Merchants would regularly dress to impress and deter thieves. I was tempted to use my Interrogate Status Skill, but I held off. Merchants often had higher Mental attributes, and she was likelier to sense it than her brother. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Hello, Ruku,¡± she greeted me. ¡°I have heard a lot about you. Should we be addressing you as Major Ruku?¡± That was almost said as a challenge. ¡°Hello, nice to meet you. I am retired, so I left my rank when I left the Marines. Ruku is fine.¡± I replied. She had obviously done a background check. Luckily I am who I claim to be. My normal assessment of these people is that the only threat to me in an individual fight was Modrica. She was dangerous. However, if Sten and T¨¡oke alone could defeat Collier and Striker then my normal threat assessment wasn¡¯t worth shit. We are talking about affinities and bonds here, and I don¡¯t think Sten is the only one with an affinity. There is a Shadow affinity here. My Sonar spotted them earlier, and I am betting it is Skygge. I have no proof of either yet. However, if I had ignored this feeling in the past, I would not be alive today. ¡°Come and sit,¡± Am''m¨¡ said. ¡°Dinner is ready.¡± The conversation over dinner was about general topics. Skygge brought out some good quality wine to have for dinner. Good quality is not only to taste good but also not recommended for those with low Physical Constitution or low Mental Strength. ¡°Ruku, I am looking to work on my prospecting class. Are there any mines or areas where I could do this?¡± Sten asked. ¡°Most of the good areas already have established mines,¡± I replied. ¡°There are some abandoned mines, but they are abandoned because all the good stuff is gone. There are some caves in the cliffs between here and the village. At least one goes quite deep. I took the village kids exploring one day and we went a couple of hundred metres inside without hitting the end. I don¡¯t know if there is anything worth mining, but I could show you. You do have to enter at low tide as the first forty metres or so is flooded at high tide.¡± ¡°Might be worth a look. If it is a dud, we can always just fish.¡± Sten got an eye roll from his sister for that comment. ¡°I couldn¡¯t persuade you to help train young Ilaiya here in some skills, could I?¡± ¡°Well, I do have the Trainers Class. Do you mind if I Interrogate your Status, Ilaiya, to see where you are at?¡± Ilaiya looked to his Mum and Dad for confirmation. They shrugged, and App¨¡ said, ¡°Your choice, son. These are the sort of decisions you will have to start making yourself. In my opinion, a Military Trainer is not an opportunity that will probably ever come your way again.¡± Ilaiya looked at me and nodded, ¡°Yes, please, sir.¡± I smiled. ¡°I will have you in the army soon. I say army because that is probably better for you than the navy, which involves a lot of swimming.¡± I looked at his Status and Skills. I went through them carefully, taking my time. ¡°I can see you are quite a bit over halfway with your Hunter Class,¡± he looked pleased with that. ¡°You are also about halfway through your Guard Class.¡± That got a sour look from him. I guess he didn¡¯t want to be a Guard like his Father. ¡°The more Classes you get, the more attributes and opportunities you will have. You should be able to get both Guard and Hunter; they have different specialisations that will open to you. I can¡¯t train you in either of those. I am a Warrior and Commando. I can train you in some skills. Spear, for one. The Spear is my favourite weapon, and I am a master at it. You seem to be doing well in Small Blades, but I can help there too. ¡°You don¡¯t seem to have the Sense Spiritual Skill at all. That is a very handy skill for a warrior, not only to see when an opponent is about to use a Skill but also to sense traps and monsters. Once it gets to the Journeyman Level, you will be sensitive enough to see the Spiritual flowing through animals and objects. Spiritual energy flows differently through monsters than ordinary animals. It is not just a Skill for crafters. It has saved my life many times.¡± I did catch Sten¡¯s eye and gave him a small nod to indicate I knew about T¨¡oke. I am guessing he still hadn''t reached his Journeyman Level in the Skill yet and didn¡¯t realise the benefits and the information that was available through it. ¡°Once you have the Skill, your sister can probably help you level it. Enchanters always have a high level in Sense Spiritual.¡± ¡°I think you are better with Unarmed Combat by learning from Modrica. I suspect she is better at it than I am. I wouldn¡¯t mind sparring with her if she is agreeable. I will probably learn some things.¡± That got a smile from Modrica and a nod. I hadn¡¯t levelled Unarmed Combat in several years, so this was an opportunity for me. ¡°I am also a Master at Fishing, of course. So we can practise that.¡± I said with a smile. App¨¡ spoke up, ¡°You honour us with this offer. What would you like in return for this training?¡± This was a spur-of-the-moment thing for me, but I figured I would lay it out there and see what happens. ¡°I am actually finding retirement quite boring. I have had more interesting interactions and met fascinating people since I met Sten than in the last two and a half years of my retirement. What I think I would like is a job.¡± I looked at Skygge. ¡°Do you need another guard for your caravan?¡± Skygge looked at Sten and said, ¡°We will have to discuss it. Why don¡¯t you come to our office tomorrow afternoon, and we will have a job interview.¡± She indicated the office part of the warehouse behind us, and I nodded. The evening concluded, and it was an enjoyable evening. 82. Interview: Wiremu 82. Interview: Wiremu I was really getting to like Ruku. Now I think he might be way too observant to be able to join us. The trouble is I think we need what he can teach us. He didn¡¯t have to mention that people could identify T¨¡oke as a Monster with Journeyman Level Sense Spiritual. That is probably what drew him over to me at the performance. He is Military. Retired or not, he is still military, and that will be where his loyalty lies. I wonder how much he has already told them. I wonder how much he has already seen with his Interrogate Status Skill. Tabitha checked with our Caravan Master, Selma, to see if she had any issues or wanted to be at the interview. She was excited he might be joining us. If he were to take charge of the morning sparring, it would attract other guards to join us, and we needed to replace four who were not going further than Obalno. She couldn¡¯t be at the interview but sincerely hoped it was successful. Skavt would join us for the interview. She was in charge of Security for the Caravan and knew about Nyx and the affinities, including Tabitha¡¯s Shadow Affinity. Both Tabitha and I were concerned the Military would try to pressure us into working for them or, worst case, joining them. This wasn¡¯t the Empire, so we hoped the worst-case scenario was off the table. Even in Hrothgar, they only wanted to use our names and reputation. The best case was that Ruku could be our buffer between them and us. I wasn¡¯t expecting that either. We could not hire him and go our separate ways. However, I think Military Intelligence is going to catch up with us at some point, and that could leave us with few options. The big question is Ruku himself. He is definitely who he says he is, and that is a straight-talking soldier. He has a brain on him, and I am sure that there is someone to who he is reporting. Tabitha has another concern. She is afraid that his Sonar Skill will curtail her clandestine movements. It is unusual for a non-Mer to have the ability. She has started taking more care now that we are by the coast and the Mer are more common. It was clear from last night that her Shadows Embrace partially confused the Sonar. Ruku could tell something was there, but not that it was a person. She is quite active at night, making connections and doing deals that neither of us could see the military being in favour of. If we employ Ruku, she will have to be a lot more careful about hiding her activities. I heard Skavt and Tabitha arriving for the interview. I would be relying heavily on my Truth Sensing Skill for this interview, and it was only mid-Apprentice. Thinking about it now, I could have easily levelled it by going gambling with Tabitha. I might still do that, but it won¡¯t help today. I poured the pot of tea, ready for the interview. Ruku arrived a few minutes later, and I poured the tea, and we sat around a small table to talk. After some preliminary questions on Skills and experience, I figured we might as well start with the more sensitive questions, as this might just mean the end of the relationship. ¡°Ruku, you consult for the Marines in training and levelling. Do you consult them for anything else?¡± I asked. ¡°I didn¡¯t until I reported this time. This time, Major Sione from MI wanted me to check out Comedic Rhythm as he suspected an unknown Shadow Affinity user existed. MI is Military Intelligence, by the way.¡± He replied. ¡°So that is why you were at the performance.¡± I stated. He nodded. ¡°I haven''t talked to anyone from Comedic Rhythm as I got sidetracked by you and T¨¡oke. However, I do have some of the answers for them, and, to be quite frank, in any city of moderate size, you are going to be identified as affinity users. The signs are there, and a large part of MI is tracking affinity users.¡± Ruku went on. ¡°We don¡¯t want anything to do with the military.¡± Tabitha stated forcefully. ¡°I picked that up.¡± Ruku said. ¡°MI tracks all affinity users anyway. They can be great threats and great allies.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t want to be either.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°But you are mercenaries, are you not? In fact, you are mercenaries who have no love for the Empire.¡± He nodded to Skavt, as it was common knowledge Orcs were feuding with the empire. ¡°MI is more flexible than most military units and would probably be interested to know if you were open to accepting some contracts.¡± ¡°Those contracts wouldn¡¯t be coming through the Mercenary Guild, would they?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Probably not all of them, but this is not my field. I really am just a Soldier,¡± Ruku replied. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°I am interested in how much you have figured out.¡± I asked. This would tell me how much was able to be discovered by a reasonably bright person. ¡°You Sten have a rock affinity of some sort, and T¨¡oke is a Monster. There is a Shadow Affinity user, and my guess is that it is you, Skygge. There is something else, or you are extraordinarily clever, Skygge. Otherwise, you wouldn¡¯t have frustrated the head of the local MI unit.¡± ¡°I will take ¡®clever¡¯.¡± Skygge replied. ¡°I assume MI knows this?¡± Ruku nodded. ¡°They are very puzzled about how you have gotten this far into the Kingdom without their notice.¡± I ignored the implicit question. ¡°We are not hiring MI, and we are not working for MI. Individual contracts will be assessed and evaluated along with all the other contracts we may look at. Why should we hire you, Ruku.¡± ¡°Especially if you are spying for the military,¡± added Skavt. ¡°I am not a spy. I am a Marine and Commando, Fisherman and Diver. I don¡¯t do subtle, and I don''t do deception. I am also not offering to be a go-between with you and MI. That is not my skill set. My skill set is in combat and training for combat. That is what you are hiring.¡± ¡°What about MI?¡± Tabitha asked. Ruku replied, ¡°One thing you will need to know if you hire me. I will tell it straight and blunt. I don¡¯t sugarcoat things. With regards to MI, you will have to deal with them. However, they are not unreasonable. They are always looking for allies against a common enemy.¡± ¡°We are not going to go and spill all our secrets to them,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°How much you tell them or don¡¯t tell them is entirely up to you. You know how much they know. If you hire me, I expect confidentiality clauses in the contract. I will abide by any contract I sign.¡± Ruku was coming across strongly as a straight-talking soldier, and my Truth Sensing confirmed that. How come my Truth Sensing Skill only seems to level when sensing lies, not the truth? It should be called the Sensing Lies Skill. ¡°Are you willing to take on the combat training for the Caravan?¡± Skavt asked. ¡°If that is what you want to hire me for. It would be exactly what I am interested in. I have never trained Catkin before.¡± Ruku answered. ¡°You have the Trainer Class. Can you use Skill Books?¡± Skavt continued. ¡°Yes, but I don''t own any. They all belonged to the Navy; I can only use them, not make them. Making Skill books is a Class of its own.¡± ¡°We are heading to Kirghiz City and not planning to return. We are unsure of our plans after that. Everybody in the Caravan is contracted until Kirghiz.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°That is fine. My daughter is in Kirghiz City, and I have no pressing engagements.¡± Ruku said. ¡°I have a question. App¨¡ said you, Sten, and T¨¡oke were injured in a fight with a Lava Affinity user. There is only one known Lava affinity user, Derek Collier from the Empire. Alessia Striker, with her Hawk bond Aurora, sometimes worked with him. Did you fight them and Survive?¡± Sten nodded. ¡°How? Please understand we keep track of other countries'' affinity users and often plan combat scenarios. It is professional curiosity as it was always thought at least one strong water affinity user would be required to counter his lava.¡± Ruku sounded very curious. I thought for a bit but decided the news was now out there. This will probably mean I will be on everybody''s watch list. A wilderness retreat sounded good. The only problem with that is I was not going to leave the empire alone, so getting on watch lists was going to be inevitable, and having MI at my back, even loosely, might be an advantage. ¡°They attacked me in terrain that was very disadvantageous to them both. Hilly forest. It blocked sightlines and provided cover. I kept dodging, running him out of energy. Second, they underestimated T¨¡oke and thought the Hawk was enough to kill him. Third, they were trying to take me alive and underestimated my Regeneration and Pain Resistance. Fourthly, they underestimated T¨¡oke badly. All three died of his venom.¡± That was as much information as I was willing to give. ¡°It wasn¡¯t only T¨¡oke they underestimated, and clearly you are a great team.¡± Ruku seemed to understand a lot more than just what was said. ¡°I suppose Sten is now going to be on a watch list and part of MI combat scenarios?¡± Skavt asked. ¡°I am sure he is already on the Empire¡¯s list, and that is why they sent Collier and Striker to counter you. Not all scenarios go to plan.¡± Ruku said. ¡°Very well, Ruku. We will need to discuss your potential employment and get back to you soon. Where can we contact you?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°I am staying at the Three Sisters Inn. If you want to go cave exploring, Sten, I am available whether or not you offer me a job.¡± Ruku replied. ¡°I might take you up on that,¡± I replied. After Ruku left, we discussed the pros and cons of employing him. In my view, the pros outweigh the cons. Tabitha was the most reluctant. In her opinion, he was too straightforward. He could sense too much, and her activities would have to be much better hidden. She was also grumpy that he was fluent in Mer with Sonar, and she couldn¡¯t use him to help negotiate with the Mer smugglers she was having trouble with. The result was an employment contract until Kirghiz, as the second in command of security under Skavt. 83. Caving: Wiremu 83. Caving: Wiremu Three days later, Ruku and I were standing outside a coastal cave. We both had small packs, and I had some prospecting equipment. The low tide meant the water was knee-deep going into the cave with only gentle waves today. Ruku jumped down into the surf, and I followed. It was sandy at this point, and we ducked as we entered the cave. Ruku spoke up, ¡°There is something I have been wondering about, Sten. With a rock affinity, why did you choose to become a Miner?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a simple question to answer. What do most rock affinity users do?¡± I answered. ¡°Miners are generally looking for metals as well as gems. Rock affinities are useful in the mines, especially if you get Rock Manipulation, which I understand takes a lot of attributes. Not like water. Water manipulation was one of the first skills I got. I understand it is easier to go for the Stone Classes. Most skip Quarry Worker and learn the Stone Shaper class. If you want to get into construction, you would train to be a Stone Mason. All those are Basic classes and require training, but it is easier to become a Stone Mason if you have Stone Shaper etc.¡± Ruku explained. ¡°I don¡¯t know much about those classes.¡± I said. ¡°There is a quarry just north of Obalno. You should visit and have a chat with the Quarry Master.¡± He suggested. ¡°Maybe. I have had a bad experience in a quarry. It has taken me some time to get over it. Maybe it is time.¡± By this time we were moving out of the water. The cave floor was still sand, but it was tall enough for us to stand up now. We were both wearing helmets because that was a normal precaution in areas with low headspace. I started exploring with my Granite Sense and Sense Treasure. Nothing yet. ¡°Tell me more about Sense Spiritual.¡± I asked. ¡°Well, the sensitivity increases as it rises through the levels. At Novice, you won¡¯t get much beyond sensing when someone is using a Skill. As you move through the Apprentice Levels, you will be more sensitive to the movement of the Spiritual around you. Spiritual material tends to affect the Spiritual flow around you. For example, I have it at Journeyman Level, and I could tell Skygge had a powerful Spiritual item strapped on her lower back. I don¡¯t know what it is, but it was definitely drawing in the Spiritual energy.¡± Ruku replied. ¡°My Sense Spiritual is only in the lower Apprentice Levels,¡± I said. ¡°Most people don¡¯t realise the benefits of raising it as it greatly synergises with a number of other sensing skills, like my Ocean Sense and skills like Detect Spiritual Traps, Find Hidden and Sense Treasure. I would assume that if you have a Rock Sensing Skill, you will also find that enhanced.¡± Ruku said. ¡°How would I increase the level?¡± I asked. ¡°The same way you increase any skill. By using it in different ways. If we pause here and you try sensing the Spiritual atmosphere here. You won¡¯t be able to tell, but there is quite a dense Spiritual atmosphere in this cave, and there is a gentle flow further into the cave.¡± Ruku squatted on the sandy floor and indicated I should do the same. I reached out with my Sense Spiritual Skill. I had never tried to sense the Spiritual in the atmosphere before. I had only ever used it on people and traps. It seemed strange not to focus the Skill on something. Trying to sense what was around me was hard. ¡°Try just opening your mind and not overthinking,¡± Ruku suggested, ¡°kind of like meditation.¡± Meditation has never been a strong area for me. I liked doing stuff, not sitting contemplating my navel. However, I tried to open my mind to the area around me and especially through the Skill. There wasn¡¯t a particular breakthrough, but I think I might have sensed something in the atmosphere after about twenty minutes of this. ¡°OK, I think I might be getting the hang of it, but it will take a lot of practice. We should move on.¡± I said after I decided that was enough for now. I checked my Status, and my Sense Spiritual had gone up a level which confirmed I was on the right track and becoming more Spiritually sensitive. Because I had Granite Sense on simultaneously, I noticed a small increase in the detail I could sense. That was good. I remember Tabitha talking about Skill Synergy, and I guess this was another one like that. We passed where Ruku had been before, and the cave was quite smooth and easy to walk. Only a couple of times did we have to crawl for sections. The floor was a gentle rise from the entrance. We explored a couple of side tunnels that were dead ends. After an hour and a half, Ruku spoke up, ¡°Do you find it strange we are still walking on sand?¡± Yes, that was strange. We should have left the sand behind a while ago. I bent down and scooped up a handful to examine. It looked like ordinary sand. Granite Sense was telling me it was made from various rock types, not particularly the rock around us. There also seemed to be some metal flecks and crystals in the sand, also not consistent with the rock around us. ¡°What do you Sense?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°It is like normal sand, but there are aspects that are not consistent with the rock around us. It is like some of it has been transported here, not made here.¡± I answered. ¡°It has a Spiritual presence,¡± Ruku commented from his inspection. ¡°It might be why the Spiritual is denser in this place than others.¡± ¡°Let''s move further in and test some more,¡± I said. We moved further in and tested three other places. I scooped some sand into a clay jar I bought to take back for further testing. ¡°You would expect the sand to be getting thinner the further away from the ocean we get, but it is not. If anything, it is getting thicker.¡± Granite Sense was telling me this. ¡°It is also getting more resistant to my Granite Sense.¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°You have a Granite Affinity? That''s interesting.¡± Ruku said. Maybe Tabitha was right about him. However, that should all be covered under the confidentiality clauses. The only difference really was that Granite was one of the harder rocks and that my skills were easier to use in Granite. ¡°I am getting close to being able to get Granite Manipulation,¡± I said. I was a bit envious of him, Tabitha and Kelda with their manipulations coming so easy. ¡°I imagine it is one of the higher Attribute requirements as it is one of the harder rocks.¡± Ruku mused out loud. ¡°Shall we continue and investigate the source of this sand?¡± I asked. ¡°We should. We need to know if it is harmless or a danger. We also might find it is a resource that can be mined, especially with its high Spiritual content.¡± Ruku said. We kept moving forward. Granite Sense was not picking up much in the surrounding rock. Sense Treasure was ambiguous, so I thought that there wasn''t a great treasure up ahead. I kept at Sense Spiritual as well, mostly just to keep it levelling. After another half hour, we slowed and started moving carefully. Both our senses were picking up something ahead. We came to a large open cavern. The roof was very low, not enough to stand straight. It was roughly circular. My mapping ability and Map Making skills were working together to say it was about 70m in diameter. Granite Sense said it was over 10m deep of sand, but it couldn¡¯t sense the bottom. ¡°My Sense Spiritual is saying this is a highly Spiritual area. Much more concentrated than the sand we were walking on. I don¡¯t recommend using the Identify Skill, or similar in case it is a Monster.¡± Ruku said. I shared my senses data with him and then squatted down and put my hand out onto the sand to see if it was solid. The last thing we wanted to do was get sucked into a sinking sand trap. I created a pillar from the solid rock and tied a rope to it just in case. There didn¡¯t seem to be any life on the sand. No plants, no insects, no fungi. Just sand. Spiritual sand. I tasted some. It tasted like sand. I tied the rope around my waist and crawled carefully out onto the sand a short way. T¨¡oke stayed with Ruku, who kept one hand on the rope. Only after about three metres did my Granite Sense start reacting as it had never before. I concentrated on it and tried different things. It was sort of like changing frequencies in my Hearing Aid. My Granite Affinity was also starting to react. What the hell was this? Then my Granite Sense settled on a ¡®frequency¡¯, and I could sense something alive below me. Something massive and ancient. I backed up carefully to the edge. The whole sandpit resonated with my affinity. The whole sand pit was alive. ¡°What do you think it is?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°It is like the whole sandpit resonates with my affinity. I think it is a Sand Elemental. It is huge and ancient.¡± I replied. ¡°Have you ever come across one before?¡± ¡°No. I have only read about them in theory in a Monster Lore book that focussed on the Elemental Monsters.¡± Ruku said. ¡°It is definitely a type of Rock Elemental.¡± I said. ¡°Do you think it is hostile?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°I think it is so massive and so old we are irrelevant to it. I don¡¯t think it has conscious thought. It is happy to just sit and mine the rock. I wouldn¡¯t recommend disturbing it, though.¡± I said. ¡°Let me go out and see what I can sense,¡± Ruku said. We swapped the rope over, and he crawled out a short way, then stopped. It was almost five minutes before he crawled back. Before he did, he scooped a handful of sand to bring back. We put the sand into a container. ¡°My Sense Spiritual couldn¡¯t find a core. It seems to be spread throughout the main body of sand. My Ocean Sense got a sense of peace and contentment. That didn¡¯t change when I scooped the sand.¡± Ruku reported. He then put a finger into the container of sand and tasted it. After a moment, he said, ¡°My Tasty Skill doesn¡¯t quite know what to make of it. It tastes old and of many different things.¡± ¡°My Prospecting Class just levelled.¡± I said, ¡°Wait up, this gives me enough attributes to get Granite Manipulation finally.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what are the requirements?¡± Ruku asked. I saw no reason not to tell him, so I said, ¡°35 in both Spiritual Strength and Agility and 30 in Spiritual Perception.¡± He winced at those requirements. Granite Manipulation was restricted to granite in the Novice Levels and only opened to other rocks from the Apprentice Level. I had been planning to find a granite outcrop and practice and was expecting to hit Apprentice quite quickly. This sand wasn¡¯t granite, but it did contain a lot of quartz which was also the main ingredient in granite. I saw no harm in trying. I reached out as far as I could and got two handfuls of sand and then sat and tried to manipulate it. The Skill seemed to have trouble latching onto the sand. I pushed it more and tried to combine the different ¡®frequencies¡¯ from Granite Sense. I did feel the sand shift a little in my hand, but that was all. Granite Manipulation levelled to 2. It is a start. Just then, T¨¡oke crawled out onto the sand. I questioned him through our bond and he wanted to sense the creature for himself. I had been sharing my experience through the bond, so he knew what I had done. He paused about where we had crawled to. Then he burrowed into the sand. I could tell he wasn¡¯t far under the surface, but he was getting a full-body experience. ¡°Is he alright?¡± Ruku asked. I nodded, but all my attention was on the sensations coming through the bond. The Sand surrounding his body was magnifying the Granite Sense, and he could tell there were a number of key grains of sand acting like Beast Cores. Like ground-up cores but still functioning as a core. I think if we happened to scoop up one of these Core Grains, then we might have upset the Elemental. I told Ruku about this. I asked T¨¡oke if there was an area close with no core grains, and he identified one. I grabbed a larger sack and started to fill it from that area. T¨¡oke then came back to join us, and we made our way back down to the coast. ¡°This will only get us a reporting fee from the Mercenary Guild,¡± I told Ruku. ¡°I am not a member of the Guild,¡± he said. He smiled, ¡°The military doesn¡¯t have a very high opinion of the Guild. Do you think I should become a member?¡± ¡°Up to you. Being a member means you occasionally get interesting contracts and discounts from traders. Now that you are under contract with the Elemental Traders, you can get everything you need through them at staff rates.¡± I replied. ¡°What would the mercenary Guild do with a report like this?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°A large stationary non-hostile monster would get reported to the local authorities. I imagine a team will come to investigate, but even non-hostile can turn hostile if treated wrong. I imagine they will block the entrance and post warning signs once they have learned all they can. Then only the young and stupid will die when they ignore the sign.¡± I said. ¡°It is similar to when we encounter a monster at sea that can¡¯t be moved. We update the charts with the navigational hazard and keep an eye on it.¡± Ruku said. ¡°What are you going to do with the sand?¡± ¡°I am going to experiment with it. Both T¨¡oke and I have a high feeling of connection to it. So we will see what we can do with it. I will probably start with consulting our enchanter as she has a lot of knowledge about Spiritual Material.¡± I answered. The trip back to Obalno was uneventful, and I split the finder''s fee with Ruku. 84. Crafty Enchanters: Tabitha 84. Crafty Enchanters: Tabitha I think hiring Ruku was a mistake. MI has infiltrated us. Ruku is the sort of guy Wiremu will connect with. Older, experienced and a warrior. Regardless of the documents he signed and what he said, if he is ordered to report on us, he will. What is he going to do if he sees something illegal? I bet he has raided smugglers before. Half of my operation is in illegal goods bringing in two-thirds of the profit. Affinity users are not the only things the kingdom likes to track. They also like to keep tabs on Spiritual materials, enchanted goods, alchemical ingredients, and the list goes on. I have had tremendous trouble getting enchantment information and Runes for Mayakku to continue to learn so she can enchant things Nyx can use. That is only partly the government''s fault. Enchanters are a secretive bunch. And they are rich, so you can¡¯t easily bribe them or their workers, and I haven¡¯t got long enough in town to try blackmail. Hence that is the reason for tonight''s burglary. Trying to burgle an enchanter is as risky as trying to get through Wiremu¡¯s traps, and this is one of the city''s more prominent enchanters. I know for a fact she has specialisations in Powdered and Gem Enchanting as well as Massive Enchanting. She is a major Contractor to the Navy, and I think there are specialities we are not aware of. I have heard rumours she enhances shipping speed through specialised water and wind enchantments. The military specifically locks down these. I don''t want anything top secret. Information and examples of Powered, Gem and Massive Enchanting are what I am after. Mayakku is stymied in her development as an Enchanter. Wiremu got us a Monster Core, although I think Skavt actually got the kill. The Canine Queens took out a pack of Bone Dogs, who are scavengers that run in packs, about a metre high with a nasty bite and claws. More bone than fur. It was a small pack of twenty or so, and the alpha had the core and a Bone affinity. It was a nasty fight, so bad that Wiremu got his hammer out and used it. He doesn''t do that much. It was ?rt¡¯s bond, Kryddor, that got the most injured. That threw both ?rt and Wiremu into a frenzy. Wiremu is very sensitive about bonds after almost losing T¨¡oke to the lava dude. Even with a Monster core, Mayakku has not been able to work out how to use it. Monster cores have a different Spiritual energy than the type that comes from enchanters, and the trick is learning how to tap into that and use it to power the enchantment. Gems can also be used to enhance Enchantments, and the energy from them is different again. Each monster core and Gem type is slightly different, but Mayakku says once you get the basics, you can get the specialisation Class. Then learning the different types will help level the Class. All that brings us back to this monstrosity of a building in front of me. It was large. It was ostentatious. It flaunted its wealth to attract rich clients and turn away the not-so-rich. I hated it. The front was a shop and consultation rooms. Behind that was the workshop. A luxurious workshop. I went into the shop during the day, and the security was tight. I circled what I could of the building sticking close to the walls. The enchantments in the walls halved the distance of my Spatial Awareness skill, but from what I could tell, it was a labyrinth of different workspaces. There were some areas where my Skill couldn¡¯t penetrate at all. I was hoping what I needed wasn¡¯t in the high-security areas. There was a basement for deliveries and storage of spiritual materials. I was planning to swipe some of those on my way out. There were some patrolling guards, but I wasn''t sure how many as Spatial Awareness couldn¡¯t penetrate all the way through the building. The rear yard for deliveries had four dogs running loose in it. They seemed to be well-trained guard dogs. One side of the building abutted a neighbouring high-class tailor¡¯s store and workshop. I climbed the roof of the tailors and carefully made my way to where the buildings joined. The shared wall was double brick, and the enchanters had not neglected to enchant it. I didn¡¯t step over to the other roof as I could sense more enchantments, and on roofs, it is common to leave active traps as nobody should be up there. I ensured I got the Burglar Specialisation before attempting to crack this tough nut. Burglar only gave four attribute points per level. One was assigned to Physical Agility, and one to Spiritual Perception. Detecting the Spiritual was a key aspect of being a successful Burglar. I know when Nijel got this specialisation, he got a Find Hidden Skill. Fortunately, I didn¡¯t, as the Skill would have been useless with my Spatial Awareness. I got the Skill Spatial Pocket. I had never heard of it, but it gives me a pocket about 10cm cubed at level 1 to store things in. At each level, the space grows by another 10cm. By Journeyman level, it will be a cubic metre. It is a small space, and I use it to store my liquid and dust for use with my Shadow Manipulation. The space is secure to me, and the best thing is my Skills, like Shadow Manipulation, can access it directly. No hands are required. Nyx and I have taken a lesson from Wiremu and T¨¡oke and have been practising learning from each other. I have learned Binding Shadows and Syphon Energy. The good thing about Syphon Energy is that I can use it on anything with Spiritual energy. I can suck all the energy from a Spiritual Trap and negate it. Nyx has learned Coax, Engulfing Shadows and Sense Spiritual from me. She can coax her prey into her traps now, and Engulfing Shadows greatly enlarges her reach. Sense Spiritual is interesting. With Ruku¡¯s revelation of the Spiritual in the atmosphere, I was able to push my Skill to the Journeyman Level. I am getting pretty good at sensing the flow of Spiritual Energy. Nyx is even better at this. This is the energy she lives on. With our Elemental Bond now also at Journeyman Level, she can spread out her Engulfing Shadows and give me a map of the energy flow in an area. This is what I got her to do over the roof. She won¡¯t trigger any traps. The map I got back showed a regular pattern of dark spots where the energy was being sucked into the Rune Enchantments to help empower them and irregular brighter spots where the Spiritual Traps were leaking Spiritual energy. There was a Spiritual trap just to my right, and I moved to it and syphoned the energy out of it, thereby disarming it. I was fully aware this method would not detect normal traps. The roof was a key point of entry for me. I wasn¡¯t sure what the Enchantments were for. This was a risky area. They were certainly there to stop spying, but what else would they be for? They could be there to reinforce the roof against entry or act as an alarm and alert the guards. How long before the Enchantments run out if we blanketed the roof and syphoned the energy? This was a Master Enchanter, so I am thinking too long, even if she had one of her apprentices do it. It may have backup energy through a Monster core as well. Surely that would be too paranoid and costly. I decided to try it on just the Enchantment close to where I wanted to enter. I had Nyx cover the reduced area, and both of us Syphoned the energy out as fast as we could. As the enchantment wasn¡¯t getting additional energy from the atmosphere, it would run on the energy in the Spiritual material used in the enchantment till it ran out. Hopefully, we will syphon this as well. Then the enchantment would need to be recharged by an enchanter. We both syphoned for a full hour. Then we stopped, and I had Nyx redo the map to test if it worked. There was no dark spot there anymore, and I had a greater range of Spatial Awareness in that area. I got out a small pry bar and carefully loosened the roofing tiles. I was doing this near the edge of the roof by the tailors. Once I got enough tiles up to slip through, I could see the roof trusses, and there was a ceiling tile of some sort. I reached down to the ceiling tile and used my Shadow Manipulation to brush the small bit from the roof away from the tile I was planning to lift. I tied a very thin rope to one of the trusses. All going well, this would be my entry and exit, and nobody would know I had been until the roof finally leaked in the next big storm. It is always good to have a plan. Then you need several backup plans as it is extremely rare for everything to go according to the first plan. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I loosened the ceiling tile and lowered myself into the building. I was in a small work cubicle. There was a workbench with some leather stacked on it. I could sense containers under the bench were some Spiritual material. I had no idea what it was. Ideally, I was looking for tools and examples that they used to train their apprentices in Gem and Powered Enchanting. I left everything where it was and moved to the door. It was frustrating as all the internal walls were enchanted too. Maybe it wasn¡¯t just to stop spying but to control random Spiritual Energy from affecting the work. I should have quizzed Mayakku more about this before coming. The corridor was empty. I engaged Shadow''s Embrace and wrapped shadows around me, and it also reduced the sounds I made. I have never forgotten that Wiremu found me by the sound of my heartbeat once. I moved carefully toward the shop area. My theory was the more senior Enchanters would need to be accessible to consult for customers. I did check out other workspaces as I went, and they seemed to all be set up differently with different tools. One space per type of job? It did make some sense. I picked up a guard approaching, so I ducked into the nearest room and strengthened the Shadow''s Embrace till they passed. There was a corridor running parallel to the wall separating the Public area. The guard had just passed through it, but I had Nyx check for Spiritual anomalies. Apparently, only the walls and ceiling had runes. If they stored Spiritual materials in the basement, shouldn¡¯t the floor also have enchantments? There was an open space below me, according to my Spatial Awareness. I picked up the stairwell heading down to the other end of the corridor. I crouched down and examined the floor covering. It was some sort of woven wool. Then I noticed tiny markings at irregular intervals on the wall, which led my eye and Spatial Awareness to thin silky strands running from these markings to markings on the opposite walls. Just a normal physical trigger trap. That is pretty sneaky. The Guards know where to look and step carefully through here. Both my Detect Traps and Detect Spiritual Traps were in the Journeyman Levels. With my high Physical Perception and Spatial Awareness, I easily mapped the traps and stepped through them carefully. I didn¡¯t go downstairs, figuring the high-level enchanters probably preferred a window office. There were nice offices along the outside wall, so my reasoning seems correct. I entered the first one and started searching. Two draws blocked my Spatial Awareness, so a dab of oil from my Spatial Pocket, a Shadow Key and a Disarm Trap, and I was in. Mayakku had shown me what she thought she needed. She thought I was going to go and try to buy it and didn¡¯t think I would be successful. What was in the drawers did not look like what she wanted, but I decided to put it in my pack anyway. I closed and relocked the draws rearming the trap. Next office. The next two offices were similar, and I collected random stuff. I had no idea whether it was valuable or not. I hoped these thefts would distract attention from my main goal. They must have some value because they were locked away. The fourth office was my jackpot. It was a larger space comfortably fitting eight to ten people. There were chairs and a blackboard at the end. One wall was lined with locked cabinets. Simple locks, no traps. I started at one end, grabbing what I thought Mayakku needed and some other random stuff, especially if it looked valuable. My pack wasn¡¯t large enough to take everything. Just when things are going well, and I think I have succeeded, this is when things go wrong. The Dwarves call it Olycklig¡¯s Lore. I have no idea who she was, but I am becoming a firm believer. There was a shout from across the building at about the spot I entered. My entry had been discovered. I moved quickly to the next office, and then I had to think. Do I smash the window and run? Or do I try to hide? All of a sudden, the whole building is flooded with light, and I hear the sound of dogs being called. I grab a small desk and throw it at the window with everything I have. Smash and run was the plan, except the desk bounced rather than smashed. Of course, they don''t have normal glass. I moved back into the training room, spreading pepper powder along the corridor to put off the dogs. I kept some in case I needed to use them on the guards as well. I worked a ceiling tile loose and crawled into the ceiling space on one of the trusses. There was no way the ceiling tile would hold my weight. I put the tile back using my Shadow Manipulation to fix it in place. I had to fix it from the top as there were now no shadows in the well-lit room. It looks almost perfect to my Spatial Awareness. I started working my way carefully along the truss. I was above the ceiling enchantments but below the roof enchantments. I started working my way to the back of the building. I figured if the dogs were inside, this could be my exit. I didn¡¯t think I had an hour to disable a roof enchantment. I could hear voices and dogs below me. They were systematically going from room to room. No panic, just quiet efficiency. I hate competent guards. I heard the guard that found my entrance reporting to his senior. Apparently, the Spiritual atmosphere of each room was monitored, and the level in the room I entered was way off, obviously because I disabled the enchantment. Then he saw the hole in the ceiling with the rope. I knew this was a risky venture. I was getting close to the end wall when they found the pepper. That meant they were close to finishing the search. Then they would look in the less likely places. I could already hear a Guard searching on the roof. My entry point would now be a trap if I tried to exit the same way I came in. I spread Shadow through the ceiling cavity and examined the rear wall. Enchanted and trapped like all external walls. They also didn¡¯t take all the dogs inside. They took two and left two roaming in the rear yard. I need a distraction and then a successful bust-out and run. Plan B and C are a bust because of the competent guards and the dogs. I sent Nyx off to trigger Plan D while I drilled small holes in the wall while furiously trying to syphon the energy from the enchantments to make it easier. From a five count. 5 ¡­. 4¡­.. 3¡­. 2¡­. 1. The package I left outside the front door exploded as Nyx triggered it for me. At the same time, I exploded a small section of the rear wall making a gap to squeeze through and drop to the ground. Hopefully, my small explosion was covered by the larger one at the entrance. Except for the Guard standing by the rear door with his truncheon already out, and the two dogs were heading straight for me. Acid flung into the eyes of the Guard, the remaining pepper stalled one dog, and my own Nunchucks clobbered the other dog making him whine and pause as I sprinted for the fence while holding the wounded dog in my Binding Shadows. I figured the gate would just be another trap, so I went for the fence. I got to the fence before my pursuers and was up in no time. When I got to the top of the fence, I got zapped by some sort of lightning charge. Bloody enchanters! It is almost like they don¡¯t want to get robbed. My momentum carried me over the fence, and I fell to the ground, twitching. I staggered to my feet. If these guards were as competent as they appeared, they would have called for the city watch when they first discovered the break-in. I had to keep moving. I staggered over the next fence and then the next one. I was starting to feel better, but I was hearing sounds of a pursuit starting and yelling to get the Watch to intercept on the next road up. I changed direction and started to hit my stride. That lightning charge slowed me up quite a bit. Running from a pursuit really gets the adrenaline pumping. I enjoy this. Playing catch with the Watch is exhilarating. Nyx and I are so practised at this after Jern. She took my form and darted across a road leading a group of puffing Guards away from me to create an opening. I slip through their net and go full stealth. This is seriously child''s play after the crime war in Jern. Nyx soon joins me, and we make our way to a safe house. I take the opportunity to have a good wash. I scrub everything, head to toe, to get rid of the perfume. Pro-tip for burglaries, buy cheap common perfume and have a light covering over your body. Then scrub it off, and don¡¯t use it again. It will mean those with the Bloodhound Skill or similar won¡¯t be able to follow you easily. I leave all my clothes there and dress like a party girl heading home after a long night. I grab the backpack of stolen loot and stash it in a different hideout. Then I make my way back to the Inn for the remaining couple of hours of the night. It has been a long night. 85. Watchful: Tabitha 85. Watchful: Tabitha That afternoon, we got raided by the Obalno City Watch. Apparently, a local and prominent enchanter got robbed last night and other enchanters, especially foreign visiting enchanters, are prime suspects. They searched and made an absolute mess while we got a stern warning against receiving stolen goods, just in case someone might try to sell us something. That took most of the next day to clean up properly. Ruku¡¯s presence did make a difference. Things would have been a lot worse if he had not been here. Maybe he does have a use. Am''m¨¡ came up to me during the clean-up and asked quietly, ¡°Did you do it?¡± ¡°Absolutely not,¡± I replied. ¡°But I might be interested in some of the goods if they were to come on the black market.¡± She didn¡¯t look like she believed me. Perhaps the City Watch should hire some experienced mothers, and they might have more success. Mayakku was also giving me suspicious looks. What is it with these people? Is my Mimic Skill failing me? Both my Thief Class and my Burglar Specialisation levelled after last night. It is unusual for my Thief Class to level. Maybe I stole something of particular importance? It will be a few days before I will have a chance to go through the loot. The City Watch is living up to its name and watching us, so everything should stay normal for a while. Tomorrow night we are performing again for three consecutive nights. Sometime after that, I will check what I actually stole. I have a lot of attributes available to me. I have been saving them up. I look at Wiremu and T¨¡oke. Wiremu has Bond Senses and Snakeskin which are natural abilities of T¨¡oke. What natural abilities can I learn from Nyx? She naturally has an incorporeal nature. She does not have a physical form. She is ethereal and immaterial in nature. Can I do that? This is what we have been experimenting with, and I have been saving up my attributes as it will take a lot of them. It is an extremely high-level skill. All the Spiritual Attributes need to be at least over 40 and Spiritual Agility even higher. That is what Identify is telling me. I put everything into the Spiritual Attribute and got all three up to 40, but now I only have two spares, which is not enough. I have been trying to experiment with Nyx as well, but the attributes alone are not enough. I have to do something to trigger the Skill. That is going to be the hard part. All these attribute increases in the Spiritual have certainly boosted all my Shadow Skills. I used to be absolutely exhausted after a show, but now I have energy left. The increase in Spiritual perception has also boosted my Sense Spiritual Skill. It is now much more sensitive, even though the level hasn¡¯t changed. I am aware my Physical Perception is now over 40, yet I only have two Perception Skills, Darksight and Spatial Awareness. I could get two more Skills. I don¡¯t need any more sight skills. I have been considering Hearing Aid because Wiremu finds them so useful. I am still considering Sensitive Skin for the benefits of touch skills, but my Shadow Skills make lockpicking so much easier than the usefulness has dropped. I am not going to get it just for the sexual benefits. The other thing I am interested in is how Nyx ¡®sees¡¯. It is a sense of some sort, but I am not clear on how. It is strongly based on Spiritual Perception, so that is another reason to invest in Spiritual Attributes. Ruku gave me the contact details of Major Sione of Military Intelligence. I was putting off contacting him, but I finally left a message for a lunch meeting at an inn after the performances this weekend. I am not sure what to say to him or how much to reveal. He will probably get more than I want to reveal anyway, so stick to the basics. I upped the security around the Catkin. I do feel they are being unfairly targeted in this robbery. Species biases and professional snobbery while trying to stamp out the competition. That is just my opinion. I am not planning to check the loot until after meeting with the Major. What I don¡¯t know, I can''t reveal. There seems to be much more fuss about this robbery than I thought. Maybe it is more than the Master Enchanters'' political clout. Tonight''s performance went well. Drugi? was playing guard for us. Then Wiremu arrived. ¡°The Watch turned up at the warehouse and tried to take Mayakku away for questioning. App¨¡ and Mutalil wouldn¡¯t let her go, and the Watch was going to force it until Modrica flattened one of them.¡± I winced when Wiremu said that. ¡°Ilaiya slipped away to fetch me, and when Skavt and I arrived, Modrica had laid out half the watch, and they were drawing lethal weapons. App¨¡ and Mutalil had kept out of it and sheltered and guarded, Mayakku. The Watch only stopped when Skavt had Oske come out snorting and pawing at the ground with his head down, ready to charge. Skavt stepped in to mediate. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°The short story is that the Sergeant of the Watch wanted to arrest Modrica for assault on officers of the Watch. When she refused to go, and nobody was going to make her, she is now under ¡®House Arrest¡¯ and not allowed to leave the compound.¡± I snorted at that, and Wiremu also smiled. Modrica will go and do whatever she likes. Wiremu continued, ¡°Skavt got them to admit Mayakku was not under arrest, just wanted for questioning. They refused to answer when Skavt asked why it was a weekend night raid rather than a request to come to Watch Headquarters on Firstday. They refused to get the Investigator out to the compound to ask their questions, which Skavt pounced on, and it turns out the Investigator does not normally work weekends, and they were planning to have Mayakku locked up for the weekend for no reason. She has an appointment early on Firstday at Watch HQ.¡± I narrowed my eyes in thought. ¡°I suppose there is an increase in the Watch around the Compound?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes. Skavt insisted they be outside the compound, and we shut the gates. It wasn¡¯t hard for me to slip past them. I think Ilaiya could even get past them.¡± Wiremu replied. Stealth was Ilaiya¡¯s highest skill which was not surprising, as he was taught by Wiremu, who was a Master at it and had the Tutor Skill. ¡°Someone is pushing the Watch against us, even though there is no proof. It is probably the Master Enchanter. I don¡¯t even know her name. How many enchanters are there in Obalno?¡± I asked. I should have checked before now. ¡°Only two that are independent of the ¡®Enchanters Supreme.¡¯ The Master Enchanter¡¯s name is St?rst, by the way. She is a politically powerful Dwarf in the city. She has quite the reputation for rolling over her opposition and has quite the temper.¡± Wiremu said. ¡°I should know this already.¡± I half complained to Wiremu. ¡°You are working at least three jobs. You are doing too much already,¡± he replied. ¡°Besides, I have a Class for this, and I have finally started using it.¡± It was a far too public place to mention his Spy Class, but he was not the only one who could be making use of his Class. I should be benefiting from his Class. I am too used to thinking of him as a Hunter. A Spy is what I need right now. ¡°Right,¡± I said, ¡°do they need me at the compound?¡± ¡°It would probably be good to show up and reassure everybody,¡± he said. ¡°Ok. I assume they are taking a record of who is coming and going, so it might be fun to mess up their records and confuse our coming and going. I can also use that to reinforce their incompetence if Modrica¡¯s example was not enough. I assume they think you are in the compound?¡± He nodded. ¡°Right, well, you go to the inn for the night and turn up at the gate in the morning. I will sneak in and come out the gate, and we will continue to mess with their record of who is there and who isn¡¯t. I think we will relocate the Catkin. Getting their wagons out without the Watch noticing will be a trick, but worth it, I think.¡± ¡°Right. I will see you later, and we can plan for Firstday.¡± Wiremu went out with Drugi? and the Comedic Rhythm. I went into the compound and reassured everybody. Then Modrica and I went to the inn for the night. I went out the gate, and she went over the wall. The next day I secured a property just ten minutes outside the city wall. Obalno didn¡¯t sprawl outside of the walls as Hrothgar did, but certain industries were better being away from the city. Tanners, some Alchemists and Stonemasons etc. I found a small disused, open-cast quarry with rundown buildings. I ended up purchasing it for a minimal price. It was not Granite, but you can¡¯t have everything. We moved some of our goods to a shed on site, just with our normal coming and goings with wagons from the warehouse. We also moved the Catkin family. We would get their wagons to them the next day. T¨¡tt¨¡ was still working as a merchant for Elemental Traders, so he was working out of the warehouse, and Mayakku and Am''m¨¡ were busy enchanting in their wagon, but all the others went, including the kittens and Modrica. That night we moved the wagons. When I first got Engulfing Shadows, I had visions of galloping on Dusk silently through the night. A silent, fast shadow. Here I was using it to sneak four wagons out of the compound. This was the early morning after our performance. Nyx and I syphoned energy from the Watch guard till he fell asleep, and then I took the wagons silently out of the compound, one at a time. The watch guard awoke after an hour, but he would be lethargic until he had a good night''s sleep. The next day we covered the wagons with waterproof material to hide their shape, and the Canine Queens drove them out the city gate with clear markings that these were wagons from Enchanters Supreme. It was pretty simple. One more performance tonight, and then tomorrow morning is our appointment with the Watch and lunch with the Major. 86. Questions: Tabitha 86. Questions: Tabitha I took the plunge and got Hearing Aid. It is only Level 1, but even the passive increase at that level was noticeable. It will take a while to level, but it will only improve. I will wait for the other sense option to see if I can figure out how Nyx senses things. App¨¡ insisted on coming to Mayakku¡¯s interview. He was her father, so he had a reason, and it helped Mayakku¡¯s nerves. I was just grumpy that they were picking on her rather than finding the real culprit, which was me. We rode into the city. The gate Watch noted us down. These were the only Catkin in the City that I was aware of, so we were noticeable. We rode all the way to the Watch HQ and tied the horses up outside, making it obvious we were there. We announced ourselves at the desk and were shown to an interview room. My new hearing heard the door lock after we entered. I said loudly to App¨¡ and Mayakku, ¡°People like this like to make us wait and waste our time. Trying to make us nervous. However, we are not under arrest, and we don¡¯t have to be here, so we will give them an hour and then we will relocate and wait at the cafe next door. If they aren¡¯t done by Lunch, we will offer to come back as I am meeting Major Sione of Military Intelligence for lunch, and I am not going to be late. I am speaking loudly so the listener next door can give fair warning to her superiors.¡± App¨¡ and Mayakku looked at me a bit strangely. App¨¡ got up and went to the door and tried to open it and found it locked. He looked at me, and I just shrugged. We sat at the small table, and I pulled out a pack of cards, and we played a few friendly rounds. Five minutes before my hour was up the door opened, and a human in civilian dress came in, followed by the dwarven sergeant from the night raid. ¡°Hello, gentlemen, shall we deal you into the next hand?¡± I asked before they could say anything. The Sergeant acted predictably and started getting angry, ¡°This is not a gambling house!¡± He was heading toward the table, but the civilian, or rather the investigator, stopped him. ¡°No, and please put the cards away so we can get this interview done. I am Investigator Whitby.¡± There was only one more chair in the room, and he took it, leaving the Sergeant to stand. We packed up the cards and looked at him. ¡°We are investigating a serious burglary of Enchanters Supreme. What was stolen was specialist enchanter equipment and supplies. We believe it was stolen to order. Mayakku, I believe you are a Journeyman Enchanter?¡± Whitby started. Before Mayakku replied, I butted in, ¡°I have an objection. If this were an official investigation by the watch, then Master Enchanter St?rst would not be in the room next door listening to this interview. The fact that she is means this is a political and commercial attack, not a proper investigation into a crime. We are not talking anymore while she is there.¡± ¡°She is there to advise on specialised enchanting matters for no other reason,¡± Whitby replied. ¡°Bullshit. You would have an independent professional if that was the case.¡± I stated. ¡°This interview will proceed, or you will be detained for obstruction of an Official Investigation.¡± Whitby countered. ¡°I am happy to proceed once St?rst leaves,¡± I said. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Whitby looked at me very carefully. He was an intelligent man. I hated intelligent people opposing me. ¡°What is your relationship with Mayakku?¡± ¡°I am her employer. Personal Contract.¡± I replied. ¡°Mayakku. Do you want this person to represent you?¡± Whitby asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Mayakku replied without hesitation. ¡°Very well, Sergeant, clear the room next door completely.¡± The Sergeant started to protest, but Whitby shut him down, ¡°Do it!¡± After the Sergeant left, it didn¡¯t take Hearing Aid to hear the loud protests in dwarvish. After about five minutes, I nodded to Whitby, and he started with the normal questions. He started with the basics of identification, professional qualifications, and where you were the night of¡­. Etc. Then the sergeant came back and stood by the door. I am pretty sure Whitby could see Mayakku''s status and had some sort of truth-sensing or crime-sensing Skills, but he never let on what information he was getting. Then he asked technical questions about specialisations that Mayakku didn¡¯t have, vast enchantment arrays and specialised weapon enchantments. He didn¡¯t need independent specialist advice; he knew what he was doing. Mayakku was innocent and knew nothing, although she suspected a lot. She relied on her innocence, which was what she needed to do. Once Whitby finished asking Mayakku questions, he turned to me. ¡°You said you have a lunch meeting with Major Sione. Is that true?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I replied. ¡°What is it about?¡± he asked. ¡°It is confidential,¡± I replied. ¡°After today, there will almost certainly be pressure to expel you from the city,¡± Whitby said to me. I smiled and ensured the sergeant saw it, ¡°No doubt about that. St?rst doesn¡¯t like having competition. Even if her enchantments are so crap, a thief can march right through them.¡± I knew the Sergeant would relay that on to St?rst. I think Whitby knew that as well and frowned slightly. ¡°You don¡¯t seem worried about that,¡± he said. ¡°I own a caravan. Moving on is what we do. However, we will only move on when we want to. If we were forced to move on anytime in the next month, for instance, we would miss the Duke¡¯s Birthday Gala for his granddaughter.¡± He looked puzzled. I continued, ¡°It would mean the Comedic Rhythm would also be moving on and hence not performing, and I know he is making such a big thing about it.¡± I could tell they had both heard about the city-wide Gala, and Comedic Rhythm was a top act. ¡°You have a contract with them as well?¡± Whitby asked. ¡°They will be hired away easily enough.¡± the sergeant muttered loud enough for us all to hear. I smiled wider, ¡°That will be fascinating to see, as I am one of the key performers. Political games are so tiresome. Instead of playing political games, maybe you should do your job and catch a thief. You are obviously finished with Mayakku, so we are done here.¡± The Catkin and I stood up. Whitby had more questions, and I was pretty sure they were for me, and I did not want him asking them. The Sergeant actually changed the topic by saying, ¡°We will not be letting Modrica live.¡± ¡°Really, Whitby, will you let the Watch commit murder?¡± With a mild application of Intimidating Aura, I turned to the sergeant and said, ¡°I will let you know one of Modrica¡¯s many secrets. If you attack her, you also attack her, Krvne Sestre.¡± He paled, and I think Whitby was also shocked. Krvne Sestre or blood sisters have survived battles they did not expect to and are usually of similar fighting levels even though the Skills may differ. I just told them there were two Modrica-level fighters in the Caravan, and Modrica wiped the floor with them on her own. They will assume it is one of the other Orcs. That sort of misdirection is one of the main weapons of Modrica¡¯s Krvne Sestre. I let us out of the Interrogation room, and I don''t think they even noticed I unlocked the door. I left the sergeant''s keys at the main desk, and we rode to the warehouse. I left the Catkin and the horses there. They knew not to leave without an escort. Next up is Military Intelligence. 87. Second in command: Ruku

87. Second in command: Ruku

What the bleeding Kraken is up with these people that hired me? I have two days off at the village sorting things for a long absence, and I get back to discover they were raided again by the Watch. Modrica is supposed to be under house arrest for knocking eight of them unconscious, but she is nowhere to be found. The warehouse and compound are surrounded by the Watch, who are recording all entries and exits, yet when I enter, the place is almost deserted. Nobody lives there anymore. It is just used for business. The Watch doesn¡¯t seem to know that for some reason. I am not sure how they could have missed it. Where is Skavt? She is supposed to be my boss. I need to be brought up to speed. I found Skavt at the Inn they were staying at. I thought they had relocated from there as well, but apparently not. So, a night raid by the Watch, a brawl with the Watch, a new place outside of the city, relocating everyone without the watch knowing and tomorrow Mayakku had an interview with the Watch. How the hell did they get wagons out past the Watch? That is almost more impressive than the performance. What the hell have I got myself into? Skavt wanted me to take charge of security at the warehouse compound, which now had no one living there. A business and warehouse only. The horses had also been moved, so there were no animals to take care of. Skavt gave me the tour and showed me where Sten had placed traps in the most likely entry points. Thinking about how I would enter if I were to assault the place, I suggested a couple of more likely positions for traps. With two locations to protect now, we were short on guards. I guess at the warehouse compound. The Watch was doing our job for us at the moment. Skavt and I decided a pair of guards at a time was enough for the warehouse. I went out to talk with the two Watchmen at the gate. They were pretty reticent about talking at first, but I loosened them up by telling them I was a recent hire and ex-military. They honestly believed they were guarding a family of Catkin and a dangerous criminal under house arrest. I didn¡¯t tell them there was only two other guards and myself on the property. How on earth could they be so incompetent? At the end of my shift, Sten came and set some more traps and then took me out to the new site, a small quarry not far outside the walls. We went back into the city before the gates closed for the night. Skavt was in charge of the security out there, and between her and Sten, they had everything well in hand. The Catkin were much happier there, and the kittens roamed throughout the quarry. Sten wants me stationed at the Warehouse tomorrow. T¨¡tt¨¡ will be there conducting Elemental Trader business, and Skygge, Mayakku and App¨¡ should be arriving after their interview with the Watch. App¨¡ is an experienced Sentry, but he is not sure that is enough protection for Mayakku as somebody has it in for her. She is obviously not capable of pulling off the robbery they keep questioning her about, so I tend to agree with that assessment. In my assessment, Skygge would be entirely capable, but I keep that to myself. Both Sten and Skygge will be busy talking to Major Sione from lunchtime, and they are not sure how long that will take. The morning is fairly boring. T¨¡tt¨¡ is a shrewd old trader. Catkin are rare in the north, and people tend to underestimate him. He takes full advantage of that. He has several appointments and a couple of walk-ins. I keep an eye on the street. There is a buildup of rough-looking personnel on the street, so I think Sten¡¯s suspicions are correct. I warn the two guards on duty with me, especially the one at the gate. If he is approached, he is to direct everyone to me. Then he is to shut the gate and not let anyone leave, by force if necessary. It does not matter whether they are Watch or not. The other guard was to reinforce him at the prearranged signal or if she heard fighting. Neither baulked at potentially taking on the city Watch. They were a couple of solid dwarven guards. Skygge, Mayakku and App¨¡ arrived near lunchtime. They secured the horses and came into the office part of the building. I discussed what I had seen with them and the plans I had implemented. ¡°That¡¯s a good start,¡± she said. ¡°Sten has been keeping an eye on them, and because they expect Modrica to be here, he doesn¡¯t think the four of you will be enough.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± protested Mayakku. ¡°Sorry, the five of you, or would you also like to be included, T¨¡tt¨¡?¡± ¡°No thanks, I will leave the fighting to the youngsters,¡± he replied. ¡°Anyway, Najprej and Drugi? will be here in about half an hour. Sten and I can skip the meeting and circle back if you think we will be needed. Modrica will be with us as well.¡± Skygge said. ¡°How many did you count?¡± I asked. ¡°Sten says there will be between 15 - 20 fully armed and but lightly armoured. He says their orders are to take Mayakku alive. Everyone else is optional.¡± she replied. ¡°20 people about the same level as the Watch attacking the seven of us, who are expecting them and fighting on our home turf. It should be fine if you don¡¯t mind a bit of water damage.¡± I replied. ¡°Make that eight of us,¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ said, strapping on a knife, putting on a cloth, knife-resistant vest, and then handing a second vest to Mayakku. ¡°Water damage is fine. The sensitive goods are at the other end of the warehouse. If your fight gets that far go easy on the water. I don¡¯t want any of you to die. I think Sione will have some insight into what is going on, which is why I want to meet him sooner rather than later. I will get Sten to send T¨¡oke in with Najprej and Drugi?, as we shouldn¡¯t need him.¡± Skygge was stacking the odds toward us. That was something I was very much in favour of. ¡°And don¡¯t be afraid to trigger the traps. That is what they are for,¡± she added. ¡°What the hell do they think I know that I don¡¯t,¡± Mayakku complained. ¡°That is what we hope to find out.¡± Skygge replied. Skygge walked out the main gate in full view about the same time Najprej, Drugi? and T¨¡oke came in from the back, hopefully unseen. I didn¡¯t see her communicate with anyone, so how she got the message out about T¨¡oke was a mystery to me. I communicated our battle plan and contingencies to everyone, and we waited. Firstly, I no longer expected them to come in the gate quietly. I expected them to storm it. I put both dwarven guards on the gate with orders to not stop anyone entering but to stay alive at all costs. Once the main body of fighters was through the gate, they were to bring in any stragglers and shut and lock the gate. Their job was then to make sure nobody left through the gate. Next, I expected our attackers to be acting on bad intel. They were expecting the whole Catkin family to be here, which was where Modrica would normally be. With that in mind, I expected well over half of them to head to where the wagons used to be. Therefore, I expected only a half dozen or so to head to the office area and not their best fighters either. They should be easy enough to take out quickly. What happened next was that it would get messy. They might fan out to search the place, which would turn it into a game of cat and mouse. The advantage of that is to the Catkin, myself and T¨¡oke. They might try to storm the warehouse as a group. That would involve some hard solid fighting. Najprej, Drugi? and I would lead that response with shields in the doorways. They might try to torch the place. My water affinity would answer that. The worst case for us is if they managed to take one of us hostage. They would have the hostage situation in mind, as I am sure that would be one of their objectives when storming the Catkin wagons. All fights end up messy. We did what we could and waited. They stormed into the yard, and three-quarters of them went for the Wagon area, which was the part that went according to plan. One of the dwarven guards took an arrow to the leg and had to fight off two attackers who were obviously assigned to take control of the gates. They sported some serious injuries, but they prevailed, and I had made sure they had potions available, so they managed to shut and lock the gates. They won¡¯t be up for much defending the gates, but they have the trigger to the gate trap. Stolen story; please report. I had Mayakku at the back of the reception area visible from the doors and windows, hopefully, so they would focus on the goal and not the defence. She also had her back to a solid wall. The difficulty was the six they sent to the offices were all fast rogue types, and some had strong stealth, even in the daytime. I was inside, so my Sonar was restricted to the room I was in until they busted the doors and windows to enter. I had a short sword and a small shield, which I thought would be the best for this fight. They were fast, and more came in the windows than the door, which was the opposite of what I expected. Najprej and Drugi? were at the door, and App¨¡ and I were at the windows. T¨¡tt¨¡ was with Mayakku giving the impression they were non-combatants. They were our weakest combatants. Najprej and Drugi? easily stopped the two that came through the door. App¨¡ and I engaged one each from the windows, and I wounded another as they passed. That left two rogues loose in the room, one uninjured. My Sonar tracked them. I used my Enhance Attribute skill to enhance my Physical Agility to keep up with these speed specialists. I squirted water into the eyes of the rogue I was fighting and then Surged water across the room where one of the rogues was. They lost their balance for a second but didn¡¯t go down. I kept moving fast and only got a cut across the ribs rather than being stabbed. The armour meant it didn¡¯t even penetrate. I responded with an elbow to the head, a knee to the groin and a stomp breaking a leg. Unarmed combat for the win, although I noticed the rogue was female, the knee to the groin would not have been as effective as on a male. T¨¡tt¨¡ had gotten a surprise knife into one of the rogues but was now being overpowered. Drugi? was moments from helping. App¨¡ was still engaged in an equal fight. The rogue was faster, but App¨¡¡¯s shield work was equal to the task. I cast reverse Hydrate on the rogue. Hydrate can also dehydrate quite rapidly, sapping strength and giving App¨¡ the advantage. I moved toward Mayakku, who was grappling with the final rogue. The Rogue was winning, but her claws were being used to good effect. Then T¨¡oke dropped from the ceiling onto the back of the rogue injecting his venom into his neck. I helped lift the corpse off Mayakku. Drugi? and App¨¡ both finished their opponents. I stopped enhancing my attributes as I would need that skill again later, and it took a lot out of me if I used it too much. ¡°Well done, people. It was harder than expected, but we got there. If you are injured, take a potion. The more difficult part is about to start.¡± I said. Najprej came back inside. Her job had been to make sure there were no ambushes outside. ¡°What is happening out there, Najprej?¡± I asked. ¡°There are twelve left, and they look like they have split into three groups of four and two groups are moving toward the different entrances to the warehouse while one is moving toward the gate.¡± ¡°Right, we will move as a group to the gate. Najprej, Drugi? and App¨¡ are our shield wall, and T¨¡oke and I are rear guards. Where the hell is T¨¡oke? Never mind, I am rear guard. Let''s move.¡± T¨¡oke seems to have disappeared on us. The front gate is very close to the reception area, so we would be in time to intercept the group heading to the gate. The two guards were barely standing, but they were readying a defence. They were relieved to see us. Being outdoors, I activated Refreshing Mist to refresh the group, and there is also small ongoing healing from it after I got it to the Journeyman Level. As long as I have the Skill active, that is. I also activated my Whirlpool Shield. Whirlpool Shield should be called whirlpool armour as it circles my whole body. I only had it on lightly at the moment as I was not expecting any big hits. With Whirlpool Shield active, I can use my Water Sprint. Otherwise, it would be limited to when I was swimming. The attacking group were not pleased to see us and let out a horn blast telling the other teams where we were. ¡°They are in our Shield Charge range,¡± Najprej said quietly. I sized them up with my Interrogate Status, it is not foolproof, but it was telling me they were mid-level warriors. Newly minted Marine level. ¡°Just you and me. One pass only, and then form up back here. Everyone else on defence,¡± I said. ¡°On three.¡± I moved away from the group slightly, and then Najprej activated her Shield Charge, and I followed with my Water Sprint. She aimed for the centre of the group, and we caught them unprepared. She bowled the two in the centre, and I sliced and diced the two on the right. One of them had been bowled by Najprej, and the other one was off balance from his mate bumping into him. They weren¡¯t getting up again. It was tempting to finish them off, but my Sonar was picking up another group coming fast and being separated would be a disaster, so we rejoined the others. Two were out of the fight, one was taking a potion, and the other was guarding her. ¡°Good call,¡± I complimented Najprej. There was no sign of the third group. It was now us with four Classed fighters and two non-classed fighters against their six classed fighters. I wasn¡¯t counting our two wounded dwarves, but they were still there. It looked like they stacked all their rogues in the first group, which I was pleased about. There was an archer in the approaching group. My Refreshing Mist kept us fresh, and our physical energy recovered faster. It was also closing small wounds. We paused for a moment, crouched behind shields. I hated giving them the initiative, but I had two wounded and a VIP to consider. We had the gate to our back, so they had little choice but to try to punch through our shield wall. I wished I had a spear, but I had chosen the short sword because I figured we would be fighting indoors. Fighting always varies from the plan. There was a large Orc out front, and he pulled a two-handed war hammer from off his back. I guess they brought him to help counter Modrica. I am also guessing he had some shield-breaking skills. I swapped Shields with App¨¡ and took the centre. App¨¡¡¯s size was his weakness, and I definitely had more Physical Strength even though I didn¡¯t have specialist Shield Skills. ¡°Hammer Orc is mine. App¨¡, you are on quick damage. Disable as many as possible as quickly as possible.¡± He passed my shield to Mayakku and drew a knife in his off-hand, keeping his sword in his main hand. We started being peppered with arrows as the archer tried to find gaps in the shield wall. ¡°Take the archer out as soon as possible, App¨¡,¡± I added. ¡°Shields up.¡± We stood straight, raising our shields higher. ¡°Forward two.¡± We took two paces forward. This was for several reasons. Shield walls often get pushed backwards, and I didn¡¯t want to cramp our movement. It was also to encourage our opponents to attack. I didn¡¯t know where that third group was, but I didn''t want these ones to wait for them. It did the trick, and they moved forward in a loose formation. An arrow glanced off my Whirlpool Shield. There were more gaps in the wall now. I was about to signal a push, so they didn¡¯t get a free shot at us when they got in first and rushed forward. I quickly said, ¡°Forward One,¡± and we stepped forward and braced, trying to upset their timing. Najprej and Drugi? were well disciplined in holding and moving a wall. At the same time, I pushed a large Water Surge forward to upset their footing further, and I used Enhance Attribute to increase my Physical Strength. The Orc powered through, and I met his power hit with an angled Shield Bash. While my Skill and Enhanced Strength partially mitigated the Orc''s Skill, the momentum and power behind it broke the shield and my arm. Enhancing my Physical Strength did not enhance my bones. My body was angled to the side and wasn¡¯t pushed back or down as he expected. My sword was also already moving with a Piercing Strike enhanced by my Physical Strength. It went through his armour and ribs but missed his heart. He will need to take a breath to see if I got his lungs. Because my Shield Bash was angled, he didn¡¯t meet the resistance he was expecting and lost his footing in the wet. T¨¡tt¨¡ was quick to move forward and thrust his knife into the Orc''s throat. I was busy with the next attacker and only had one arm. I parried with my sword, but she had some sort of triple strike Skill, and I took some wounds in the gaps of my armour despite the Whirlpool and Tough Hide. The injuries were not deep. Two can play that game, and I used Fast Strike to disarm her, literally. I then stopped enhancing my Physical Strength as I can forget my strength with it on, and I want to leave some capability for the next group. Next to me, both Najprej and Drugi? had successfully bashed their attackers back. I looked around, and the archer was down, and the last guy was running, App¨¡ close behind him. I was about to yell to App¨¡ not to go too far as there was another group somewhere when he tripped the runner and knocked him out. Some of those that were down would live. We made sure they wouldn¡¯t be a danger, and the two dwarves would watch them while we formed up to look for the third group of attackers. I had Najprej strap my arm tight so it wouldn¡¯t move. This wasn¡¯t the first time I would fight with a broken arm. I Hydrated everybody and had Refreshing Mist running. T¨¡tt¨¡ complained to me about his weak bladder in his old age, and he slipped around the back of the Gatehouse to take a leak. I have to watch out for that with my Hydrate skill. I was used to working with young fit warriors. We found the missing group. They were spread out in a section of the warehouse. Two were dead of Venom, one had their neck broken, and the last had a rock spike in his head. T¨¡oke is bloody scary. There was no sign of him either, so I hope he wasn¡¯t seriously injured. We gathered the living in the corner of the warehouse and made sure no one would die on us before we got to ask them questions. Of the original twenty attackers, there were five alive. Two were rogues, the one I broke the legs of and App¨¡¡¯s opponent. The Archer was alive and the one who tried to run as well as one of the others from our fight. We also gathered the dead and looted everybody, dead and living. We didn¡¯t even need to trigger any traps. The difference between success and failure was the difference in the information we had. They had bad info, and we had good info. The questions for the prisoners will wait for the boss to return. 88. MI: Wiremu

88. MI: Wiremu

Firstday was looking to be busy. My role today is Scout, Spy and backup if needed. I first shadowed Tabitha, Mayakku and App¨¡ to the Watch HQ and waited in case they needed backup. After about an hour and a half, the door crashed open, and a very angry dwarf rushed out accompanied by two subordinates. I recognised her as St?rst the Enchanter, and she was swearing up a storm. My dwarvish is getting near fluent, but I definitely heard some previously unknown words here. I decided to follow her. I was dressed casually and using Veneer to make small changes. I had various coloured shirts and accessories on me to blend in. It is a better use of Veneer than playing pranks on the staff at the inn. Veneer was becoming more useful but it was still only small things like hair colour. I could appear to change the shape of my eyes and bone structure a little. I could appear to have buck teeth but couldn¡¯t stretch to Orc tusks. I could change the tone of my skin, but only small areas, e.g. face and hands, were OK, but not whole arms. That included changing to a nice Orc green. What I was missing was an acting skill. I was relying heavily on my Deceive Skill, which worked but wasn¡¯t great. When I followed St?rst, I was back to the pale skin of my youth. I felt a bit strange, especially after paying all the gold to darken it. I listened to her all the way to the Enchanters Supreme. My dwarvish went up to 9. It was clear she had some sort of backup plan that she was going to put into action. Shortly after she entered the building, three employees came out and ran in three different directions. I picked one to follow. After about a quarter-hour run, he knocked at a house and was let in. Only about two minutes later, six armed people came out and headed south. They were obviously ready and waiting. So I changed some details and followed them. They congregated in a tavern close to our warehouse compound, and after three more groups arrived, they went upstairs to a private room. I wasn¡¯t sure how many there were, but there were more than fifteen of them. A smartly dressed man arrived and gave them their instructions to capture Mayakku alive. They were to wait till Skygge left, and then they would go in. There was a kill order on a large female Orc with a scar down her face. That was the deal they had with the Watch. They were free to loot anything they liked after the capture and the kill. It was to look like a robbery. The man then talked to the two Watch patrollers at the gate. I saw coins change hands, and they were replaced by two of the other group. Only Ruku and T¨¡tt¨¡ were in the warehouse with two other guards. Do I get them out and let the raid happen in an empty place? We will lose a lot of goods for no gain. If we can capture some people to question, it would help. Skavt and ?rt are at the quarry, but Najprej and Drugi? should be at the Inn. I went there to give them a heads up and time to get their armour on. I then went back to the Watch HQ. I wrote a note and put it in Dusk¡¯s saddle where Tabitha would find it and waited. It wasn¡¯t much longer when they emerged and mounted up. I saw Tabitha read the note, and then she sent Nyx to me. Nyx couldn¡¯t speak or write, but she could follow instructions. I got out our symbol board when she made her presence known, and she followed Tabitha¡¯s instructions about which symbols to press with her Shadow Manipulation and in the necessary order. The alphabet was too slow, so we had a number of symbols worked out for common things and people. Nyx¡¯s ¡°Talk warehouse Ruku¡± was enough for me to know she would discuss it with Ruku. When she was away from the HQ she talked quietly to herself, saying she would prefer to continue to meet with Sione as he may have answers. In my opinion, that would depend on how confident Ruku was. I let Tabitha discuss things with Ruku while I scouted the opposition to make sure nothing had changed. Nyx came to me with the message, ¡°T¨¡oke in fight.¡± I swung around to leave T¨¡oke with Najprej. T¨¡oke''s presence gave me more confidence, and he could indicate through the bond if he wanted us to return. We would probably be too late if it was an emergency, but it was something. I shadowed Tabitha until she met with Modrica and then went on ahead to the tavern where the meeting was to be held. I had a table for one reserved on the balcony of the first floor of the Tavern where the meeting was to be held. I should be able to watch the street and listen in. I switched disguises before entering. I was now dressed like a well-off playboy. Pasty white skin, red hair and green eyes. I pushed Veneer to add a few freckles and a goatee. Tabitha hates goatee beards, so yes, I was winding her up a bit. She may not see me, but I am well inside her Spatial Awareness range, so she will know. Veneer was mid-Apprentice Level now and getting more flexible and able to stay active for longer. My status now showed me as a Merchant with a speciality in Fine Goods. My Manipulate Status was now Journeyman Level, and I was impressed that Ruku¡¯s ability to look at statuses was not able to penetrate it. That gave me more confidence. Tabitha and Modrica arrived shortly after me and were seated inside on the first floor. They were out of sight from me but easy for Hearing Aid to listen in. Major Sione was easy to see coming as there were not many Mer in town, and he was the only one in military uniform. He was accompanied by a young human female in civilian dress. They were shown up, and I heard Tabitha stand to greet them. Modrica didn¡¯t. ¡°Hello Skygge,¡± Sione greeted her. ¡°I was expecting Sten as well? You must be Modrica.¡± I assume they were shaking hands or something. ¡°This is Abigail.¡± ¡°Sten was held up with an issue at the warehouse and won¡¯t be here. You may be able to shed some light on the issue for us?¡± Tabitha was not beating around the bush. ¡°Oh?¡± Sione queried. ¡°Yes. Do you know why St?rst would send twenty fighters to storm our warehouse to capture our enchanter?¡± She asked. ¡°Twenty fighters attacked you? You obviously prevailed.¡± Sione said. ¡°No, they waited till I left before they attacked. The fight will be happening now.¡± Tabitha corrected him. ¡°Yet you are sitting here? You are reputed to be a good fighter, Modrica. Why are you not there?¡± Sione asked. ¡°We are not needed there,¡± Tabitha answered. ¡°You sent us Ruku, and he seemed very capable.¡± ¡°Against twenty fighters?¡± Sione sounded concerned. ¡°He has got some help,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°We want to know why because it doesn''t make sense.¡± There was silence for a moment. I took the opportunity to check with T¨¡oke through our bond and was reassured everything was fine, and I was to leave him alone as he was hunting. ¡°This is not how I expected this conversation to go,¡± Sione muttered. ¡°You are aware St?rst was burgled last week.¡± ¡°Yes, the Watch won''t stop questioning Mayakku, and she is obviously incapable of it.¡± Tabitha was starting to get angry. Sione won¡¯t know her well enough to recognise it, but I did. Abigail was staying silent, but she was obviously brought here for a reason. ¡°I think the prevailing opinion is that she knows more than she lets on. Whitby¡¯s report should clarify that, and I should have a copy on my desk when I return. For us, at MI it is more about what was stolen. St?rst was supposed to be looking at the enchanting in some diagrams we acquired, which were stolen from her desk.¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°You left sensitive military information in a place where any old thief could break in and steal it?¡± Tabitha said in disbelief. ¡°We checked her security, and we are confident that not ¡®any old thief¡¯ could do this. It would take a very specialised thief or, more likely, thieves. A few weeks ago, I requested information on people in the Kingdom with a Shadow Affinity. There was a thief registered with the Jern Mercenary Guild who appeared to have a Shadow affinity. Her name was Tabitha Carter. I believe she could have done this. However, the records state she and her brother Warren were assassinated in Hrothgar about a year ago.¡± Sione stopped and just let the statement hang. ¡°You think this burglary required someone with a Shadow Affinity?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°It required a lot more than just an affinity, but I think that was needed. I put through the request because I believed there was a shadow affinity user in the Comedic Rhythm performance.¡± Sione continued. ¡°What would you be wanting with such a person?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°A person with such an affinity is wasted in mere entertainment. Especially if they have the skills to rob Enchanters Supreme.¡± Sione started. ¡°That is an unsupported connection between the two events.¡± she declared. ¡°Nonetheless, I would be looking to employ such a person.¡± Sione finished. ¡°Imagining that there is such an amazing person, I doubt there was anything you could offer them. The world would already be there for the taking. That is why such a person would not exist.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Oh, I don''t know,¡± Sione said. ¡°People don¡¯t exist in a vacuum. The Merpeople are big on family, so an offer to me that benefits my family is much better received than just a coin-based transaction. I think the same is true for the Orcs.¡± He nodded to Modrica. ¡°Some people also have a cause they are keen on. A deal that benefits or helps them with the cause is often well received. I know, for instance, that a lot of people, Orcs included, are opposed to the slavery that is rampant in the empire.¡± This guy was very dangerous. He had received information, but he was very clever at using that information. To entice and offer help to Modrica and the ¡®family¡¯ and help to combat slavery is pressing all the right buttons. Tabitha changed the topic. ¡°You know the city watch is riddled with corruption?¡± ¡°Really?¡± Sione asked. ¡°Sten witnessed the patrollers at the gate be bribed to leave, and the ones attacking our warehouse had a deal with the Watch to be sure to kill Modrica.¡± Tabitha explained. ¡°Can you prove this?¡± Sione asked. ¡°Sten witnessed the bribery, and there are bound to be some survivors of the attack to question.¡± Tabitha continued, ¡°We don¡¯t particularly want to hand those survivors to the Watch as we think they will disappear. ¡°You are very sure of the outcome of the fight.¡± Sione was puzzled. ¡°We can go there after this if you like,¡± Tabitha offered. ¡°I was hoping to talk to Sten as well,¡± Sione said. ¡°Would that be about his affinity?¡± Tabitha said bluntly. Sione wasn¡¯t expecting such a blunt admission of the affinity, but Tabitha and I figured it wasn¡¯t a secret that could be kept, even though we didn¡¯t want to advertise it. I didn¡¯t want to have offers from all the trading houses, but we figured Sione already knew so we could use it to bargain with. ¡°It would,¡± Sione said. ¡°He is not interested in working for you either,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to offer him a job. I was going to offer him some help with his cause.¡± Sione said. ¡°Help with no strings attached?¡± asked Tabitha sceptically. ¡°Well, in this case, helping him will also help us in our opposition to the empire. Let''s say a few strings, loosely held.¡± ¡°At least you are not trying to hide it, although strings tend to multiply and tighten over time.¡± Tabitha accused. ¡°I am sure you will have some sharp instruments and contingency plans to cut them loose if you get unhappy.¡± Sione was at least being honest as far as Truth Sensing could tell. ¡°As long as everybody keeps that in mind,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°What about you, Abigail? Why are you here? You haven''t said a word. Are you here to seduce Sten? Honestly, he is too smart to be taken in by a pretty face, so you are wasting your time there. On the other hand, I might be up for a few rounds. Shit, she is blushing. Really Sione?¡± ¡°Abigail is not here to seduce anybody,¡± Sione said firmly. ¡°She is here looking for someone to help her get her parents out of the empire.¡± ¡°A sob story is definitely Sten¡¯s weakness. I am not sure you noticed, but we are far from the empire here.¡± Tabitha was not giving any slack here. ¡°Her parents¡­¡± Sione started. ¡°Wait!¡± Tabitha interrupted, ¡°Why don¡¯t you let her tell it?¡± My Truth Sensing is probably a lot more effective on Abigail than Sione. ¡°My parents own an independent trading vessel called the Seabreeze.¡± Abigail started. She was quietly spoken and seemed quite shy. ¡°They normally trade between here, Kirghiz and the Mer islands but make the occasional trip elsewhere if the cargo is profitable enough. They had a shipment to the empire¡¯s Northport. They had made the trip before with no problems, but this time they disappeared, and I can¡¯t get a response from anyone.¡± ¡°How do you know they didn¡¯t just sink in a storm?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°The Shipping Guild keeps track of those details, and they have verified the Seabreeze arrived in Northport, but they have no record of it leaving.¡± Abigail was quite calm. ¡°When did this happen?¡± Tabitha queried. ¡°About eight months ago now,¡± she replied. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you expect us to do. Northport is only accessible by ship from this direction, and we are heading south to Kirghiz.¡± Tabitha said. She was quite hard on them. I guess she is right that I am a softie for a sob story, but I think she is being a bit hard. It is giving Truth Sensing a good read, though, and I don''t believe Abigail has lied yet, although with Truth Sensing being at a higher level, I am getting the feeling she isn''t telling the whole truth. Sione would be able to lie without me sensing it. ¡°I¡­ ah, I need to get to Kirghiz, and I want to work for my passage.¡± She was very close to lying there. She wants more than that. ¡°So you are broke. We are not a charity, and Sione would not have brought you to this meeting without another purpose. What is it? No, not you, Sione, her.¡± ¡°I ¡­ ah ¡­ I have an affinity and want somebody to learn from,¡± Abigail said quietly. ¡°This kingdom is good at training affinities. All you need to do is serve five years in the military. Why not do that?¡± Tabitha continued to push. ¡°I obtained an exemption for her,¡± Sione said. ¡°Of course you did, and I am guessing her parents weren¡¯t just merchants were they? They were on your payroll, right?¡± I didn¡¯t hear anything, but Tabitha must have gotten some sort of affirmative. She continued, ¡°Are you here to spy on us, Abigail?¡± ¡°N-n- no, ma¡¯am.¡± Abigail sounded truthful, surprisingly. ¡°Don¡¯t, ma¡¯am me. I am no lady. I am also not convinced. If that is what you want, you will come to an interview tomorrow at noon at our warehouse, and you will come alone.¡± Again she must have gotten some kind of nod. ¡°You can come with us now, and I will show you where it is. Sione is coming with us too. There will be blood and dead bodies. Don''t bother turning up tomorrow if you can''t handle that.¡± ¡°Whitby is one of the reliable members of the Watch and high enough not to be bullied. If you want the Watch involved.¡± Sione said. ¡°I am not sure yet. The Watch might be more trouble than it¡¯s worth.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Let¡¯s go and see what happened first.¡± They rose and paid for their drinks. They hadn¡¯t eaten anything, not like I did. There was quite nice food here. I watched them walk down the road toward the warehouse and watched for people who might follow or go and report elsewhere. Modrica stood out wherever she was, and the Watch wanted her. Nobody followed, but two people scurried off quickly. 89. Sense Able: Wiremu 89. Sense Able: Wiremu I decided not to follow the watchers, but I figured one of them would report to the Watch and the other, at a guess, to St?rst. Tabitha was smart to take Sione to the warehouse as it would stop any over-enthusiastic people. I am not sure what she plans for this Abigail girl, but I guess we will discuss it before tomorrow''s meeting if she turns up. I let Veneer go completely in the alley behind the tavern and put on a plain work shirt. I set out at a jog for the warehouse. I swung around the back, avoided the watchers and went over the fence. My trap was unsprung, so no one had tried to escape this way. I saw Drugi? first. ¡°Everyone OK?¡± I asked. ¡°Three were wounded that will take more than a day to heal. They have had potions, except for Ruku, who claimed he didn¡¯t need them for his broken arm. His Refreshing Mist is fantastic. Keep him around.¡± I took that as a good sign. ¡°Military and probably the Watch are on their way,¡± I said. She nodded. I walked into reception, and Ruku, Mayakku and T¨¡tt¨¡ were there. T¨¡tt¨¡ and Mayakku were wet sweeping and mopping up. There were windows missing and glass all over the floor. ¡°I hear everything went OK?¡± I greeted them. ¡°Yes, you have some good warriors here. The only one who didn¡¯t follow instructions was that snake of yours.¡± Ruku replied. ¡°Sorry, I should have been here,¡± I said. ¡°It is no problem. He more than pulled his weight. I am just used to people obeying orders.¡± Ruku replied. ¡°Unfortunately, he is like me,¡± I replied. ¡°I can believe that.¡± Ruku said. I heard Tabitha greet the gate guard and enter. She told him to relock it and, when someone comes, come and get her, not open it. Ruku and I went out to meet them. ¡°Everything went well?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Well enough.¡± Ruku replied, then he turned to Sione, ¡°Major.¡± He greeted him. ¡°I heard you had a fight on your hands, Ruku,¡± Sione said. ¡°A small skirmish.¡± Ruku replied. ¡°Anyone left we can talk to?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Five. Najprej and App¨¡ are watching them. Come this way.¡± Ruku said. Then he turned to Abigail and said, ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Ruku.¡± ¡°Oh yes, sorry, everyone, this is Abigail.¡± Tabitha said and introduced us, ¡°This is Ruku and Sten.¡± As we walked to the prisoners, Tabitha sidled up to me and whispered, ¡°Your status is still showing Merchant and Fine Goods, not that you would know a fine good if I smacked you in the face with it. I was very tempted to smack you in the face to cover that ridiculous goatee.¡± Score one for me. ¡°I am sure Abigail would have liked it,¡± I replied while I fixed my Status. She just scoffed. We decided to hold the interview in front of the Major, and with a bit of persuasion and flexing of the Truth Sensing Skill everything was confirmed, and we got a contact name in the Watch and the name of a contact in the Enchanters Supreme organisation. Abigail was unhappy with our persuasion methods, but that is her problem. I considered them mild, especially as these people came to kill us. Then we heard banging on the gate and a demand to ¡°Open up for the City watch!¡± I heard the gate guard talking quietly. I turned to Tabitha, ¡°What do you want to do?¡± I asked in front of everyone. ¡°Do you want to involve the watch or handle it ourselves?¡± I think Ruku, Sione and Abigail all assumed we would hand things over to the watch. ¡°I am not sure,¡± she replied. ¡°It would be much easier to handle it ourselves. Let¡¯s see who is at the gate and then decide. Modrica, you had better come and show your face, after all, you''re the one who is supposed to be here. The rest of you can come or not.¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. They all decided to come. ¡°Hello, the Watch,¡± Tabitha greeted them. ¡°How can we help you today?¡± ¡°Open up! We have reports of fighting.¡± The Sergeant demanded. ¡°Fighting! Do you mean somebody got past your watchful patrollers? Nobody would get in here without it being recorded on that paper that your people kept making notes on. Can I see it?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°No, because we need to investigate the fighting,¡± he said. ¡°What you mean is, no, because your patrollers were paid to abandon their watch so we could be attacked.¡± Tabitha accused. ¡°Nonsense. You will not make such accusations without proof.¡± he challenged. ¡°I saw it, sergeant. It was that patroller and him,¡± I pointed them out of the crowd of the Watch. ¡°They were given a bag of coins with the symbol of the Kirghiz treasury. I am sure many here will have a Truth or crime-sensing Skill. Why don¡¯t you question them? If you refuse, I will have to assume you are in on it.¡± I was not leaving them any choice if I could. I was counting on there being reliable patrollers in the group. ¡°That is an excellent idea, Sergeant.¡± A voice came from the back, and Investigator Whitby strode forward. ¡°You there, did you take a bribe to leave your post?¡± he questioned one of the people I pointed out. ¡°No, Sir,¡± was the reply. ¡°That is a lie. You are detained for bribery. Hold him.¡± Whitby turned his attention to the other one. ¡°Detain him as well, and I will question him later.¡± Patrollers near the men bound them. ¡°I will be questioning you as well, sergeant, along with the others on watch here. I have had considerable resistance to my investigation here, and key people have been put at risk.¡± The corruption in the Watch runs deep with powerful backers if the people whose job it is to sense crime turn a blind eye to crime in their own midst. He turned to Tabitha, ¡°Were you attacked?¡± ¡°Indeed we were, Investigator.¡± Tabitha replied. ¡°They were instructed to capture Mayakku and kill everybody else. There are some still alive who will answer your questions.¡± ¡°Well, open up and let''s see them.¡± Whitby led the way in. We showed them the bodies and those still alive. They were led and/or carted off, and Whitby questioned Mayakku again, as none of us could understand why she was targeted. Sione¡¯s answer was obviously incomplete, and he had left shortly after the Watch arrived along with Abigail. There was more going on here than just some stolen plans. The Watch and everyone now knew we had a new place outside the city. We will have to up our protection on it. It was still easy enough to smuggle Modrica out to the quarry. The Watch here in Obalno is pathetic. I know the Kingdom does not have strict entry requirements into their cities, but it is still pathetic. My Spy class levelled. My classes are all over the place. Hunter, Quarryworker and Monster Hunter are all primarily Physical Classes. Spy, Prospecting and Scout are Mental and partly Spiritual. My affinity required Spiritual attributes. I gather from Ruku that he was Physically based with Spiritual Attributes for his affinity. His Mental attributes were boosted later by the Leadership Class. Tabitha is focussing on Mental and Spiritual. At the end of the day, my Granite has become the core of my abilities along with the Skills I have learned from T¨¡oke. So that is where I should focus. I have been puzzled why more people don¡¯t form bonds with animals. I know there are compatibility issues from what I have seen with Skavt, but the benefits are huge, and it is not rare like affinities. I would encourage everyone to try to form a bond. I have taught Ilaiya the mental techniques, and he is practising. I know the Hunter and Forrester-type classes make bonding easier, but Tabitha and Skavt show that anyone could do it. I wonder what Skills Skavt has from Oske? Maybe she now has the ability to eat all the time or become a vegetarian. Eating, possibly. Vegetarian, definitely not yet. I have enough mental attributes to get a second bond, in theory. In practice, it is much more difficult. There are compatibility issues with your existing bond. I have discussed things with T¨¡oke, and he is not against it but not necessarily keen either. Another bond actually becomes a three-way bond which hugely complicates things, and T¨¡oke would have to be a big part of it. The new bond will need to be compatible with both me and T¨¡oke. I can get another Physical Sense. I have Hearing Aid, Farsight and Darksight. With the Bond Senses I don¡¯t need any smell ability. I am not interested in tasting my cooking, and Sensitive Skin is just strange. I doubt I will be able to get Spatial Awareness or Sonar, although I might try. I understand Ruku got Sonar through his bond and that it is a natural ability of the Mer. I am going to explore different options as I am looking for an advanced skill if I can. I have a lot of different sensing Skills, so I will start with those. Sensing this sand from the Sand Elemental is frustrating me. In some ways, it is similar to when the Granite Sense resonated with the gem dust in the knives. In other ways, it is different. All my Granite Skills are easier to use through it. Granite manipulation still struggles, but I think that is because it is still at the Novice level. Creating a Spike, Wall, Quake and Shield are all much easier on the sand. Granite Sense also seems empowered. I am thinking if I was to have armour, or even gloves and boots made incorporating the sand, it would boost the efficiency of my skills. I think that is good, but there should be more. When I had the Troll hide armour, it took on some properties of the Troll, which was stronger with the higher-level craftsman. What are the properties of the Sand Elemental? All I am aware of is that it sat there and dug itself into a deeper hole. Although it also maintained a link to the ocean. What is that about? The other question is finding a craftsman who will work with the sand. The two Blacksmiths I tried turned me away and suggested a Glass Blower. I don¡¯t want glass armour and making it into a bottle seems pointless. Maybe I am missing the point of a Rock Affinity. Rock is hard and heavy, and Granite is one of the harder rocks. Permanent structures are what Granite is used for. It might be worth talking to the local Stone Mason and seeing what the options are. However, it is very clear that I won¡¯t be changing my transitory lifestyle anytime soon. I need time. The time I am not getting it because Tabitha dragged us into the middle of a bed of corruption in this city. She did that by burglarising a place. Somewhat ironic, I thought. 90. Abigail: Wiremu 90. Abigail: Wiremu ¡°What did you think of Abigail?¡± Tabitha asked me. ¡°She was generally truthful in her replies to you at the lunch meeting, including not spying on us. That won¡¯t stop Sione from getting information out of her, though.¡± I replied. We were waiting to see if she would turn up for the interview. I thought she probably would. Tabitha was doubtful. I guess it would depend on how desperate she was. ¡°Sione knows more than he is letting on. Stolen plans aren''t enough reason to target Mayakku at the cost of twenty fighters.¡± Tabitha added. ¡°Agreed. He is definitely using us to be the spark to clean out the watch, but there is more going on, and it has something to do with Enchanters Supreme.¡± I said. ¡°Do you think we can use Abigail to get information from Sione?¡± ¡°I doubt it. She may be willing to work her way to Kirghiz, but I bet she wants free education on the way.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°So what do we want in return? I guess that is what we need to find out. What is she willing to give?¡± My Hearing Aid picked up her voice at the gate. ¡°Here she comes.¡± Abigail was obviously nervous, and we did nothing to put her at ease. My Truth Sensing Skill is more accurate if they are off balance. I did feel sorry for her a little. After some basic introductions, Tabitha jumped in with, ¡°Please tell us what affinity you have.¡± ¡°A Wood Affinity. It is a general wood affinity, not related to any type of wood, and it is not a nature or tree affinity.¡± She replied. ¡°What about classes and Skills?¡± I asked. Tabitha will already know her classes from her Spatial Awareness. What a cheat that is, but I didn¡¯t, and it will be interesting to hear from her. ¡°I am a Novice Shipwright (Basic) and a Novice Joiner. So I can make a basic hull and fit it with the necessary wooden amenities.¡± She answered. ¡°No combat Class?¡± I asked. She shook her head. ¡°But you do have some combat skills?¡± She nodded. ¡°I have Blunt Weapons, Staff Weapons, Small Blades, Spear and Shield. Wood Shaping is my highest Skill, but I also have Wood Manipulation, Splinter and Sense Wood.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t appear to have any wood on you. How would you defend yourself now?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°There is always a lot of wood around. I would use this chair I am sitting on.¡± She answered. ¡°Show me,¡± I said. She stood up and grabbed the chair, and a leg came off in her hand and shaped into a truncheon, and the seat became a rough shield. ¡°How much energy did that take?¡± I asked. ¡°A bit less than half.¡± ¡°So you would struggle to put it back into a chair,¡± I said, and she nodded. ¡°Put it down and grab that other chair for now. I also think it is perilous always to assume there will be wood available for you to use. I have been in many places where there is no wood, and I have been targeted by people prepared to deny me the use of my affinity.¡± I said, thinking of the attack by the lava dude. ¡°What is the real reason you want to go to Kirghiz?¡± Tabitha asked. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°The real¡­? My parents ¡­.¡± she started. ¡°Your parents are hundreds of kilometres in the opposite direction. Why do you want to go to Kirghiz? I am going to assume it has something to do with why Sione gave you an exemption from the Navy. I am sure they desperately want wood affinity Shipwrights. So spit it out and don¡¯t skip anything.¡± Tabitha was back to being blunt. Her nervousness increased, and she obviously wasn¡¯t sure what to say. ¡°We are not dumb.¡± I said. ¡°If Sione wanted you in Kirghiz he would have put you on a Naval Cutter, and you would be there in a third of the time it will take us. You can tell us what is actually going on, or you can leave and forget it.¡± ¡°And don¡¯t forget to include why you are a novice Enchanter as well, which would make you some sort of genius.¡± Tabitha added. She looked cornered, which she was. ¡°I am being hunted.¡± she said. ¡°I was on the Seabreeze in Northport. We left in the middle of the night with the Empire chasing us, which is why the Shipping Guild has no record of us leaving. The Seabreeze is a fast ship, particularly with me strengthening and smoothing the wood. We outran the ships chasing us, but about halfway home, we were intercepted. I was told to leave in the small Daysailer we had on board, and the First Mate, me and the Military Intelligence agent escaped at night. In the morning, we saw on the horizon that the Seabreeze had been rammed and boarded.¡± She was speaking surprisingly steadily, but I guess she had months to come to terms with it. She continued, ¡°We made land, but it is all wild mountainous land, so we hopped in the Daysailer from bay to bay while hunting for food, the snow providing water. The First Mate was killed by a pack of spider-type creatures while we escaped on the yacht. The boat was wrecked in a storm a week later, despite everything I tried. The agent died to some sort of snow creature the day before I found a Hunter who guided me back. ¡°I have only been back a month, and the Empire has made two attempts to kill me and steal the plans the Master Enchanter was supposed to be analysing. They are a part of the documents we brought back.¡± ¡°What is so important about these plans?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t understand it all, but apparently the plans are for a new way of moving ships that won¡¯t be so dependent on the wind. It is a very complicated metal contraption that has runes to heat water into steam, which then somehow can move ships. The Enchanting is very complicated, and that is only one part of it. Major Sione thinks it will revolutionise Naval warfare and eventually all shipping.¡± ¡°You haven''t mentioned your Enchanting Class.¡± Tabitha reminded her. ¡°I do pick things up quite quickly and I manifested my wood affinity early. My parents got a tutor to teach me Rune Lore quite young and then apprenticed with one of the only enchanters not affiliated with Enchanters Supreme. It cost my parents a lot. It was thought I could imbed the enchantments into the wood using my affinity for a more permanent enchantment,¡± she explained. ¡°So when you said you want to learn from us, you weren¡¯t talking about your affinity. You want to learn enchanting from Mayakku.¡± I said. She nodded. ¡°How are you going to pay for that?¡± I asked. ¡°I was hoping to work as a carpenter¡­¡± She started. ¡°That will barely pay for the passage to Kirghiz.¡± Tabitha interrupted, ¡°let alone the danger you have put us all in, making us targets for Imperial assassins. I am inclined to cut you loose. I am sick of Sione manipulating us to do his dirty work at no cost. From cleaning out the Watch to cleaning out Imperial spies to training his next wonder girl. As far as I am concerned, you can tell him to go and roll in goblin shit, and trust me. I have seen plenty of goblin shit.¡± ¡°Make no mistake,¡± I added, ¡°we can do all of those things and probably also get him his missing plans back, but we will want decent compensation for it.¡± ¡°You go back to Sione and tell him we want to see those fancy offers that he hinted at.¡± Tabitha said. This conversation had obviously not gone the way Abigail expected, and she was way out of her depth. She probably didn''t even realise what Sione was doing when he brought her to us in full view of the public and in front of a crowd of Watch patrollers, some of whom were corrupt. She might be a genius with her hands and wood, but she is no spy. We saw her off at the gate, and I turned to Tabitha, ¡°Do you think Sione has his people in place watching her, or should we make sure she gets back?¡± ¡°He will have his people in place. He has kept her safe till now.¡± Tabitha responded. ¡°What is this, ¡®and we can do all that,¡¯ garbage?¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t we supposed to be confident when selling our Skills?¡± I replied. ¡°I am the Merchant. You leave the selling to me.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°What you don¡¯t do is you don¡¯t promise what you can¡¯t deliver. We are way out of our depth. Firstly, this Watch situation is going to get political, and we have no experience with politics. Secondly, your Spy class is still only Apprentice level with very few Skills and no specific Counter Espionage Skills. The only things we have going are, possibly, persuading Mayakku to teach Abigail and the missing documents.¡± When she put it like that, maybe I was overselling it. 91. Offers: Tabitha 91. Offers: Tabitha Sione turned up at the warehouse the next day with a city official wanting to speak to all the Catkin. We collected T¨¡tt¨¡ and went out to the quarry where everybody else was. Most of our hired guards were now stationed at the quarry. Wiremu was still trapping the approaches, and we were refitting some of the buildings for more comfortable accommodation. The Catkin were more than happy in their wagons, but the rest of us weren¡¯t. Once the Catkin were gathered, the city official made a speech about the kingdom and thanked them for their service. I caught a couple of puzzled looks, but nobody said anything. He then offered them full citizen rights in the Kingdom of Kirghiz. This caused a lot of excitement and amazement among the Catkin. Nobody usually wanted them to stay very long as the reputation of Catikin was of them being separated and arrogant thieves that toy with their prey. This generally means they are asked to move on before too long. Now they could settle if they wanted and buy land. It would be harder to shut them out of markets. They could appeal to the government in disputes, and the trade tariffs were lower. I could see the government gaining an enchanter, which is a rare profession, and an enchanter separate from a powerful trading house is even rarer. However, this was mainly Sione offering rewards to our ¡®family¡¯. It will now be tough for us to say no to Abigail''s training under Mayakku. My agreement with the Catkin is until we get to Kirghiz City, so we will have to see what happens after that. Meanwhile, Sione has now accepted our deal and provided a down payment. I had better find out what the criminal world knows. They will undoubtedly know about the corruption in the Watch. Most likely, they are the operators. Finding the instigators is the key. The criminal gangs will also know about the Imperials and are probably taking their money to keep quiet. We have four nights before our next show. They are going to be busy ones for me. We get back to the warehouse in the early afternoon, and I find Zabavno and Manus, my two co-stars from the Comedic Rhythm, waiting for me. We went into a private room to the side, and Zabavno started, ¡°We have had a sponsorship offer. It is a very good offer from the Duke''s heir himself. He is offering a stable income with performance bonuses and contacts in Kirghiz and other cities in the Kingdom. It is an exclusive sponsorship offer.¡± I figure this was the first step in attempting to separate the Comedic Rhythm from the Elemental Traders. I wonder if the Duke¡¯s heir was behind it. It is more likely he is the idiot noble with the money and was manipulated to make the offer. ¡°I assume there is a contract?¡± I replied. Zabavno handed over an envelope of documents. ¡°We were strongly encouraged to accept the offer, and there were implied threats of turning it down.¡± ¡°This is for all six of us?¡± I asked. He nodded, ¡°Although there is provision for changing the personnel if one person refuses. There were a couple of well-known actresses that were named to be suitable replacements for you. It was clear they thought that you might be the main obstacle to accepting the offer.¡± I smiled at that. ¡°What do the others think?¡± Manus spoke up, ¡°Thummer is unsure, but she knows how much your noise Skills add to her drumming. Canwr and Bwr are quite keen. Canwr, in particular, I think, has visions of becoming a famous singer. Bwr is a good fiddle player, but he will always follow Canwr.¡± ¡°What do you think?¡± I asked them directly. Manus said, ¡°The offer is very good. Better than I thought we would get. However, both Zabavno and I know that without your Skills, the current show would become a ¡®shadow¡¯ of its current glory.¡± This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. I gave him a small smile at his attempted pun. ¡°You also seem to be losing your touch if that is the best you can come up with.¡± He gave me a small smile back. Zabavno added, ¡°Performing with you is a lot of fun, and that is what I got into entertaining for. The money and the fame are great, but they wouldn¡¯t be so great without the fun. I do worry about what might happen if we turned down the offer.¡± I had been skimming the document while we talked. ¡°What about negotiations on some of these clauses?¡± I asked. Zabavno said, ¡°We were told the offer was so generous that we just needed to accept it.¡± ¡°Well, that is a load of goblin shit. There is not even a buyout clause from your current contract with the Elemental Traders.¡± I stated. ¡°We will need to arrange a meeting to discuss things like that, and we must insist the Heir be present.¡± I put on an innocent voice, ¡°after all, we can¡¯t be expected to enter into a permanent and exclusive sponsorship with someone we have never met.¡± I winked at them and added, ¡°Then we can see how much we can squeeze from these noble idiots.¡± Zabavno nodded, ¡°I will arrange the meeting. It will depend on the Heir¡¯s schedule, so I will let you know.¡± After they left, I sat for a few minutes thinking. I had warned Wiremu that this would get political, and it had already started. This response had been very fast, indicating a hands-on, high-level player. If it is not the Heir himself, then it is someone who can get to him quickly and manipulate him. A high-level adviser is the best bet. I would prefer the Heir himself as it would indicate an attitude of arrogant invulnerability that could be exploited. However, this was also linked to the corruption in the Watch, and the Heir would not need that. I need to add research on the Heir to my to-do list. The key questions would be how gullible he is and whether he is in a committed relationship. Manipulating your partner would not be unusual in noble circles. My to-do list is getting longer. It is also getting late, and I have a long night ahead of me that I need to prepare for. Investigating the crime world is not an easy thing to do, and remain anonymous. They are a bunch of sneaky bastards, and information is a valuable commodity. For this, I will take Modrica as a ¡®bodyguard¡¯ and dress and mimic a certain weasley information broker that I knew from Jern. Misleading people in their gender assumptions is often the easiest part. At the second tavern we entered, we hit a knowledgeable bartender. Things were quite bad here. I don¡¯t think the tavern even employed cleaners from the smell and sticky floors. I would be relying on my constitution not to be poisoned. The ale was horrible, and there was no way I was eating anything. When the bartender found out we were new in town, he immediately asked if we knew who hit the ES, which I figured was shortened from Enchanters Supreme. ¡°I wish. I could use a person like that,¡± I replied. He nodded, ¡°Many think the same,¡± he said in his raspy voice. ¡°Some think a new entrant hit it, and all the gangs are looking to recruit, but nobody has come forward.¡± ¡°Who has the best offers,¡± I asked. ¡°The word is the Pack Rats, the Dark Blades and the Seadogs are offering the most, and there is a cut to the person with info,¡± he replied, obviously looking for info. ¡°There must be more to it, though. You don¡¯t hit something that hard without a big payoff in mind.¡± I said. ¡°You ain¡¯t the only one thinking that. Some think it was an Imperial hit, and Navy secrets were taken. That¡¯s why nothing has hit the market. Where do you sell enchanting goods anyway?¡± he queried. I shrugged, ¡°I heard there was a Watch raid on a travelling enchanter, so maybe them?¡± He spat at the mention of the Watch, ¡°The Seadogs are pretty keen to get what was taken, offering gold for info and platinum for the goods.¡± ¡°Do you think they have a pet enchanter?¡± I asked. ¡°No sign of it before, but maybe?¡± The next two taverns added a lot more wild rumours. I liked the one where I was a ghost under the control of a master warlock. The prevailing thought was that it was the Imperials because no one had come forward to claim the credit, and no goods had hit the black market. There was doubt about that, though, as the imperials usually fire bomb places after they rob them to hide what they stole. I found out where to contact the Rats, Dark Blades and Seadogs, but I think the Seadogs had some idea of what was taken from their offer. 92. Pressure: Tabitha 92. Pressure: Tabitha Politics. I have no idea how people put up with it. In the criminal world, it is about power, and if you mess up, you will have your throat cut. Here they are all flocking and circling around regulations and using that to put pressure on others. I am thinking of slitting a throat or two as an example. The trouble is the people they send aren¡¯t the culprits. They are just low-level people trying to do their job. The next week things piled up. ?rt was holding a healing clinic every second day from the warehouse. Then he has a visit from the Healer Association accusing him of operating without a licence. He showed them his Mercenary Guild licence, which should be good everywhere, but no. He needed an Obalno Licence that could take weeks to process and at the cost of several gold. They demanded he stops his clinic, and they chased away all his customers as he was an unlicensed healer. Skavt went to the Mercenary Guild to look for short contracts and discovered the Canine Queens had a black mark against them over a disputed contract. Hence she was not able to obtain more without addressing it, and of course, the people to address it were out of town. T¨¡tt¨¡ and I had deals on the verge of closing that were suddenly rejected. Our clients were being scared off, and our prices were being undercut. We struggled to make purchases that were not at an exorbitant price. We had a small crowd gathered outside the warehouse chanting racist slogans about the Catkin and chasing away customers. Complaints to the Watch against such illegal behaviour were basically ignored. Yes, they would come and investigate. No, they couldn¡¯t tell me when as they were very busy. No, Investigator Whitby is not available. He has been put on extended leave while investigating his conduct. This all adds up to some very wide-ranging tentacles of influence. We haven''t made any real progress, and suddenly, the city is against us. All we have really done is resist a kidnapping attempt and poke the corruption in the Watch. Somebody must think we know much more than we do. I haven''t even been able to break into the Seadogs. I think I will have to try the front gate if you know what I mean. I have separated out the take from Enchanters Supreme and re-hidden most of it. I really want to get these Rune diagrams copied, so I have one for Mayakku to study later, but I don¡¯t want her to be involved now, as it would put her in more danger, especially if they successfully kidnapped her. It will take an enchanter to copy it properly, and they either belong to the Enchanters Supreme or are being watched like hawks. What I am expecting now is the physical intimidation to start directly with the non-physical members of the team. Especially the Comedic Rhythm. Tonight is the last performance for the weekend, and tomorrow afternoon is our meeting with the Duke¡¯s heir. Tonight is the prime night for an attack. I wonder if they realise how predictable they are. I shouldn''t get too complacent as I might yet be surprised. We have prepared. Skavt, Wiremu and the rest of the Canine Queens are here along with Ruku. In other words, all our heavy hitters, except poor Oske. He was left at the quarry as he was just too big and noticeable. No one had been harassing the patrons at the performances. We are assuming that there were too many rich nobles attending. The performance ended with a standing ovation, but I could see Skavt, Wiremu, Modrica and Ruku standing in the wings, so something was up. Wiremu was acting very impatiently. He was supposed to be out scouting the streets around us. The other members of the Comedic Rhythm knew the risks were high tonight and that things wouldn¡¯t be normal. As soon as the curtain closed, I lost my happy smile and went straight over to them. Skavt started straight away with, ¡°Oske has just told me there is fighting at the quarry.¡± ¡°Shit,¡± was my response. App¨¡ was in charge of security at the quarry, and he had Mutalil and all eight of our guards. Ilaiya had responsibility for scouting which was a first for him. He had just learned Tracking. He had Farsight and reasonable Stealth, and along with his racial ability of Nightsight, Wiremu had deemed him to be ready. The quarry was now also fortified and trapped, so we anticipated that was enough. If there is fighting, it isn¡¯t enough. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Wiremu added, ¡°There are about thirty toughs around here in three main groups with some spotters.¡± I looked at Wiremu, ¡°You want to get to the quarry?¡± He nodded. As we talked, we moved to the changing rooms, and I was putting on my armour. Should I go with Wiremu? My shadows would help him get across the wall, but my strength was in urban warfare. I decided my biggest priority at the moment was Mayakku. Ruku said, ¡°The city gates are closed. You won¡¯t get to the quarry.¡± ¡°Wiremu and I will have no problem going over the wall,¡± I said while slotting my knives in their sheaths. My Blacksteel war knife was prominent and easily accessed on my hip tonight, and I saw Ruku eyeing it with surprise. I added my sword. Tonight we were not taking prisoners. ¡°Wiremu?¡± queried Ruku. Shit, that guy was too sharp, and the pressure must have been getting to me if I slipped using Wiremu¡¯s real name. ¡°Skavt will explain, but that goes no further.¡± I turned to Skavt, ¡°Best to use one of the safe houses rather than the Inn. Ruku knows his way around the city, and Modrica was basically born street fighting, so rely on them. Do you want Nyx to stay with you?¡± ¡°No, it''s too hard to communicate. We will be fine with Ruku.¡± She replied. Then she added, ¡°Oske said there is fighting near the buildings and wagons now. I have told him to go and cause havoc amongst the attackers.¡± She looked at Wiremu, ¡°If you need a mount, he will respond to you. He likes T¨¡oke.¡± That caused T¨¡oke to drop his camouflage on Wiremu¡¯s shoulder to give her a nod and a hiss. I don¡¯t think Ruku had picked up where T¨¡oke was from his reaction. That snake¡¯s Camouflage must be getting close to Master level. We were nearing our exit from the building now. It was an upper-story window, not a door. I started gathering Shadows and sent Nyx on ahead to the Quarry so we would have more intel. I turned to the others before we left, ¡°Wiremu and I will try to draw one of the groups away after us and create a gap. Safe House Two is probably your best bet, but that is up to you. Don¡¯t hesitate to kill. This is where we show our teeth and bite. We bite hard enough that they don¡¯t get back up.¡± That got a grin from Modrica. Ruku wasn¡¯t so sure. I think the level of corruption in the city surprised him. Typical military keeping themselves isolated on their base. We soon left sight of the Bard Concert Hall, and I followed Wiremu to the nearest group of thugs. He would stop every now and then and put a Venom Arrow in a watcher''s eye. If we were staying, he alone could clean out all the singles or pairs. We were just passing through. The groups he was heading for had moved and were now about twelve strong. Nyx and I swept down on them from behind, and they were taken by surprise. I was dual wielding my sword and war knife, and I decapitated the first person with my war knife while my sword pierced through a second. Nyx blinded a third. I didn¡¯t engage Engulfing Shadows so Wiremu could start sending arrows into them. There were competent people there who reacted fast to the attack, and I was Parrying a sword while slicing tendons and moving past them. They started to follow. I had killed two, and Nyx and I had wounded two others. Wiremu had killed two and wounded a third, which meant five were chasing me. They were making a noise calling for help from the other groups, and that is what we wanted. I had Nyx create shadowy people and slip off into various alleys so they would need to split up and chase them. One of the lone watchers tried to ambush me. It didn¡¯t work, of course, as my Spatial Awareness can see through buildings. She got a sword in the neck and a knife in the chest for her trouble. Every now and then, an arrow would shoot out from the night, either clearing the way or keeping the chasers wary. We were nearing the gate when I heard a command from ahead of me, ¡°Halt, by the command of the Watch!¡± I knew it was time to fade into the shadows, and hopefully, the two groups would clash and be a distraction for us going over the wall. Shadows Embrace came on, and I waited in a doorway for the chasers to run past. I then joined Wiremu and T¨¡oke on a rooftop by the wall. The chasers clashed briefly with the Watch before breaking off and dispersing. Wiremu and I dashed to the wall, and I followed him up. His handholds were much more subtle than they used to be. I think he used his Granite Manipulation to create small depressions rather than his Granite Spikes which later had to be removed. I used Shadow Embrace on us both, and we went up, across the top and down the other side without being seen. Best of all, those depressions will be there for future use as well. 93. Street Fighting: Ruku

93. Street Fighting: Ruku

What in all the tentacles of the Octopod have I got myself into? Sione had these two pegged as Warren and Tabitha Carter, but Sten¡¯s real name is Wiremu. Is he not her brother? What happened to the brother? Is Skygge not Tabitha? Does Sione have everything wrong? I don¡¯t know what the fuck¡¯s going on, and we have way too much to do to sort it out now. We have to get a bunch of non-combatants to a safe house through the enemy-patrolled territory. Why the hell do they have safe houses, and how many do they have? It sounds like they are fully-fledged undercover operatives with government-level backing. Better than government-level backing if that knife was what I thought it was. A Blacksteel war knife? Then there is the operative I have never even heard of, let alone met. Who the hell is Nyx? Skygge offered to leave her with Skavt, indicating she was present, but there was nothing on my Sonar. We joined the others, and Skavt was issuing orders, ¡°Ruku, your job is to stay with the Comedic Rhythm and keep them safe. Everybody, safe house two is our first choice. It is a stone single-level cottage on the southern corner of Fifth Avenue and Cobbler lane. If we are cut off from that, head to safe house one, an apartment above Stone and Steel Blacksmiths on Firepot Lane. Ruku knows where they are?¡± she posed a question to me. ¡°Yes, Ma¡¯am¡± My Marine training was strong, making me slip to referring to her as Ma¡¯am. ¡°Ruku, your teammate is Modrica, and the two of you will take care of anything that gets past the Canine Queens.¡± I nodded to Modrica, and she gave me a grin that pulled at the scar on her face. ¡°We are going out the front entrance, so let''s go. Kryddor, ?rt¡¯s bond, is our scout, so ?rt may call out directions. Apart from him and me, no one else is to talk unless it''s an emergency. If I get separated, Ruku is in charge.¡± The front entrance is opposite the backstage exit we would normally use, so we hoped it was the least expected exit. I was equipped with my shield and short sword again as I felt it was better for close fighting. I was missing my spear, though. Modrica had on some fighting gloves, which had some Spiritually enhanced spikes on the knuckles. She also had a knife and a wicked one-handed mace with multiple sharp ridges around it. ?rt had his ridiculous, huge, two-handed axe on his back. I was pleased to see he also had a knife and a pair of one-handed war axes. Najprej and Drugi? had their standard sword and shields, and Skavt had a shortened Spear and a load of Javelins on her back. I assume she is our ranged fighter for this fight because that is what we are missing without Sten, Wiremu or whoever he is. Skavt was the first out the door, throwing a javelin as soon as the doors were open. The yell from the watcher was cut off, but it still happened, and she turned right to the nearest street. Najprej and Drugi? were right behind her, then ?rt and the five from the Comedic Rhythm. Modrica and I brought up the rear, making sure everybody stayed together. We must be starting on the path Sten and Skygge took because we started seeing bodies. Then there was a group of bodies together, but we turned into an alley before passing them. I kept an eye on the entertainers, who were not used to this level of violence. The Elves, Canwr and Bwr especially. Bwr was almost constantly trying to comfort Canwr and shield her, but I didn¡¯t miss that his hands were shaking. They were entertainers, not fighters. We moved out onto the next street over, and a loud whistle went out from a watcher that had been missed. We picked up the pace and turned into the next street just to change direction. Around the next corner was a group of thugs. Possible ten to twelve of them. They all had a blue bandana tied somewhere on their bodies. I assumed it was a gang symbol, but I didn¡¯t know which one. Skavt said, ¡°Canine Queens have this. Formation one. Ruku is in charge.¡± The Canine Queens moved toward the group. I moved to the front and directed everybody else into the nearest alley to get us away from the fight. As we moved down the alley, I heard the two groups clash behind us. Then my Sonar pinged, and I Enhanced my Physical Agility and moved back to the Comedic Rhythm as fast as possible with my shield up. I caught the rogue coming off the roof with a glancing blow, and he lost his footing, bowling into Canwr and then sliding on the ground. Before he could get up, Modrica smashed her mace down and splattered his brains on the pavement. Bwr helped Canwr up, and she was bleeding from a cut on her arm. When she saw the remains of the rogue, she lost it, turned to the wall, and threw up. Most people don¡¯t see this level of violence. The Army and the Watch¡¯s job is to help make for a peaceful society. A peaceful society is a productive and profitable society. The Watch has been failing badly here in Obalno. If the job of this gang is to threaten and intimidate the Comedic Rhythm, then I think they have just succeeded. All of them were pale and obviously afraid. Canwr and Bwr were the worst. We moved to the end of the alley, away from the corpse, and I bound the wound on Canwr¡¯s arm and tried to settle everyone down. I set Refreshing Mist running, which helped a bit. I don¡¯t think I was very successful overall. We need to get them indoors and off the street. Kryddor then came around the corner and indicated we should go left. He is one huge dog, especially when he appears in the dark at night. I figured we were shifting to Safehouse one, and we headed off again. Kryddor stuck close to us this time. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Two streets later, we were nearing the safe house when we turned into the street, and five blue bandana-wearing thugs saw us and came running. There was no way the non-combatants would be able to outrun these, so I parked them in a doorway and stepped out to fight, Modrica on one side and Kryddor on the other. One of them seemed to be better equipped than the other four, so I Interrogated his status, and he was definitely higher levelled and specialised. He would be a challenge for me in a fair fight. Of course, nothing about this fight was fair, with five on three. Kryddor had the hair on his neck standing on end and his teeth exposed as he emitted a low growl. Modrica had her mace in one hand, and a fist made with the other. She towered over everybody, and her scars show her to be a veteran. I hefted my shield and raised my sword, setting Whirlpool Shield, going lightly and preparing a Water Surge. I decided to enhance my Spiritual Strength this time to add power to my water affinity Skills. The five coming at us slowed as they neared. They had a mixture of knives and machetes with mismatched armour pieces. The better-equipped one was obviously in charge and had better-quality armour and a sword. There were no shields among them. The one in charge was about to say something when I let loose at him with my Water Surge. The thing with Water Surge is the volume of water I could Surge grew with the level, but so did the control. If I put the volume of water through a smaller controlled area, the pressure went up. I could use it for a short period to gouge out the stone, but this would run me out of energy very quickly. This time I made it about a metre in diameter and aimed it at his chest. He was not expecting that, and it blasted him back across the street, and he crashed into the building there. I was aiming to take him out of the fight while we dealt with his subordinates, and if I broke some bones as well, that was a bonus. As soon as I let loose, Modrica and Kryddor charged them while they were distracted, Modrica¡¯s mace took down one straight away, and Kryddor hitting the chest of another, took her off her feet. I then moved forward in an unskilled shield charge at the other two. My shield bashed into one of them, but the other danced away from my sword. Unfortunately for him, he danced into Modrica¡¯s fist and wasn¡¯t getting up again. I stabbed the one I bashed and stomped on him when he went down. I looked around, and Kryddor had ripped out the throat of the one she had taken down, and I looked for the leader. He picked himself up and saw all his companions were down and decided to run. That was the smart choice, as we wouldn¡¯t be chasing him. He wasn¡¯t having any luck, though, as the first alley he passed, a group of six figures charged out at him and tackled him from the side, and they didn¡¯t let him get back up. They left his body in the street and formed up, and approached us. They were joined by a couple more from the other side of the road, and my Sonar picked up another four behind us down the street. We backed up to near the Comedic Rhythm to defend them, leaving our kills in the street as well. Kryddor was not happy. If anything, he was more on edge than with the first attackers. More hair was standing up on his back than before, and he was constantly growling. He could sense something about this group that we could not, and he was like a coiled spring. One of the first group stepped forward, and I noticed she had a new sword, ¡°Good evening,¡± she said as if she was out for an evening stroll, ignoring the fact she had just killed a person and that four bodies were lying in the street between us. ¡°We would appreciate it if you could keep the dog under control, as we don¡¯t mean you any harm. Is she your bond?¡± ¡°She is a bond but not ours,¡± I replied. She spoke directly to Kryddor, ¡°Don''t attack our bonds, or this will go very badly.¡± ¡°May I know who you are?¡± I asked. ¡°We are the Pack Rats. You can call me Rotte, and I am the Pack Leader. We came out to see why the Seadogs are out in force and,¡± she nodded behind her to the body in the street, ¡°take the opportunity to get in a little payback. Why are the Seadogs interested in you?¡± ¡°It is quite complicated, but I believe my boss has stirred up some trouble with the Watch, and the Seadogs are the response,¡± I replied. ¡°I heard that.¡± She turned to Modrica, ¡°We heard you laid out a dozen of the watch by yourself. We can respect that. If you find yourself in need of work, come and see me. We can find you a bond.¡± She reached into her jacket and pulled out a huge rat. Kryddor growled but didn¡¯t move. ¡°All our members bond with a rat. The rats aren¡¯t picky, and they bring us a lot of benefits.¡± She bent down and let the rat loose on the ground, keeping an eye on Kryddor the whole time. ¡°We will just mark these bodies as our kills. We want to bring the Seadogs down a few notches.¡± Her rat and several others ran to the bodies and started gnawing the flesh from their faces. I heard someone behind me throwing up. Rotte grinned when she heard that. ¡°Now, tell me about your boss,¡± Rotte continued. ¡°I want a meeting with the Black Shadow.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know who that is.¡± I said. What the hell now? I assume she is referring to Skygge, but how the hell does Skygge have a reputation in the gangs? I think even Sione might be out of his depth this time. ¡°No, you don¡¯t,¡± she said and turned and pointed to Modrica, ¡°but you do. The word is that you run with the Black Shadow. No one but the Black Shadow could pull off robbing the Enchanters'' place, and you are a very distinctive companion. We have had word from Jern and towns in between. We want a meet, and it seems like taking out the Seadogs might be a shared goal.¡± Everybody was looking at Modrica. Modrica growled one of those low growls only Orcs could do, but she nodded at Rotte. ¡°Good. Midnight two nights from now. I assume you know where to come?¡± Modrica nodded again. Rotte continued, ¡°Great, let''s keep hunting.¡± Several of the rats returned to their person, and several darted off into the nearest alley. The crowd soon disappeared, and we were left in the street with the disfigured bodies. I addressed the others, ¡°The safe house is only two streets over. Let''s get there while the streets are clear.¡± and I led the way. 94. Night Fighting: Wiremu

94. Night Fighting: Wiremu

Clearing the city wall was easy. I love this Granite Manipulation. It was easy to get to the Apprentice level, and T¨¡oke has learned it from me. When he is in his small form, he can make a hole big enough that he can fit into and then move rock from in front of himself to behind him and essentially move through rock. He runs out of energy quite quickly at the moment, but he can rest as long as he has enough air. It will get more energy efficient as the skill levels, and I can share energy with him through our bond if necessary. It will probably need to be at Journeyman level before I am able to make a crawl space for me to move through rock. Making small handholds up a city wall is child''s play, and they are much less noticeable than the spikes I used to use. Tabitha and I hit the bottom of the wall and took off toward the quarry. The quarry is a ten-minute wagon ride, so it is only a five-minute run. We are running fast, but we are also running carefully. There are enemies around. The ones we killed in the city had a blue bandana signifying a gang of some sort. Tabitha muttered something about Seadogs. If these ones are the same, it will be a sizable gang. Probably they will be a different group. The fighting was finished when we arrived at the quarry. Every one of my traps at the front of the quarry had sprung. Some contained bodies, and others just had blood where the person was injured. The gates were smashed in, but it looks like Mayakku¡¯s enchantments on the palisade wall stopped anyone from going over it. Hence they had to smash the gates. There were eight bodies at the gates. Two of them were our hired guards. We entered the gate and froze. We didn¡¯t freeze because of the mess, and it was a mess. We froze because Oske had his head down and was about to charge us. ¡°Hold on, Oske, it is us,¡± I yell. Fortunately, he heard me and raised his head. He had blood on his horns and hooves, but he also had some cuts in various places which were bleeding. I went over to him and looked, but they didn¡¯t look too serious to me. ¡°Skavt will be out in the morning to look after you,¡± I said to him. ¡°Thanks for your help and watching the gate.¡± He just snorted. I ran to catch up to Tabitha, who had headed toward the buildings. There were a lot of bodies, and one of them was caught in the branches of a tree. It must have been Oske. I recognised the bodies of another three of our hired guards. I ran over to Tabitha, who had found App¨¡. When I saw him, I started to get really angry. He could barely sit from blood loss and only had one arm. Tabitha was asking about the others. ¡°Ilaiya got us enough warning that we got Am''m¨¡, Anni and the kittens in the bolt hole. Ilaiya and Mutalil were escorting Mayakku there when they were attacked. We got a potion in Mutalil, and he will live, but Ilaiya was killed, and Mayakku was taken.¡± That talk seemed to exhaust him, and he lay back down. I don¡¯t think I have felt this angry since my village was raided. At that time, I went on the attack with little thought about my life. Yes, it was very similar. I shared a look with Tabitha, and she looked as mad as I was. ¡°I am sorry, App¨¡. We will get her back and avenge the losses.¡± I vowed. I then saw T¨¡tt¨¡ coming with two of our remaining guards. He was limping but seemed otherwise OK. He gave instructions to the two guards and then came toward us. We went to meet him. ¡°I am sorry we bought this on you, T¨¡tt¨¡.¡± Tabitha started. ¡°Ain¡¯t your fault, lass. We knew it was risky when we signed up, seeing as how you defied the local Crime Boss. Poor Ilaiya will be missed, but it has been safer travelling with you than on our own. You will get my granddaughter back and make sure they pay, right?¡± He was angry and sad. ¡°Absolutely.¡± I said. ¡°Tell us what happened and how many you think are left.¡± Ilaiya provided a warning, but Mayakku was in her work wagon, which was enchanted against a lot of things, including privacy, so she didn¡¯t hear anything. Ilaiya and Mutalil went and got her out and headed to the bolt hole when several rogue types attacked them. They were fast, and Ilaiya died straight away from a knife in the back. Mutalil managed to deflect the knife of his attacker and struck back but was stabbed by another rogue and left to bleed out. Mayakku was knocked unconscious and carried away. According to T¨¡tt¨¡, the only reason that any of them were still alive was because of Oske. He came rampaging through and caused such havoc they decided to retreat rather than stay to try to finish off everybody. There was a group of five rogues that took Mayakku, and he estimated about half the attackers died there. They had counted twenty bodies so far. So there were about twenty warriors left and about five rogues. This had already been an expensive attack for them regarding human resources. With close to fifty people in this attack, it would be the entirety of their fighting force. I don¡¯t think Tabitha had that many when she was a Crime Lord. Maybe she did, but it would certainly be the bulk of their forces. We were about to make it more expensive, and I sincerely hope the Canine Queens were doing the same in the city. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. I stocked up on arrows, grabbed my spears and some potions and then Tabitha and I headed out. As far as my tracking could tell, the Rogues and the Warriors were headed in the same direction, which was toward the coast. We would need to catch them before they got on a boat. We were moving faster than they were. After a half hour of running, we saw our first group of warriors. These were the wounded, going as fast as they could. We stopped to ask them politely where they were headed. Well, we were not that polite. T¨¡oke was excellent at persuading people to talk. He was over 6m in length now when he used the Grow Skill. They did indeed have a boat. They were a smuggling outfit operating from a ship anchored in a cove about four hours jog down the coast. Kidnap and kill jobs were not their usual work, but the coin was too good to pass up. Their First Mate was killed in the fight, but the Captain was up ahead. We didn¡¯t leave any survivors behind us as we moved on. We caught up to the back of the main group about an hour later. They were moving quite fast. They were strung out in a single file, and we moved up toward the front. A large warrior type was carrying Mayakku. And several rogues were near her, going by the light armour and knives. We then moved away to discuss our approach. The priority was to get Mayakku away from them in one piece. The second priority was to give back more than was received. The first task was the hardest as Mayakku was surrounded by the fast, and probably the competent, portion of the group. If it wasn¡¯t handled correctly, Mayakku would end up a hostage or dead. We decided that T¨¡oke and I would be the distraction team and Tabitha and Nyx the rescue team. I was happy about that as I wanted to let out some anger and a fight is one way to do that. We moved ahead of the jogging column of kidnappers, and I set the two traps I had with me. While most of the column were part-time fighters, that would not apply to the front group around Mayakku. These would be the specialised group. We were aiming for a snatch-and-run scenario. If they split up, we could pick them off in small groups, but I think they were more intelligent than that. T¨¡oke and I positioned ourselves and waited. The person leading the column had some perception skills as she spotted the traps and was about to call a warning, so I put an arrow in her throat. This didn¡¯t kill her, and she dived off to the side. She was severely wounded and would potentially bleed out. It was a physical arrow, not a Venom one, so she may live, but she should be out of this fight. The guy behind her saw what happened and yelled and ducked. The venom arrow clipped his shoulder. The next guy dived to the right, and my physical arrow hit the one after him, but I don¡¯t think it penetrated his armour. Only two were wounded from a surprise attack, quite a poor showing, but I am against higher-level people with better perception and reactions. I saw T¨¡oke drop from a tree onto a person when Engulfing Shadows hit. There was a yell to ¡°Pair up¡± as I approached with my spear. I went for a Power Strike with my spear, and again they moved, and It was a glancing hit. It did draw blood and was imbued with Venom. I immediately had to deflect a sword strike with my spear, and the wooden shaft was cut. This was one of the spears where I had used Petrify on the core of it, so the sword cut didn¡¯t penetrate far. The Swordsman''s partner was trying to flank me, and I threw a dart, but he deflected it off his shield. It was my bad luck to engage two sword and shield warriors. There was yelling further down the line, so I assume Tabitha was making a move. I yelled to bring attention here and fainted a stab and the first swordsman before darting at the other with a stone knife in my other hand. He had taken my faint at his partner to try to skewer me with his sword. My sudden movement meant he sliced rather than skewered, but his slice cut my leather armour and Snakeskin, drawing blood. I am still missing the Troll armour I used to have. It would not have gotten through that. My attack with the knife was more successful, and I left it embedded in his shoulder while I put both hands back on my spear to fend off his mate, who had come aggressively onto the attack. I had to back up from his skilful sword and shield combo as I tried to regain control of this fight. Then I got backstabbed by a rogue. If I didn¡¯t have Granite Bones, I would be dead. The knife penetrated my Armour and went between two ribs, but my sudden movement meant my bones broke the thin blade. I struck them hard with the butt of my spear, and they went down. I now had a broken knife blade embedded in my back which was quite painful. I stepped to the side as the downed rogue tried to slice my tendons, all the while still fending off the swordsman. T¨¡oke came to my rescue and injected the rogue with venom, but he got knifed for his trouble. The Swordsman was bleeding from several cuts from where my spear had got past his defence, mostly due to my Quick Strike Skill. He was stubbornly staying on the offensive. I figured that his Physical Constitution was well up there, so it would take a lot more of my Imbued Venom to affect him. It was time to disengage and run. The plan was for Nyx to hold the Engulfing Shadows while Tabitha did whatever she needed to grab Mayakku and get out. Nyx would then continue to hold it until T¨¡oke and I disengaged. She should also be syphoning energy which would be increasing the energy cost whenever the higher tired skills are being used. It didn¡¯t stop someone from being a very skilled swordsman. Then he hit me with a skilled Shield Bash, and I flew backwards. My Physical Agility meant I could control my landing to some extent, but he didn¡¯t stop there. He chained his Skills immediately, moving into a Shield Charge. I planted the butt of my spear in the ground, hoping he would impale himself on it like a pike, but his shield hit it, and even my Petrified enforced spear couldn¡¯t last against it, and it broke. It meant he lost the charge''s momentum, and he now had a spear point penetrating through his shield. But he didn¡¯t let up and kept coming at me. I must have attacked one of their best. They would have killed Oske and everyone else if they had all been like this. I could feel T¨¡oke had gone into hiding. I think the cut from the rogue must have been quite bad. I barely had time to grab a knife and parry the swordsman''s next strike. I moved back again, trying to create some space, but he kept coming. This is where I needed something like T¨¡oke¡¯s Spit Venom because I am outclassed in weapon skills. I surprised him with Granite Spikes and then threw my knife, piercing his arm, and then I took off into the bush. This was not a very successful ambush. I hoped Tabitha was successful. 95. Hiding: Wiremu

95. Hiding: Wiremu

After I was out of sight, I went into stealth and circled around to pick up T¨¡oke. I knew I was leaking blood, so anyone with a Smell Skill or high-level Tracking would be able to follow me. I couldn¡¯t do anything about the broken knife in my back at the moment. T¨¡oke looked like his Granite Bones had saved him as well as the knife wound seemed to have deflected off his backbone, but it sliced a fair bit of skin off. I fed him half a healing potion and drank the other half myself. I only had one more on me. Our Regeneration would kick in, but I doubted we would have time to wait for it. As we left the area, Nyx lifted the Engulfing Shadows, and I heard yelling to form up to search for the people who stole from them. This would be us stealing their kidnapped victim? I got a Spear and Quick Strike level from the fight, but that was all. It is significantly harder to level after reaching Journeyman Level. I wonder how many levels that swordsman got from the fight. If you don¡¯t kill your opponent, they will get stronger. As we neared the agreed meeting place with Tabitha, my Bond Senses picked up a strong smell of blood, so that was a worry. My Hearing Aid kept track of our pursuers, who had picked up our trail and were coming as a group. We would only have a few minutes. I came into the clearing, and Tabitha and Mayakku were there. Mayakku was still unconscious, and Tabitha was binding a major cut on her leg. ¡°Do you want a hand with that?¡± I asked. ¡°Sure. Bloody rogues.¡± she replied. ¡°I know you can dig a blade out of my back for me after this. We don¡¯t have a lot of time,¡± I said. Her leg didn¡¯t take much time to bind, and then she dug around in my back with her knife to get out the broken blade. Tabitha then said, ¡°I really want to get back to Obalno, but I can¡¯t carry Mayakku with this leg.¡± ¡°I could carry her, but I am not sure Obalno is the safest place for her right now. We are about halfway to Ruku¡¯s village. I could take her there for a few days.¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t know what is wrong with her, whether she was hit too hard or is drugged. Are you sure you want to look after her and can lose the pursuers?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°As long as we are not bleeding, we will lose them with no problem. There is a cave we could hole up in less than an hour from here. The one with the sand elemental in it. I have wanted to go back as I think there is more for me to learn there.¡± I had been looking for an opportunity to go back. ¡°OK, here are my supplies. I gave Mayakku a health potion and had the other one, but there was some food, water, and first aid supplies. I will send Nyx with you, so that should help you lose this crowd.¡± Tabitha handed me the contents of her pack, which I stuffed into mine. ¡°I will see you in a few days then. Nyx can carry messages.¡± I picked up Mayakku. ¡°Don¡¯t spend the whole time fishing,¡± was Tabitha¡¯s parting comment as she faded into the bush. I set off towards the coast, being especially careful not to leave a trail. Nyx didn¡¯t have Shadows Embrace with the sound and smell reductions, but she did have Engulfing Shadows to darken an area, so I asked her to do that directly behind us so there would be no glimpsing us from behind. We changed direction a couple of times until I was sure the search for us was getting further away. I found a way down onto the beach, and we had to make our way along the open coast for a while, so I was glad of Nyx¡¯s Shadows. If I were them, I would have put watchers on the coastline. I could see a ship''s mast further along the coast, and I figured it was their ship. The tide was halfway in, so it would be deep to wade into the cave. As we neared the cave, I got the feeling Nyx was getting more and more uncomfortable. At the entrance, the shadow disappeared, and I had the distinct impression Nyx had left. Shadow Elementals and Sand Elementals don¡¯t get on together, I guess. There was a small swell, and the water came up to my chest, so I was holding Mayakku and my pack up high, trying not to get them wet. I was glad of the extra weight my Granite Bones gave me as it made me steadier in the swell as I waded into the cave. T¨¡oke was well up on my shoulder, so he wasn¡¯t getting wet. I made my way carefully to the main body of the elemental and set up a small camp there. I shaped the sand into a bed for Mayakku and looked closer at her. If it was just being knocked unconscious, the health potion should have brought her around by now, so I suspected she was drugged, and it would take time to work out of her system. I got some water into her lamenting the fact that Ruku wasn¡¯t here with his Hydrate ability. Fortunately, our water skins had been enchanted, by Mayakku, to condense water from the air so we could stay here as long as the food lasted. T¨¡oke moved off my shoulder to curl up in the sand to let his Regeneration work on his wounds. I sat down to extend my senses into the elemental to try and learn from it. Mostly I was using Sense Spiritual and Granite Sense together. I focussed on the small grains that together made up the Monster core of the elemental. They were spread throughout the massive being, and now that I traced it they were also scattered in the sand down to the ocean. They must communicate or join somehow, but my senses were too low level, or I didn¡¯t have the right sensing skills. Probably the latter. I took a break and checked Mayakku and T¨¡oke. T¨¡oke looked asleep, but Mayakku looked like she was stirring. She groaned, and her eyes opened. She coughed and stretched. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Hello?¡± she asked, ¡°who is there?¡± ¡°It is me,¡± I replied. ¡°I am sorry I forgot you only have Nightsight and not Darksight. I am not sure I have a light with me.¡± I have gotten so used to Darksight that I forget others don¡¯t have it. The Catkin Nightsight needs some light to enhance, which enables them to see. We are in a cave with no light at all. I can find my fire starter, but I haven''t got any wood with me for a fire, and I don¡¯t think there would be enough air vents for a fire. She relaxed when she heard and recognised my voice. ¡°It¡¯s OK. let me try some skills.¡± She was silent for a minute, then I heard an awed, ¡°Wow. Where are we?¡± ¡°We are hiding in a cave with a Sand Elemental. I was hoping to stay here at least a full day, maybe longer, to lose your kidnappers. What do you see?¡± ¡°When I turn on my Spiritual Sight, everything glows depending on the amount of Spiritual energy in them. The cave floor glows bright, almost too bright to look at.¡± she replied. ¡°I am passing you a water skin. Can you see it?¡± I ask. ¡°No, but I see you and your arm and the energy in my enchantments on the water skin. They will need to be renewed soon.¡± She took the water skin and had a long drink. ¡°What do you remember from the Quarry?¡± I asked. ¡°I was being escorted by Mutalil and Ilaiya, and we were attacked.¡± She paused and put her hands to her mouth in shock, ¡°Are they¡­ Are they dead?¡± her voice quivered. ¡°Mutalil managed to take a potion and will live. Ilaiya was killed. All your other family are alive¡± I broke the news to her, but I decided not to tell her about the injuries and missing arm. They could all be fixed. She broke down in tears. I tried to comfort her, but I was not very good at that. We just sat together in the dark for a long while. She would sob occasionally. I guess she was thinking of her family. Eventually, she fell asleep. Eventually, I dozed as well. I woke up when I heard Mayakku stirring. Being on my own a lot while hunting means I am a light sleeper. I would have been happier if I had a trap left to set in the tunnel. We drank and ate the dry trail food and settled in to wait. I returned to my Sensing, and I think Mayakku was doing the same. This time I focused on the edge where the Sand Elemental met the surrounding rock. There was an interaction going on there, and I studied it. It was a Spiritual interaction that slowly ground at the rock and turned it into the sand. My affinity and Identify were telling me I could get a skill from learning his. I put my hand on the rock next to me and tried to copy what the elemental was doing. It used Spiritual Strength and Agility filtered through the Affinity, but it was also sort of similar to Granite Manipulation. I tried multiple times and was sure I was doing it right, but it wasn¡¯t working for me, and I was getting frustrated. Then I realised what an idiot I was. My affinity was Granite, and this rock was not granite. I created a Granite Spike to see if it would work with my created Granite. It may require natural granite. It worked fine on my created Granite, and it was enough to trigger a new Skill, Granite Sand. The Skill made the process easy, and I could now create sand like I could create Granite Spike. It would create a small amount of sand either in my hand or on a surface. The amount of sand and my control over it would grow with the level. At Apprentice Level, I could shoot it from my hands like Ruku could do with his Water Surge, and at Journeyman Level, there was enough for a small Sand Pit or quite a strong pressure of sand if I funnelled it through a small opening. I could think of quite a few uses to enhance my traps, and the sand shooting could be damaging against unarmoured skin. At Novice Level, I would have to get it in the eyes or throat to damage, but Skills levelled relatively fast when they were low. Mayakku suddenly exclaimed, ¡°That¡¯s how it works!¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± I ask. ¡°Powered Enchanting with Beast Cores. I have been trying to figure out how the energy works and use it in enchantments, but I haven''t gotten it after almost a year, even with the beast core you supplied us with. I thought I would have to find someone to teach me, but they are all usually locked into contracts and would require me to do so as well,¡± she answered. ¡°So what has changed?¡± I inquired. ¡°This Sand Elemental has its Beast core splintered and spread throughout its body. I figured out how the splinters communicate with each other. It is almost like a hive-type mind. But I can see it!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°It is infrequent because there is not much action going on, but there are spiritual links between the core pieces, and I have identified the communication pulses, which are the same type of energy I aim to extract from the cores. I think I can replicate it and manipulate it. I will have to wait till I get back to the wagon to try it, though.¡± ¡°Would I be able to see this? I did try looking for this.¡± I was definitely curious. ¡°I would doubt it even with Sense Spiritual at the Master level. I have Spiritual Flow, which makes me more sensitive to how the Spiritual Energy moves, and Spiritual Sensitivity, which enhances both those skills as well as my Spiritual Sight, to be more sensitive, particularly to the type of Spiritual Energy.¡± She replied. It was a plain fact that I didn''t have the Skills. I am not sure I have the patience or the desire to learn them. I assumed they all required Enchanting Skills. She went back to her observations, and I went back to practising my new Skill. As I thought about it, these skills were what I was missing when I was trying to understand what the Goblin Chief was doing when he created the Goblin Shaman. That episode has rattled around in my head since I saw it. I mentioned it to Tabitha, but we have not mentioned it to anyone else. The Spiritual Sensitivity Skill and the affinities of Spiritual energy were all new to me. It just highlighted how much I didn¡¯t know. I don¡¯t have time or the inclination to learn everything, and I doubt Mayakku wants to come Monster hunting with me. I doubt her Pride would let her even if she did. I waited for what I thought was two days, but it is hard to tell in a cave, and then I went to check the tide. It was daylight and a high tide, so we waited for night and a low tide before making our way out. Mayakku was fascinated that the Sand Elemental Core was embedded in the sand all the way out to the cave entrance. Once we exited the cave, she could also see the Elemental spread out into the ocean, beyond her capability to sense. I had the sense that there was more I could learn from the Elemental if I spent the time. Now was not the time, though. The ship''s mast was gone, so I was hoping the attackers had also gone, but I wasn''t betting our lives on that. They could have left watchers and assassins. We got off the beach as soon as we could and made our way to Ruku''s village. When we got there, we broke into his cabin and made ourselves at home. I found out the attack was two days ago. Tabitha is going into attack mode, as we are both sick of being on the receiving end. I wonder how she is progressing in that. 96. Counterattack: Tabitha

96. Counterattack: Tabitha

Dawn was breaking when I limped back into the quarry. They had moved the bodies out of sight, and there were temporary repairs done to the gate, so it closed. Am''m¨¡ ran up to me as soon as she saw me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We rescued Mayakku. Sten is keeping her safe while things quiet down.¡± I said. ¡°Thank you, thank you, thank you. But what about your leg?¡± she exclaimed. ¡°I will need ?rt to have a look at it. The City gate will be opening soon, and I need to find out what has happened. Our first counterattack is happening at noon.¡± I said in a rush. ¡°Come and sit for a bit and have a meal. You won¡¯t be good to anyone if you collapse.¡± Am''m¨¡ can¡¯t help mothering everyone, and she had a point. I followed her to the cooking fire, and she dished me some oats and honey and brought me up to speed on what was happening at the quarry. Most people were asleep after a long night and recovering from various injuries. The Catkin were a very close unit, and the loss of Ilaiya was deep. She really wanted Mayakku back as well. I think mainly to confirm she was OK. Then Nyx arrived and was very agitated. It seemed Wiremu and Mayakku got to the cave, but Nyx was not going anywhere near the Sand Elemental. That was interesting and a bit worrying. I couldn¡¯t pin down Nyx to the specifics of why. Dusk was at the Quarry, so I rode her into the city. I went straight to Safe House 2, but it was empty. Everybody had crammed into Safe House one. The Canine Queens were damaged. Drugi? had a broken arm, and Najprej had been sewn back together in several places. ?rt was moving very gingerly with some broken ribs, and Skavt was limping. The only one who was healthy was Kryddor. The potions were working, but bones would take a week or so to knit together. ?rt had been using his healing skills and the herbs and potions, but he was now tapped out of energy. His aura was helping everyone, as was Ruku¡¯s Refreshing Mists. Ruku and Modrica were fine. The Comedic Rhythm were all traumatised to varying degrees. Canwr and Bwr were the worst. When I went to see them, Canwr¡¯s hand wouldn¡¯t stop shaking, and she looked nervously around and any unexpected noise. Trummer seemed the least traumatised. Zabavno and Manus were wary and nervous. When I got the story, I could understand why. Not only did they watch gruesome and violent deaths, but they watched rats chew on the corpses. The Pack Rats might be helpful, or they might be a problem, or they might be both. Zabavno and Manus felt up to coming with me to meet the Duke¡¯s Heir, Eluf. The Duke and his family were humans in Obalno. It did vary throughout the kingdom. We settled the others into a new Inn under a different name. I dressed in sexy business attire for the meeting, and the three of us went to meet the Heir. We were ushered into a reception area, and Eluf, the Duke''s Heir, was flanked by two advisors. There were four security personnel around the room. We had been searched, and weapons had been removed before entering the building. Eluf was a tall, well-built man who obviously trained with martial weapons. As a member of the Duke''s household, I am sure he had specialised training in various classes and specialisations. He had a full beard and looked out of place in the posh reception area. He did not look like a supporter of the entertainment arts but rather one who preferred action. Looks can be deceptive. As we entered, my Spatial Awareness caught a slight frown on the advisor on the left. All three had Staus Masking abilities, and I didn¡¯t want to push through them without reason. Eluf, in particular, will be very sensitive to any mental influence and, I imagine, quite resistant to it. It is no good being a noble if any merchant or spy influences you. ¡°My Lord,¡± the lefthand advisor started, ¡°Allow me to introduce Zabavno and Manus of the Comedic Rhythm here to accept your sponsorship.¡± I plastered a bright smile on my face. ¡°Allow me to introduce myself, your Lordship. I am Skygge of the Comedic Rhythm and the Elemental Traders. I apologise for your adviser''s lack of information about me, but I try to keep a low profile.¡± Eluf cut off whatever his adviser was about to say, ¡°Greetings and welcome.¡± His voice was deep for a human. ¡°I was not expecting you to come, Skygge. In fact, I was told you would be against my sponsorship.¡± He was obviously not happy about the poor information he had received. ¡°On the contrary,¡± I gushed, ¡°we are all rapt with your sponsorship offer. Of course, from the Elemental Trader''s view, we are just a small Trading House, and we have invested a lot into the Comedic Rhythm. We are just starting to see a return on that investment. Bringing in other Sponsors is a way to spread the risk of the investment and multiply the growth.¡± ¡°The Sponsor offer is exclusive.¡± the outspoken advisor said pointedly. Eluf spoke again, ¡°Where are the other three members? I was hoping to meet you all?¡± ¡°I am sorry, your lordship, but we were attacked after the performance last night, and while they are OK, they are shaken and didn¡¯t feel up to coming out or very safe in this city.¡± I replied. ¡°Attacked! By whom and where was the Watch?¡± Eluf was very unhappy. I was more and more convinced he was being manipulated. Manipulation can work both ways. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°It was a gang with blue bandanas. There were over thirty of them, and we left well over twenty bodies in the street. Have you not had a report on this? I think there is something seriously wrong with the Watch as we didn¡¯t see them, and you know nothing about it.¡± I figured if he was not part of it, he could be part of the clean-up. ¡°Why do I know nothing about this?¡± Eluf demanded from his Advisers. ¡°I will find out, my Lord.¡± the outspoken Adviser said. ¡°No, Tjenner.¡± he said, turning to the other Adviser, ¡°Birgin, you will have the Captain report to me this afternoon.¡± He turned back to me, ¡°There were over thirty and twenty dead? How are you not harmed?¡± ¡°There were some injuries, Sir. We hired a Mercenary Group to protect us, the Canine Queens. They are very professional, so street thugs are not usually a problem. Because there were so many thugs, we do have some injuries that will take time to heal. We think this was a targeted attack.¡± I replied. ¡°Targeted? Why would someone target entertainers?¡± Eluf asked. ¡°We have to assume it was because of your sponsorship offer, as it is a very generous offer. Nothing else makes sense.¡± I misled him. He looked puzzled for a moment, then asked, ¡°Have you had any other offers?¡± I shook my head, ¡°Whoever is behind it would also need contacts in the gangs. Persuading the gang to field that many people would be costly, and they will not be happy with their losses. I imagine they will be looking for additional compensation. Then there is the bribing of the Watch to stay away.¡± ¡°My Lord,¡± Tjenner interjected, ¡°this is all speculation. For all we know, they were just caught in the middle of a gang war.¡± ¡°Birgin,¡± he said thoughtfully, ¡°I think doing a financial audit of the Nobles and the Watch is worthwhile. We only need to go back a month to see if there are any unexpected major expenses. Also, ensure the Watch Captain brings the patrol schedule and incident reports from last night to our meeting.¡± Birgin nodded and turned to go. ¡°I should do that, my Lord,¡± Tjenner said. ¡°No, you organised this sponsorship deal. You need to stay to finish it.¡± Eluf said. Tjenner was so obvious to read I thought he was only a minion and the boss was not Eluf the Heir. I think Eluf is not the rough man of action he portrays, but he knows more than he lets on and has a keen intelligence there. He has his own people in play, and I doubt he agreed to this sponsorship by being manipulated into it. ¡°The Comedic Rhythm will need some time to recover, but we do want to discuss this Sponsorship agreement.¡± I smiled at Eluf. I was careful not to use any of my mental skills. ¡°Have you ever wondered how we perform the Barman and the Nobles daughter?¡± I asked him. His eyebrows rose at this, and his whole manner changed. He got excited as he said, ¡°Absolutely! I have seen the show three times and can¡¯t figure it out!¡± This was a lot more natural than everything he had shown to date. ¡°A performer''s secrets are not for a public explanation,¡± I said, using my hand to indicate all the people around us. ¡°However, perhaps we could arrange a more private meeting?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a good idea, my lord.¡± the Tjenner said. I just raised an eyebrow at him with a small smile on my face. I had him, or maybe he had me, but he obviously wanted a private meeting too. I had been careful about my dress, body posture, and expressions, engaging his curiosity, and no other skills were required. I say other skills because all the previous ones were from Sentient Lore, but that was not obvious. I realised this was also what he was doing, and with him being a Noble, he was trained in it. We walked out of there over the protests of Tjenner without signing anything, and I had a dinner date three nights away. Counterattack one complete. When I checked my status, I realised my Adjuster Skill had levelled. That was a subtle Skill, and I didn¡¯t realise I was using it. Interesting. The Skill came from my Racketeering Specialisation, which seems to benefit me more than I realised. I escorted Zabavno and Manus back to the new Inn, and ?rt was able to spare some energy to reduce the healing time on my leg. Ruku¡¯s Refreshing Mists was also a great skill. I collapsed for the rest of the afternoon. I hadn¡¯t slept for two nights, and while a higher constitution helps with reduced sleep, I also expended a lot of energy over the last twenty-four hours. I woke up for dinner. I planned a night, gathering intel and setting up for more attacks. I had an advisor to investigate. My coin is on him being a middleman, and I need to follow these leads to the next step up, having eliminated Eluf as the boss. We had also been attacked through the Healers Association, the Mercenary Guild and in business dealings. This is in addition to the physical attacks by the Seadogs and the Smuggler Ship. All this shows someone with many fingers in a lot of pies. The Healers Association was first on my list tonight for several reasons. One, they close at dusk, and the building will be empty early. Two, they are more likely to have something in writing as they would not be an organisation that would normally be used to pressure someone. Yes, nobles and influential people on both sides of the law will have their pet Healers on retainers, but healers are not deceptive by nature. They want to heal people and make money while doing so. Three, they should be the easiest to break into. Next up was the Mercenary Guild. That was more difficult because it is open around the clock. There is minimal staff after midnight, but it is a big place with a lot of paperwork. They also deal with rogues regularly, so they will be a tougher nut to crack. I am not expecting much, and I am unsure if it is even worth the attempt. What they might have is information on the Smuggler crew. I might just skip to the Seadogs. I have already scouted them, and after last night they will have a lot fewer people to defend with. I plan to cause havoc while there, but the information comes first. The Seadogs are my main target for the night. I plan to kick them while they are down. My problem is what to do with the Rats tomorrow night. The Black Shadow should have died in Jern, yet this Rotte has made connections that include Modrica. Nijel was spreading the legend of Black of the Shadow Guild, but she died in the legends. Yes, I have made connections in the towns on our way here, but not as the Black Shadow. Was Rotte making guesses and struck it lucky? Did it have something to do with the Rats they bond with? I also plan to scout them tonight, although I will probably not have time. 97. Bite Back: Tabitha

97. Bite Back: Tabitha

The Healers Association was as easy as expected, and a complaint was lodged against ?rt by Tjenner, who supposedly represented several unnamed clients. He claimed to be writing on behalf of the Duke¡¯s office, including a donation to their building renovations. This is the second tentacle reaching back to the Duke''s office. I will get more info from Eluf on our date in a few days. I wish Wiremu were here. I would set him to spy on Tjenner. I did skip the Mercenary Guild. I have other Smuggler contacts whom I am sure can point me in the right direction to the crew who attacked us. I swung past their agent in a local Tavern by the fishing docks and paid for information. They will get back to me in a few days. The Seadogs also had their headquarters in a warehouse in the fishing dock area. The reason I had no success last time because of the sheer number of members there. Now I know why. There were high-quality traps on the windows and entrances. My Disarm Traps was at the early Journeyman Level, so I was quite confident about getting through the window undetected. Right up until I triggered it. My Sense Spiritual gave me some warning this wasn''t an ordinary Trap. Underlying the trap was a Trap, and this had been modified with a very sticky substance. Only my high Physical Agility enabled me not to be permanently stuck. One arm was caught, and I had to cut it loose, which I wouldn¡¯t have been able to do if the other arm had been caught as well. My ordinary knife wasn¡¯t cutting it. I had to twist and draw my Blacksteel war knife awkwardly with the wrong hand. Even that took some time to cut through the sticky ropey substance. Wiremu would love to examine the trap as well because this was a step above the normal traps. He won¡¯t get a chance as I fully intended to burn the place to the ground once I was finished. I tried to cut a section of the sticky rope to put in my Spatial Pocket for Wiremu to look at, but I was starting to get a little desperate with the time this was taking. My hand was also going numb, so the sticky substance must include some sort of nerve-damaging toxin. Luckily most of my arm was protected by my armour. Next time I will also wear gloves, although the loss of sensitivity in gloves is also a problem. Maybe fingerless gloves are the way to go. Time is now a problem, as the Trap didn¡¯t just try to hold you in place and poison you. It also made an audible noise alerting the guards. Even with my low levelled Hearing Aid, I could tell one was approaching the door of the room I was breaking into, and another was following them up the stairs. I was trying to enter a second-story window of the warehouse. It was an office of some kind. I gave up on the rope and ducked into the room shrouded in Shadows Embrace. A bit of smashed glass was nothing at this point. The door crashed open, and a thug rushed in. From Ruku¡¯s report, the quality of the gang members was several steps below what we faced in the forest. Crashing into a room at full speed where an unknown opponent is not the wisest course of action. This idiot would have been better waiting for his mate and doing a slower entry where he could have avoided impaling himself on my knife. Well, I wasn¡¯t going to complain, and he was now beyond educating. He was probably always beyond educating. The walkway outside the room was well-lit, which wasn¡¯t great for me. My Spatial Awareness showed the other guard stop at the top of the stairs when her mate rushed in. She seemed to have paused between fight or flight depending on the fate of her partner. When no sound came from the room, she decided on flight as the appropriate action. She turned and started charging back down the stairs as fast as possible. I dashed out in pursuit. I had Nyx use Shadow Manipulation to create a trip wire on the stairs. It was fragile and made of shadows, but it was enough to disrupt a foot and make her stumble down the last part of the staircase. I vaulted over the railing and crashed into her feet, first taking her down and stabbing her through the neck and severing her spinal cord. Even if it didn¡¯t kill her, she couldn¡¯t move to grab a potion. I did make sure to finish her off. The cut on my leg started to ache. I think I might have reopened the wound. It was bound tight. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. I paused to see if there were any other responders, which was almost my undoing. My Spatial Awareness didn¡¯t reach the warehouse''s other side, but it picked up the arrow heading for my chest. My reactions are good, but not enough to completely get out of the way, especially with an injured leg. The arrow took me in the upper arm, which cracked a bone this time. That will slow me down and make my performances difficult and painful. I heard footsteps running. The Archer had decided one shot was enough to save face and vacated the premises. I shrouded the area in Engulfing Shadows and hid, which is what I should have done the moment I left the office. Then I wouldn''t have an arrow in me. Fuck, it was painful. My Engulfing Shadows filled the warehouse; from that, I could sense no one else there. Now I only have until the runner comes back with reinforcements. I gritted my teeth and pulled the arrow, nearly passing out from the pain. I never wanted to level my Pain Resistance, and I still don¡¯t. Fortunately, the bone is only cracked and not fully broken. I awkwardly bound the upper arm tightly and then took a potion to help speed the healing. I did have a potion to numb the pain, but it would also make me drowsy, and I was already making too many mistakes. I set my explosives near the entrances to the warehouse and spread some easily flammable liquid around vulnerable areas. I originally wanted to set everything ablaze and be gone before any warning went out, as they may have someone with a water or earth affinity that could smother the flames. There was a small chance they had someone, but there were too many strange things to discount it. I went back to the offices. Instead of going through and looking for information, I just grabbed everything I could and stuffed it into my pack where the explosives had been. I set my last explosives, spread the last of the liquid, and made an exit the same way I came in. I wanted to leave from the ground floor to save my arm, but I didn¡¯t want to spend time disarming another difficult trap. As I lowered myself to the ground, I had Nyx go through and set off the explosives. It wasn¡¯t nearly the amount of killing and destruction I had been planning, but it was something, and it was certainly giving notice that we bite back. This and the death toll from last night are all putting pressure on them, and I know that at least the Pack Rats are circling, looking for blood. I waited in the area to see what the response was. If there was a response from the Seadogs, it must have been on the other side of the warehouse. I did circle the building to see if I could find where the runner went, but they were long gone. Eventually, the Watch turned up, and they organised to stop the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings and settled in to let the building burn down. I left them to it and went to see ?rt about my arm and leg. I expected a lecture from ?rt, and I was not disappointed. He re-sewed my leg together and bandaged both the leg and arm with smelly herbal concoctions. He then gave me a potion specifically for healing the bones and used a Skill to keep the bone straight that he said would last for about two days before needing to be renewed. ?rt also looked at the numbness in my hand. The feeling was returning, but it had taken close to two hours. There was nothing left on the hand for him to test. He then instructed me to go to bed, sleep as long as possible, and take the pain-numbing potion just before bed. I didn¡¯t have anything pressing until tomorrow night¡¯s meeting with the Pack Rats, so I followed his instructions. I will need more backup at the Pack Rat meeting than just Modrica. I really wish Wiremu and T¨¡oke were here, as they would be my preferred choice. Ruku is the next obvious choice, but this would expose more of my secrets to him, and he already knows more than I am comfortable with. There are not many other choices. I will need to show strength, and I have two serious wounds. I will try to mask the wounds, but I am pretty sure the rats will smell the blood, indicating weakness, which might result in a challenge. 98. Secrets: Ruku

98. Secrets: Ruku

Skygge came back to the safe house with an arrow wound in her arm, and her leg wound bleeding again. ?rt patched her up, and I think my Refreshing Mists is on permanently. Before she went to bed, she asked me to be available tonight to meet the Pack Rats. Modrica and I will play bodyguard. It sounds like she is this Black Shadow person. I am swapping the watch mid-morning with Najprej, and I will also need some shut-eye before tonight. I am interested in this water skin armour that was apparently on the Water Shamans. I wish I could have seen it. My Whirlpool Shield is external to my body, not embedded in my skin. From my Water Manipulation, I know there is a lot of water in the human body. My Hydatre Skill, combined with my Master level Water Manipulation, is very effective at flushing out poisons and other toxins. It seems the Shamans could not do this with this Water Skin armour they had as Sten, or Wiremu as he is called said the Venom built up in their body. This Water Skin Armour seems more effective against piercing and cutting attacks than my Whirlpool Armour. It might be very powerful if I combine it with my Hydrate Skill and flush the Toxins. I can¡¯t practise here, though. I need access to a lot of water, and failed attempts also tend to spread, or explode, a lot of water in my experience. I will plan a trip to the beach whenever I get my next day off. When I swapped the watch with Najprej, I asked her what I should be calling Skygge and Sten and who Nyx was. She said I needed to discuss that with Skygge or Sten. I need to do so before tonight, but for now, I need to hit the sack. I woke late afternoon and sorted out my gear for the evening. My armour is going to need some repair soon. Sten is better at it than I am. I am used to handing it to the Marine Armours and then picking it up the next day. I will stick with my sword and shield, with a couple of knives as a backup. Modrica has her mace and fists, and Skygge has her knives. We have no ranged weapons, which concerns me. My shield will defend against ranged attacks, but we could get pinned down without adequate response. I will talk with Skygge about taking Skavt with her Throw Weapons Skill. I know she sent Skavt and Drugi? out to the Quarry with the new kid Abigail. Abigail apparently has a Wood affinity and will help rebuild the defences there. We are very short-handed with the losses at the Quarry and so many injuries. Skygge had Modrica, and I joined her for dinner to prepare for tonight. She took us to a local tavern and booked a private room. It was a small room on the upper floor with a balcony, and the first thing Skygge did was pull out six small pieces of leather with runes enchanted on them. She put one piece of leather adjacent to each wall, one pinned to the ceiling, and one on the floor under the table. They were common sound reduction and distortion enchantments to help ensure we had privacy. After the waitress left our order, I started my normal blunt way. ¡°If Sten is actually Wiremu, what do I call you?¡± She sat there for a moment in thought. Then she said, ¡°How much does Sione know?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how much Sione knows. I have not told him anything since signing with you. At that time, he thought you were Tabitha Carter and Sten was your brother Warren.¡± I replied. She sat looking at me for a few minutes. The waitress brought in our drinks and some snacks. When the waitress left, she said, ¡°You have only been with us a few weeks, Ruku, and already you have seen more action than would normally be seen on the entire trip to Kirghiz, and we haven¡¯t even left Obalno yet.¡± She paused, then continued, ¡°I don¡¯t trust easily. However, if you come with us tonight, you will probably gain knowledge that only Wiremu and Modrica know. Even the Canine Queens only know some of the generalities of this. This is deeply personal to me and involves things I have done that I am not proud of. Will you keep what you hear a personal secret? It is not nice or legal. If you can¡¯t, Modrica and I will go alone.¡± It was my turn to pause in thought. She was injured in her arm and leg and wanted backup. She would have taken Wiremu if he had been here. As a Marine, I had worked with undercover operatives on the wrong side of the law, but I was generally part of the backup enforcers. We were the ones raiding the suspected smuggler ships, not the ones doing the smuggling. From what she said, she has regrets about whatever it is. That is a good sign. I have never really understood her and Modrica. They seem such opposites. I like Sten. I must get used to calling him Wiremu. If Skygge is not his sister, it seems strange that they are together. Wiremu looks out for her more than any brother I have known, and she seems to be the same even though they seem so different. They are both young. I am old enough to be their dad. I feel this is not just a promise about keeping a secret. This is about becoming family. How the three of them became a family is a big mystery. I should say four of them, as you have to include T¨¡oke. I am missing the camaraderie of being in the Marines, and nothing is holding me here. I have seen a lot of families more dysfunctional than these four. I looked at Skygge and Modrica. ¡°Where is this ship heading?¡± They understood I was considering a larger commitment than just keeping a secret, and I got a nod from Modrica. ¡°Wiremu has a powerful anti-slavery stance, and we are heading into a clash with the empire over it. All this,¡± and she indicated to include all their current activities, ¡°is to gather resources, contacts and the Skills and experience ready for that.¡± Wow. They are gearing up to take on an empire. I have seen that they are already operating as well-equipped, high-level operatives. Anti-slavery is something I can get behind. I have not had personal dealings in the slave trade or known anyone who has. However, the worst of the smugglers were smuggling people out of the kingdom and into the empire to be enslaved. This was no small goal and no small commitment. I made a decision. Even though my Orcish was only mid-Apprentice Level, I said, ¡°Pridru?ite se klanu,¡± which roughly means, ¡°I will join your Clan,¡± although there are a lot of deeper connotations that go with that. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. They both relaxed, and Modrica, in the role of the senior Clan member, said in Orcish, ¡°Dobrodo?el brat,¡± welcoming me to the family. At that point, the waitress came in with our meal, and Skygge waited until she left. As we started eating, she said, ¡°Sione has one thing correct, I am Tabitha Carter. My brother Warren was killed when we were escaping from the empire. Wiremu was travelling with us. We had a skirmish with an Imperial investigator at the border town of Kirsk, and Wiremu injured the investigator and ended up with a Capture or Kill contract on him. He needed a new ID, and Warren¡¯s was the easiest.¡± There was obviously a lot more to that story, as squads of well-trained guards always protected imperial Investigators. I noticed she didn¡¯t say why they were all escaping the empire. I just nodded for her to continue. ¡°We ended up in Jern. This is the part where it becomes relevant to tonight''s meeting. Have you heard the tales about what is now known as the Month of the Black Butcher in Jern?¡± I paused with a fork full of food halfway to my mouth. I put the food down. There were Bards tales about that war between Crime Lords in Jern. Apparently, there were bodies left on the street daily and firebombings of entire blocks of buildings. Even allowing for bardic exaggeration, it sounded horrific. The thing all the stories had in common was that the biggest butcher of them all was the Crime Lord Black, who ran the Shadow Guild. All the stories told of her evil beauty and the Blacksteel war knife she carried. The same knife that I saw two nights ago. All the stories also told of her death. Yet, here she was, sitting in front of me. My new clan. ¡°I see you have heard the tales,¡± she continued. ¡°Those were dark times. The thing about the bard¡¯s tales is that they are not highly exaggerated, and I was most certainly the greatest butcher of them all.¡± She paused to take a bite, but she was observing me carefully, trying to judge my reaction. Tabitha continued, ¡°Wiremu wasn¡¯t there for that month. He was with the Canine Queens fighting goblins. Modrica walked with me through the month of hell. She is my Krvne Sestre.¡± The shocking revelations continue. That she is in a Blood Sister relationship with an Orc is unheard of. Those relationships are extremely rare even amongst Orcs. To become a Blood Brother or Sister means you have walked through hell together and survived. It is rare anyone survives those situations. Modrica will have at least as much blood on her hands as Tabitha. I was speechless. I think my mind had frozen, not knowing what to think. Sione is not often out of his depth, but he is over the Mer ocean trench in this one, and he doesn¡¯t even realise it. If Sione realised that he had hired the Black Butcher to do his dirty work, I think his mind would explode. I cleared my throat, ¡°You will have to give me a minute. That is a lot to process.¡± They both nodded, and we ate in silence for a bit. Well, they ate. I think my body was as frozen as my mind. I was going over what I knew of Wiremu and Tabitha. From first meeting Wiremu and watching the hilarious show to fishing and the Catkin. To working under Skavt and fighting beside Najprej and Drugi?. ?rt, the healer and Kryddor, his bond. These were not bad people. They had all known Wiremu and Tabitha much longer than I had and were happy and comfortable with them. They are an eclectic caravan of people who appear happy and relaxed. The picture of Modrica playing with the kittens stuck with me. I have already made my decision. This is my Clan. Sione will have to find another source of information. I looked at them both, ¡°I will need to resign from my part-time consultancy with the Marines. Please tell me there are no more earth-shattering revelations.¡± They both grinned widely. I think it is the first time I have ever seen Modrica smile. Those grins didn¡¯t give me any confidence about there being no further revelations. My heart sank as Tabitha said, ¡°But you haven''t met Nyx yet.¡± ¡°Can it wait until the dessert? I need another drink.¡± After the waitress left and we had our dessert, I said, ¡°OK, who is Nyx, and when do I meet them?¡± Tabitha grinned. I was starting not to like that grin. She said, ¡°Nyx is my bond, and you can meet her anytime.¡± Tabitha had never given any indication of having a bond, and I had never seen an animal around that might be bonded to her. So I said that to her. She replied, ¡°Nyx is not an animal. Nyx is a Shadow Elemental, and she generally lives in my Blacksteel knife.¡± She made a motion, which must have been for my benefit, and a pool of darkness spread out from behind her into a roughly humanoid shape standing next to her. This was huge. I had never heard of a person bonding with an elemental, and I had been privy to knowledge about many bonded people. I also had read about all those with bonds in the military and those in the army of our neighbours that we knew about. This is huge. This¡­ I am speechless again. I took a huge gulp of my ale. Nobody has an elemental bond. How does that even work? It would be like me trying to bond with that Sand Elemental. How does it even think? I am not going to say that out loud. I am not even going to think about it. Otherwise, the next thing I know, Wiremu will be bloody trying to bond with it. These people are doing the impossible. No, they are impossible. ¡°I ¡­¡± I tried to say something, and I failed. Tabitha just raised her eyebrow at me in query. ¡°Shut up,¡± I told her, even though she hadn¡¯t said anything. ¡°You people are impossible,¡± I said finally. ¡°At least I now know how you are performing those impossible feats in the Barman and the Nobles Daughter.¡± She just nodded. I turned to Nyx and said, ¡°Hello, Nyx, nice to meet you.¡± I didn¡¯t know if she could even understand me. ¡°Nyx doesn¡¯t really speak a language,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°She does get intents, somehow, through her Spiritual Senses. We are still working on understanding how she perceives the world. She acknowledges your greeting. I have told her to treat you like Modrica, Wiremu and T¨¡oke. She will not feed from you without permission and will come to you if she is in trouble.¡± Tabitha handed over a small piece of Blacksteel connected to a metal necklace. It was worth a bloody fortune. ¡°Put this on, and she can hide there if she needs to. You will notice a small temperature change when she is there.¡± I put the necklace on against my skin. ¡°Nyx,¡± she commanded. The black shadow flowed into the Blacksteel, and I noticed the gem get colder. I nodded to Tabitha, and she must have communicated with Nyx, who transferred herself back to the knife strapped to Tabitha''s back. ¡°You said something about feeding?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, Nyx syphons energy from living entities to live. Obviously, if she takes too much energy, the entity slows down and eventually dies. This would take anywhere between two days and a week for a human. Rats will become lethargic within 5 - 10 minutes and dead in less than half an hour. This is an important piece of information when we are about to meet a group of people, all with bonds to a rat.¡± 99. Pack Rat: Ruku

99. Pack Rat: Ruku

We discussed ways to approach the upcoming meeting. Tabitha wanted Nyx to impersonate her, and she followed in secret, casting her voice using a Skill. We dismissed that as the enhanced hearing and smell of the rats would probably pierce that deception as she would have to be close, and she still had open wounds. They may also have high enough hearing Skills to pierce the sound casting. Tabitha wanted to find out how Rotte had figured out the Black Shadow was in town. She assumed it was a lucky guess. I was not so sure. If the Blacksteel knife had been seen, that was a big clue. Tabitha was interested in making alliances and had made several on her journey here. She was also negotiating with a smuggler ring we had raided a year ago. The raid had only partially succeeded, netting goods and a few low-level personnel. This was twisting my head around. She appears to be building a criminal network to take on the Empire. I was having trouble getting my head around it. I had already had too many shocks this evening. We decided to go in force and see what happened. So here we were, approaching the Pact Rat meeting place by walking down the centre of the street. The Pack Rats were in the worst of the slum area of Obalno. Some of these buildings didn¡¯t look like they should be standing. My Sonar had been picking up rats since we entered the slums, and I am sure some of them belonged to the Pack Rats. The streets were just muddy tracks through the improvised shacks. Modrica and I were on the flanks, with Tabitha and Nyx in the centre. Tabitha decided Nyx would be visible and intimidating. Nyx was in the form of a huge black sabre-tooth cat. It was very realistic to look at. The wind ruffled the fur. There was saliva dripping from a tooth, and Tabitha could make this low growling sound that intimidated me. I can¡¯t imagine what it would do to rats. Yet Nyx was also very disturbing. She was there visually and in my Spiritual Senses, but there was no sound or smell and nothing on my Sonar. It was disconcerting for me. I imagine the Pack Rats will find it equally disturbing, especially with their heightened smell and hearing. When Nyx hardened some of her shadows for Tabitha to touch, my Sonar picked up small flickerings, but that was all. Nyx left no tracks. We were met at the entrance of an old workshop and guided inside. There were about twenty people inside, all with rats. There was a table in the centre of the room but no chairs. The rats stayed close to their bonded partners. Some of the people showed physical similarities to the rats. The most common were enlarged front teeth for gnawing. Rodents had to continually gnaw at things to keep wearing down their constantly growing teeth. Some had ears similar to rats, and others had hair that looked like fur. These were the hardcore Pack members, the inner circle. Rotte stepped forward. She had two rats with her. Did she have a double bond? She addressed Tabitha, ¡°The Pack Rats greet the Black Shadow.¡± Tabitha had a thick black hide cloak over her armour, and the hood covered her face in shadow, but I know she was enhancing the shadow in her hood as my Darksight couldn¡¯t fully pierce it, and I am sure most of those present had some form of night sight. I have no idea how she saw anything past that lot, but she seemed very aware of everything going on around her. Maybe that was Nyx. Maybe it was another impossible Skill. ¡°You wanted to meet. You have an issue with the Seadogs?¡± Tabitha replied. ¡°We do, but are you really the Black Shadow?¡± Rotte asked. ¡°I am all you are getting. Would you prefer me to be the Black Butcher?¡± Tabitha took a step forward and slammed the Blacksteel war knife into the table so fast I couldn¡¯t follow it, and I have Physical Perception almost at 50. It must be a combination of high Agility with a synergy of skills. I noted she used her good arm. All the Pack Rats flinched to some degree. Once the shock was over, there were varied reactions. Some were greed, some were hopeful, and some were fearful. ¡°We don¡¯t wish to offend you. We wish for an alliance, or at least a common enemy defeated. I do have to ask, what is the Sabre-tooth Cat? Our bonds are wary of the unknown, and it is confusing to the senses.¡± Rotte was curious, and it was obvious the bonds were more than just wary. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°You all have your bonds, so I bought mine,¡± Tabitha replied. ¡°You are rather privileged. Most people never sense her.¡± Her implication was clear, and the unspoken ¡°before they die¡± was very clear. ¡°It is causing tension. I will send her away.¡± Before anybody could respond to that, the room suddenly became dark, a flash of darkness that obscured everything and then went away. When it had retreated, Nyx was no longer beside Tabitha, and the knife was nowhere to be seen. Rather than easing the tension, I caught several people who glanced behind them and checked Nyx wasn¡¯t there. Tabitha was establishing her superiority. ¡°I understand you have a problem with the Seadogs?¡± Tabitha asked the leading question. Rotte was still trying to get a handle on what had just happened. Tabitha had really unbalanced them. We were meeting in their own building, and they had the numbers, yet she had turned the tables on them and was acting in charge. I saw Rotte frown, I am not sure what she expected, but this wasn¡¯t it. ¡°Yeah, we have a problem with the ¡®dogs. You halved their numbers the other night, but the best of them are still around. Did you take out their pad last night?¡± Rotte queried. ¡°I don¡¯t like being attacked,¡± Tabitha stated in a flat voice that was also a warning. There were some nervous murmurings from those around the edges, especially as nobody could find where the Sabretooth cat was. The unseen threat just seemed to back up her words. From what Tabitha said earlier, Nyx had very few direct attack skills. She was very good at misdirecting attention and distracting people when the real threat was Modrica and me. The distraction would make us even more effective if it came to a fight. ¡°Nobody is going to attack you despite some foolish talk. We want to work together.¡± Rotte sounded like she was reinforcing her commands to her subordinates as much as talking to Tabitha. ¡°Tell me about the Seadogs,¡± commanded Tabitha. ¡°The Leader is an Orc called Mro?. He''s almost as big as her.¡± she pointed to Modrica. ¡°There are eight of the strongest in the leadership. There were eight. There are now five. They saw us take out one,¡± she pointed to Modrica and me, ¡°and another mercenary group took out two others. I assume you hired them?¡± It sounded like the Canine Queen¡¯s fight as they had two strong opponents in their fight, and those two caused most of the injuries. Tabitha didn¡¯t respond to the question but continued to as her own, ¡°Where are they holed up?¡± ¡°There is a cave a little up the coast. They use it to send boats out to some ships that do their smuggling, and they fence the incoming goods.¡± She replied. ¡°There should be plenty of good stuff in the cave. We can split it.¡± ¡°What will you do after the Seadogs are no more?¡± Tabitha asked. Rotte smiled, ¡°We will take over!¡± ¡°Have you dealt with a Smuggler group before? You haven¡¯t, I know. I also know you are very good at acquiring things.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°We can work together to take out the Seadogs and split the loot, but in order to be allies, I want information and some items out of Northport. I can¡¯t go myself, but I can arrange to smuggle you in and out.¡± ¡°You want us to do a heist in the Empire? Shit, you¡¯ve got balls.¡± Rotte said. There were a lot of murmurings around us. ¡°I know what I have and haven¡¯t got,¡± Tabitha said, and you could hear her amusement, ¡°but I need more than small-town thieves as allies. We have several weeks to dispose of the ¡®dogs, and I am probably going to deal with their smuggler friends as well. Taking down the ¡®dogs is the trial task. Then we can consider what being allies means. You have the ¡®dogs being watched?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± Rotte said. ¡°This is Modrica. You can pass messages through her.¡± There was a bit more discussion on some details and a share of the spoils. Tabitha said as we had already halved the Seadogs, we would split the remaining half 50-50, which would have ended 75-25 to us. They weren¡¯t happy with that, as only three of the nine big hitters, including the boss, were taken out. I think Tabitha let them save some face, and we ended up 60-40 split. We left and stopped just outside the slum at an all-night tavern for a drink while Nyx put every rodent within two blocks to sleep. Or maybe she killed them. I am not sure. We then stopped for the remainder of the night at a Safehouse I didn¡¯t know about. 100. Tjenner: Wiremu

100. Tjenner: Wiremu.

I didn¡¯t want to stay in the village with Mayakku. We both wanted to get back, see what was happening, and do our bit to help. Catkin were very attached to their Pride, and Mayakku was very anxious to see her family, especially her brother''s recovery and to mourn Ilaiya. Mayakku would not be up to a simple six-hour jog back to Obalno, and there were no horses available in the village. It took a full twelve hours to get back to the quarry, and we arrived in the evening. The defences were mostly rebuilt thanks to Abigail¡¯s wood affinity, and she had only been there a day. They were starting work on repairs to the building and fences tomorrow. Skavt was there pampering Oske, who was the hero of the fight. Again. That Yak has been amazing. I must ask Skavt what sort of Skills she has obtained from him. I really wish I had been with the Canine Queens for their fight. I caught up with Skavt and Drugi?, and they caught me up with what happened in town. I will need to catch up with Tabitha and find out how the meeting with the Pack Rats went. I am not surprised she has a date with the Heir, whatever his name is. I wonder how Ruku is. Tabitha will have explained who I am by now. I wonder how he is coping with that. T¨¡oke and I had better get into the city before the gate closed. The Comedic Rhythm had only been guarded by Najprej, ?rt and Kryddor last night. Tabitha had forked out for a high-class establishment in a rich part of town, so the Inn security was a lot better, and there were regular patrols by the Watch, not that those meant much. We got through the gates just before they closed and headed to the rich Inn. The doorman almost didn¡¯t let me in as I had only taken the time to scrub off the worst of the dirt and sweat, and I was loaded for war. Once I had proved my ID and name-dropped the Elemental Traders and a gold coin, I discovered Tabitha had reserved a very nice room. I checked on everyone and then cleaned up. Tabitha was in an adjoining room with Modrica, but she was still asleep, having been up all the previous night. I picked up Ruku, and we went down to the tavern for an ale and a chat. ¡°So I can call you Wiremu?¡± he asked. ¡°If you want. Sten would keep things consistent for those not in the know.¡± I replied. ¡°So, you are from the Empire?¡± he asked. ¡°I actually grew up in the Free Republic. It borders the empire to the south and west. My full name is Wiremu Hunter, son of Bryan Forrester and Whetu Weaver. My entire village was either killed or taken to become enslaved.¡± I replied. ¡°Yes, I have heard of their quarries and mines to enslaved people for them. I imagine it is worse than the stories.¡± I nodded, and he continued, ¡°How did you meet Tabitha? Actually, The Black Butcher? Seriously?¡± ¡°You know lowering your voice won¡¯t stop anyone overhearing with their Skills, ah? Tabitha was just a thief escaping a bad situation when I met her. She took the death of her brother badly. You probably won¡¯t believe this, but I actually think the whole Black Butcher was an overconfident youthful mistake on her part.¡± He looked incredulous, and I continued, ¡°It certainly got out of hand, and she definitely learned from it. Her successor Nijel has been blowing up and spreading the legend.¡± ¡°She said the bard¡¯s tales were not that exaggerated.¡± Ruku said. ¡°She has a lot of regrets over what she did through that time and is very hard on herself. I wasn¡¯t there for the worst of it, so I don¡¯t know, but she will always paint it in the darkest shadow because she carries a lot of guilt.¡± I explained. ¡°I understand you are fully on board now.¡± ¡°Yes, I resigned completely from the marines today. Sione wasn¡¯t happy, but I needed a new mission and a completely different environment from the military. The criminal world is as different as you can get, and the new family is certainly eclectic. The goal is worth it.¡± We lifted our mugs and toasted to that. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I saw Tabitha at the bottom of the stairs and waved to get her attention. She came over, and we ordered a meal. She laid out a privacy scrap and brought me up to speed with where she was at and what her plans were. She planned to scout the Seadog''s remaining businesses and their hold-out cave tonight. Her leg was much better being a flesh wound, but her arm would take more time. She had her date with Eluf, the Duke¡¯s Heir, tomorrow night and would like some dirt on the aide Tjenner before then. Performances would start the night after, so her night work would slow down. She had three goals with her date. Firstly, to come to an agreement regarding the Comedic Rhythm. Secondly, to find clues on who might be pulling the strings and their goal and, finally, to mix business with pleasure. She will have failed her last goal if she is back before midnight. She expected to be back in the morning. ¡°Did you find out how the Pack Rats worked out who you were?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± she replied. ¡°There were too many watchers. I will need to get Rotte alone for that. There will be an opportunity as we whittle down the Seadogs.¡± ¡°What about the smuggler crew?¡± I asked. ¡°Nothing yet, but maybe you could find out. The Seadogs have links with a smuggler ship, so I think it will be the same crowd, but no confirmation yet. They will be similar to the Seadogs; we have killed off the easy pickings, and the tough ones are left. We discovered that in the rescue attempt.¡± ¡°Attempt?¡± queried Ruku, ¡°you didn¡¯t get her?¡± ¡°Sorry, bad phrasing. We did get her, but it could have gone much better.¡± Tabitha clarified. ¡°We could just sink the ship,¡± I said. ¡°Yes, and that is certainly an option, and we have an experienced operative for that,¡± she indicated at Ruku. ¡°However, I am hoping we can keep the ship.¡± ¡°You want a shipping line as well?¡± I asked. ¡°Not necessarily, as I have no one experienced in running it. I think it could be a prize for the help from another group of Smugglers I am talking with. I am keen to get someone up to Northport to see if they are building from those plans and perhaps do a bit of sabotage. While there, they might get a line on Abigail¡¯s relatives,¡± Tabitha replied. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t Sione be doing that?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°Probably,¡± Tabitha responded. ¡°He is a crafty old fish. I thought some rats to help the ship sink would be unexpected.¡± ¡°And also a misquote,¡± I said. ¡°I can deal with Tjenner. Do you need him alive?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t just kill a member of the Duke''s Staff.¡± Ruku protested. ¡°Oh? Why not?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°There will be consequences and an investigation and manhunt,¡± he said. ¡°But isn¡¯t that what we want? To stir everyone up and bring things to light, or at least make them hard to brush under the carpet.¡± Tabitha responded. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I am here plotting the murder of a high-level civil servant.¡± Ruku sounded half horrified and half amazed at what was going on. ¡°We can probably pin it on the Seadogs,¡± I said. ¡°If he is at the top of this mess, everything will collapse. If he is a middleman, he is a key one with links into the Watch and the government, making their operation significantly harder.¡± ¡°He is not smart enough to be at the top,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Before you go, visit one of the Seadog''s businesses, pick up a blue bandana and check out their traps while you are there. They have modified them with a powerful adhesive combined with a nerve toxin. You might be able to replicate it. I know your traps are deadly with your imbued Venom, but these types will hold you in place and dull the nerves. Hence a live capture. It might be useful in some situations.¡± ¡°I will check them out.¡± I said. We finished our dinner and went our separate ways. Tabitha brought me up to speed with our information on the Seadogs to help me pin it on them. This was the first time I had actively planned a direct assassination. I didn¡¯t have any qualms about killing the guy as he was part of the organisation that attacked us, killed and injured our people and killed Ilaiya. I would do a Tabitha and burn the lot down if I thought it would help. Ruku decided to stay at the Inn. I probably wouldn¡¯t actually kill the guy tonight, but I would scope out his work and home and other places he frequented. I thought the best place to kill him would be in his office. This would also be the most protected place and hence the most difficult to do. But the death could not then be easily hushed up either. First, we headed to the nearest Seadog run tavern to get some incriminating evidence and check out these traps that sounded great. 101. Assassination: Wiremu

101. Assassination: Wiremu

So here I was hanging off the outside of a tavern wall on the second level examining a window with a Master level trap. A Master definitely created it. It definitely was not installed by a Master. The installation was very shoddy, leaving gaps around the edge where I should be able to work it loose and hopefully take the whole thing with me to examine at my leisure. That is easier said than done. I enlarged the holes with my knife until there was enough room to slip the pry bar into the flat side. I almost set the trap off while trying to loosen it along the bottom edge. This edge held all the mechanisms, which showed the amateur installation. I would have put them anywhere but the bottom of the window where the opening catches were. Once I had the bottom loosened, I slipped a thin Granite Spike through and hooked the end to disarm the trap. Then things were easier. For one, I could slip inside and work standing on the floor rather than hanging off the side of the building. The trap was designed to collapse into a smaller transportable form, and I slipped it into my pack. The room was empty, but I found a room where two gang members were staying, so I took two bandanas, some other clothes and a small knife to help disguise myself. I exited the same way I entered. The room I used to enter was empty, so I was hoping the theft of the trap would go unnoticed for a few days. I headed to the Duke''s administration offices where Tjenner was based. The Duke''s own troops guarded them, so they would be more challenging to get past than the Watch. I used Veneer to change my appearance. Veneer was only a surface skill, so I couldn¡¯t change things like my height or build. I changed my hair colour and the skin tone on my face and hands, which was the only skin visible. I added a scar on my face and my nose to appear broken and not set straight. I also added a light unkempt beard. This was pushing the apprentice level Skill, and the more I pushed the changes, the less time I had to keep them. I wound the blue bandana around my arm and covered my top with the gang jacket I had stolen. I changed my Status to show a Journeyman Level Brawler but with no specialisations. I didn¡¯t even know what Brawler might specialise into. I needed to research classes and Specialisations to enable better disguises. Obalno must have a Lore Society that ?rt could access for me. I stashed most of my weapons in an alley and left T¨¡oke to guard them. He would also come to rescue me if this all went down the Kraken¡¯s maw. I had my knives, throwing darts and the stolen knife. I was never really unarmed with my affinity. I adopted an arrogant swagger and entered the road toward the building. I didn¡¯t have any acting skills, so I pushed hard on my Journeyman level Deceive Skill. It wasn¡¯t really for this extended acting, but I needed to have something to try to get past the Guard''s perception and observational Skills. If they had something like a Gut Instinct or a Piercing Truth Skill, it would flag something wrong, but hopefully, that will be answered by an obvious gang member out of place in the good part of town. That is the Deception I was trying to sell. The city administration centre was right next to the Duke''s palace and reception building, so it was in the best part of the city. The surrounding area was high-class shops and craftsmen. The Bards Concert Hall is only three blocks over there. The Enchanters Supreme building was only two blocks over in the other direction. We still have to get to the bottom of the enchanting connection and the kidnap attempts on Mayakku. Tabitha and I are certain it is all connected. It was getting late in the evening at this point. People were coming out of the fancy restaurants and bars and heading home. There were only a few windows lit up in the administration building. The most dedicated and high-level. They wouldn¡¯t be using up the power of the enchanted lighting on low-level people. I took a swig of the cheap wine bottle I had swiped, spilling some down my front. I wanted to give the impression I was also a bit drunk. Hopefully, that would also help cover my bad acting. I swaggered up to the gate guard, loudly demanding to see ¡°that bastard Tjenner.¡± The Gate guards were not going to take any nonsense from a lowly gang member, but I kept at them, swearing about the traitor Tjenner and how he tricked us into a trap. I had no idea if anything I was saying was true, but it didn¡¯t matter. I tried to push past the guards into the building, and that got me a shove and a boot, and I staggered away, swearing loudly, making sure the object of my ire was loudly proclaimed. Several on the street stopped to watch the incident, and a couple crossed the road to avoid me. The attempted entrance should be enough to have this incident recorded, linking the gang with Tjenner. When I got out of sight, I swung back around to pick up T¨¡oke and my gear, and I had a new skill available. Roleplay 1. It was a short-term acting skill helping me to get into a role. I had a short-term disguise skill and now a short-term acting skill. Quick, short and sharp was how I wanted it, and the skills seemed to follow. The Skill appeared to lean toward improvisation and was helped by my other two Skills, Veneer and Deceive. The three definitely had a synergy. The Skill gave hints at how to pull off a successful Role and helped counter opposing skills. This would grow more effective the higher the level. Deceive went up a level, too, and that was getting harder to level. There was also no way I was telling Tabitha about this skill or she would try to get me on stage. That was not happening. Midnight had now passed, and I found the row of expensive townhouses that Tabitha thought Tjenner lived in. I found him in the fifth one at the end of one of the rows. He was in the master bedroom on the second floor with a woman, and they were actively engaged in an adult activity. This could work out quite well if I leave a witness. Maybe even better than at his office. She will kick up a fuss if she is his wife or girlfriend. She will be hurt and grieving. Did she deserve that? Did Ilaiya¡¯s parents deserve that? The answers are no and no. Actually, the answers were possibly not and no. She might deserve it. I was now on the ground after confirming it was him through the window. I was tracking their progress with Hearing Aid. When the climax came, I thought hers was fake, but it was hard to be sure from here. Then I heard her get up and start getting dressed, and he handed her some coins. It was a great opportunity if she was paid to be there and was leaving. She wouldn¡¯t kick up as much fuss as a lover, but I could knock her out and make enough noise to rouse the neighbours and the watch, and she would be a witness. I decided to grab the opportunity and get it done now rather than tomorrow or whenever the next opportunity came up. I re-established my Seadog hooligan disguise and waited by the door. Hearing Aid tracked them coming down the stairs. The woman was wearing shoes, and the man was barefoot. They were discussing the next appointment date. One of them opened the door, and I barged in with my full strength. They both were flung back, Tjenner against the stairs and the women in the adjacent hall. Tjenner was sprawled against the stairs, but the woman rolled and came to her feet with a knife. She was the most dangerous of the two. I threw my stolen knife and caught Tjenner in the throat. He was bleeding heavily but not dead. The poorly balanced knife probably affected my aim. My eyes flicked back to the woman, but she had taken off down the hall. I slammed the front door shut and followed her, swearing loudly like a Seadog idiot. I heard the sound of breaking glass. At the end of the hall was a kitchen. She had broken a window, dived through it, and leapt over the small fence into the narrow lane at the back. She would be hard to catch, and I had business here. I returned to Tjenner, who had a hand trying to stop the bleeding while stumbling to the next room and tugging at a desk drawer. The knife was left on the stairs in a pool of blood. I picked it up and finished him off by severing his spinal cord and letting him bleed out. I left the knife in his spine. I checked the desk, and the drawer held several potions, including two healing potions. I took everything from the desk. I was most interested in the papers. One drawer was locked, and I ripped it open as an angry Seadog would. I needed to be quick because I didn''t know what the lady would do, and the watch might be on its way. It would have been better if I could have knocked her out and taken my time. I guess high-end prostitutes need to be agile and good at self-defence. I quickly raided upstairs, and the other downstairs lounge swiped anything of value and then exited the same way the woman did, making sure I snagged the blue bandana on the glass. I turned the opposite way in the alley and made my escape. It was tempting to go back and see the result, but there might be competent people who respond. They would likely be from the Duke¡¯s guard than the Watch, but I didn''t want to risk it. I led the scent trail back to the Tavern I stole the clothes from, swung past a stream, took a swim, and got rid of all my clothes. The stolen items should have confused my scent, and the stream cleaned the rest, and I made my way to a safe house, dropping the Veneer Skill. It was at the safe house that I finally relaxed, and I discovered I had earned a new specialisation. Assassin. My Spy class was not at the Journeyman level, so it didn¡¯t come from that. That left Hunter or Quarry worker, and it wasn¡¯t Quarry Worker. I didn¡¯t realise Hunter could specialise into Assassin. I probably should have realised it, as many of the Skills are the same and back in Jern, the Mercenary Guild tried to get me to take some assassin jobs. The Specialisation was a mid-tier one with four attribute points. One was assigned to Physical Agility, and one to Mental Agility. The other two were free points. It came with a special Skill called Sudden Strike. The Skill doubled the damage from a surprise attack from stealth or a deceptive ability. As the Skill rose in level, the damage multiplier increased. At Apprentice, it would be two and a half times; at Journeyman, there would be triple the damage. That included damage enhancements from poisons or enchantments. I used Identify to see which of my Skills it could use, and it appeared to be Stealth, Camouflage, Deceive, Veneer, Roleplay, and, surprisingly, Manipulate Status. The key seemed to be it had to be a surprise attack, so I couldn¡¯t just fight with Veneer or Manipulate Status active and expect the Skill to work. I would have to experiment with it. I need to work on sharing this with T¨¡oke because he will love this Skill. I took the time to look at my Status. I have a lot of low-level specialisations. Scout is the only one that is regularly levelling because we are moving regularly, and I am the main Scout. I have a wide variety of Skills, and I need to try to synergise them better. I also have nine free points and try to see where they can bolster my abilities and or give me good skills. My lowest attribute is in Mental Perception, which is reading and understanding people. I don¡¯t particularly like people. I will probably use Sudden Strike to improve my Hunting rather than Assassinations. Putting all nine points into Mental Perception would bring it up to the others in level. Is that a wise use of the points? I will need to know more about people when we head back into the Empire. The only reason I haven¡¯t got the Bounty Hunter Specialisation is that I don¡¯t have a Skill to pierce people¡¯s Statuses, which relies strongly on Mental Perception. I might consult ?rt for his opinion. Ruku might also know, as he has such a Skill.
Wiremu Hunter Hunt QW Spy Pros MHunt Scout Assn Total
Type Attribute Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Level 11 11 8 3 5 5 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 11 2 22 1 5 50 132.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 11 4 5 1 38
Perception (PP) 11 2 22 1 3 5 44
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 5 5 31 84.0
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 8 1 5 1 32
Perception (MP) 11 1 8 1 21
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 6 11 3 5 38 105.0
Agility (SA) 8 2 5 8 1 5 6 35
Perception (SP) 10 5 8 4 5 32
Totals 92 44 53 33 38 12 25 22 2 319
Free Points 2 0 2 0 0 3 2
Resistances: Poison +19, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +28, Heat +20, Fire +13 Skills: Novice: Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Detect Traps 4, Spiritual Trapping 4, Petrification 4, Monster Lore 4, Sentient Lore 4 Granite Sand 3, Roleplay 2, Sudden Strike 1 Apprentice: Fishing 8, Sewing 8, Cooking 8, Tutor 9, Truth Sensing 8, Sense Treasure 6, Sense Spiritual 9, Butchering 7, Weapon Repair 7, Repair Leather Armour 6 Plant Lore 8, Animal Lore 9, Mineral Lore 6, Granite Quake 7, Granite Wall 5, Animal Care 7, Venom Arrow 8, Veneer 7, Mapping 9, Map Making 7, Dwarvish 9, Triple Shot 6, Longbow 7, Granite Manipulation 5 Journeyman: Hearing Aid 13, Hammer 13, Identify 11, Deceive 12, Manipulate Status 10, Granite Spike 13, Granite Sense 11, Granite Bones 12, Granite Shield 11, Trapping 10, Tracking 11, Skinning 10, Bow 12, Small Blades 13, Unarmed Combat 11, Throw Weapons 12, Spear 12, Quick Strike 11, Power Strike 10 Darksight 11, Far Sight 11, Bond Senses 11, Orcish 11, Camouflage 10, Imbue Venom 11, Snakeskin 11, Regeneration 10 Hide Armourer 11, Riding 10, Master: Stealth 16, Animal Bond 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 8 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +22, Cold +29, Heat +20, Fire +13, Pain +11 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 2 Apprentice: Power Strike 9, Granite Spike 6, Strength Boost 9, Venom Spit 9, Granite Shield 7, Grow 9, Regeneration 7, Granite Sense 6, Granite Manipulation 5 Journeyman: Camouflage 13 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 17 Affinity: Granite 102. Evidence: Wiremu

102. Evidence: Wiremu

There is no documentary evidence of anything. I went through all the documents from Tjenner¡¯s house and the papers that Tabitha took from the Seadogs warehouse. The Seadogs had lists of people who owed them money and the name of the smuggling ship they used. The Swift Wave was captained by a human called Alarik, but most dealings were with the quartermaster, a Mer called Henare. I suppose Tabitha could argue that was some documentary evidence. I wouldn¡¯t be at all surprised if it was Alarik that I fought in the forest. Tjenner had mundane expense ledgers and correspondence in and out. None of which was startling. There was a key that I think was in the locked drawer. I couldn¡¯t be sure because I was grabbing everything and just stuffing it into my backpack in a rush. I had no idea what it opened. I will need to return when I get the time and use my Sense Treasure. I had planned to do it while I was there but that woman escaping took that plan out the window with her. What gave me the most information was the trap I collected. It was fascinating. A Master level Trapper definitely made it. Examining this trap advanced my Trapping skill, which had been stuck in the low Journeyman Levels. I had been doing the same things repeatedly and forgot the key to levelling was to push the Skill into new areas. This trap had a clever folding function that enabled it to be carried easily, and there was the alchemical adhesive with the nerve toxin. I was going to need to get that analysed by an alchemist. I touched a finger to it, and the numbness moved through my hand before my Poison Resistance brought it to a halt. It reduced at a much slower rate, but it was still faster than Tabitha described due to my resistance level. What I was curious about was how they launched the sticky rope. Why did it not stick to the storage container? It took some careful investigation because I did not want to destroy the trap yet. I found that the storage for the rope was lined with runes. The runes were very well made. I would need to get Mayakku to understand what they did, but this trap should be on the Duke¡¯s window, not in a crappy gang tavern. How did the Seadogs get the services of a Master of Traps? Or is it the other way around? Is this master in trapping the boss we are looking for? My coin is on the latter, and that is a problem. This is a dangerous individual, and traps will hit you where you least expect them. Detecting Master level traps that the master has also installed will be beyond Tabitha or my abilities. An amateur must have also installed the one Tabitha found, or she would never have seen it. Is the gang misusing these expensive traps, and should they be elsewhere? Or maybe the traps were payment for services. Too early to tell. First, I needed to get this out to Mayakku and find an alchemist to consult. I put a light Veneer over myself, so I was not immediately recognisable and went to the quarry. Mayakku was busy and would need time to spend on the trap, so I left it with her after cutting out a small section of the rope. Tabitha was right. It was very resistant to an ordinary knife. I still had a knife with a small percentage of Spiritual material in it, and that worked eventually. We are going to need Spiritually Enhanced weapons if we are going up against more of this. There might be an alchemical solution that could negate it: next stop, the Alchemist. On the way out the gate, I was intercepted by Abigail. I hadn¡¯t seen her since the interview. She was carrying a log of wood on her shoulder that was bigger than her petite frame would indicate she was capable of. She saw my surprised look and laughed. ¡°Howdy. You seem surprised at this?¡± she questioned, indicating the log. ¡°I am a Shipwright. What do you think they make apprentices do all day except lugging the timber?¡± She dumped the log next to her. ¡°I am often surprised by people''s attributes,¡± I said. ¡°I grew up on a ship, climbing the rigging and hoisting the sails, but mostly scrubbing the deck and removing the barnacles from the hull.¡± She said, ¡°Then there was the shipyard work. I know how to work a solid day.¡± ¡°Hows are things going here?¡± I asked to change the topic. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Good. Many of my Shipwright and Joiner knowledge and skills are transferable to building fortifications and dwellings. Your Caravan Carpenter is teaching me the intricacies of wagon maintenance and repair.¡± she replied. ¡°Have you met Mayakku yet? I asked. ¡°Briefly. We are going to spend some time together tomorrow.¡± ¡°Good. You are a local here. I am looking for an alchemist to consult.¡± It would save time to consult a local as she was here, and Ruku was who knows where. ¡°What sort of Alchemist? Healing and regeneration? Attribute enhancement? Poisons? Herbicides? Soft material enhancements? Hard material enhancements? Explosives? There are several variations on all those.¡± She explained. ¡°I am looking for a poisons Journeyman or Master to analyse a toxin. I probably also need a soft materials Journeyman as I have some rope that has been treated with something that means it takes Spiritually Enhanced knives to cut.¡± I said. ¡°I am not sure about poisons, but we always used Stefan at Coastal Alchemy, who had a good solution for our sails. We didn''t treat our ropes as it was cheaper just to replace them. He has a shop in the central business area, as they all do, but the alchemists are generally in the workshops in the industrial areas. Some of them smell worse than the tanners and are much more dangerous. Coastal Alchemy has its workshop down by the fishing piers. I don¡¯t know anything about the Poison specialists. For hard materials, like treating wood, we used ¡®The Knock On Effect¡¯ by the western gate.¡± That was a place to start. ¡°Thanks,¡± I said. ¡°I will start with Coastal Alchemy and see who else they recommend.¡± She then re-picked up the log, and I headed back to town. Coastal Alchemy was easy to find, but Stefan was busy doing alchemy and couldn¡¯t be disturbed. I made an appointment to return later. As I left the district, I saw the Watch had cordoned off the area around the tavern where I stole the Seadog equipment. It was good to see the Watch doing its job for once, and the fact that they made this much progress this fast means someone is pressuring from above. I turned to divert around the cordon when Investigator Whitby approached me. ¡°Investigator, It is good to see you,¡± I lied. ¡°I heard you were on leave.¡± ¡°I was,¡± he replied, ¡°but a certain high-profile person was killed, and I was brought back to find the murderer.¡± ¡°A high-profile person killed around here?¡± I looked dubiously at the shabby neighbourhood. ¡°This is where the trail led,¡± he said. ¡°It gives all the indications of a gang hit, but I suspect it is not as it seems. I have just inspected that building, and one of the window traps is completely missing. Then I look up and see you, and I remember you are a hunter and will know about traps.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I ask, ¡°Do you want me to come and give you my Journeyman Level opinion?¡± I said, trying very hard not to even think that material from that same trap was currently in my backpack. ¡°No, no.¡± he said, ¡°We have our own experts. I just find it curious when we find a missing trap, indicating a possible break-in and doubt about the Seadog''s involvement or were they framed? Then I look up and see a trapping expert. I don¡¯t believe in coincidences, Hunter Sten.¡± The frustrating thing is that it is just a coincidence that I am here. I didn¡¯t intend to be here, and, unfortunately, I am the person he is looking for, and I have evidence of that in my backpack. ¡°I am happy to assist the Watch however I can,¡± I said, deliberately keeping the impression he may want me for my expertise. ¡°Where were you last night?¡± he asked. ¡°I was with my Sister and Major Ruku almost all evening,¡± I said partially truthfully and made sure I name-dropped Ruku in it. He will almost certainly have some type of truth-sensing skill, making him suspicious. Rightly so, unfortunately. I know my Journeyman level Deceive Skill will help counter his skills, but it will depend on his Skill level, and I am sure he has a high Mental Perception to support it. My Mental Strength is pretty strong, supporting my defence, but we are walking a thin line here. ¡°Don¡¯t go anywhere, Hunter Sten. I may have further questions for you.¡± I was surprised he stopped now. ¡°Very good, Investigator. You know where to find me.¡± I walked away, cursing my luck. There is an excellent reason you don¡¯t return to the scene of a crime you committed. 103. Master Crafters: Wiremu

103. Master Crafters: Wiremu

I made sure I took a different route to Coastal Alchemy when I returned that afternoon. Stefan was in, and he was a short, stocky dwarf. I know there is a stereotype about dwarves being grumpy, but that did not apply to Stefan. He was friendly and personable, almost opposite the Enchanter St?rst, who was next on my list to investigate. After our greetings, I showed him the short piece of rope I had carried in a small box. ¡°This came from a Trap, and I am interested in what type of rope it is and how it has been treated to be so strong and sticky. There is also a toxin on there which is absorbed through the skin and numbs all feeling.¡± this is how I described it to him. ¡°Poisons are not my thing,¡± his voice was low, almost Orchish low. ¡°I have a young fella on staff with an apprentice Poison Specialisation, he can have a look at it, and if it is beyond him, I can outsource it to someone I know.¡± He poked, prodded, donned a glove and tried to remove it from the box, but it was stuck fast. ¡°That is a damned strong adhesive,¡± he mumbled. ¡°How did it not stick to the trap?¡± he asked. ¡°There were some runes enchanted in the trap. I have an enchanter looking at it.¡± I replied. ¡°Damned expensive trap¡± was his comment, and I agreed. ¡°You are going to have to leave this with us. We will have to test the toxin first, remove it, and then find out what the adhesive is before I can find out what material the rope is made from. It has very high levels of Spiritual Energy, which is most likely the rope, but it could be the chemicals.¡± He looked at me, ¡°We will have to test various chemical solutions on it, so you won¡¯t be getting it back.¡± ¡°That is fine. There is more still in the trap. If you can, I am keen on an antidote for the toxin and the adhesive.¡± I said. ¡°I figured, but that is going to take time, depending on what it is. You already have an antidote for the adhesive if your enchanter figures the runes out. We will work on an alchemical antidote. I may need a bigger sample. This adhesive is good stuff. If we can reproduce it, there will be a good market for it.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± I said, and we said our farewells and I would check back in a week''s time. On the way back, I saw a sign, ¡®Master Glass,'' which seemed to be all sorts of glass works. I decided I had time to stop. After all, I have a big bag of spiritually enhanced sand. I only had a small bag on me, as I was using it to experiment with in my downtime. The front part of the factory was a shop that displayed their work samples. There were samples of different types of glass for windows in all sorts of colours and types. The most expensive was labelled ¡°Security Glass¡±, and I picked up the sample as a merchant approached me. ¡°That is our latest in security glass,¡± he said. He was a thin, well-dressed Elf. ¡°This has been spiritually enhanced to restrict spiritual senses and can come in various tints, and one-way viewing can be achieved with a coating we can apply. It is also guaranteed scratch resistant from non-spiritual materials and won¡¯t break with less than a 45 in the Physical Strength Attribute. Even then, it will only crack, requiring multiple blows to break fully. It is our premium product, and we recently upgraded the Duke¡¯s residence and the Enchanters Supreme.¡± ¡°I heard they had a break-in?¡± I queried. ¡°Yes, but it wasn¡¯t our glass that failed. Master Glazier went and looked himself, and we stand behind this product,¡± then he added with a grin, ¡°because it¡¯s the safest place.¡± I also grinned. I like a salesperson with a sense of humour. ¡°I am here because I have come across some spiritual sand that I think you might be interested in, and I am looking for what can be done with it.¡± I pointed to a display which showed other glass products, drinking glasses of various types, jugs and other household utensils, including some domestic knives. ¡°Do you have a sample of the sand? I can take it through to our Merchant Assessor, as I think he is in at the moment.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± I said and handed over the small bag. He took it and said, ¡°That is strong, even I can feel the spiritual energy, and I am just a Merchant. Feel free to browse. I will be back shortly.¡± I went and browsed the glass cabinet with the domestic products. I assumed the glass cover was a version of their security glass, but I didn¡¯t test it. The cabinet was locked, but it was a very basic lock, even I could have picked it and my Lock Pick Skill is still in the Novice Level. I haven¡¯t needed it with Tabitha around. There were two glass drinking cups side by side. One was labelled Glass, and the other Crystal. The crystal one was much thinner than the glass one, even though they were the same style. It was also more expensive. The knives looked brittle, but I think one made out of Spiritually enhanced sand would probably work well cutting a particularly difficult rope. A skinning knife might work on skinning Monsters as well. I will have to ask when they get back. The salesman returned with another male Elf, and I realised we hadn¡¯t introduced ourselves. ¡°Let me introduce you to Gwydr. He is a Journeyman Glassblower, Crystallier and Apprentice Glazier.¡± I had no idea if they were base classes or specialisations. I would guess specialisations. I don''t even know what the Basic Class would be. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Hello,¡± I said. ¡°I am Sten, Hunter and Prospector.¡± I figured I would need to explain where I got the sand, and my Prospecting Class would be a good method of doing so. It did level at the time, and there is no secret as to where I got it, as the Mercenary Guild has been notified of the Sand Elemental. ¡°Good to meet you. How much of this sand do you have, and can you tell me where the source is?¡± Gwydr got right to the point. ¡°I have a mid-sized flour sack full, and it is from a half day down the coast. There is a Sand Elemental we reported to the Mercenary Guild.¡± I replied. ¡°That was incredibly dangerous. If you had picked up part of the core, you would be dead.¡± he seemed quite alarmed. ¡°I had someone with me who told me where I could collect from.¡± I said. ¡°Good. We already know about the Elemental. The Mercenary Guild informed the Duke, and he is putting together a group to study it, and we are experts on sand. I think Master Bl?sare is planning to go himself.¡± ¡°What is the sand used for?¡± I asked. ¡°Many, many things. Most will be added to other sand in various ratios to bring out various effects depending on the Glass Workers'' Skills. The Security Glass over there is about 30% Spiritual ingredients, but with this high level of Spirituality, we will be able to cut that down to around 20%. Come through to my office, and we can talk in comfort.¡± So we did. Gwydr had a comfortable office above the shop with a view out to the harbour. He poured us a few drinks, and we sat comfortably. He then got down to business. ¡°We would like to buy the sand off you, obviously. But that is not the main reason I invited you up here. Crafters have many skills for sensing the Spiritual around us and in our work. A key Skill is called Spiritual Sensitivity, which is very difficult to get. Many people are stuck working with Mundane materials because they can¡¯t get this Skill. As the Skill levels, we can tell a lot of different things about the Spiritual Energy, not just its strength, but also its flavour, if you can understand that.¡± I nodded. ¡°I am saying this because the Stone knife at your hip and the stone darts on your chest all have a midlevel Spiritual Strength, and they all have the same flavour. You have that same flavour. I believe you have a Rock affinity.¡± I am not sure what to say to that. The pause extended into the uncomfortable before I finally said, ¡°And what would that mean here?¡± I started pushing Truth Sensing. ¡°It would mean that you are an incredible resource of Spiritual Material. However, I don''t own Master Glass. That would be Master Bl?sare. I am just here on contract to get my Glazier Specialisation. Master Bl?sare would be the one buying your Elemental Sand as we went through the Saleman downstairs. Same with the source. I hope we can come to a private arrangement for my projects with you as my source. You do create rock, right? It looks like Granite?¡± ¡°I thought you needed sand?¡± I was not about to volunteer information. ¡°We have a tool out back, especially for breaking down rock. It is called a hammer.¡± He smiled. I knew that I spent three horrible years breaking rock in a quarry. God, I¡¯m dumb. He is trying to be friendly. He is trying too hard. I think he is a friendly guy, but I represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to him, and he doesn¡¯t want to stuff it up, and it is coming across as forced. He is lucky I have Truth Sensing, which is now high Apprentice and, increasingly, gives me a feel for the intention of the words. ¡°None of this goes further than you and only you,¡± I said sternly. ¡°Absolutely,¡± he said, and Truth Sensing agreed. He was a craftsman, not a Spy or in another manipulative business, like Merchant. ¡°We will need to meet with my Sister before we make any arrangements. She looks after my business arrangements for me, and she is better at it,¡± maybe I can learn something. ¡°That¡¯s fine. I could shout dinner tonight?¡± He was keen, that¡¯s for sure. ¡°My sister has a date tonight. How about late tomorrow afternoon? It will need to be an early dinner as I need to be at the Comedic Rhythm show in the evening.¡± ¡°You lucky dog. I have been trying to get tickets, but all their performances are sold out, and then they are leaving.¡± Gwydr was obviously, really disappointed. ¡°I am going to be there working as Security. I could probably get you in if you don¡¯t mind a couple of boring hours before the show. Just you, though.¡± ¡°Absolutely! That sounds great. And there is only me. I am barely considered an adult in Elf society, so no partner yet. I will shout dinner,¡± he said. I was getting a good positive vibe from Gwydr. ¡°Good. Now my sister Skygge or her senior agent T¨¡tt¨¡ will come and negotiate the sale of the sand. I need a good Spiritually enhanced cutting tool, maybe a skinning knife. I want to cut a Spiritually enhanced rope without being obvious. Is glass a possibility for this?¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± he said, ¡°but what is wrong with your Granite?¡± Of course, I could use Granite. I am seriously brain-dead at the moment. He continued speaking, ¡°Glass or I would recommend a variation of Crystal, would get a sharper edge, but it is still more brittle than your stone. The advantage of a Glass Crystal knife is it is small and very difficult to see. As long as it is used only on soft materials, there is no problem.¡± He paused and then looked at me. ¡°I am aware of a formula of glass crystal and a design that Cutpurse thieves favour. We could add a higher concentration of Spiritual material to make it more effective against this rope.¡± ¡°That sounds ideal. If you could negotiate a price and deal with Skygge or T¨¡tt¨¡, we will need at least four, but probably six would be better.¡± I was thinking of two for Tabitha and one for myself and Ruku, but extras are always good. Modrica might like one, but I think she would be happier with one of my serrated-edged stone knives. ¡°This will need to be a deal between the two of us. I doubt Master Bl?sare would approve. If I could have a sample of the rope, we could test it.¡± Gwydr was trying to sweeten the deal. ¡°Let¡¯s make the knife, and then we can test it,¡± I said. We made arrangements for a meeting the next day, and I departed. 104. Date Night: Tabitha

104. Date Night: Tabitha

One good thing about these expensive Inns. It had a full-length mirror in the room. That and the in-house baths. I towelled my wet hair and examined my naked body in the mirror. My breasts hadn¡¯t changed. They were still on the smaller side for my liking. I looked too skinny. You could see my ribs. Hell, you could see my stomach muscles. I was nothing like the soft feminine type, but that wasn¡¯t the main problem. The main problem was I had too many scars. Not just my arm and leg, which were still healing, but from Jern. As soon as we got to Kirghiz, I was going to find a healer with a Flesh Manipulation Specialty and have them removed. I was also considering enlarging my breasts, but with small breasts, it was easier to mimic being a male, and that was useful. I wish I had Wiremu¡¯s appearance Skill. He can¡¯t teach it to me until it gets to Journeyman level, and I haven¡¯t been able to get my own skill. I make do with disguises, sound, movement and Shadow. I looked through my clothes. I wanted something sexy, provocative, and maybe a bit on the dark side. I didn¡¯t want it to look like a full-on seduction, as I am sure that would raise alarm bells for Eluf. We also had business to discuss. I wanted to be distracting. I am sure the Distract Skill led me to the full-length black dress with the split-up the leg showing a lot of thigh. It was the leg that wasn¡¯t wounded as well. At least the flesh had closed over the wounds, even if they were not fully healed yet. I had to be very careful about moving my arm as the bone was going to be weak for a while yet. ?rt would prefer I had it in a sling, but that wasn''t happening. I used makeup to tone down the worst of the scars. Eluf was a warrior. I am sure he has scars of his own. I had booked a carriage to take me to the date, which was at Eluf¡¯s private townhouse. As I waited for it to arrive, I thought about the day. I spent almost the whole day with Comedic Rhythm. We practised for the next set of shows and altered some of it to account for my weak arm. Most of the day was to try and settle Canwr and Bwr. Mostly Canwr. She is very strongly in favour of taking Elufs sponsorship. She is very unsettled and thinks the sponsorship will give her security. She is from a noble house, so I think she forgets all the backstabbing politics that go on. The very same backstabbing politics that are pushing us into this deal. My read on Eluf is that he is not a bad person and not part of the corruption that abounds in Obalno. In fact, he may be opposing it. Hence the purpose of the deal is not to corrupt Comedic Rhythm but to separate it from the Elemental Traders. If I can come to a deal with Eluf, I can get a nice influx of Coin. He can wear some of the expenses and hopefully provide some guards for security. We are very short on guards after the last attack, and the Mercenary Guild¡¯s black-listing of the Canine Queens makes hiring very difficult. I was very conscious there were still some Imperial assassins around with a target on Abigail. My gut feeling was that if the Imperials weren¡¯t in control of this mess, they certainly encouraged and empowered it. Hell, I am taking notes because this is exactly the sort of thing I am going to do to them, but better. I have already got ideas on how to improve on this mess, and my Racketeering Class is already giving me nudges, or as I put them, good ideas. A footman met the carriage at the entrance. Maybe he was a butler. I am not sure. That highlights a weakness in my abilities. I have not spent time around the nobles and high classes, so I can¡¯t mimic them well. I might take time to be a maid to observe nobles. Eluf came to the door, so I showed plenty of leg as I exited the carriage. I went straight up to him and greeted him with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. I didn¡¯t have to play the noble here. I was the merchant and seductress. Eluf led me inside and up the stairs to a balcony overlooking the small but immaculately landscaped backyard. There was a table set for two with candles and a waiter in the corner with a bottle of wine. My Spatial Awareness did not miss the two guards on the ground floor and the two in a room off to the side of the balcony where we were eating. The conversation was pleasant over the wine and the entree. I directed most of the conversation to Eluf, and I found out he had returned to Obalno about a year ago after spending fifteen years in the army. He was in the officer track and worked his way up to Captian before coming back at the Duke''s request to prepare to take over. His father''s health was steadily declining, and he was picking up more and more of the responsibilities as he learned the ropes. This certainly had my Racketeering Class up and listening. Sure old age, and death from old age, happen, but the higher the attributes, the longer the life. If you neglect your Physical, Mental or Spiritual attributes, they can waste away, and this gets harder and harder to stop the older you get. A human with an average constitution of around 100-120 would expect to live about 150 years before they start to decline. The decline would happen over another 50 years or so, but you can work to extend your life, and the alchemists and healers are always looking to extend life. Human nobles can live well over 200 years as they have access to the best of everything. Elves and Dwarves live a bit longer, and Catkin''s lives are shorter. That is why fifteen years in the army is not such a big commitment to someone like Eluf. I would expect someone like me to die violently well before that. The current Duke celebrated his centenary and a half only two years ago. This reeked like Wiremu¡¯s week-old fish. Eluf was smart and funny. The wine flowed, and he was used to small talk; the conversation was entertaining. We got down to business before the main course came out, and I got everything I wanted because I am just that good. All I gave up was an extra month of performances in Kirghiz. It left me thinking I should have asked for more. We got the documents, altered and signed them and toasted our new partnership. I was getting a bit tipsy, but I had a reasonable Physical Constitution to handle it. It was as dessert was being cleared away that he sprung his trap. ¡°You may not know this about the army,¡± he started, ¡°but when you get promoted to Captain, you are sent away for six months of intensive leadership training. There are Strategy and Tactics taught, but the main focus is on gaining the Leadership Specialisation, status defence and attack, and developing the Mental Attributes to back them up. I was very good at it. Your Confuse Status Skill is probably early Journeyman level, but you don¡¯t have the Mental Strenght to back it up. Alcohol, a relaxing and distracting atmosphere, the flush of success, and the foreplay of a date all help create cracks allowing me glimpses of who you are. To add to that, I chose to develop Keensight, which helps me put things together.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Well, that was sobering. ¡°So who am I then, Mr Captain, sir?¡± I gave a mock salute. I figured I would keep playing up the tipsy act. ¡°I am very interested in how well you have put me together.¡± He smiled. It was a genuine smile, like he enjoyed puzzling me out. It will be interesting to see what he has worked out. ¡°First up, you are no simple Merchant and Entertainer. You are a warrior and have survived a lot of fighting. You are currently favouring your arm and leg, meaning they are recent injuries, probably from the other night''s attack. You also have a lot of old injuries and scars on your chest, leg and back, indicating a lot of fighting over a long time. Keensight can see the makeup you are using to hide them. I am sure there are more I can''t see. Your walk indicates high Physical Agility and a mobile knife or sword style. The calluses on your hands support that. The calluses are on both hands, suggesting dual wielding, which is unusual. I am keen to spar with you once you are healed.¡± He smiled in anticipation. ¡°I am a basic sword and shield fighter myself.¡± I doubted there was anything basic about his fighting. ¡°You want to spar with me even though I have been hiding things?¡± ¡°All people hide things. I am good at this mental shit, and I enjoy puzzling things out.¡± he said, ¡°Besides, we are partners until at least three months of performances in Kirghiz. I am just sad I won¡¯t be able to travel to Kirghiz with you.¡± ¡°Your use of the Skill, Confuse Status, is reasonable,¡± he continued. ¡°You have learned the trick of having it lighter on some of your classes than others so people with some basic skills will pick up that you are a Merchant and Entertainer. What you may not know is that the higher the class level, the harder it is to hide, and the more effort needs to be put into hiding it. I sensed your three highest-level classes, and Entertainment is not one of them. Thief is your highest level Class, and then Merchant. Then there is something I have never heard of but am fascinated with. It seems to be your fighting class and is called Shadow Predator. What is that?¡± ¡°A girl has got to have some secrets,¡± I quipped, as I was a bit stunned at how much he had gleaned. ¡°Oh, you have many more secrets than that,¡± he replied. I smiled. ¡°It is indeed a specialised fighting Class. Maybe I will show you when we spar.¡± I thought I could pass off some of my Affinity Skills as being from the class. It was not unreasonable. One Skill, anyway. He has also given me many insights on how I can hide my status better. I have no doubt that was intentional. ¡°I like that ¡®when¡¯ word there,¡± he said. ¡°The key question, though, is, what are you doing here? You have cropped up in too many reports and places for it to be a coincidence. Investigator Whitby is very suspicious that you were behind the robbery of Enchanters Supreme. I can understand why.¡± ¡°Investigator Whitby is your man?¡± I asked. ¡°Investigator Whitby is no one''s man. He is intelligent, honest, and relentless, and I just give him the backing to do his job.¡± He said that as if just stating a fact and that matched what I had seen of the Investigator. ¡°So why are you here?¡± It was time to put my cards on the table. Some of them, anyway. ¡°I assume you know the Watch is riddled with corruption?¡± ¡°Yes, that is why I am backing Whitby, and I have other irons in that fire,¡± he said. ¡°The Watch is just the tip of the iceberg. There are links in business, the gangs, and the Dukes administration. It all seems to be coming from a single source. We haven¡¯t found the source yet, but an Imperial stink is coming from it.¡± ¡°Are you with Military Intelligence?¡± he asked. ¡°No. We met with Major Sione, and we are doing him a favour, but if MI knew what we were doing, I think they would have a coronary despite their high constitution.¡± I didn¡¯t want to go into too much detail there. ¡°You have to be working for someone.¡± he insisted. ¡°Consider us independent contractors,¡± I said. ¡°Do you know what happened to Tjenner? He was the link I was following regarding the corruption in the Watch, and now he is dead.¡± He sounded a bit frustrated at this. ¡°I know you put Whitby on the case. What has he found?¡± I figured this was a chance for some intel of my own. ¡°He traced it to the Seadogs gang, but he is not convinced they did it. There are some anomalies, apparently.¡± ¡°Whitby is very thorough,¡± was all I said. Then I continued, ¡°With Tjenner gone have you noticed anyone else acting out of character? If Tjenner was the link, they are probably scrambling to form another link with the Watch. Their system has been disrupted, so mistakes are more likely.¡± His eyes narrowed, ¡°Did you have him killed to shake things up?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± I lied. His eyes narrowed even further. Damn, all high Mental attributes. ¡°What we do need to do is watch and take advantage of this opportunity, though,¡± I pushed on. ¡°If you could keep the pressure on the Watch, we will sort the gangs.¡± ¡°Gangs plural? The Seadogs and who?¡± He was sharp. ¡°There is a Smuggler crew that is in our sights. I don¡¯t want to say more at this stage.¡± I didn¡¯t want to say more, mainly because we hadn¡¯t found much more. His attitude changed to be very thoughtful. I considered that to be a bad sign. ¡°I imagine the smugglers are the imperial link.¡± He was clearly piecing things together. ¡°You seem to think you will be able to take out one of the strongest gangs and a Smuggler crew all by yourself. Do you know stopping smugglers and Imperials is part of the Navy¡¯s role? They could help.¡± I wanted to encourage this line of thinking, ¡°That''s good. We will definitely call on them when we need help.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to let him know about the Pack Rats. That will bring all sorts of risks and watchers down on them. Time to change things up and distract him from thinking deeper for now. ¡°So now we have two partnerships going. You clean the Watch and Administration, and we will help with the gangs and Imperials.¡± I lifted my glass, ¡°Let us toast our agreement.¡± He followed with his glass, and we toasted our second partnership. ¡°Now, partner, I hope you will not let this lovely romantic dinner and ¡®dating foreplay¡¯ go to waste.¡± I gave him a winning smile and changed my stance so my leg was fully exposed to his Keensight. I let the strap of my dress fall off my shoulder, exposing the top of my breast as I sauntered over to him. He was definitely using his Keensight. I could tell from his reaction. I was going to enjoy distracting him. 105. St?rst: Wiremu

105. St?rst: Wiremu

So I finally get to dig into what these enchanters are up to. It was too late yesterday after I finished with Master Glass as I wanted to visit when the shop was open. I haven¡¯t seen Tabitha since she went on her date. It seems like she was successful in at least one area. I dressed as a successful merchant and adjusted my Status to match. I walked in the front door about an hour after Enchanters Supreme opened for business. A dwarven sales assistant met me, inquiring about how she could help me. ¡°I have an appointment with Bertel,¡± I announced. It wasn¡¯t true, but Bertel was the contact name the thugs who attacked the warehouse gave us. Her smile faded, ¡°I am sorry, Manager Bertel no longer works here. Can I get someone else to help you?¡± I wasn¡¯t surprised that Bartel was no longer here as Investigator Whitby was there at the time and would have acted on the information. ¡°I wish to meet his superior then.¡± I let some demanding attitude and stubbornness leal through my tone and body language. This Roleplay Skill was fantastic. I look back now at my acting when I was playing the ginger-haired merchant and even the early parts of pretending to be a gang member, and I can see all the flaws and think about how amateurish it was. ¡°Manager Bertel reported directly to the Master Enchanter, and she is only available by appointment,¡± was the reply. I raised my voice, ¡°But the enchantments he sold me were useless.¡± I threw some of Am''m¨¡¡¯s practice enchantments on the table. ¡°He told me the Master Enchanter did them herself, but they look like they are from your newest apprentice.¡± Sorry, Am''m¨¡. The young sales dwarf was obviously out of her depth. ¡°Why don¡¯t you go and get someone who can help me,¡± I said in an annoyed and slightly condescending tone. She should have come to the conclusion of kicking it up the chain herself. She showed me to a private consultation room and scurried off. She returned a very short time later, meekly following a very stormy Master Enchanter. St?rst stomped her way into the room, ¡°What the %?$^&! is this about one of my enchantments not working?¡± I honestly thought my dwarvish was getting good. St?rst takes dwarvish swearing to another level. She went straight to the samples I had. ¡°These are not my $%^@?!! $%&#@! work! Who the &*&^$# are you, and why are you asking about the ^^%&&$, #!!@^# traitor Bertel?¡± I didn¡¯t need Truth Sensing to tell me she was furious. It did tell me she was genuinely angry and not covering for something like guilt. ¡°Where are those %^$**& guards! Get the &*^^% off my ^&$$@@ property. I won¡¯t have anything to do with @@##?% traitors!¡± one of her guards came and escorted me out the door, and I decided I had learnt enough, so I made an exit before the Watch arrived. St?rst may be a high-tempered, foul-mouthed dwarf, but I got the impression she was loyal to the kingdom and calling Bertel a traitor indicates they had found ties to the Imperials. I want to interview Bertel, but I am sure he is under close watch by the Duke''s guard if the word ¡®traitor¡¯ is being thrown around. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. If St?rst was not trying to kidnap Mayakku and Bartel organised the raid, and he has Imperial ties, then is the Empire trying to capture Mayakku? The Smuggler crew being almost successful in the kidnapping makes more sense, and if we hadn¡¯t rescued her, she could have ended up in the Empire. Is it coming back to these stolen enchantment plans? Maybe Sione¡¯s agent to Northport wasn¡¯t just a spy stealing military secrets, but perhaps they also assassinated military enchanters? The Empire would not risk foreign enchanters without ensuring loyalty. Like enslaving her. Was she a target of opportunity? I think I have a few more questions for Abigail. Tabitha¡¯s theft of those plans must have severely thrown the Empire''s plans for retrieval. It sounds like they had a long-term plant in the Enchanters Supreme, probably because of their military contracts. Stolen plans had come their way freely and were stolen from under their noses for the second time. We need to confirm the assumptions about Bartel. I think it is clear that St?rst has cleaned her house. The military is probably also reviewing her contracts. This is a significant slip-up on Sione¡¯s part. If Tabitha was successful last night, we might be able to check details through the Heir, whatever his name is. I hope he treated Tabitha right. Otherwise, he will wake up missing significant portions of his anatomy. Time to head back to the Inn and see how badly he was maimed. When I entered the Inn I had changed my look and status, so I wasn¡¯t recognisable by the Staff. Tabitha wants me to level Veneer to journeymen as soon as possible so that I can teach it to her. It puzzles me why she hasn¡¯t been able to learn a version independently, as I thought the Entertainer Class would help facilitate it. There was a Duke¡¯s guardsman at the bottom of the stairs. Shit, did she maim the heir after all and we are under arrest? Another guard was on our floor, so they were here for us, not some other Noble guest. I slipped into roleplaying a messenger and knocked on Tabitha¡¯s door. ¡°Go the %^&@@ away. I am sleeping,¡± was the yelled response. Well, she was here and free, so I backed off before I was the one who got dismembered. I did not think my dwarvish was that bad, but clearly, I needed to hang out with different people to learn the finer art of swearing in dwarvish. I have time to head out to the quarry to talk to Abigail before we meet Gwydr for dinner. A brisk walk through town to the gate and a short jog to the quarry let me stretch my legs. I also find it easier to think when I am away from the city. The jog was too short. Abigail was repairing the stables when I saw her at the quarry. Oske and the horses were in a small field nearby. T¨¡oke slipped off my shoulder, slithered over to Oske and climbed up on his back. I picked up a hammer and asked Abigail where I could help. She had me assist with nailing some cladding over the frame, and I broached the subject of North Port. ¡°I need more information about your time in North Port, if you would,¡± I said. ¡°Not sure I can tell you much. We were docked there for a week, but I was not allowed off the ship except for two short, escorted shopping excursions.¡± She replied. ¡°Yeah, something went wrong because we were not scheduled to leave for another two days. Several of the crew were left behind as they were on shore leave. I was woken when my dad and three of the ship''s security people came aboard with one of the MI agents, and we undocked and set sail immediately.¡± ¡°One of the MI agents? How many agents were there?¡± I asked. ¡°Three. The other two never came back before we sailed. As we were clearing the harbour, there was a large explosion in the Military shipyards, and I saw the agent make the sign of Blessing for the dead. I assume they blew something up to help us get away.¡± She had stopped work as the scene played through her mind. I will assume they blew up the Empire''s Enchanters to either hide their theft or sabotage them in the production of this shipping thing. Probably both. Sione must have other agents in North Port. I wonder what the chances are of getting information from him. It would support my theory of the Empire wanting enchanters to build this thing. The other option, within reach, would be to find the local Imperial agents and question them. 106. Contagious: Tabitha

106. Contagious: Tabitha

I awoke a couple of hours before dinner with Wiremu¡¯s Glassmaker. I was very relaxed and totally satisfied. Eluf, the idiot had kept me up all night. He insisted on tracing all my scars with his fingers and mouth. I insisted on doing the same, although he didn¡¯t have nearly as many as I did. He claimed it was the advantage of hiding behind a shield. We already have a second date booked. I insisted that I was in charge of this one, and I am seriously thinking about skipping dinner and booking a two-person hot tub. It was time I dragged my satiated arse out of bed and got ready for dinner and the performance. After the performance, Wiremu, Ruku, Modrica, and I will meet Rotte, scout this Seadog cave, and plan strategies. Eluf should have already assigned some Guards for the Comedic Rhythm, so that would free us up a lot and ease the minds of Canwr and Bwr. Dinner with Gwydr was interesting. He bought a sample glass knife I tested out, and the blade was nearly invisible with my Sleight of Hand Skill. We will be getting more of them despite the brittleness. My Sleight of Hand Skill is only one step from Journeyman level, and Wiremu really wants me to be able to teach it to him. It goes well with my Distract Skill, as that is a large part of the Skill. It won¡¯t be so effective with his Deceive Skill, but it should still make it easier to learn. When Gwydr found out I was part of the Comedic Rhythm, he went all fangirl on me. Seriously the guy is a 40-50-year-old male, and he acted like a teenager, and I know Elves are not considered adults until they are 50, but still. Elves live, on average, longer than humans, probably another half century or so. As a result of his fangirling, I got a free knife, as he insisted on giving it to me. I promised I would introduce him to the other members. T¨¡tt¨¡ is planning to visit him tomorrow, along with a visit to Master Glass to negotiate the sand deal. For Gwydr, we were thinking of paying in buckets of sand that Wiremu will produce. Personally, I want him to hurry and level Granite Wall as he can then make us better accommodations on the road. I am getting used to an inn. Currently, the energy cost is too high. Before the show, I introduced him to the other members of the Comedic Rhythm, and he immediately latched on to Canwr and Bwr, and they chatted away in Elvish. That is the next language I will need to learn, as Elves are more prominent as we go further south. The main Elvish forests are across the Vasa Sea. The Mer control most of the Islands and much of the coast around the Vasa. The performance went well, considering all the unrest over the last few days. Not our best performance, but Zabavno covered the minor lapses smoothly. That Orc is one talented Entertainer. I may have the Class, but his natural ability is there, and it shows in the quality of his performance. I doubt I will ever be that good. It is not my main talent, and that makes a difference in the quality of the work and not just in how fast the class levels. My leading talent is still in theft. You can¡¯t be great at everything. Back at the Inn, I left the Comedic Rhythm in the bar chatting with Gwydr. He is a nice fellow, and Canwr and Bwr seem to be getting on very well with him. I changed into my thieving outfit and met Wiremu on the roof. He had also changed, and we headed to the wall. Everybody else is at the quarry, where we will meet Rotte and whoever she brings. I am pretty sure Rotte has convinced everybody she is human. My Spatial Awareness can see right through her, and the physiological differences are obvious. The double bond is also a big clue. She is not Ratkin, as she couldn¡¯t hide that. Animal Kin bonding with their related species is the most obvious way to get more than one bond. Some rare classes enable more than one bond, but only one race has an affinity to bonds. They are almost the only ones with multiple bonds outside Animal kin. Rotte is obviously not her real name, as it just means Rat in Dwarvish. There must be one hell of a story to explain why an Elf is masquerading as a human and leading the Pack Rats Gang. Information can be a weapon, and I will keep that information close until I need it. Wiremu and I scaled the wall quickly enough. His handholds are still there from the night of the fight. Maybe I will warn Eluf to get the wall checked more frequently, or perhaps I won¡¯t. Ruku and Modrica were waiting for us. App¨¡ was on sentry duty. The Catkin often took the night shifts because of their Night Sight and the perception bonus from the Sentry Specialisation. At least, that is the reason they gave me. Rotte arrived with two others. Their rat bonds were all inside their clothing, although I noted Rotte only had one with her. My Spatial Awareness is now journeyman level, and very little can stop it. The range is the limiting factor. I introduced Rotte to Wiremu but called him Bror. He did not introduce T¨¡oke, and there was no sign of him. My Spatial Awareness showed he was camouflaged on Wiremu¡¯s shoulder, and even I might have missed it if I hadn¡¯t known to look there. We set out toward the coast, and about two hours later, she signalled, and a person stepped out from the bushes. ¡°This is as close as we can get and not be heard easily. Over that rise, about a hundred metres, is the cave entrance. The cave system is quite large, and there is another entrance on the coast about half a kilometre that way. That entrance is larger, and a small row boat can row right in. We are still scouting, trying to find other entrances,¡± Rotte summarised their work. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°Have you mapped the cave?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°No, we have tried and lost two rats so far. I have two upset and angry Packrats wanting revenge.¡± Rotte explained. ¡°I am not surprised they are on the lookout for rats,¡± Ruku said, ¡°You are a known enemy, and you advertise your speciality in your name.¡± Rotte scowled at him. ¡°They will have set traps specifically for rats, and they probably have several Mer in the gang using their Sonar to keep watch. The Mer may be from the smugglers if they are there¡± That is going to stop me from going to scout the cave. Ruku¡¯s Sonar sensed me from over 30m away, and in the cave''s confines, there was no way natural-born Sonar users would miss me. Nyx is only good at seeing Spiritually energised objects, so she couldn¡¯t map the cave. ¡°My bond and I could map it,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°It would take several days as it is slow and energy intensive, but then I could draw an accurate map.¡± I looked at Wiremu, questioning what he was thinking. We didn¡¯t need many words between us these days. He tapped one of his Granite darts, and then I understood. His Granite manipulation was at Apprentice level and could be used on any rock. He, and T¨¡oke, could only use it to move small amounts of rock, enough for a small snake to make its way through the rock into the cave and hide in the stone if necessary. He could probably hide under a Granite Shield and look like a rock to a Sonar. The energy usage would mean he would need a lot of rest periods. Wiremu could then use his Mapping Skill through the bond and draw an accurate map using Map Making. I nodded to Wiremu my understanding. I sensed Rotte looking at the exchange, and she looked very puzzled. On the way out here, I noticed that she occasionally gave Wiremu a puzzled glance. I wonder if she had a skill that was picking up glimpses of T¨¡oke and not understanding what she was sensing. She is not someone to underestimate, and I get the impression she likes people to underestimate her. ¡°How many Seadogs do you think are in there?¡± I asked. ¡°We estimate no more than Twenty Seadogs, but they are the high-level ones.¡± Rotte continued and nodded to Ruku, ¡°We think there are some smugglers there, but we don¡¯t know how many. There is a small daysailer in the cave that has been out once. We don¡¯t know where it went, but it came back the following night with some cargo. It is not marked with a name or symbol. One of the crew was a Mer, one of the obvious ones with tentacles.¡± ¡°They are called Merquid,¡± said Ruku. The first Mer I ever met was Sione, so I had no idea how many types there were. There are probably as many types as there are species of Animal Kin. ¡°I will need to see the ocean entrance as we must block it or attack through it,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Attacking from the sea is one of my speciality areas, and I might be able to scrounge a couple of helpers,¡± said Ruku. I wasn¡¯t keen on a commando raid if that is what he is thinking. While I had no doubt they would do the job, the goods in there were ours, and I doubt the military would let us loot the place. I also don¡¯t want the military to know about the Pack Rats. I made a non-commital noise, ¡°We need to find out how many are in there first and how many entrances there are.¡± ¡°We have a way to soften them up,¡± Rotte said, ¡°if we can get some rats in there,¡± she qualified. ¡°Oh?¡± I queried. ¡°Disease,¡± she said. ¡°Disease?¡± queried Wiremu, ¡°Is that like poison?¡± ¡°It is better than poison,¡± she said. ¡°If you poison someone, you give them a dose of a specific amount and see if it works. Diseases create poisons, but the good thing about diseases is that they grow. The disease will continue to multiply and generate more and more poison until it overcomes the resistance. Then the person gets continually worse. Most people don¡¯t even have Disease resistance because your constitution blocks most common diseases. We have diseases that can affect even stronger constitutions, and once they start, they can spread themselves. It is hard to fight when you are puking or shitting your guts out.¡± She smiled at this as if it was a fond memory. ¡°What about healing potions?¡± I asked. ¡°Healing potions are mostly for wounds. You need cleansing potions for diseases and the right one for the disease,¡± was her reply. ¡°Natural regeneration can overcome the disease, particularly if it has maxed out in the body. You are still going to be sick with a slow recovery.¡± ¡°How long does it take?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°For those with a Physical Consitution of around 150, the disease I am thinking of would need about two days to grow strong enough. The plan would be to send in the rats and wait two days before attacking. If we left them alone, most would live and recover over about a week. There may be some permanent reduction in attributes.¡± she replied. ¡°How would we avoid contracting the disease?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°All the Pack Rats have a high disease resistance,¡± she said. ¡°I suppose I could brew you something to immunise you,¡± she added reluctantly. ¡°It would probably also give you your first resistance level.¡± ¡°That sounds good,¡± Wiremu said. I wasn¡¯t so sure I wanted to drink anything she brewed. Wiremu continued, ¡°Let''s look at these entrances, and then I can get to scouting the cave.¡± We moved to the nearby entrance and then to the ocean cave. Wiremu then stayed behind, estimating it might take two days to scout the cave. Ruku stayed to watch him when his concentration was on T¨¡oke and not on his surroundings. I am sure the nearby coastal fishing had nothing to do with that decision at all. The rest of us headed back to the quarry. I had two more nights of performances ahead of me anyway and then another date with Eluf to look forward to. 107. Mapping: Ruku

107. Mapping: Ruku

When the others leave, Wiremu and I look for a good place to infiltrate the cave. Wiremu decides the landward entrance would be best. The Rat Pack have a small camp set up hidden in a hollow not far from the entrance. It may be useful to us, but I think we will be spending time following T¨¡oke, but we will be on the surface. ¡°I have been trying to convince T¨¡oke to learn my Mapping Skill, but he is not interested,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Maybe his brain is not wired that way, but he doesn¡¯t care where he is or where he has been. He can always locate me, and that is enough. He just follows the scent if he wants anything else.¡± ¡°So, how will you do this?¡± I asked, very curious. I never had a mapping skill, but I doubt my bond, Opo, would have been interested either. ¡°When T¨¡oke gets somewhere, he will share his senses with me. I will need to force the Mapping Skill to use those Senses that are not mine, but it is on the verge of Journeyman level, so I am betting this will enable it to make the push through,¡± he replied. ¡°And your Map making Skill means you can draw it on paper? Is that something like a navigational chart?¡± I asked. ¡°More like a complicated Topographical map,¡± he replied. ¡°You will see.¡± T¨¡oke slipped off into the grass near the entrance. We waited, and then Wiremu pointed him out. Using Farsight with my Darksight, I saw him approach the rock on the opposite side to where the Seadog guards were. It looked very strange as it appeared that he had melted into the rock. The hole closed over him after he had passed through, and there was nothing left to see. ¡°Are you going to be able to do that as well?¡± I asked Wiremu. ¡°Eventually, yes,¡± he replied. ¡°It takes a lot of energy, and I am going to be sharing a lot with T¨¡oke, so this is very much a joint effort. A stone wall about 0.2m thick, I can make a hole large enough for me to crawl through on my stomach and then replace it, but this burrowing through stone is going to have to wait till at least Journeyman level, for me.¡± ¡°I still get amazed at what people can do with their Skills,¡± I said. ¡°Speaking of people and their Skills, what do you think of Rotte?¡± ¡°I am not sure. There are a lot of hidden secrets there.¡± Wiremu replied. ¡°She was looking at you on the way here, specifically at your shoulder where T¨¡oke usually stays. It seemed she could sense something was there but wasn¡¯t sure. That indicates an unusual Sensing Skill of some sort. We were also followed here and are being watched now.¡± I said. ¡°Really? Why didn¡¯t you say something? We could have been more careful with T¨¡oke.¡± he was alarmed and was trying to be careful in searching the area. ¡°My Sonar just re-picked up the watcher, and so I think it just found us again. It definitely followed us from the Quarry.¡± I was tracking it as carefully as I could, but Sonar was not as reliable in the bush with so many things interfering. ¡°It? So it is not a person?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°No, but I am sure it is a bond, and I think it is Rotte¡¯s bond. I am not sure because it is not a rat, and that would make it very, very unusual. It is a Vampire Bat. She would have to have a special class for bonding with Animals, maybe a Druid class? It is usually only Elves who have classes and skills for more than one bond.¡± This was a puzzle I wanted to work out. ¡°Why do you think it is Rotte¡¯s bond?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°Several small indications, the way it followed us here, yet she never looked at it. It is like she looked everywhere but never near it. She definitely knew where it was at all times. That was subtle body language. It would also explain the Skill of locating T¨¡oke on your shoulder.¡± I had a strong feeling about this. It might have been partly my Ocean Sense Skill. ¡°How would it explain that?¡± Wiremu was not convinced. ¡°Bats have an Echolocation Skill, which works like my Sonar but on a much higher frequency. If it is her bond, she probably also has the skill. Vampire Bats go one step further, being able to sense heat, particularly blood moving through the veins, so they know where to bite to feed. She may also have that Skill.¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°That would be a very powerful Skill,¡± Wiremu said. He had finally found the bat and turned and looked directly at it, making it obvious he knew it was there. The bat didn¡¯t hesitate and flew away immediately. ¡°We will have to keep an eye out for it.¡± he said, then added, ¡°At least we know it won¡¯t be around during the day. I don¡¯t see how it can belong to Rotte, though. We will have to try to track down who it partners with. What about the other fellows that came with her?¡± ¡°They looked pretty much like simplistic muscle to me,¡± I said. Wiremu grunted in agreement with that assessment. ¡°T¨¡oke is coming out into the cave. I am going to have to concentrate.¡± We moved further away into the bush, and Wiremu sat down and concentrated, which meant he basically did nothing for nearly an hour. Then Wiremu said, ¡°T¨¡oke and I are going to rest for an hour or so.¡± This set the pattern for the rest of the day. One to two hours of work and then similar to rest. Wiremu must be sharing quite a bit of energy to get that tired. In some of the rest times, he would start making his map. We saw the bat once more before dawn, and it flew away as soon as it knew we had seen it. We moved locations several times during the day to keep pace with T¨¡oke. Mid-afternoon, Wiremu suddenly said, ¡°Yes, finally!¡± ¡°Mapping to Journeyman level?¡± I asked. He nodded, ¡°It is making the mapping so much easier now. T¨¡oke has also levelled his Granite manipulation, making it less energy intensive. Large parts of the cave are unoccupied, and T¨¡oke can just move normally.¡± ¡°How far through is he?¡± I asked. ¡°Maybe halfway? It depends on the side caves that need checking out. He is exploring one now. It seems to be heading up near the surface, but it is too small for people to use.¡± Wiremu said. ¡°So why is he checking it out? Sorry, dumb question. Because it might be good access for rats.¡± I answered my own question. Wiremu nodded, ¡°He has found some specific rat traps, and I am marking them on the map. So far, there is a small contingent of five camped near the landward entrance and a larger storage cave with boxes. I think most of them will be closer to the coastal entrance. I doubt the boxes will be able to be brought out this entrance as it is too narrow in places. Cargo travels by boat are my guess at this time, although we may find another entrance yet.¡± ¡°I am betting there is a way to get the cargo out by land.¡± I did have experience dealing with smugglers, and there is no doubt it was a smuggler''s cave. ¡°I am also betting the Seadogs are getting restless. They are city people and use to the amenities and energy of a city. A couple of weeks hiding in a cave in the middle of nowhere has got to be getting to them.¡± Dusk was getting close. ¡°T¨¡oke and I are going to get some shut-eye for a few hours while he is in an area where he can¡¯t be discovered.¡± I nodded, ¡°I will be fine for a long time yet. You are the ones that have been doing all the work. What do you want me to do about the bat, assuming it turns up again?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t want to be killing allies'' bonds, but we don¡¯t want to be observed either. I guess we keep chasing it off, and Tabitha is the one who will best discover who it belongs to. She is good a piercing people Statuses and finding out classes and things.¡± We found a small hollow, Wiremu pulled out a thin bedroll, and I pulled out some jerky to chew. Four hours later, we were back at it. It was fully dark by then. Shortly after that, Wiremu led us to a seemingly random spot. ¡°T¨¡oke is not far down here. I am thinking with a little effort, we could make a rat hole.¡± I reached for my pack and grabbed the commando multi-tool, which included a small spade. ¡°Show me where to dig.¡± He pointed, and I started digging. I was only thigh-deep when I hit a rock. I cleared a space and then got out of the way for Wiremu. That is when the bat found us. I didn¡¯t think it could see what Wiremu was doing, but I chased it off by throwing a small clump of dirt at it. I wanted to see what Wiremu was doing. There wasn¡¯t much to see. The rock just seemed to move, making a tunnel. Using my Sense Spiritual Skill was more interesting as I could see the spiritual energy he was using to shift the rock. He was using a substantial amount of energy. Compared to the amount I used to manipulate water, actually, there is no comparison. I can keep manipulating water for hours. He is going to run out of energy in minutes. Rock is very different, and I am pleased with having water. After ten minutes, Wiremu took a break, and after another five minutes, there was a hole in the cave about the size of a rat. ¡°Is T¨¡oke coming out?¡± I asked. ¡°No, he is already nearly back at the main cave,¡± Wiremu said. Then we disguised the new entrance, although I am sure the bat could lead people to where we were digging. Then we started the mapping routine again. T¨¡oke had to pause more frequently as there were more people around. It was mid-morning when he came to the main camp and storage cave. There was a large passageway leading off with cart tracks. It came out near the beach, and we found a disguised trail. It wasn¡¯t difficult to find. We must remember that the Pack Rats are city people as well. This will be the main attack route, although it is also the most heavily guarded and trapped. Somebody, probably me, will need to disable the boats, and we will block or fight at the land entrance. Block is more straightforward, and then we can concentrate our forces. Wiremu and T¨¡oke finished their map, and we headed back to the quarry after letting the Pack Rats know about the other entrance so they could watch it. 108. Matchmaking: Tabitha.

108. Matchmaking: Tabitha.

I really want to work out the puzzle that is Rotte. She has a very high Status blocking skill, and I have only been able to get an idea of her top two classes. Fortunately, she only has blocking and not Confusion or manipulation, so I can trust it is true when I can get through the block. The top Classes are Blood Druid and Blood Alchemist. Not what you would expect from a gang leader. I am strongly suspecting a Blood Affinity, which would make her very, very dangerous. However, I can¡¯t get distracted now. We need to route out those behind the corruption. Eluf would take care of the Watch, but as much as they had agreed he would also take care of the administration corruption, she would not leave that to him. The key had to be someone high up, and it was going to be someone with a plan to deal with Eluf. The sheer number of tentacles they have in Obalno shows that. I am betting it is a local using Imperial resources to grab the Dukedom. This would indicate it is one of Eluf¡¯s siblings or a high-ranking noble. Eluf had two siblings. His sister, Linne, was married to a local noble, and they had two children. She was next in line for the Dukedom until Eluf produced an heir. Then there was a younger brother, Sven. He was a lot younger than the other two and was being trained as an advisor and administrator. Linne and her husband, Rainer, were the prime suspects having the most to gain. Sven would have the fingers in the most pies, so from an operational viewpoint, he had the connections. They could be conspiring together, but I still think it comes back to a single person at the top. On my next date with Eluf, we will include some discussion on the family. Maybe we will need to have dinner as part of the date, as it doesn¡¯t seem to be an appropriate topic while naked in a hot tub. For now, I need to crash for a few hours. There is another performance tonight, and I want to visit some taverns this afternoon and see what the gossip networks have on the Duke¡¯s family. Modrica stayed at the Quarry with the kittens. They are not so small now. Catkin may have a shorter average life span than humans, about a third less, but their kids mature three times as fast. Six years after birth, they are considered adults. Which would mean Ilaiya was only about seven years old when we first met him. Poor kid. Wiremu is hiding it, but I can tell he is furious. We know it is a dangerous world, but the way the Duke mismanaged Obalno, I wonder if he needs to be assassinated. There certainly needs to be an accounting. I took the night off after the performance. The gossip on the street is pretty tame around the Duke and his family. Eluf returning after being away so long was a surprise and received a mixed reception. When the Duke became sick, everybody expected he would name Linne as the Heir. It would undoubtedly have solidified the backing of her husband¡¯s Noble house. There were a lot of rumours about tension there. There was not much going around about Sven. He was around twenty years old and quite bookish. The only thing said was that he was the go-to person if you wanted something done. There didn¡¯t seem to be much in the way of sex scandals or rumoured affairs. The most significant discussion was about who Eluf might choose as a wife, and apparently, he is sleeping with the mysterious lead actress from Comedic Rhythm. That has a few wannabe heiresses upset. I spent the next day helping T¨¡tt¨¡ and our flagging business as Elemental Traders. He had finalised a deal with Master Glass for the sand Wiremu collected and with Gwydr for the glass knives. We can expect delivery in a couple of days as they are not hard to make once you have the right mix of ingredients. He will also add some crushed gems to increase durability and allow enchanting. They sound fantastic and are definitely an upgrade on the one he gifted me. When I went shopping that afternoon, I tested the knife for its original purpose, and it worked very smoothly. At the end of the day, I made a small profit, including the expense of my purchases. We have another week of performances in the Bardic hall, and then it is the Birthday Gala for the Duke''s granddaughter. That would be Linne and Reiner¡¯s oldest, who is turning six. That is some sort of milestone age around here. The next milestone is at sixteen, when you are considered an adult. Becoming an adult at sixteen is actually a grey area for a couple of years until you prove yourself, preferably by getting your first Class. It is another excuse for a party. Most kids are well into their apprenticeships and nearing their first class around then, so I guess that is worth celebrating. The kids are finally off their parent''s hands, so that is something I would celebrate too. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. We were planning to be on the road not long after the Gala. The lease on the Warehouse and the safe houses extend a month after the Gala, giving us time to finalise deals, pack and get on the road. We now own the quarry, so I am going to need to find someone to lease it long-term. The Elemental Traders are also looking for a permanent agent in Obalno. That has been made more difficult with us being ostracised in the merchant community. Even though that will clear up when we solve this issue, the stigma will remain. If we don¡¯t manage to resolve this issue or it gets resolved in a negative way, we probably won¡¯t be leaving any agents here. I am thinking of starting an unrelated Company here that can feed us information and business without the stigma of the Elemental Traders name. In previous towns, I have made contacts with criminal organisations, but Obalno is larger, and a legitimate cover organisation would work as it is also a key smuggling port. I wonder if I can get Rotte and Gwydr working together. They are both elves, even if one of them is in hiding. A bit of matchmaking may be in order here. Skavt is clearing up the Canine Queen issues in the Mercenary Guild in her usual direct and bull-headed way. It has gotten worse since her bonding with Oske. She was always direct, but now she almost charges at things. She is getting some behind-the-scenes help from Eluf, but she doesn¡¯t need to know that. This should help in hiring more guards. I will need to increase the offer we make them. The death of so many in our employ does not encourage others to hire on. Hopefully, Ruku¡¯s reputation will attract some strong people. ?rt isn¡¯t interested in restarting his clinic with only a few weeks to go. He spends most of his free time hunting for herbs. That¡¯s what he told me anyway. He has been caught sitting under a tree reading a book more than once. He and Kryddor are basing themselves at the quarry now the need for guards in town has been greatly reduced. Najprej, Drugi? and Skavt are working on their professions when they are not on duty. Skavt¡¯s main priority is to hire more guards and work with Selma, our Caravan Mistress, to get us ready to roll out. Selma is hiring wagoneers and getting Abigail and our carpenter to go through the wagons making sure they are in good shape. Selma suggested we advertise our timetable, and we might get some independent wagons to join us. Most of the goods between here and Kirghiz are shipped as it is quicker than the wagons. However, there are several towns we will visit that are not on the shipping routes. Juggling the current issues and future preparation is quite strenuous. That night¡¯s performance had a few mistakes. We are going to need to practice and sharpen things up again. I think we are all getting tired. Getting on the road will give us all a break. Manus and Zabavno said they have some new material to work on during the trip, so it is ready for Kirghiz. That sounds like fun. Wiremu and Ruku got back this afternoon with a detailed map and a rat-hole entrance. When he told me about the Vampire Bat, it confirmed things for me. It would definitely be Rotte¡¯s bond. That woman is full of surprises. Druid is a Class that allows for additional bonds and reduces their requirements. Her Blood Affinity has obviously altered the class, but she has three known bonds. Sorry, her ¡®probable¡¯ Blood Affinity. I am a betting woman, but I doubt anyone will bet against me with a vampire bat as a bond. I shared my Status discovery and suspicions with Wiremu, Ruku and Modrica because if she turned against us, it would get ugly. We are all considering how we would counter a Blood Affinity with a lot of experience in disease and poisons. It is scary stuff. There are twenty-eight people in that cave. There were four that T¨¡oke says we should be wary of. He wasn¡¯t able to name them, but Wiremu will be able to recognise their smell when he gets close. The rats are going in tonight, so we need to organise the attack for two nights hence, hopefully before they are reinforced. I don¡¯t know their plans, but it won¡¯t be to hide in a cave. Probably they are waiting on the smuggler ship. I hope some of those in the cave are of Imperial origin because I have questions. What a fucking troll shit of timing. I just realised that two nights away is Date Night. I can see my candle-lit dinner and hot tub disappearing. Fuck! Eluf was interested in sparring with me. I wonder how he would like to fight beside me. It would be a date like no other, and we will definitely need the hot tub afterwards. We would have to disguise him so he is not recognised, but everybody there will be disguised. He will have to agree to shut up about things he sees. Can I trust him that much? I know he is free that night. It would be good to have another strong fighter. The bulk of our forces are from the Pack Rats, and stand-up fighting is not their strength. Ruku is getting a ¡®retired¡¯ Marine mate to go with him. He will be assaulting from the sea and disabling the boats. Eluf was a Captian in the army. Maybe I can get Major Ruku to order him to be quiet. Now I am dreaming. It will need to be a personal promise between the two of us. I am more than happy to sweeten the deal, personally. I will run it past the others, and then I can approach Eluf. 109. Vaccination: Tabitha

109. Vaccination: Tabitha

Eluf was vastly amused at the idea of a date assaulting a smuggler''s cave. He couldn¡¯t promise to keep things quiet fast enough. That has earned him a lot of ¡®special¡¯ favours from me. I wonder if this is love? He has an old set of armour that shouldn¡¯t be recognised, and he will need to bring two others with him, but they are personally sworn into his service, so they should be fine. He hasn¡¯t done anything more than spar for months and was very eager to participate. Skavt, Najprej and Drugi? will lead the assault and be the first shield line. Eluf and his swearers? No, Sworn? Eluf, and whatever the hell you call them, will be the second shield line. The rest of us will follow. When we get to the main cavern, Skavt and the team will turn right deeper into the caves, and Eluf will go left toward the boats to meet up with Ruku. Then they will come and join the rest of us, all going well. T¨¡oke will go in with us, but Wiremu¡¯s job is to collapse the landward entrance. He is supposed to collapse it from the outside and then wait. I think he is planning on entering it and then collapsing it, as he also wants his slice of revenge. Rotte delivered her vaccine the day before the assault, and ?rt has spent the last twenty-four hours running every test he could think of on it. He read up on diseases, vaccines and Blood Alchemy, although there was only a passing mention of Blood Alchemy in a few alchemy texts. It is not looked on very favourably. ?rt says it is not his field, but the vaccine appears to do what Rotte promised and nothing else. He always qualifies those words with, ¡°As far as I can determine.¡± It is the best assurance we will get. Everybody who goes into the cave needs to be vaccinated, and Rotte says the Vaccine is best taken at least three hours before going in. Just in case there are side effects from it. This is not inspiring confidence. ?rt took a dose earlier this afternoon and said it raised his temperature for a while, and he felt slightly off, but it cleared up quickly. Best of all, he now has Disease Resistance 1 on his Status. We are attacking at midnight, so we are assembling at 8 pm at the quarry to be vaccinated and review the plan. We will then leave at 8:30 pm to meet with the Pack Rats at our various assembly points. Everybody was now assembled, and we were only waiting for Rotte, who was coming with the latest update from the cave. Ruku had a tall, well-built human with him. My growing Hearing Aid Skill heard Ruku call him Tait, who was an old squad mate of his or something. Ruku and Tait had some skin-tight armour or swimsuit I had never seen before. He told me it was made of a particular sea monster pelt and aided in aquatic fighting. They had knives and spears and a pack each. I don¡¯t know what is in the packs, but I assume something to disable the boats. Eluf was there with his two sworn, or whatever they were. One of them was an Orc, and one of them was a Dwarf. He had decided to be called Cap, and the offsiders were Smarty and Shorty. Shorty the Dwarf was towered over by the other two, but he would have the easiest time in the tunnels. They all had shields and swords and no identifying marks on their armour or weapons. They all wore helmets which partially covered their faces, so they were fairly unrecognisable. The Canine Queens were in their standard fighting equipment. Skavt was joining Najprej and Drugi? with swords and shields. Oske would be sitting this one out. ?rt and Kryddor were in charge of security at the quarry while we were away, as Mutalil insisted on coming to avenge his brother. App¨¡ only stayed back because he still only had one arm. Mutalil, being Catkin and the older brother of Mayakku and Ilaiya, will need some help as his Nightsight is unsuitable in the cave as it only enhances light. I think Mayakku has rigged up an enchantment into his helmet that emitted light in a frequency we don¡¯t normally see and then converted it to be visible for his eyes. I hadn¡¯t heard of it, but I am told it is a common enchantment in the Barbarian City States. Matalil has a mate and three cubs, so he needs to be careful. I saw Rotte enter the gates, so I got up on a log and said, ¡°Ok, everybody, gather around and listen up. We have a few things to go over before we head in. First of all, you have all been told, but I will reiterate that this is a private endeavour. Any official role you may have elsewhere plays no part in tonight! Some people here and our allies at the cave do not wish to be identified. I don¡¯t wish to be identified!¡± I was also armoured and hooded. ¡°Regardless of who you know me as, for tonight, I am simply to be known as Black.¡± I figured the cat was out of the bag after the meeting with the Pack Rats and identifying myself to them as the Black Butcher. I might as well make the most of the myth. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°You are all here because you are my allies, either by oath or by contract,¡± I continued, ¡°If you have any problems with any of my other allies, you will bring it to me.¡± I ramped up my Intimidating Aura and thickened Engulfing Shadows. ¡°My Allies are not your enemy, and I will deal with any issues, and I don¡¯t care who you are.¡± This was mostly a show for Rotte, as there is bound to be a lot of mistrust there. It was also a reminder for Eluf and company and Ruku¡¯s mate. The Catkin adults were also watching, and it was also to give them confidence. Wiremu was silently watching everyone from the side. I was going to need people to trust me if they were going to take an unknown alchemy potion that looked and tasted like blood. I don¡¯t think anybody here was intimidated, but several seemed to be impressed, which suited me fine. Eluf was different. He just looked horny. I don¡¯t know what I thought when I invited him along. I was probably horny at the time. If he doesn¡¯t stop it, I am definitely going to cut off his man bits. That would cost him a lot of gold and a month of celibacy before he got them back. I eased off the aura and shadows and continued talking, ¡°I have one rule about fights, and that is that there is no such thing as a fair fight. To that end, we have stacked this fight in our favour.¡± I beckoned to Rotte to join me. ¡°This is another of my allies who wishes to remain anonymous. You may call her Rotte. She is a very talented alchemist specialising in disease and poisons.¡± I doubted Rotte wanted me to use her gang name as her alias. She didn¡¯t get a choice. I was watching Eluf. He first showed a lot of surprise. I am sure the Duke had hunted down every healer and alchemist in the kingdom, looking for someone to heal him. Yet here was a specialist in his own city that he didn¡¯t know about. Then he went to puzzlement and then cautious hope. He thought he had found a healer for his dad, the Duke. I was worried that Rotte was the person who had infected him. A seemingly incurable disease, perhaps created by a rare Blood Alchemist Class? That was very probable. ¡°What we have done is infect those in the cave with a disease that is causing a debilitating effect on them.¡± I continued, ¡°Rotte is here with an update.¡± I turned to her. ¡°The disease starts with a raised body temperature and then causes vomiting and diarrhoea, leading to dehydration and, if the Physical Constitution is too low, then death. Most in the cave have constitutions that will eventually overcome the disease, but the vomiting is just starting, so the timing is perfect.¡± She smiled. ¡°I hope you don¡¯t mind the smell.¡± ¡°Which brings us to the main topic we are here for.¡± I took over again. ¡°We have let loose a disease in the cave. Therefore if you want to fight effectively, you will need immunity to that disease. Rotte has created a vaccine against it.¡± I indicated the basket of vials near me. ¡°I strongly recommend everybody who comes into the cave take the vaccine or you will become very sick within 24-48 hours. Our resident healer has tested this, and he took a dose himself.¡± I was purposefully ignoring all his disclaimers. ¡°There may be some side effects, but that is why our healer and Rotte are here.¡± I picked up the basket and started handing it out. I started with the Canine Queens, as they knew and trusted ?rt. Hopefully, their taking it without hesitating will inspire others to do the same. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to take the vaccine, now is the time to leave.¡± They all took a vial, but they didn¡¯t all drink straight away. I took one of the last vials and held it up in the air, ¡°Bottoms up, gentlemen!¡± and I sculled the horrid liquid. Everybody followed my lead to my surprise. I wasn¡¯t sure Eluf would. ¡°OK, people, while we wait to see if there are any negative effects, there are a few more things to go over.¡± I went over the plan again, particularly emphasising that they were in groups that they were used to fighting with but also noting there would be extras alongside. Skavt was in overall charge of the Main attack force, Wiremu would be in charge of the Land-based force and Ruku, the sea-based force. I would be floating to where I was needed. ¡°One last thing before we go.¡± I continued. ¡°We have not observed any bonds in that cave. To that effect, you are not to attack any animals in the cave because they will be your allies'' bonds. I include creatures in that list that you would not usually expect to be bonded. Rats, snakes, and bats are some known bonds of your allies. There may be others.¡± Rotte started when I mentioned bats. Yes, we have your measure Rotte. At least, I hope so. I purposefully put pressure on her and let her know we were unravelling her secrets. We weren¡¯t there yet, but we were making progress, and I wanted to keep her off balance. I wanted to move her out of her comfort zone as a gang lord. I was hoping Eluf would get the opportunity to keep applying pressure. I checked my Status. I now had Disease Resistance 1. ¡°I hope we all now have disease resistance on our Statuses and are ready to go?¡± I got a series of nods. ¡°Let''s move out then.¡± 110. Second Date: Tabitha

110. Second Date: Tabitha

We moved out. Wiremu headed in a different direction as he was going to the Land Entrance and would be entering with the Pack Rats that were stationed there. Ruku and Tait headed directly to the coast. I didn¡¯t ask if they had a boat or were swimming. I probably should have. T¨¡oke was currently travelling with Skavt. He would split off and be our scout and ambusher. Myself, Modrica, Mutalil, Rotte and two of the Pack Rats'' best fighters were the quick reaction force. The remaining Pack Rats were for containment, mopping up those left behind and guarding prisoners. I was hoping that with the weakened state, they should be in, I would have a number of prisoners to question. Of the twenty-eight people in the cave, Rotte figured nineteen were Seadogs, including their leader Mro?. These were no easy kills like most of the gang. These were his top fighters, the sort of fighters that injured the Canine Queens in the street fight. We didn¡¯t know anything about the other nine people in the cave. We did know Wiremu had five people near his entrance, and the rest will be near this end of the cave. We assume there will be at least two watching the boats, and between two and four watching the entrance, we will be attacking from. The rest will probably be in the main cavern. On top of that, there were traps. Master traps, were concentrated around this wagon entrance. Getting caught in a trap will mean being disabled, poisoned, loss of limbs or dying, depending on the type of trap. Some were alarm traps, and I am guessing at least one rockfall trap was ready to block this entrance at least partially, as this was the most vulnerable entrance. The traps were one of my key responsibilities, along with the Rat Pack¡¯s top burglar, Felle. My Spatial Awareness should find them, and between the two of us, we will disarm or trigger them depending on what is the quickest and least harmful. Speed is important. We met with the remaining Pack Rats that were joining us. We waited for the right time, so everything worked together. The main assault was to go first, as we were the least likely to remain undetected. This could give Ruku¡¯s and Wiremu¡¯s groups the opportunity to come in from the rear. If when we were noticed, and they decided to do a runner instead of fight, then that could be serious trouble for either of the other groups. Hence we needed speed. Wiremu could block the narrow landward entrance, and Ruku should disable the boats, making running difficult, but they wouldn¡¯t know that until they tried. Nyx was already up ahead with the outer two guards. She has been syphoning energy for the last two hours. They were feeling unwell anyway and were having trouble staying awake. Preferably we will get through the first layer of traps and neutralise those two before they can raise the alarm. This will allow us to make significant progress on the next traps before the second pair of guards inevitably raises the alarm. Felle and I stealthed up to the first traps to examine them. Mutalil and Rotte came as our immediate backup. Modrica would normally be my backup, but stealth was not her strong point. I could see the first two layers of traps before the watching guards. They were not complicated. Felle and I planned a route through and prepared what we needed while we waited for the right timing. Felle disarmed the alarm trap, and I triggered the Arrow trap using Shadow manipulation, although no one would be able to see that. Then we moved forward, laid a plank over the pit trap, and sprinted toward the guards. The pit trap was obvious as the cart''s wheel tracks stopped suddenly, and then there was a smooth section before they started again. I didn¡¯t even need my Spatial Awareness for that one. The guards were still aware enough to react before we reached them, so I had Nyx muffle the area with Engulfing Shadows and keep them in place with Binding Shadows. Rotte and I were first there and dispatched them. High-level people don¡¯t tend to be on guard duty. The rest of the Assault squad was moving forward as we moved into the tunnel toward the main cave. My Spatial Awareness noticed several things. Firstly, Eluf moved into position at my back with his shield. His stooges were lined up behind him. I gave Eluf a quick thumbs-up in acknowledgement, just because. Secondly, Skavt was behind Felle, and T¨¡oke slipped off her shoulder and melted into the rock. That was a cool trick. I could sense into the rock, just not as far as normal, so I could see him moving through it. He wasn¡¯t fast, maybe about walking pace, but he was bypassing the next traps and heading to the next guard position. Thirdly there was a trip wire a few meters in front of us connected to an acid container. I pointed it out to Felle as the acid was on his side of the tunnel, and he disconnected the wire from the acid. Over half the trick to disarming traps is seeing them first, and that was my speciality. Around the next bend were the rockfall trap and the final guard station, which was on the final bend before the main cavern. As we came around the corner, several things happened. Firstly an arrow came straight for my chest. I had time to duck, and the arrow slammed into Eluf¡¯s shield. Felle couldn¡¯t get out of the way and went down with an arrow in his chest. I don¡¯t know whether it was fatal, but it definitely put him out of this fight. Then the rockfall trap triggered. We did not trigger it, so the guards must have had a trigger. How did they know we were coming? My Spatial sense finally found a small mirror above our bend, not easily noticeable, but somebody with Farsight at the guard station would be able to see around the corner. They had at least one good person on this station. The Guards then turned to run to the main cavern to raise the alarm. Although the rockfall was pretty loud, so maybe they just didn¡¯t want to face us alone. Only one of them made it as T¨¡oke dropped from the stone ceiling onto one of them, wrapped himself around his neck and triggered his Grow Skill. The guy''s neck just snapped. T¨¡oke is very large now. He spat at the fleeing one, but I didn¡¯t see the effect as he was around the corner from my view, and I had dust everywhere in the tunnel. Behind me, I heard Eluf swear, ¡°Shit, whose bond is that?¡± Nobody replied to him. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. The rockfall didn¡¯t completely block the tunnel. It made cart traffic impassible and filled half the tunnel''s height. It slowed us down as we had to clamber over loose rock. I think they triggered it too early, but I will not complain. Our shield walls would now take the lead. As Eluf climbed past me, I said quietly, ¡°Pre-dinner drinks are over. Now the date is really starting.¡± I caught his grin in my Spatial sense. The tunnel was four shields wide. Skavt and Najprej were on one side, and Eluf and Smiley were on the other as we rounded the last bend with shields up. Four arrows slammed into them, and there were others in the cave scrambling into armour and grabbing weapons. We advanced steadily, and Then I heard Skavt say, ¡°Charge in Three, Two, One, Go!¡± They all shot forward. Shorty, Rotte, Drugi? and I were in the next line back and then Modrica and Mutalil and the rest. The aim was to bust past the entrance to let everybody into the cavern. Otherwise, it would be too easy for them to hold us in the tunnel. Fortunately, the defenders were still scrambling, and they only had a partial shield wall up. The advantage of surprise added to the fact they weren¡¯t feeling well. The shield charge pushed them back from the entrance, and we started pouring into the cavern. As soon as I entered the cavern, I stepped to the side and let Modrica through. This was now her area of speciality. I took a moment to look around. Both shield teams were held up keeping the tunnel open, so nobody was free to go and assist Ruku. I was a little concerned he wasn¡¯t here already. Then I saw a massive Orc coming from the back of the cavern. There was a Mer on one side and a human on the other; they all looked well-armed and competent. The will be Orc will be Mro?, the leader of the Seadogs. Rotte confirmed this by heading toward him as soon as she saw him. Rotte was fighting with a knife in one hand, which had a greenish paste smeared on it, and now and then, she would throw a liquid on people with her other hand. I don¡¯t think I wanted to know either of those substances. Blood Alchemist, indeed. As soon as Modrica saw the Orc, she started bashing her way toward him as well. Mutalil was fighting by her side, which looked very strange as he only appeared to come up to her waist. I could see Mutalil had made good use of the rings with the Sharpen enchantment, as his claws were dripping blood. I was going to head over there, but I was concerned that Ruku wasn¡¯t here yet. Wiremu had a long way to come, but Ruku should be less than a hundred meters away. Something has gone wrong. Then I heard a muffled explosion from the water entrance. I hope that was Ruku and not whoever else was there. A different Mer suddenly came at me. This one had tentacles instead of hair and fingers. I switched my knife to my off-hand, drew my sword and moved forward to engage her. She had a club in one tentacled hand and a knife in the other. As she neared, the tentacles on her head suddenly flung forward and flung an inky liquid at me. I didn¡¯t have much skin exposed, but I didn¡¯t want to get it in my eyes, so I turned my head to the side. This is the distraction she used to attack me. Unfortunately for her, my eyes are not my main sensing organ. I was still fully aware of everything through my Spatial Awareness, and I caught her club on my sword and her knife with my knife. My knife, however, was Blacksteel, and I put a lot of power into that block. Her steel blade cracked. I moved on to the offensive, moving fast with my Duel Wielding, Small Blades and Sleight of Hand synergy. She was down to one weapon, and while she was good, I was getting some good cuts in. Two can play the distract card, and my Shadow Manipulation flicked pepper into her eyes from my Spatial Pocket. I ducked her club and pierced my sword through her heart. Her heart was lower than mine, about equivalent to where my stomach was. I wouldn¡¯t have known that without Spatial Awareness. I also put my knife into her brain to make sure she was dead. I took another quick look around the cavern. Several Pack Rats had subdued some of the sicker Seadogs, and they were tying them up. Modrica was going full-out against Mro?. It looks like she had been disarmed, but she was wearing her gloves with spiritually enhanced knuckles and was not holding back. I had seen her kill with one punch without the gloves on. As I watched, she punched Mro?¡¯s sword arm, and his sword went flying. He wasn¡¯t phased either, and they were lying into each other with hits I could almost feel from here across the cavern. The hits could be heard over the noise of the battle. Rotte was close to finishing the human she was fighting. I saw her take a cut on her arm and saw the blood on the blade of the human. Her arm did not bleed, though. She definitely has a Blood Affinity. I started to head over there as Mutalil had engaged the Mer and was heavily overmatched and on the defensive. He was bleeding from several strikes from the Mer¡¯s trident and was only alive because of some clever shield work. The Mer was much larger with a longer reach, and the trident compounded this. Mutalil could not get close enough to strike. He was much faster than the Mer and had great shield work, but unless something changed fast, he was going to die. I hadn¡¯t taken more than two steps before that happened. T¨¡oke dropped from the ceiling again, wrapped himself around the neck of the Mer, and triggered Grow. This time it didn¡¯t work. This Mer was definitely stressed, but there was no neck-snapping going on. He was much more robust than the previous human, and he was covered in scales. I saw T¨¡oke try a Quick Strike to inject his Venom, and he couldn''t pierce the scales. Luckily for T¨¡oke, Mutalil was fast, and he knew to strike with his sword against the flow of the scales while the Mer was trying to deal with T¨¡oke. Mutalil was short, so he struck from the floor, aiming up, and his sword stripped the scales off and bit into the flesh of the Mer¡¯s leg. T¨¡oke let go of his unsuccessful strangle and dropped to the floor narrowly, avoiding a stomp from the Mer. Mutalil was now inside the trident¡¯s reach, and he wasn¡¯t letting go of the initiative. It was now the Mer¡¯s turn, to try to back up and create some space. Mutalil then hit an artery in the leg, and blood was spurting out. The Mer would be dead before I got there. I looked around again, but there was still no sign of Ruku. Eluf was finished and was just turning to head to the ocean entrance, so I moved to join him. Smiley was limping, but I swear he was still smiling. Shorty was in the lead, and he was stomping, shield-bashing and stabbing anyone who came close. Eluf greeted me, ¡°A very physically enjoyable second date, my lady.¡± He was smiling as well. ¡°I thought you were not supposed to finish before the lady?¡± I said. ¡°I watched you finish in a very climatic way,¡± he riposted as he nodded to the dead Mer I had killed. ¡°Well, before bringing this date to its grand climax, we need to find out what has happened to Ruku.¡± I fell into step with him. ¡°We will follow Shorty. He is unhappy because he is lagging behind in today¡¯s headcount.¡± With that comment, we rounded the bend and discovered what had happened to Ruku. 111. Sea Assault: Ruku

111. Sea Assault: Ruku

After drinking that disgusting potion Tait and I headed straight for the coast. ¡°I would swear that was Eluf, Allvarlig and Nasmeh there. They are a hard trio to mistake.¡± Tait said. ¡°Best not to ask too many questions,¡± I warned him, ¡°Besides, I am pretty sure Eluf had a date tonight.¡± ¡°Humph,¡± he grunted, unconvinced. It didn¡¯t take us long to get to the beach, and Tait¡¯s bond Nifo was waiting for us. Nifo would take us to the cave. He wasn¡¯t nearly as fast as my Opo was, but he was reliable and good in a fight. I could swim as fast as he could, but letting him pull us meant we would get there fresh. I greeted Nifo and tossed him a small fish I had caught that afternoon. ¡°You spoil him too much. He has been putting on weight now that I am desk-bound a lot.¡± Tait complained. I glanced at him, ¡°Nifo¡¯s not the only one.¡± ¡°Cheeky sod.¡± Nifo swam us up the coast, and we waited submerged just off the entrance to the cave for the right time. When the time came, we moved into the cave. My sonar was tracking the depth and the shape of the cave forming ahead of us. I kept my Sonar on a frequency I used privately and at a soft level. The stronger the pulse, the further it goes and the greater the frequency spread. In other words, the more likely another sonar user will hear it. As we got closer to the cave, the sea got shallower. I started to scan the sonar frequencies I could access. Each user differed in their natural range, and I had a wide range available to me. There was a common frequency range for communication. Somebody in the cave was blasting sonar very strongly. There was at least one Mer in the cave. We would be detected as soon as we left the water. The water would distort the sonar¡¯s return signal from under the water, but they would start sensing an anomaly if we got too much closer. That was probably why they were using it so strongly. There was a lantern shining near the back of this cave area. I found that very strange because everybody here should have Darksight or similar. Ocean Sense was telling me something wasn¡¯t right. What it did show me was that there were the shadows of three figures standing near the water. One was to the side, standing on a protruding rock, and the other two were on a small, almost sandy beach area where there were two boats beached. One of the boats was like the outrigger canoe that I used, and the other was a more substantial daysailer. I signalled to Tait that he and Nifo should take the two on the beach, and I would take the one on the rock. I would let Tait and Nifo go first, which would draw the attention of the one on the rock. I moved away from Nifo and readied my spear and Water Sprint. Nifo might be aging and putting on weight, but he wasn¡¯t slowing down. If anything, he might be getting faster. He certainly beat Tait out of the water. He made a clean bite on his target and then shook it like a rag doll. When a 6m long, one-ton saltwater crocodile suddenly grabs your leg, shakes you about and starts to pull you into the water, there is not much you can do. Tait wasn¡¯t far behind him, but Humans aren¡¯t built for this type of attack like Crocs are. Tait got a spear into the other person, but it wasn¡¯t a fatal strike. My turn to move. I launched myself off the shallow seabed and used Water Sprint to clear the rock, and used Piercing Strike to spear the Mer on the rock in the chest. Using water Sprint, I used to be able to get more height in my leaps from the water than Opo did. Up until he learned it from me, that is. As the Skill grew, we could get a lot of height in our leaps, and Opo was unmatched in his speed. Unlike Tait, my strike was fatal, and the Sonar ceased abruptly. There was also a fourth person in the cave. In the back by the torch. She was moving toward Nifo with a shield and mace, so I moved to intercept her. She was good. I kept her away from me with my spear, but I couldn¡¯t get past her shield. She must be a shield master because even with my Spear Master and Fast Strikes, I wasn¡¯t getting past her shield. I was deciding whether to Enhance an attribute, bring water into play, or both when I heard Tait finish his opponent and yell at me. ¡°There is a boat incoming!¡± he yelled. He had Hearing Aid so that he would pick up sounds much sooner than I would. The lantern and the blasting of the Sonar now made sense. They were both there to guide a boat in. The people on the boat have now been warned as I cut off the Sonar. The woman I was fighting didn¡¯t like being outnumbered, so she Shield Bashed me back and backed up onto the protruding rock where I had killed the first Mer. This meant we could only come to her one at a time, and I think she was hoping to join up with those in the boat. Or maybe escape with those in the boat. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Nifo returned to the water, and my Sonar finally picked up a small daysailer entering the cave mouth. My opponent Shield bashed me again, then threw her shield at me and dived into the water, striking out toward the boat. She was in leather armour, so it wouldn''t weigh her down, which is why she divested herself of the shield. An arrow nicked through my spiritually enhanced Monster Seal Skin dive suit. It didn¡¯t penetrate my Tough Hide skin. Tait yelled again, ¡°There is another bond in the water. A Shark. Nifo can¡¯t survive a shark!¡± ¡°I will help Nifo. You deal with the boat.¡± I didn¡¯t wait for a reply but dived into the water after the woman I had been fighting. Water is my affinity, and diving into the ocean means I am in my element, and my Water Manipulation is at the Master Level. First, I dealt with the woman, which was easy. I had the water grab her and drag her under. I made it suddenly compress her chest, getting all the air from her lungs and then filling them with water. There is no such thing as a fair fight. I stabbed her on the way passed to speed up her death, as I had more urgent tasks. The blood would also hopefully distract the shark. The advantage the shark had over Nifo was speed. Fortunately, we were fighting in a confined waterway, limiting the manoeuvring space. Nifo and the shark had already engaged, and there was a lot of water turbulence. I caught a glimpse of the shark, and it was a Tiger Shark. That was bad. I managed to grab the shark with water Manipulation, but it only slowed briefly and then slipped away from it. A Shark was very different from grabbing a human. There was now blood in the water, so I assumed it had wounded Nifo, I got a glancing spear cut in it as it swung out for another pass. There was a splash, and another person entered the water from the boat. I assume it was the shark''s bond. I couldn¡¯t just drown them as they were a type of Mer with gills. They were fast in the water, and I only just got away from their knife strike. My Whirlpool Armour probably deflected it. My spear would be too unwieldy in this fast environment, and I was about to discard it when an explosion reverberated through the water. Tait was dealing with the boat. This disorientated the Mer briefly, and I got my spear lodged into them instead of discarding it. That should slow him down while I enhanced my Physical Agility to speed up. I left the spear lodged in the Mer and grabbed my knife, and Water Sprinted an attack on the shark. The Shark dodged the stab, so I only got an eye and a thin cut down its side. I saw Nifo go for the kill on the Mer, and the shark was coming back around to defend its bond. Shit, Nifo had lost a leg and was bleeding badly. I managed a Water Surge to push the shark off target, and Nifo got the Mer in his jaws. He had him right across his stomach, and there was a swell of blood and guts. Nifo would not be letting go now. The shark went berserk. It was a combination of reacting to the blood and his bond¡¯s death. Unfortunately, I was the one he saw with his one good eye. I almost got out of his way, but a last-minute twist meant he got my foot in his jaws, and I was yanked away with his momentum. I could feel the bones breaking and his teeth in my calf. I twisted my body and stabbed him in the eye nearest me, but this time I was going for his brain. I got him too, but his death throes caused a lot of damage to my foot and lower leg. I finally managed to pry my leg free. The Seal Skin suit was tight to reduce blood loss, and it also helped keep my leg together. I was going to need to breathe soon. My Oxygen Efficiency is great, but this is an extreme level of activity, and my wounds didn¡¯t help. I saw Nifo. He had ripped a leg off the Mer and was busy swallowing it. I went over to him and got him to follow me to the beach. We both needed to stop our bleeding, especially Nifo. We both crawled up onto the small beach to see Tait coming around to meet us. I looked around for threats, and we were clear. There was boat wreckage and more bodies in the water. Tait pulled two potions from his pack and tossed one to me, and I gulped it down. He fed the other to Nifo and pulled out a bandage to bind Nifo¡¯s rear stump. I saw Nifo had some other bite marks as well. My Seal Suit was doing its job and limiting my bleeding, so Nifo was the more urgent of us. I knew the Royal Marines had a team of highly specialised veterinarians specifically for the bonds. Nifo would be fine in a few weeks. I pulled my slim pack off my back and pulled my First Aid kit out when Eluf, Allvarlig, Nasmeh and Tabitha came from the main cavern. After assessing the cave for threats, Allvarlig, the dwarf, assisted me and started work on my leg. I could see Eluf had recognised Nifo, and his eyes zeroed in on Tait. ¡°Captain Tait?¡± he asked. ¡°Nice to see you again, my Lord,¡± Tait responded. ¡°Somebody told me you were on a date. You have chosen a very romantic location.¡± He waved his arm toward the sea, which was stained red with blood and covered in floating wreckage and bodies. ¡°I didn¡¯t choose this location, but the purpose of a date is to get to know the other person.¡± He glanced at Tabitha, ¡°from that perspective, this date has been very successful.¡± Tabitha came over to me, ¡°There are a lot more bodies here than expected. What happened?¡± ¡°We had some unexpected guests, one of them with a shark bond, which is responsible for our injuries,¡± I replied. ¡°We got them all.¡± I reassured her. A rampaging shark, maddened by the loss of their bond, is no joke. I have had to deal with one of them before. ¡°Can you walk?¡± she asked. ¡°I will need a crutch, but Tait and I will grab that beached daysailer and take it back to Obalno. It is best to get Nifo to the vet as soon as possible unless you need us for something.¡± ¡°No, everything is under control. Make sure you see the healer as well and send me the bill. The three of you have gone above and beyond all expectations. Just let me know if you need anything, and I will make it happen,¡± Tabitha said. I needed to warn Tait because the way she makes things happen is dubious at best. 112. Aftermath: Wiremu

112. Aftermath: Wiremu

That concoction of Rotte¡¯s was disgusting. I felt myself get sweaty for a while there, but it went away soon enough. Disease resistance was not something most people considered, as once you develop your Physical Constitution a bit, you don¡¯t tend to get sick. When we broke up, I went alone to the land entrance. Tabitha wanted me just to close the tunnel and leave it, but I wasn¡¯t going to do that. I met the six Pact Rats who were watching the entrance. They were not the best fighters. In fact, they were low-level thieves and cutpurses. I allowed them to come with me or circled around to the main entrance. I was going to block this one. Four of them decided to join me. When the time came, we cautiously approached the entrance. They didn¡¯t seem to have a guard close by, so I carefully looked for traps. There was a fairly simple tripwire alarm trap which looked like a child set it up. I disabled it, and all my senses were telling me there were no more. Granite Sense showed me the shape of the rock, and it was evident where people made changes. This confirmed there were no more traps, which I found puzzling. I was sure there would be a rockfall trap to close it if necessary. When I entered the small entrance, I turned around and went straight back out. The stench was horrific. The people sent to guard this entrance were not the strongest, and the disease seemed to have hit them very hard. The aftermath of the disease means I will need to turn off my Bond Senses, and I wish I could turn off my sense of smell. We re-entered the cave and cautiously made our way forward. We came to a particularly narrow point, and I had the Pack Rats move ahead of me. I waited until they were out of sight and walled off the tunnel. It wasn¡¯t as permanent as collapsing the tunnel. I could remove it reasonably quickly, and it would only take fifteen to twenty minutes with a sledgehammer to open it again. We came to the wider part of the cave where the people watching this entrance were camped, and it was a mess. They were all low levelled, and only one of them had the strength to get up and challenge us. I knocked her out quickly enough. We tied them up to come back later and question them. The Pack Rats were going through their possessions and helping themselves. We kept moving. We found the first storage cave, and there was nobody there. There were crates lined against the walls, sometimes three high. The four of them all slowed down and started looking in the crates. When they started removing items, I turned around and said, ¡°Do you remember that your boss made a deal about the split of the loot in this cave? That deal was made with the Black Butcher, and you will just take some stuff?¡± ¡°Whose going to know, man? It is just a few items.¡± one of the thieves said. ¡°I know, and the Black Butcher is my business partner, so that is my stuff that you are nicking,¡± I replied. ¡°Hey, help yourself, man. We won¡¯t say anything,¡± was the generous reply. ¡°How about you put everything back, and I won¡¯t say anything,¡± I responded. ¡°Don¡¯t be like that, man. It is just a few things, and, like, there are four of us.¡± It was almost like he was trying to threaten me. ¡°Yes, there are four of you,¡± I was starting to be a bit surprised he could count that high, ¡°Would you like there to be less of you so that you can have a bigger part of the cut.¡± I think he thought that was a good idea, but his mate butted in, ¡°Dude, he is threatening us!¡± ¡°Hey, you can¡¯t threaten the Pack Rats!¡± They must have very short memories because, from what I have been told, their first meeting with Tabitha and Nyx very definitely made them feel very threatened. Maybe that went over these guys'' heads. ¡°Well, I just did, so what are you going to do about it?¡± I figured that we should just have this out here if they want to go that far. That was not the response they expected, and I think they were confused for a moment. The slightly smarter one behind the front man pulled his knife and said, ¡°We are going to make you regret it!¡± The three front people all pulled their weapons and started coming at me. The smartest one of the whole group was the one at the rear, who took a step backwards and held up his hands with no weapons. The three were coming at me single file because that was all the space there was between the crates. I let the first one get to about two meters from me before I put a dart in his eye. He dropped dead, and the next guy tripped over him, so I booted his head hard enough to crack his skull and break his neck. The third guy was trying to stop, so I helped him with a dart in his eye too. The fourth guy was still standing there with his empty hands up. His jaw had dropped open for some reason. ¡°Are we going to have a problem?¡± I asked. ¡°N¡­ N¡­ No sir!¡± he stuttered. ¡°I will tell Rotte exactly what happened!¡± ¡°Good, because I like Rotte, and I would hate for her to be on the bad side of the Black Butcher,¡± I emphasised the name to make sure he realised who it was they were trying to rip off. ¡°Why don¡¯t you take the lead.¡± ¡°Yes, sir! Ah, let me just put this back.¡± He crammed something into a nearby crate and hurried on ahead. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I checked that the three were dead and then followed. The fighting in the main cavern was basically over when we arrived. I had been expecting some of the Seadogs to try to flee up this exit, but I found out why that hadn¡¯t happened. Modrica was at the entrance standing over the body of a massive Orc. The Orc had his head caved in, and it looked like Modrica had a broken arm. Mutalil was nearby, and he had T¨¡oke on his shoulder. That was new. The Pack Rat hurried over to Rotte, who was organising the prisoners. There were only about five prisoners here. We would collect the six we left later. The six we left were almost definitely low-level thugs. Hopefully, some of these ones have some information. The boss wasn¡¯t going to be talking, but it was very doubtful we would have ever taken him alive anyway. I saw Rotte look at me as the Pack Rat gave his report. She just nodded to me, and I nodded back. I had probably got rid of her problem low-life for her. ¡°Where is Black?¡± I asked Modrica. ¡°Sea cave,¡± she replied. She has always been a woman of few words. The smell here was not as bad as back at the other camp. It still wasn¡¯t pleasant. I hope Ruku enjoyed his swim-in because they probably used the sea as their toilet. I looked over the prisoners. There was nothing Imperial looking at about them. I imagine Ruku knows the basics of interrogation, and along with my Truth Sensing, we should get the information from them. Hopefully, they have some. I feel like I missed out on this fight. I know somebody had to come in from that end, and logically I was the best choice, but I still feel like I missed out. Rotte came over with three of her Pack and suggested we go and collect the other prisoners. She was being very polite, too polite for someone I hadn¡¯t met before. Surely the last idiot that came with me wasn¡¯t exaggerating the story yet. Mutalil and T¨¡oke came with us. Everyone was giving T¨¡oke a wide berth as well. I wonder what he did. He stayed uncamouflaged on Mutalil¡¯s shoulder, giving the impression they were bonded. That was fine by me. In fact, if Ilaiya were here, I would be encouraging him to bond with something poisonous. I could imagine the venom claws and bite he could have. Such potential has been lost. I am still feeling the need for some payback. When we came to the secondary storage cave with the bodies of the Pack Rats, Rotte pointed to them and said, ¡°That¡¯s what you get if you try to steal from Black. Spread the word. I will give you a slow, painful death if Black doesn''t give you a swift death. Don¡¯t steal from either of us.¡± Knowing Rotte was a Blood Alchemist, I am sure she could create some very slow, painful endings. The reaction from the other Pack Rats indicated they had actually seen that. We got to the other prisoners and hauled them back to the main cave. I wished Ruku was here to wash me down with his Water Surge. Tabitha was back in the main cave when we got back. No sign of Ruku, though. There were four Pack Rats dead in addition to the three I killed. There were a lot of injuries, small and large. We had eleven prisoners, and with some preliminary questioning, we narrowed it down to two interesting ones. They weren¡¯t Seadogs. One was definitely from the smuggler boat, and we think the other was an Imperial, but we weren¡¯t sure. We took those two and left the rest to Rotte. Tabitha and Skavt stayed to divide the loot while Mutalil, Modrica, T¨¡oke, and I took the two prisoners to a solid structure Abigail had built to the rear of the quarry. I caught up with Ruku the next day. The healers saved his foot, and his regeneration would ensure there was no permanent injury. He is supposed to stay off it for a week and will be limping for two weeks. He seriously recommended getting Sione in to interrogate the two prisoners. So we did. Tabitha and I were there. I, with my Truth Sensing Skill and Tabitha, with her Adjuster Skill to, squeeze and trick more information from them. Sione is a master at interrogation. I had been afraid of Smythe in the empire. Sione was at least his equal. Tabitha and I learned a lot, both about how to interrogate someone and how to resist interrogation. Tabitha¡¯s Adjuster Skill is going to help her master it. Oh, and we also learned something about what the Empire was up to in Obalno. The smuggler was a seaman on the Swift Wave ship under Captain Alarik. A front currently employed them for the Empire, and they knew that. He didn¡¯t have a lot of further information. The Swift Wave was due back next week in time for the Duke¡¯s Birthday Gala. There was something planned, but he didn¡¯t know what. What he did know was the location of a supply cache on a small island a week¡¯s sail away. That is where the ship headed after the failed kidnapping attempt. The Swift Wave crew built and kept the supply base, not the Empire. I suspect it won¡¯t be there by this time next week after Sione sends out the Navy. The Navy will also be scouring the sea between here and the base to intercept the Swift Wave, but it is unlikely they will take a direct route. The Spy turned out to be one of three here. She was the one who organised the failed kidnapping of Mayakku because they were in desperate need of Enchanters in Northport. They decided it was a good opportunity because their local contact ordered an assault on the Comedic Rhythm, so they would have the best chance of succeeding and hitting us twice. They would thereby gain favour with the local boss, who was known only as Spider. Now the traps I found at the Seadogs made sense. Spider silk with a nerve toxin. This boss has a spider as a bond. A master of traps and a web of contacts and influence. We are getting closer to the source. The Spies contacted the Spider through Tjenner and have been unable to get in touch since his death. Maybe we should have interrogated Tjenner before we killed him. I guess we were successful in interrupting their communication. They may not have been able to contact the Spider, but there was nothing to stop the Spider from initiating communication. I think the Spider is finding him or herself under increasing pressure from Eluf and us and with diminishing resources to call on. That was the main reason for taking out the Seadog leadership. One reason, anyway. It is our turn to apply increasing pressure. What does the empire want in Obalno? Two of the spies were long-term plants, quietly building networks and gathering information on the navy. They were activated to retrieve the enchanting plans Sione¡¯s crowd stole. The third agent arrived on the Swift Wave, and the other two were scared of her. She must be some sort of master spy and assassin. The enchanting plans are the key. I don¡¯t think even Sione knew how important they would turn out to be. The head Spy is definitely here for them, but is she also here to assassinate Abigail? Sione thought so. I think it would be a secondary objective if those were her orders. It is not above people in power to want revenge for disrupting their plans. More so if those disruptions have long-term consequences like killing or disabling their primary enchanters. Tabitha is more determined than ever to find an enchanter to make a copy of those before giving them back if she gives them back. In her mind, she stole them fair and square, and they belonged to her. The unknown question is, what does the Spider want? Power, influence, money? Did they infect the Duke? If so, why? Why is the Swift Wave due back before the gala? Has the Spider done a deal with the Imperials to do something at the Gala? 113. Nightlife: Tabitha

113. Nightlife: Tabitha

The next two weeks till the Gala were going to be very busy. Sione is convinced there will be retaliatory action from the Imperials, up to the possibility of assassination. He is calling in all the reinforcements he can. Unfortunately, most will not get here in time. We divided the loot in the cave. I am having our share moved to the quarry. There was a lot of explosive material in that cave. If they were part of their plans, we would have put another crimp in them. The Canine Queens are all basing themselves at the Quarry to enhance the security there. Eluf looking after the Comedic Rhythm has enabled us to be more flexible with our Security. Ruku, with his healing leg, will be based at the warehouse and is taking over the job of hiring more guards. He is specifically looking for ex-military. Rotte is keen to use the cave for her operations, but only if the smugglers are dealt with. Wiremu is going back to set some traps as we expect the Swift Wave to at least visit the place. I think the traps from the Spider have inspired him, and he is keen to try some new trap creations. Gwydr delivered the knives he was contracted for and received payment. He has no interest in becoming a Merchant and leading a local company. He is happy to be blowing glass. Also, all his family are in Kirghiz, so when he completes his time here, he will be heading back. The last set of public performances for the Comedic Rhythm are coming up, and there is a celebratory party afterwards put on by our new sponsor. Then there are two performances during the Duke''s gala, one in the open air for the public and one private for the Duke and honoured guests. The private performance is fine and we will just be using our more risque version of the normal show. The public performance will mean changing various aspects of the show as it is more difficult to control the lighting and other environmental factors in the open air. Eluf also wants another date. He will organise it this time. I don¡¯t think it is because he didn¡¯t like my date¡­ although, to be fair, one of those is enough. He also invited me to the gala banquet as his date. That is a very public statement. He knows we are leaving, and this relationship has an expiry date. I haven¡¯t told him I, or Wiremu, will be spying on his siblings. If we haven¡¯t resolved this before the gala, I will have the opportunity to interact with his siblings at the banquet. That could be fun. Eluf also said that the Watch now has a new Watch Captain and is being cleansed. This will mean they are short-staffed but better short-staffed than corrupt. Everything is happening a once, and I think this is how Wiremu feels when he says he needs to go fishing. Tonight I am going fishing. I am a Shadow Predator, and I am going hunting in my natural environment, the urban landscape. Specifically, I will break into Linne and Rainer''s town mansion and poke around. Some light burglary for relaxation. Maybe a bit of pilfering, but maybe not. We will see what Nyx and I find. Two girls and a night out on the town. Literally, a night on the town as I am currently on a second-story roof looking at our target and getting an idea of guard routes and stations. There is a guard on the roof of their three-story mansion. That is three stories above ground. I don¡¯t know how many are below ground. I have seen the guard to a circuit roughly every hour, looking over the edge for climbers and loiterers. A pair of guards circuit the grounds and streets about every two hours. I have also seen movement inside the mansion, so at least a pair of guards are patrolling inside. From where I am, I can sense the windows are trapped, and I want to check on what type of traps they are, as that could be a link. If this is the house of the Trap Master, which I am assuming is also the Spider, then it will probably be harder than the enchanter''s place. If that turns out to be the case, I will back off and check out the other brother. I am thinking of a roof entry at this point. There is obviously a non-trapped route up there for the guard and an internal ladder or stairwell. I pulled my lightweight climber''s rope from my backpack and attached a small grapple hook on one end. Nyx grabbed the hook in her Binding Shadows and flew across to the other roof. She released in on a structural been and triggered the grapple. I pulled the rope tight and secured it to a chimney with an easy-release knot. I tested it with my weight and bounced on it a few times. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. I engaged by Shadows Embrace and started making my way along the rope. I was climbing uphill as I was going from my two-story building to the three-story mansion. The sky was overcast and the rope thin, so it was doubtful I would be seen from below. I had timed it so the roof guard and the street patrol would not be there. The internal patrol not looking out a window was a calculated risk. I have never understood that saying. This was a random risk with what I judged to be a small chance of happening. No calculations are involved, and it turns out my judgement is sound. When I got to the other roof, I disengaged the grapple, Nyx tugged the quick-release knot at the chimney, and I wound the rope in. After checking, the street was clear, of course. My Hearing Aid was starting to level, so I listened for the guard. He normally came from the left, so I headed right, looking for the stairs or hatch. The guard had a hut next to the stairwell, and he was inside having a cuppa. I waited till he started the next circuit and then examined the stairwell for traps. It was just a standard alarm trap, no toxic spider webs. I disarmed it, which was child''s play with my Shadow Manipulation, but it would have been very tricky otherwise. I entered the Stairwell, and they almost got me with a tripwire on the top step. Sneaky bastards. Fortunately, my Physical agility let me hop over it when I saw it in my Spatial Awareness, and I did a quick dance down a few stairs before I caught my balance again. If they had a second tripwire two steps down, they would have got me. The door at the bottom of the stairs had a similar alarm trap, which I disarmed as easily. This time I checked the other side of the door carefully with my Spatial Awareness before opening it. I can learn. The hallway was wide with plush carpet. The carpet would muffle the sound, both mine and the roving patrol. This floor had bedrooms. Large fancy bedrooms, and at the end was the Master bedroom, with Linne and Reiner both asleep. There was a cot in the corner with a toddler asleep in it. The six-year-old had a room next door. There were no offices or hidden spaces that I could sense, although the Master bedroom was so large my Spatial Awareness didn¡¯t cover the whole room. There were two stairs down, the back one was obviously for servants or other workers, and the main wide one was for important people. I took the wide stairs. This one had some guest bedrooms and family spaces. There were guests in residence, I assume some had come in for the birthday celebrations, and more would be arriving. The ground floor had reception areas and office spaces; out the back were the kitchens and the outdoor entertainment areas. The offices seemed more for show than for actual work, but I checked them out anyway. It also got me out of the way of the roving patrol. The ground floor was obviously the most vulnerable, so it was where they patrolled the most. One of the offices had a semi-hidden stairwell, so I took it and found the main working office on the first basement level. The level had other guest bedrooms, probably for those like the Dwarves and Gnomes that preferred to be underground. Below this was mostly storage and service areas. Yes, they had a big safe in a wall. Actually, it was more like a vault made out of Spiritually enhanced metal. Several layers of it. My Spatial Awareness got through all four layers, just. I had about a half-meter area of visibility beyond the walls, and it was an effort to keep it up. It was a very well-built vault, almost Treasury quality. I couldn¡¯t figure out the door lock as a rune keypad and runes operated the lock. I couldn¡¯t sense through all the Spiritual material around the rune lock. It was a denser material than the other material. Why the hell didn¡¯t they have a key? Keys were easy. I couldn¡¯t get into the vault with my shadows as it was airtight. I gave up on it for now. I would need some different tools. The first office was Reiners, with information on his family estates and business dealings. Nothing exciting. The adjoining office was Linne¡¯s. She had a number of responsibilities for the Duke and governance roles, some of which had been handed to Eluf. Her main business at the moment was organising the Gala. I guess it was her daughter''s birthday party. I found a full schedule of events for the two-day gala. Comedic Rhythm¡¯s public performance was on the first evening, and the Performance for the Nobles followed the official banquet. I already knew that. I didn¡¯t know all the other acts and street performers engaged, along with the food and drink. It was a big undertaking. I wonder if it was her idea instead of the Dukes? She could just be attaching the Duke''s name to it if he is ill. At the end of the day, that didn¡¯t really matter. What did matter was where the most vulnerable areas were, and I wouldn¡¯t know that until I had some understanding of what the Sider and, or the Imperials were after. If it is revenge from the Imperials, then the Nobles will be the target. The Spider is still unknown, although if Eluf and we have upset their operation, then we were the prime targets. There was nothing in these offices to give any indication. Time to make an exit. I don¡¯t have anything to show for the night. That vault is bugging me. I will work out a way to beat it. I went out the back door to the outdoor entertainment area and over the wall. I should have just come in that way. Next time. 114. Marked: Wiremu

114. Marked: Wiremu

Two known Imperial spies in the city. One in the city and one returning to the city on the Swift Wave. We will plan for the Swift Wave to make it back to Obalno despite the best efforts of the Royal Navy. They are experienced smugglers. I aim to find and remove the one in the city before the Swift Wave returns. Sione had the same intel I do. The cover identity was a Produce Merchant selling fresh fruit and vegetables to the Navy. He worked for the Merchant House, Farmer¡¯s Market, which had held the Navy contract for many years. There were Marines currently going through his house and workplace and bringing in all known contacts. He would have some fallback safe houses, which may not be actual houses. I had a description of him. He was a dwarf with brown hair and brown eyes. In other words, as common looking as possible. He will have a new name and look but will still be a dwarf. One person would be hard to find. Approximately a third of the population of Obalno are dwarves, and half of those are male. There will be a contact system in place for the other spy and a target they are preparing for. If I knew the target and the type of attack, I might be able to track them from the preparation. Hanging around the preparation area for the Gala and looking for strange-acting male dwarves will only work for the most basic amateur. They don¡¯t send amateurs for long-term spying. It is possible he went into hiding with the Spiders organisation, but last I heard, there had been no communication since the assassination of Tjenner. He is probably on his own, which is good for me. He has been in Obalno for a reasonable time and knows how to fit in. That is bad for me. I don¡¯t know any diviners or seers, and they are so rare they might as well not exist. Ruku has a skill that lets him monitor the environment and picks out any anomalies. Ocean Sense, I think he called it. He said it came from sitting and soaking in the ocean environment he loves. Eventually, he got a sense of what might not be quite right, and it developed into a Skill. It is the closest thing I have heard of to a Diviner or seer. Unfortunately, it took years to develop. I have a lot of Sensing Skills. Can I make this Spy my Treasure and use my Sense Treasure Skill? That feels very wrong. A male Dwarf is not something I would treasure. A certain female human might be different. It has been about a year since I saw Lieutenant Kelda. She doesn¡¯t fit the definition of treasure either, but maybe a little less so. My Spy Class is only Level 8. I would need another two levels before I could specialise. Skills and Classes are the keys. I have two Classes I can Specialise, Hunter and Quarry Worker. Quarry Worker gave me Prospector, which gave me Sense Treasure. Hunter has given me Monster Hunter, Scout, and Assassin. Another common specialisation of Hunter is the Bounty Hunter Class. I understood that I couldn¡¯t get Bounty Hunter because I lacked a skill to see people''s Status. Maybe that is not quite true. Maybe the Skill will come from the Class. My internal Identification indicated that it could happen either way. A person-tracking Skill is what I need. I have Tracking, which is in Journeyman Level and can be used to track anything that leaves tracks. Sometimes my intelligence amazes me with a statement like that. That is not a good thing. What else do I have that might help? People are Spiritual beings. Can I combine Tracking with Sense Spiritual? That has possibilities. I will need to add my Physical Sensing Skills, Farsight, Darksight, Hearing Aid, and Bond Senses. I need to focus through my Perception Attributes, which are Physical, Mental and Spiritual. Mental Perception is by far my lowest. I do have nine free attribute points, and if I spent them all on Mental Perception, it would raise it from the current 21 to 30. That would make the Perceptions, Physical 44, Spiritual 32 and Mental up to 30. That is a lot to invest in one attribute. What would I get for it, and would it be worth it? I am going to need to hunt down people. I have a certain Inquisitor Smythe in my sights if Koza doesn¡¯t get there first. Koza had the Bounty Hunter Class. I wish he were here to ask. Not that he would necessarily answer. How do I use those Skills with those attributes to hunt people? I will use four of my free attribute points to bring Mental Perception up to 25. It will bolster my Manipulate Status Skill as well. I got the feeling that if my Novice Sentient Lore were higher, I would get more hints from that. At the moment, all it was saying was Dwarves like to be underground or in enclosed spaces. Not all that helpful. I am a hunter and tracker. Hunting people is just an extension of my animal hunting skills. My Sense Spiritual is sitting at the top apprentice level, and Ruku said there were bonuses to having it at the Journeyman Level. Sensing Spiritual Flows, but if I can combine it with my tracking and add a spiritual aspect to my tracking Identify is telling me there is a skill for me there. The question is how? I started by watching people. I tried to see the differences in their spirits. I was pushing my Sense Spiritual here, but I started to see how each person had a different Spiritual signature. Some were stronger than others, and there were different colours or maybe flavours. I kept pushing to see the differences, and suddenly, it became easier. Sense Spiritual moved to the Journeyman Level. I could see Spiritual flows in the body easier. What I couldn''t see was anything I could track. People had their personal spirituality flowing through their bodies, which was unique to them. As they moved, it affected the ambient spiritual flows around them, but how could I track one particular person from this? There didn¡¯t seem to be any residue left behind, at least not that he could detect. This meant passive tracking was not going to work for me at this time. What about active tracking? Could I affect the spiritual fields in a way that makes a trail, like a wounded animal dripping blood is easier to track? I followed a young courier for a while, trying to affect his spiritual field to leave a trail. I had a sudden inspiration that this was, infact, how auras work, by creating a Spiritual field that affected a wide area with the flavour of the aura. I would have to test that inspiration with Tabitha and ?rt, who were the only two I knew with aura skills. That wasn¡¯t going to help me now. What about if I tried spiritually tagging them? Sort of like tagging an animal to help track down its lair. How would I do that? I would need to hook a spiritual mark onto them or an object they carry that links back to me. I experimented first on objects that people were carrying as I thought that doing it to the people themselves might be noticeable, especially for the spiritually sensitive. I worked with different methods, and the concept of a fishing hook worked best for me. Objects also had spiritual signatures, and with the Journeyman level in my Sense Spiritual, I could sense it better now. Spiritually enhanced items were the strongest, right down to basic rock. When I thought to engage Granite Sense, rock became very easy for me. I got familiar with putting my hooks into objects and tracking them from a distance. I was about to try hooking people when I got the Skill, Trackers Mark 1. Trackers Mark let me put my hooks into objects and track them. At the Novice Level, the number of marks was a tenth of my Spiritual Agility, and the distance I could track was a tenth of my Spiritual Strength in kilometres. So at level 1, I could place four marks and track them 3.8km. Each level increased that by twenty percent, so at Journeyman Level, it would be five marks and 5.3km, and I am assuming if I increased my Spiritual Attributes, that would also increase the skill. I could attach my hooks to people and monsters. Whether they noticed or not would be a function of their Spiritual Perception and, of course, any Skills they had. Each level of Trackers Mark meant a greater chance it would be unnoticed. Then something happened I had not experienced before. I think it was my Sense Spiritual getting to Journeyman Level that made me aware. Trackers Mark morphed into Hunters Mark 1. Trackers Mark requires Spiritual Agility of 20 and Spiritual Strength of 20. Hunters Mark required 30 in each Attribute, which I had. I could feel the Hunters Class influencing this as well. Then I remembered this had happened before when I was learning Granite Quake, and I was aware I skipped Granite Tremor as I had higher attributes. I wasn¡¯t aware of the process then, and I think I could only sense it now because it was a combination of Identify and Sense Spiritual, both in the Journeyman Levels. Hunters Mark allowed the number of my hooks to be twenty percent of my Spiritual Agility and the Distance to be 20% of my Spiritual Strenght per level. So at level 1, I had seven marks available and a 7.6km distance. The big difference was that if I put my hooks into living creatures, I could ¡®tug¡¯ on those hooks and slow down the creature or person. This was also a function of my Spiritual Strenght but as a percentage. At level 1, a mark could slow the beast by 1.9%, but I could stack multiple hooks, and I would have seven available at level 1, so I could slow them by 13%, which, if applied to me, would equate to five Points in Physical Agility. At Journeyman Level, I would have ten hooks available and be able to slow them over 25% of their Physical Agility. More if I levelled my Spiritual Agility. I would probably have some hooks assigned to keep track of allies in some situations. If they got out of range, the hook would disappear and be able to be reused. In other words, I would lose the target. The range at the Journeyman Level would be over 10km. Using the Hooks to slow people cost Spiritual Energy, so I would have to manage the energy usage, but this could be very effective at crucial times in a fight. I immediately started to level it on various passersby and monitored their position until they got out of range. I quickly went up to Level 2, and I started to think about how I could use this Skill to catch a spy. If the cave contents are any indication, they want to blow something up. There were a lot of explosives in the cave. If that is still the plan, where would they get more explosives? Some Alchemists specialise in Explosive mixtures, and I think there is one of those in Obalno. They would be sensible only to mix explosives when they have an order. The spy could order explosives for various mining operations, but he was in the fruit and veg field, not the mining field. A more likely source would be a Navy ammunition supply depot. They will keep a certain amount in stock at all times. Sione doesn¡¯t know about the explosives in the cave, and the captured spy claimed not to know what they were up to, and they may not have known yet. My guess is they will try to raid a Navy Supply depot, which is risky. Who would they get to help? The Seadogs are not available and would not be up to this task anyway. They will be looking for a high-level thief. If we set Tabitha up as a thief for hire¡­ I don¡¯t think that would work. She is too easily linked to the Enchanter robbery, and they will try to shake the plans out of her. We are not stupid enough to think that there will not be leaks from the Pack Rats. They would try to get it out of her even if they weren¡¯t sure of the connection. Those plans are the primary reason they are active. My plan of action would be to get some of my new Hunters Marks into some of those explosives and track them if they move off the base. I could Stealth in to do that, but that is as risky for me as it is for the person who tries to steal them. There is an easier way. I will ask Ruku and his mate Tait to give me a tour of the base. Sounds simple enough, even if the explosives are in a restricted part of the base, my Marks can reach as far as my Spiritual Senses. With my new Journeyman level of Sense Spiritual and my Journeyman Level Granite Sense, I don¡¯t think I would have a problem. I would store explosives in a stone bunker. Wiremu Status
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros MHunt Scout Assn Total
Type If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Attribute Level 11 11 8 3 5 5 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 11 2 22 1 5 50 132.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 11 4 5 1 38
Perception (PP) 11 2 22 1 3 5 44
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 5 5 31 88.0
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 8 1 5 1 32
Perception (MP) 11 1 10 1 2 25
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 6 11 3 5 38 105.0
Agility (SA) 8 2 5 8 1 5 6 35
Perception (SP) 10 5 8 4 5 32
Totals 92 44 53 33 40 12 25 22 4 321
Free Points 2 0 0 0 0 3 0
Resistances: Poison +19, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +28, Heat +20, Fire +13, Disease 1 Skills: Novice: Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Detect Traps 4, Spiritual Trapping 4, Petrification 4, Monster Lore 4, Sentient Lore 4 Granite Sand 4, Roleplay 2, Sudden Strike 3, Hunters Mark 4 Apprentice: Fishing 8, Sewing 8, Cooking 8, Tutor 9, Truth Sensing 8, Sense Treasure 6, Butchering 7, Weapon Repair 7, Repair Leather Armour 6 Plant Lore 8, Animal Lore 9, Mineral Lore 6, Granite Quake 7, Granite Wall 5, Animal Care 7, Venom Arrow 8, Veneer 7, Map Making 7, Dwarvish 9, Triple Shot 6, Longbow 7, Granite Manipulation 5 Journeyman: Hearing Aid 13, Hammer 13, Mapping 10, Identify 11, Deceive 12, Manipulate Status 10, Granite Spike 13, Granite Sense 11, Granite Bones 12, Granite Shield 11, Trapping 10, Tracking 11, Skinning 10, Bow 12, Small Blades 13, Unarmed Combat 11, Throw Weapons 12, Spear 12, Quick Strike 11, Power Strike 10 Darksight 11, Far Sight 11, Bond Senses 11, Orcish 11, Camouflage 10, Imbue Venom 11, Snakeskin 11, Regeneration 10 Hide Armourer 11, Riding 10, Sense Spiritual 10 Master: Stealth 16, Animal Bond 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 8 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +22, Cold +29, Heat +20, Fire +13, Pain +11 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 2, Sudden Strike 1, Hunters Mark 1 Apprentice: Power Strike 9, Granite Spike 6, Strength Boost 9, Venom Spit 9, Granite Shield 7, Grow 9, Regeneration 7, Granite Sense 7, Granite Manipulation 8 Journeyman: Camouflage 13 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 17 Affinity: Granite 115. Spy: Wiremu

115. Spy: Wiremu

Ruku got me into the base. Captain Tait was definitely suspicious but assigned a corporal to escort us around. I didn¡¯t want to tell them I thought they were going to get raided as they would tighten security, and I would miss the opportunity. The potential opportunity. They didn¡¯t just have one stockpile. They had several stockpile spread close to different wharves. It was a large base with multiple wharves and docked ships. I had not realised how large it was. I was right, and they did store explosives in stone bunkers. However, they were enchanted stone bunkers. I could push my Granite Sense through, but I could only hook storage crates on the stone. If I were robbing it, I would take the easy ones off the top. I used six of my Hunters Marks, marking two crates in what I considered to be the three most vulnerable bunkers. I visited the explosive alchemist, and she had not had any unexpected orders, although she was reluctant to discuss that with me. My Truth Sensing was saying that she didn¡¯t lie anyway. She had a storage facility buried behind her workshop, both of which were built from thick solid stone. I left my final Mark on a wagon full, ready to be delivered. She had far less stockpiled, but she was a much easier target. This was only possible because I had a 7.5km range on my Hunters Marks. I set myself up about halfway between the Navy base and the Alchemist and waited for night. Early in the morning, the wagon at the Alchemists started moving. When I went to check, it wasn¡¯t being stolen, just delivered. Now I had a choice to make. If I followed the wagon to the mine, I would lose the Marks in the Navy depot when I got out of range. On the move, a wagon full of explosives is much easier to hijack than raiding any depot. It also wouldn¡¯t need a high-level thief, just some thugs. I decided to follow the wagon. With some effort, I could get back into the navy base if I needed to. The wagon had a driver and two guards, although I think all three were experienced fighters. I kept over two kilometres behind the wagon, well out of sight. The morning dragged on. T¨¡oke and I followed some game trails, and I practised using Hunters Mark on some deer we found. We didn¡¯t kill any, as I didn¡¯t want to be burdened if I needed to move fast. I was able to Mark the deer without it noticing, but as soon as I tugged on the mark to slow it down, it was immediately aware of being in danger ad took off as fast as it could. The Mark¡¯s slow effect didn¡¯t seem to be affected by distance. That will help me catch a fleeing target much quicker. I could only place Marks if they were in my Spiritual Senses range, even if the target already had a mark. If I wanted to place multiple marks, I would have to do so while they were still in range. Hunters Mark went to level 3. About lunchtime, the wagon stopped. Were they having lunch, or were they being ambushed? I had fallen a bit behind while experimenting with my new skill, so it took me a while to reach them. Before I arrived, the wagon started moving again. I went into stealth and crept up to where the wagon had stopped. There were multiple bodies on the ground. The guards had accounted for themselves well, but you don¡¯t attack without thinking you can succeed. In this case, they guessed correctly, but it had been costly. I felt terrible for the guards, but this was a risk of the job. I checked the bodies for anything that might identify where they were from. The survivors had taken any coin and any good equipment from the bodies. The wagon had turned off the main road and onto a forestry track. We kept well behind and followed most of the afternoon. The wagon finally came to a stop, and we carefully crept closer. With my mapping ability, I would never be able to get lost, so I was aware we had looped back toward the coast north of Obalno. This heavily forested area supplied a lot of the timber for Obalno¡¯s shipbuilding industry. The track the wagon had followed was one of the logging tracks used by the bullock teams to transport logs from the forest. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. When I caught up to it, the wagon was parked outside a foresters cabin. There was a loud argument taking place outside the cabin. On one side, there were four heavily armed humans, which I guessed were the remnants of the ambush squad. They were unhappy that most of their team was killed and were complaining that the Dwarf facing them had misrepresented the job. The Dwarf facing them looked like a grocer, which made the humans more aggressive, thinking they could bully the Dwarf. I figured this was the spy, and you don¡¯t underestimate a highly trained spy who has spent his career looking harmless. Just as I thought this, the most aggressive of the humans stepped forward to make the altercation physical. Faster than even my perception could pick up, the dwarf gutted him with a large knife and stepped around to stab the next person. There was a flurry of activity, and then all four humans were down, and the dwarf turned back toward the cabin with only a slight limp. I figured now was my chance to disable him. I didn¡¯t have time to draw my bow, so I threw one of my stone knives. It pierced his back, and he went down and didn¡¯t move. I cautiously went forward to check on him, keeping one eye on the cabin, not trusting him but fairly confident there was no one else in the cabin. It was supposed to be a disabling throw. He was dead. I was puzzled about how that happened until I realised I had attacked from stealth, and Sudden Strike had triggered from my Assassin Class. This gave a bonus to the attack. I hadn¡¯t properly tested Sudden Strike as I had just been doing with my Hunters Mark. I haven¡¯t had the opportunity to go hunting and work out the intricacies of it. I have just learned that if I don¡¯t want it to trigger from stealth, I must consciously turn it off. Always, always test the limits and intricacies of a new skill. Now I have a dead spy I cannot question. There was no one else in the cabin and only a small pack with the dwarf with survival supplies. I collected all the coins and good gear from everyone there and then left them. I turned the wagon around and drove it back to the main road. I knew the mine it was going to, and that was only a couple of hours down the road, so I drove the wagon there and told them that I had found it by a bunch of bodies by the road. I gave them my Mercenary Guild identity for any reward, and they dispatched some people to investigate my claim. I left them to it. I hunted through the night, testing Sudden Strike and Hunters Mark thoroughly. T¨¡oke decided he wanted to learn both of those Skills, so we stayed out so he could also practice. T¨¡oke was going to be devastating with Sudden Strike as he almost always attacked from ambush. We arrived at the Quarry at dawn, loaded down with pelts and meat. I missed having Rocky with me or any horse during times like these. I caught a few hours of sleep and then cleaned and treated the hides and set them to dry. The Canine Queens, the Catkin and Abigail were all at the quarry. There were four hired guards there as well. App¨¡ had started the treatments to regrow his arm and was being supervised by ?rt. I think ?rt was trying to learn the Limb Regeneration Specialisation for Healers. It would take a while, but I am sure he will get there eventually. I went into the city before the gates closed and caught up with Tabitha. She laughed when I told her how I killed the spy. We were confident we had foiled the explosive part of their plot, even if we didn¡¯t know what they were planning to explode. The Swift Wave would need to provide explosives, or the Spider have a way to provide them for this to continue. I would be happier if I knew the target. We decided not to tell Sione the spy was dead. I am sure it is all good training for them. The Comedic Rhythm was starting the last set of public performances tonight, so I went with them for a night out. Ruku was there as well, and his foot was healing well. Ruku was based at the warehouse, recruiting and helping our caravan master start to assemble the caravan to Kirghiz, all that was happening at the warehouse. The final countdown to the Gala has begun. 116. Master Trap: Tabitha

116. Master Trap: Tabitha

The last three public performances went well, and Eluf threw us a party afterwards. That was fun, particularly when I woke up in his bed the next morning. I quizzed him about his siblings over breakfast. He and Linne used to get on really well as they grew up together, and they still do. He is only getting to know Sven since getting back from the Army. The kid was only six when he left, so he missed out on his growing years. Fifteen years in the army, and the kid is now twenty-one. Apparently, Sven and Linne get on really well as she helped him grow up and was there for him when he went through a troubled teen period. Big sisters are sometimes better than mothers. Then Eluf tried to ask me some questions from the raid, and I had to distract him with some serious kissing. He knew what I was doing, too, the bastard, and he made the most of it. Him and his bloody mental shit. Yes, we had a good time. Now, it is time for me to break into his brother Sven¡¯s place and have a look around. Sven didn¡¯t have a mansion. He had a townhouse. It was a very nice townhouse. I have learned my lesson from breaking into Linne and Reiner¡¯s place, and I will try the backdoor before I try the fancy aerial manoeuvres. There was an advanced alarm trap on the back door, but nothing out of the ordinary. I disabled it easily enough. Fortunately, my Spatial Awareness had given me advanced warning of what I was entering. This was definitely a bachelor''s pad. The rear entrance opened into a kitchen area, and it was a mess. Dirty dishes and unwashed food containers littered the kitchen. The floor was unwashed, and crumbs lined the edges of the main walkway. This set the tone for the house. There were two bedrooms upstairs, a Reception room, and an office on the ground floor. There was a second office in the basement and the utility rooms. The only room that was some semblance of clean was the Reception room. Everywhere else was just cluttered. Dirty clothes were left on the floor, and books and knickknacks were everywhere. I had to carefully pick my way through the mess, trying not to disturb anything or leave a mark. The place was coated in dust and cobwebs. Wait a minute. Cobwebs. I focussed my Spatial Awareness, and there were spiders with the cobwebs, just like there were ants, flies and cockroaches in the kitchen, and a nest of mice in the basement. This place needed to be gutted, or at least he could hire some cleaners. The lad was a noble, I am sure he could afford it. Unless he wanted it this way. I carefully focussed my Spatial Awareness around me, slowly expanding it from my body. Just occasionally, there were extremely thin broken cobwebs where I had walked. So thin I had not looked closely enough with my senses. This place was one big trap. He would definitely know I had been here. The house is a master trap masquerading as a bachelor pad. I recognise this, but how would you prove it? It could just be a messy house of a young man who doesn¡¯t care. I was convinced this was the home of the Spider, but there was no evidence to back up that claim. A lack of proof has not stopped me from acting on things in the past. It depends on what I will do with this information. Eluf would need proof. It is much harder to assassinate a Noble than a government employee, especially if they are my lover''s brother. I could try recruiting him, but I would need to know his aims and motivations first. By all accounts, he is an established Noble and doing a good job in that role. At least I now know where to focus my attention, at least until I am proven wrong. I could be wrong, but I don¡¯t think so. The more immediate problem is what to do now. I have illegally entered his house, and he will know. If he is the Spider, he will know. If he is a bachelor slob, he will not know. Working on the assumption he is the Spider, and I can¡¯t cover my tracks, what message do I want to send? I could make it like an amateur break-in, mess the place up, and steal some stuff. Looking around it would be redistributing the mess. I could do nothing and leave and leave him wondering. I could leave him a message. I could just burn the place to the ground, and that option would be best for the health of the neighbourhood. Before I burned the place to the ground, I would need to determine if his bond was present. It could be watching me now. I was in the ground floor office where five spiders were hidden. None looked unusual to my senses. I looked with Sense Spiritual to see if the Spiritual flows went anywhere in particular. If his bond was a normal spider, I would not be able to tell. If it had turned into a monster like T¨¡oke, there would be a change in Spiritual flows. I could sense nothing. It seemed a waste not to leave a message of some sort. Where would the Spider look, but a slob wouldn¡¯t notice? One of the cobwebs was the obvious solution. But what message? I looked through the contents of my slim backpack, coin pouch and Spatial Pocket. My Spatial Pocket was mid-Apprentice level and 70cm cubed, which was quite a large space. I now carried a lot of my essential or valuable supplies there. It was a big change from the days when I could only fit some oils and dust in it. I found a small slither of Blacksteel, not enough to make a broach, but it is the Black Butchers symbol. I disturbed a cobweb and then placed it wrapped in the web. I was retracing my steps out of there when one of the cobweb strands that I had broken caught my eye. If this house was a master trap, it would do more than just let him know he had an intruder. I carefully put my gloved hand behind the loose strand to see it better. It would break if I touched it. If I had someone break into my place, I would want to know who it was or be able to track them. My Spatial Awareness was just telling me this was a very thin and hard-to-detect strand of a spider web. I no longer believed that. My Sense Spiritual was just in the Journeyman Levels, and I had been practising sensing Spiritual flows with it. I used it and focused it on the strand by my hand. Even now that I had raised my Spiritual Perception to 40, I still couldn¡¯t sense anything. I know Mayakku has the Spiritual Sensitivity Skill, and she might be able to sense something. She is not here, but Nyx is. I called Nyx out, and darkness filled the corridor as she expanded around me, wall to wall, floor to ceiling and a couple of meters on either side of me. She is an Elemental, so she is made from Spiritual Energy and lives on Spiritual Energy. Our Elemental Bond is at the Journeyman level, and we can now share a lot. I focussed on the bond and what Nyx was sensing. I have tried, but I have never been able to get the Skill Bond Senses, like Wiremu and T¨¡oke share. Wiremu¡¯s is strongly focused on smell. I don¡¯t know how Nyx senses, although it is definitely in the Spiritual. I remember putting those points into the Spiritual Attributes to bring them up to 40 and seemed to get nothing for it. Now I could sense those attributes coming into play and enhancing both my Bond Senses and my Sense Spiritual. I was trying to sense what Nyx is sensing, and I am getting a vague sense of it. I push on my Spiritual Perception and add my final two free attributes to it, and I get a breakthrough. The trouble is, I am not sure how I would describe it to anyone. Nyx can ¡®see¡¯ the spiritual. It is different to my Sense Spiritual but complementary. There is so much more detail, or colour, or flavour. I don¡¯t know how to describe it. I can see that this web differs from a normal web. I can¡¯t see the flow of the Spiritual in the air like I discovered I can with my Sense Spiritual in Journeyman levels. What I can sense is the Spiritual in objects with much greater clarity. The denser the object, like Blacksteel dense, the better it shines to my new sense. Maybe it is the stronger the Spiritual material, the more it glows. The web is not bright, but it is obvious to my new sense. I look down the hall and see other, thinner, broken webs. This is the home of the Spider. I have no doubt. I also cannot prove it to others who can¡¯t see this. Then I see Nyx. She is the most beautiful creature I have ever laid senses on. When she is spread out, her shine grows dimmer. When she is concentrated, she is like a little sun to my new sense. The colour, or flavour, is incredible! She has so many different colours, she is amazing. I am assuming she accumulates colour or flavour from the energy she syphons. She is incredible, and I could sit and stare at her for hours. Well, I would if I wasn''t crouched illegally in a house belonging to a crime lord. I check my Status, and I now have the Skill Elemental Senses 1. I turn those Elemental Senses on myself, and I can see where the broken webs cling to my clothing. They have left a Spiritual mark. The marks are tiny, but there are a lot of them. I am sure this is some sort of tracking ability and possibly some other ability. Fortunately, now I know about them and can see them they are easy to remove. I just syphon the Spiritual Energy out of them. I can¡¯t see them all as the Skill Elemental Senses isn¡¯t compatible with my Spatial Awareness yet. I think it will synergise as I level it, but I might have to wait for Journeyman level. I get Nyx to remove the ones I can''t see. I will also need to scrub these clothes in case a physical residue, like a paralytic, might work its way through my skin. The Elemental senses were so strange I couldn¡¯t move while using them, so I turned them off and made my way out of the house. Once I was clear, Nyx and I did another sweep over me to remove any new marks, and I left to ponder what to do about this while washing my clothes and taking a long hot bath myself.
Tabitha Carter Class Thief Merch SPred Rider Rack Enter Brglr Total
Type Attribute Level 13 11 10 5 4 You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. 5 2 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 2 3 2 7 2 5 30 120.0
Agility (PA) 12 3 13 10 5 2 45
Perception (PP) 11 5 13 11 5 45
Mental Strength (MS) 8 3 4 6 1 4 5 31 114.0
Agility (MA) 12 2 1 11 2 1 5 5 39
Perception (MP) 10 1 13 11 4 5 44
Spiritual Strength (SS) 9 1 6 3 11 6 2 2 40 122.0
Agility (SA) 10 1 5 3 11 10 40
Perception (SP) 10 4 7 8 9 4 42
Totals 91 22 65 55 50 20 20 25 8 178
Free Points 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Resistances: Cold +20, Poison +3, Pain +4, Disease 1 Skills Novice: Sewing 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Syphon Energy 4 Hearing Aid 4, Elemental Senses 1 Apprentice: Pickpocket 7, Trapping 5, Shadow Puppet 7, Blunt Weapon 9, Knockout Strike 9, Parry 7, Cooking 7, Animal Care 9, Sleight of Hand 9, Dual Wield 7, Rampage 7, Sentient Lore 7, Orcish 6, Performance 7, Adjuster 6 Binding Shadows 5, Spatial Pocket 7, Journeyman: Riding 11, Bargain 11, Appraise 10, Lock Pick 10, Detect Traps 10, Detect Spiritual Traps 10, Disarm Spiritual Traps 10, Sense Spiritual 10, Confuse Status 10, Identify 11, Distract 13, Disarm Traps 10, Dwarvish 12, Lute 10, Coax 10, Mimic 10, Elemental Bond 10, Engulfing Shadows 13, Shadows Embrace 14, Intimidating Aura 11, Spatial Awareness 11, Small Blades 13, Unarmed Combat 10, Swords 10, Master: Stealth 16, Darksight 15, Shadow Manipulation 15, Affinity: Shadow Bond: Nyx, Shadow Elemental Skills: Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry, Coax, Engulfing Shadows, Sense Spiritual 117. Creepy: Ruku. 117. Creepy: Ruku. This damned foot is still slowing me down. I know I am lucky not to have lost it completely as that would have taken longer to replace, like App¨¡ with his arm. With his arm, once the healers have grown it back, there are months and months of rehabilitation and retraining to regain muscle memory. A foot is not as bad, and even though I didn¡¯t lose it, it will still be several weeks before I can go full out on it, even with my Regeneration. Meanwhile, I am still hobbling along with a cane. I have managed to hire three ex-marines and two ex-navy people as security. I don¡¯t think any report to Sione, but you can never be sure. I ensured they were aware of the confidentiality clauses in the contract and the severe penalties for breaking them. This applies to the whole caravan as I am told the Comedic Rhythm will be developing a new show on the road to Kirghiz, and stage secrets are valuable. The Duke¡¯s Heir is also sending four of their guards specifically for the Comedic Rhythm wagons to protect his investment. The Duke¡¯s Gala will start in a few days. Most of the Caravan preparation will happen after the Gala, but it has begun in earnest. Selma, the Caravan Master, is a no-nonsense dwarf and is a pleasure to work with. Most of the Caravan prep is happening at the warehouse, and I am in charge of security here. It is busier than ever with goods coming and going. T¨¡tt¨¡ is handling most of the merchant transactions. The Canine Queens are based at the quarry and are essentially full-time guards for the Catkin, especially Mayakku. My problem is not with security. My problem is with the new task Tabitha asked of me. She wants me to help Wiremu keep an eye on the Duke¡¯s youngest son, Sven. She didn¡¯t say why, but she thinks he is caught up in this mess, either as a victim or perpetrator. When I was transferred to Obalno six, no seven years ago now, there were a lot of rumours circulating about him as a rebellious teen Noble. Then he settled down and is now an indispensable part of the Nobility here. I have met him a few times at official functions, and he seemed nice enough. He had let his natural hair colour grow back and removed his piercings, except for one ear. The only reminders of his teen rebellion were some tattoos poking from under his shirts and gossip. Sven had never shown interest in girls, so the stories were all about whether he was interested in boys. He never seemed to have a date at the functions, male or female. I guess it never occurred to the gossipers that he just might not be interested in sex at this point in his life. Some people aren''t, but I guess there is no gossip value in that. The gossip about his teen rebellion was all about his drunken antics in the taverns and the graffiti and brawls. If you believe the talk, he may have even spent time in illegal cage fighting. If that is true, they would be the junior, lightweight fights. He is skinny, and people don¡¯t bet if the winner is too obvious. The betting is what makes the coin. Don¡¯t always believe the gossip. Sven has always struck me as an intelligent young man, and that has been proven in his work in bureaucracy in the last few years. He was raised to be a key administrator, and despite a few years of rebellion, he has shown a knack for the role. He was being trained in the Manager Class, although no one is sure what classes he does have. He has a powerful Status Blocking Skill, which is typical for the Nobility. It was probably the first Skill he was trained in. Wiremu wants me to introduce him and Tabitha to Sven. Wiremu¡¯s main task is to find out what the Imperials are up to, but Sven is caught up in this somewhere. Wiremu hopes it will lead to the Imperials. He messed up killing the other spy. Losing control of a Skill is the prime form of injury in the marines, which is why the training is so thorough, so it doesn''t happen in battle. I had arranged an appointment with Sven at the City offices at 1 pm, so I expected Wiremu and Tabitha here at the warehouse shortly. We were going to lunch, then to the meeting. I limped a security check around the perimeter, ensuring the guards were alert and the traps undisturbed. I finished at the Gatehouse and checked the log of people and goods coming through. I had the two ex-marines on the gate as it was the most important post. While I was there, Wiremu and Modrica arrived. ¡°Hi, Ruku,¡± Wiremu said brightly. Modrica just gave me a nod. ¡°I have ordered a carriage to take us to the Blue Fin. Tabitha will meet us there.¡± It was both annoying that they had to pander to my weakness and pleasing that they thought of it. I certainly wasn¡¯t going to turn it down. ¡°Thanks. I¡¯ll be with you in a minute.¡± The carriage ride wasn¡¯t long. The Blue Fin was a reasonably classy seafood restaurant in the town centre, close to the City Offices. Tabith had booked us a private room upstairs, and we settled in with some drinks while we waited for Tabitha. A strange girl entered the room after the waitress left after delivering our drinks. My hand immediately went to my knife, but I didn¡¯t pull it straight away. The girl was of average height with long blond hair. Her figure was ¡­ voluptuous was the only word I could find to describe her. She had fair skin with large breasts that strained at the thin tunic she wore. Her body narrowed to a slim waist, expanding into wide hips and solid but shapely legs. She had a too-short skirt on, showing a lot of leg, and when she turned to close the door, her ass was very curvy as well. She turned back to us with a wide smile. I kept my hand on my knife because my Sonar was telling me that all this flesh I was seeing wasn¡¯t there. This wasn¡¯t an accurate representation of the person who entered. Sonar was telling me that the actual person was skinny with short hair and very familiar. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Tabitha?¡± Wiremu said hesitantly. The girl''s smile widened, and there was a shimmering, and suddenly it was Tabitha standing there. ¡°I finally did it!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°I finally have a Skill to change how I look. It is called Body Image 1, and I want to know how you and Ruku saw through it.¡± ¡°Tell us about the Skill first,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Well, I was trying to copy you and your Veneer Skill. I was practising in front of a mirror, and I suddenly realised I was doing it all wrong. I have a Shadow Affinity, and the various Shadow and Light Affinities open up Illusionist-type classes, so I should be focussing on creating an Illusion rather than whatever the hell it is your Veneer Skill does. Then everything clicked very quickly with my high Mental and Spiritual Attributes. So How did you see through it?¡± ¡°For me,¡± Wiremu said, ¡°it was smell and sound. You smelled like Tabitha, and your footsteps, heartbeat, and breathing were recognisable.¡± ¡°So, it was really only because you know me so well that you could tell?¡± She asked, and Wiremu nodded. ¡°I will normally cover my scent anyway. You know it sounds a bit creepy that you recognise my heartbeat and breathing, right?¡± She grinned at him. She turned to me, ¡°What about you, Ruku?¡± ¡°My Sonar was telling me that all that expanse of flesh wasn¡¯t actually there,¡± I replied. ¡°The Skill is only Level 1,¡± she replied. ¡°It firms up the image as it levels and becomes more difficult to pierce. Plus, I only managed to observe this girl for a few minutes before I came in. With longer to study someone¡­¡± her voice trailed off into thought. Then the air around her shimmered, and suddenly I was looking at Wiremu rather than Tabitha. I turned to look at Wiremu and then Tabitha / Wiremu, and I could not pick out any difference visually. Sonar was saying there were still discrepancies, but they were a lot less than with the other girl. ¡°I am not the only creepy one,¡± Wiremu stated. ¡°You are the only creepy one,¡± Tabitha / Wiremu said in Wiremu¡¯s voice. ¡°That is quite creepy,¡± I said and looked at Modrica to see how she was reacting. She was sitting there watching silently, as usual. ¡°The image is better, but there are still differences. They are less obvious.¡± I told her. ¡°The voice was good. I assume it is a combination of Distract and Mimic?¡± She nodded. The air shimmered again, and Tabitha was back. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to use it against people with high Mental Perception, and I am curious as to how easily Eluf¡¯s Keensight will pierce it.¡± She said. ¡°Even if you can¡¯t use it against high levelled people, you can fool low-level people, thereby getting high-level people into trouble,¡± Wiremu said. Tabitha just grinned. ¡°Or just causing trouble,¡± she said. Bloody kids. I am feeling my age and thinking about whether I am falling into the role of camp dad here. No, I remind myself. They are not kids. They are young, but I will not be the parent here. ¡°What¡¯s the plan with Sven?¡± I asked to get them back on track. ¡°Do you want me to get one of my Hunters Marks on him so we can track him?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°No,¡± Tabitha replied. ¡°He will almost certainly detect it, and then he will know who broke into his place.¡± ¡°Wait up,¡± I said, ¡°You broke into his place?¡± ¡°It was a bloody pigsty,¡± Tabitha said, ¡°He is worse than you, Wiremu.¡± ¡°Why,¡± I asked. ¡°Because somebody is causing trouble in this city, so I started with Eluf¡¯s direct rivals, his siblings.¡± She replied. ¡°You¡¯re not asking to meet with Linne, so I am guessing you found something?¡± I asked. ¡°Nothing I can prove,¡± Tabitha responded. ¡°I am 90%, no 99%, certain he has a spider bond and is a master trapper.¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t you prove that?¡± I asked. ¡°Because it was undetectable until I managed to share Elemental Senses with Nyx.¡± She replied. ¡°So, what is the purpose of this meeting?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°I want us to get a feel for him. No, that sounds creepy. I want to understand how he thinks more, and the first step is to meet him. I don¡¯t know his purpose, not that I expect that to come from a first meeting. It is the first step,¡± She said. We finished our meal and headed out of the restaurant. I spotted a familiar blond head sitting at one of the tables when we threaded our way through the ground floor table to the exit. She had the same voluptuous body with a too-short skirt and was sitting opposite a skinny male, obviously trying to impress him. Tabitha is going to be trouble with this Skill. 118. Sven: Wiremu

118. Sven: Wiremu

We finished lunch and headed over to the City Offices. Ruku was going to introduce us, Tabitha would be the merchant because she was, and I would be the silent guard. Modrica and T¨¡oke were going to wait in the lobby in case everything went bad. We had the crystal cutpurse knives, but I checked on the antidote for the nerve toxin, and it was not ready yet. It was harder to concoct than they thought. They were almost there, another two days. I didn¡¯t want Sven to link me with T¨¡oke at this point, although he may already know. We weren¡¯t anticipating things going wrong, but you never know. Sven looked young. I guess he was about the same age as I was. He was skinny and of moderate height with short brown hair and an earring in one ear. Ruku introduced Skygge from the Elemental Traders, and she started discussing the caravan she was putting together to head toward Kirghiz. He was puzzled as to why we were not just going by ship. It would take half the time and much less hassle. While they discussed, I had Truth Sensing running, trying to get a feel for the guy. Truth Sensing was increasingly giving me the intentions behind the words, and I really wanted to push it through to Journeyman Level, where it would be much more helpful. I was getting nothing but sincerity and helpfulness from Sven. He did seem very competent. I ran my Sense Treasure through the office. A few minor tingles came from the desk, but nothing unusual. Sense Treasure was also becoming more flexible as it rose in the levels. It used just to search out things I would treasure, but now, if I knew someone well or what they wanted, I could possibly find it with Treasure Sense. I was also looking to get this to Journeyman Level, where I could use this more reliably. I tried to Sense what Sven would treasure, but I didn¡¯t know him or what he wanted well, so that didn¡¯t work. I couldn¡¯t use Granite Sense here as we were in a wooden office. My Bond Senses collected some interesting smells I couldn¡¯t recognise. One was coming from Sven, and it definitely wasn¡¯t his cologne. In fact, he might be trying to mask it with his cologne. A different smell was coming from his desk, and I would be interested in looking through it later. Even though my Detect Traps and Detect Spiritual Traps were both still in the Novice levels, I looked around with them as well. The office window had a trap, but it was the cheap type you would expect in a government office. My only other Sense was my Sense Spiritual, which was at the early Journeyman Level. I was getting better at sensing the flow of Spiritual Energy in the atmosphere around me. Sven had on a couple of Spiritually dense items that were affecting the flow, but that was all. I used to think I had a lot of Sensing abilities, but none of them was helping here. Is there nothing here to sense? I wouldn¡¯t keep major items at a workplace, but I might have some on me. Tabitha¡¯s conversation was becoming interesting, so I tuned back in, especially with Truth Sensing. ¡°I have one other thing you may be able to help me with,¡± Tabitha said, ¡°but it is of a more delicate nature.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Sven replied. ¡°I am looking to get a couple of people into Northport without them being documented by the authorities,¡± she said. His interest picked up, and his eyebrow raised, ¡°You mean smuggled.¡± he stated bluntly. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Why would you consider asking a government employee, let alone a Noble, about smuggling people into a foreign nation.¡± He sounded almost offended by the request, but Truth Sensing was giving me clear signals that he was very curious. ¡°Word on the street is you are the person that can get things done, regardless of what the law might say,¡± Tabitha replied. ¡°What would a trader like you know about what the Street says?¡± he challenged. ¡°I have my sources,¡± she responded. Sven¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. I wondered what senses he was trying to employ. He struck me as the sort that would have Keensight, like his brother. ¡°There will be a price,¡± he stated. ¡°What do you know of Captian Alarik of the Swift Wave?¡± ¡°I know enough to know that is either a test or a trap,¡± Tabitha responded. ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°The Swift Wave does appear to be on contract for the Empire currently,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°You are well informed, and I am interested in how that came about. Captains generally hold their employers in the highest secrecy,¡± he said. ¡°This Captain seems fairly incompetent, as you also seem to know about it.¡± Tabitha challenged. ¡°I have never come across someone brave enough to call Alarik incompetent. You may not want him to find out you said that.¡± Sven¡¯s voice indicated that was a threat, but his intentions seemed to show he was vastly amused. Tabitha shrugged as if unconcerned, ¡°His actions speak louder than words but feel free to tell him if you wish. People are often blind to their own weaknesses.¡± ¡°I think I will look forward to you telling him yourself,¡± Sven said, and his amusement leaked into his voice. ¡°And you were right. It was a test and a trap.¡± He changed topics suddenly, ¡°You are aware there is currently a gang war happening on our streets?¡± Tabitha nodded. ¡°I said there is a price.¡± he continued. ¡°Rumors are that the Black Butcher is in Obalno, and the coincidence of a gang war suddenly erupting makes that likely.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Do you want me to find out if the rumours are true?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°No,¡± he replied. ¡°I want the Black Butcher.¡± ¡°You want me to capture the Black Butcher?¡± Tabitha asked incredulously. My Truth Sensing was picking up her amusement, and it just levelled. Now I just need something to push it over to Journeyman Level. ¡°I doubt you are up to that task,¡± he replied, ¡°but perhaps together we could lure her into a trap. My civic duty is to keep Obalno free from that sort of violent gangster.¡± ¡°I think your price is too steep.¡± Tabitha replied, ¡°You also seem to have a lot of knowledge of the illegal affairs of the city for an upstanding Noble.¡± ¡°I never claimed to be an upstanding Noble. I do what is necessary for my job,¡± he replied. ¡°What job is that exactly?¡± Tabitha asked. Sven ignored the question and said, ¡°You want me to break the laws of the Kingdom and the Laws of the Empire to smuggle people to Northport, which could be for any purpose and potentially start a war between us? Are you a slave trader, Skygge?¡± ¡°That question took a long time to come. I thought it would be the first thing you would ask. So the only options I have here are the extremes to either be a Slave trader or to incite a war between the two countries? What happened to simply wanting to make a profit?¡± Tabitha replied. ¡°The slave trade is profitable,¡± he stated. ¡°So is war,¡± Tabitha countered. These two seemed to be butting heads with little progress on either side, and they refused to give away their secrets. Tabitha continued, ¡°You have already admitted that you know the empire is meddling in Obalno through the Swift Wave. That seems to be the Empire inciting war. Surely the Impressive Royal Navy can stop one ship.¡± ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be the first Naval search that Captain Alarik has evaded. However, you are correct in that it is a matter for the navy, not for us humble citizens. However, gang war and a notorious criminal are within the scope of my responsibilities, so my price remains. I want the Black Butcher off our streets, preferably permanently.¡± That seemed to be Sven¡¯s bottom line. The Sense I am getting is that Sven is loyal to his city, even above his country. He seems to be lacking in some information. I wonder if that is the result of Tjenner¡¯s assassination and the removal of the Seadogs. Is he looking to make new networks through Tabitha? If he is loyal to his city, what is his relationship with the imperial spies? I think he was trying to use them for something, but it went wrong for him somehow. The Imperials have gained the upper hand. At the same time, he has lost many of his people. Why attack the Elemental Traders and now try to work with us? Perhaps he only assisted in the attacks, as the Imperial Spy from the Enchanters Supreme initiated the first attack. Did he manoeuvre the Watch in some sort of bargain, and then things escalated out of his control? We escalated it. He would have been involved in the pressure on the Comedic Rhythm and the business and guild attacks. What would he have negotiated with the Imperials for that work? It is not a small thing. The Elemental Traders sure looked like a small trading house with no backers, so there were no significant consequences for stomping on us until we refused to be trampled and then hit back. I think this all comes back to the Imperials and the Enchantment schematics and the enchanters themselves. What would motivate Sven to negotiate with Imperials? The only thing that comes to mind is a cure for the Duke. The Imperials want the schematics and enchanters. The Elemental Traders have one and are suspected of having both, and they are small and easy to squash. Except we weren''t easy to squash. It sounds logical. How do we confirm it, because it may just be a flight of fancy on my part? Tabitha speaking brought me out of my flights of fancy. ¡°If the rumour is true, the last time the Black Butcher was ¡®killed¡¯, they destroyed a whole city block. Apparently, that didn¡¯t actually kill her. What do you think you can do, burn the city?¡± She sounded very curious. ¡°By preference, we would lure her outside the city before springing the trap. I understand you own a quarry?¡± Sven was serious. ¡°You want me to risk my people and my property all for the name of a smuggler to get someone to Northport? That¡¯s not happening. You can risk your property and your people. Don¡¯t you have a City Watch? What are they for?¡± Tabitha sounded very serious here, even though she was negotiating to lay a trap for herself. ¡°The City Watch is not what it used to be,¡± he replied. I assumed it was because his influence had been cut out, and they were short-staffed. ¡°My other resources are tied up right now.¡± I am going to interpret that to mean we killed the seadogs. ¡°Then, to be quite frank, you are trying to bite off more than you can chew, and this meal will bite you back. I am not going to be a part of it.¡± Tabitha¡¯s response was final. I am unsure why because it is an opportunity to toy with him and learn more. I will quiz Tabitha later. Sven was starting to crack as the next words out of his mouth were a big mistake. ¡°What would Eluf think if he finds out his lover is smuggling to the Empire?¡± I think this was supposed to be a big reveal that he knew who Tabitha was and could blackmail her. His face got very hard when Tabitha just burst out laughing, like a full belly laugh, and she had to brace herself to keep standing. Sven was holding himself still, but I could sense his puzzlement at this backfiring so badly, and he was unsure how. Ruku and I also had smiles on our faces. I really don¡¯t know where he thought this was going to go. Tabitha finally brought herself under control. ¡°Kid,¡± she finally said, ¡°you are way off the mark with that one, and you really don¡¯t know your brother. Please tell him, because I will when I see him for our date tomorrow tonight. I think you have been avoiding him since he returned. I suggest you go and have a long chat with him because I will put money on the table that he has worked you out by now. He was close when I first met him, and he figured me out on our first date. You are outstanding in some areas. That Ensnare Class works well for you alongside the Director Class.¡± Sven was possibly going into shock here with Tabitha revealing his Status. ¡°You need to tell me where you learned Dirty Fighting because that is awesome. However, you know shit about relationships. As Eluf puts it, he is good with that Mental shit, so unless you want to embarrass yourself, go and have a chat.¡± I think Sven was definitely in shock after Tabitha tore through him. He is used to being in charge, and Tabitha just pulled the rug out from under him. That Spatial Awareness skill was way overpowered, and I think she has now combined it with some of the skills Eluf taught her. She didn¡¯t wait for a response from Sven but turned to leave, and Ruku and I followed. Just before she closed the door behind us, she said to him, ¡°And get me those names as soon as.¡± We collected Modrica and T¨¡oke and headed to the warehouse for a debrief. 119. Gala Planning: Wiremu

119. Gala Planning: Wiremu

Well, that went a lot further than a first-step meeting. Tabitha and Ruku had more detail and a few minor amendments to my scenario, but it was essentially correct. Tabitha will check with Eluf on her date, but we decided to leave Sven to Eluf unless something else comes up. I feel like I have wasted the Gold I spent on the toxin''s antidote. It would be a good backup, just in case. As the Gala neared, Ruku checked with the navy, but they couldn¡¯t seem to find the Swift Wave. What a surprise. We are going to need a plan. The first day of the Gala is mostly street acts and fun, including the Comedic Rhythm public performance. There are other performers scheduled throughout the day as well. Day two is more of the same, except it ends with a Gala banquet for the Nobles and important people at which the Comedic Rhythm is the main after-dinner act. We hope that the lack of explosives will mean they must change plans. It is not actually our job to keep everybody safe, so our main priority is keeping our people safe. Mayakku is still the most significant risk. The Canine Queens are taking on the main task there, escorting them while they are at the Gala and protecting them at the quarry. My main aim is to take out the Swift Wave and the Imperial assassin, as they are the ones responsible for the death of Ilaiya. Plus, it messes with the Empire, which is always a bonus. The most obvious target is the Gala banquet, where all the people who think they are important will gather. If we know where they will be, it is time to lay a trap. It would be easier to let the events at the banquet play out and then catch them when they expose themselves. After all, the only people who care about self-important people are those very same self-important people. There are two problems with that approach. Tabitha and the Comedic Rhythm will be at the banquet, and Tabitha probably cares about one of those self-important people. The Duke''s household Guard is responsible for the security at the Gala banquet, and the Watch is responsible for the rest of the Gala security. Tabitha has hired the Pack Rats to search the city for any sign of our targets. I am sure Sione will have his counter spies out in force as stopping Imperial assassins is his responsibility. If they are found before they act, then we will set Sione on them, and it is done. The banquet is the last event of the Gala, so if they haven¡¯t acted before that, they will act then. This trap I want to set is for if all else fails. A lone sneaky assassin is a worst-case scenario, but also potentially only targeting one or two people. Unfortunately, one of those targeted people will most likely be Eluf, the heir. Assassins rely on misdirection and unexpected strikes, as shown in my own Assassin Class. If we know the most likely target, we can centre around that and ignore the misdirection. I am not particularly concerned about a few self-important people being collateral damage. My priority is not to protect everybody. That is the Duke¡¯s guard¡¯s responsibility. My priority is the assassin, the Swift Wave crew and protecting Tabitha and the Comedic Rhythm. Protecting Eluf is an extension of protecting Tabitha, but not as important. Tabitha will look after him. If he is any good, he will look after her as well. Now that I have my priorities, I need to check the layout of the building. That is easy, as they are holding it in the Bardic Concert hall, and I know it well. I need to go through it with fresh hunter''s eyes and see where I can trap my prey. Adjoining, the Concert Hall, was a function centre, which was where the food would be served and then everyone would go through to the concert hall for the show. There would be cooks, servers, guards, and the usual drunken Noble idiots. A trap is usually set to allow or entice your prey to enter and then not let them leave. This wouldn¡¯t work here. I couldn¡¯t stop all the exits. There would be five hundred guests here. I couldn''t let everyone burn if the assassin decided to use fire as a distraction. It would violate the safety of Tabitha and the Comedic Rhythm. There would be a lot of people going in and out all night. My aim for the trap was to get my Hunters Marks onto the Assassin so I could track her or them. I also wanted the ship or at least the key people on it. Some of the ship¡¯s personnel would probably be used in the attack, probably as a distraction. I could attach my Hunters Mark to something they could pick up on their way into the building, like some of that sticky rope, more appropriately called spider silk, from the trap. I could get more from Sven. The trouble is I didn¡¯t have enough Marks to trap every entrance, and there was nothing to say they couldn¡¯t just walk in with the guests or serving staff. This isn¡¯t as easy as I first thought. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. If I have to let the attackers make the first move to identify them, then that puts key people at risk. The obvious targets are the Duke''s household, especially the Duke, if he is there, the Duchess and the Heir, Eluf. Eluf invited Tabitha to be his guest. Hence she would be sitting beside him at the meal. That is probably the best protection he will ever get. If they attack while she is performing, that is a different story. In a dark theatre as well. The thing is that they do not know she is such a lethal threat. She needs to be a key component of my trap. Weapons. Everybody who enters legally will have obvious weapons removed. People with affinities are never fully disarmed. I can create Granite knives and darts easily. Tabitha¡¯s Spatial Pocket is big enough now to store her war knives. People with bonds have abilities from their bonds, like my Venom and some of the Rat Pack members with their body modifications. I will assume that if the attackers enter with the guests or staff, they will have similar abilities. If the Attackers sneak in, they can bring whatever weapons they like. Having proper weapons is always a force multiplier, which the attackers will need to counter the guards. We will need proper weapons as well. I have access to the building so that I can store weapons in advance. I will ensure all the cleaner''s cupboards have spear shafts. They will look like thick broom handles. I can make the spearheads when I need them. People. I will need an inside team and an outside team. Modrica will never blend into this crowd. Her attitude will stand out as badly as her incredible physical dominance. On the other hand, street fighting is her speciality. I will get her to take charge of the Pack Rats to follow those who escape the building. This would be a backup if I can¡¯t get my Marks on anyone or the people I mark get killed. Rotte has a bat bond. Bats have echolocation, which would be great for following people at night. Rotte may also have the skill, same as Ruku picked up Sonar from his bond. I was planning to have Ruku on the inside team as his ankle will not be fully healed, and Sonar is an advantage against high stealth. I wonder if I can get Rotte on the inside team as well if Tabitha trusts her enough and if she is willing to clean up and dress well. That last one may be the sticking point. The inside team is, therefore, Me and T¨¡oke, Tabitha and Nyx, Ruku and possibly Rotte. I could possibly also count on Eluf. The Canine Queens will be protecting the Catkin, but I am wondering if I could borrow Kryddor for his tracking as well and one or both of the twins to give more heavy hitters to the outdoor team. We could move the Catkin to somewhere unexpected and easy to defend for the night, reducing the need for protection. One thing I am sure of is that whoever it is that is coming will be the best. I was in a losing fight when we first rescued Mayakku in the forest. I only escaped so easily because of my affinity. I figured I was fighting the captain, but apparently, the First mate was on that team before Oske killed him, so the Captain probably wasn¡¯t there. That was just a seaman, but definitely on the security team. The Captain is probably better. We need more to give us the advantage. I definitely want something that will sink a ship. Ruku could get me some ¡®navy surplus¡¯, I am sure. We still need more advantages. You can never have too many advantages. I need to consult to turn this into a proper trap. I need to talk to Sven, a master-level Trapper. I am sure there is a lot I could learn. Eluf is a Captian with tactical skills, Tabitha is a thief, and Ruku has experience with assault teams. Time for a strategy meeting. When I talked with Sven, my Master Trap idea wasn¡¯t feasible. There were too many ways in and out of the building and too many random people wandering around. As we know the likely targets, the only way would be to trap them, but that would require their active participation, and he strongly recommended not telling Eluf our suspicions. He would lock the place down or cancel the event altogether, negating our advanced knowledge of where they might strike. What he did give me was some of his Spider Rope with the adhesive and several bottles of nerve toxin. The nerve toxin is made by an alchemist in Mer Islands, and he imports it. If I had the formula, it would have saved a lot of my gold when I had an antidote made. He then handed me a bottle of the antidote he had imported with it. I wasted so much gold. Ruku could indeed get some Navy supplies to damage or possibly sink a ship. It depends on the ship''s construction and enchantments, as well as the captain. I never knew this, but there are specific Classes and Specialisations for Ship Captains that can benefit the whole ship. Some could strengthen or speed up the ship. A favourite of smugglers was to shroud it from sight, and then there were benefits for the crew as well. I guess that Captain Alarik was a captain like that, which is why he stayed on his ship rather than raid our quarry. 120. Gala: Wiremu

120. Gala: Wiremu

So the end result was everybody moved into town for the Gala. We picked the largest safe house, and all squashed in for the weekend. By all, I mean the Catkin, the Canine Queens, and of course, Abigail. The Inns were all booked out, and we were lucky we still had our booking at the Inn with the Comedic Rhythm. Oske got his own stable. Abigail was still a mystery. Imperial assassins supposedly targeted her, and we had seen exactly zero assassins. She was paraded to us in the middle of the day in full view of the public and the Watch, and when we did get attacked, they targeted Mayakku, not Abigail. She has been helpful and worked hard on the repairs. She is quiet and seems very ¡­ meek is the only word I could think of. Maybe she just wants to get to Kirghiz, but it is very different from what I expected. Am''m¨¡ and App¨¡ just think she is a nice kid. If the Imperials want her dead, this is their last chance. Everybody wanted to join in the festivities, so we had buddy partnerships organised and systems in place. Mayakku had to have two people with her at all times, and one of them had to be a Canine Queen. Fortunately, she and Najprej had developed a fantastic friendship, which started with a discussion over Enchanting and Gems. Najprej¡¯s jewellery was very close to Journeyman level, and they were trying to figure out how to enchant the gems. That¡¯s what they told us anyway. The laughter and giggling told a different story. The first day of the Gala proceeded without incident. There was no sign of the Swift Wave. There were no explosions. The crowds of people were hindering the hunt through the city, but that was expected. Everybody was enjoying the fun and the food. There was a stage set up, and different acts were performed throughout the day. The Comedic Rhythm¡¯s public performance was scheduled for the late dinner crowd to help with the shadows. We were especially vigilant around the Comedic Rhythm performance, but everything went fine. They only performed the first half of their show, leaving out the Barman and the Nobles Daughter. Zabavano is very talented, and this sort of live street performance is his forte. That night Tabitha and I went on the hunt. I patrolled the Duke¡¯s and his relatives'' residences for suspicious signs. They were the most obvious target, but I was wondering if we missed something. Maybe the Navy caught them, and Sione didn¡¯t inform us. I was seriously starting to doubt the competence of Sione and his goon squad. What has he done to date? His biggest accomplishment seems to be that he hired us without upfront payment, which was our mistake. I would often loop past the safe house and the Inn. Ruku and Modrica were in charge of the Inn with the Comedic Rhythm. Eluf¡¯s guards were good, but I didn¡¯t fully trust them with all the corruption around them. The Canine Queen were in charge at the Safehouse, with Mayakku being the prime ward to be protected and, to a lesser extent, Abigail. Tabitha went to check out some possible leads from the Pack Rats and check some of the taverns and contacts in the rougher parts of town. With her new Body Image Skill she could easily appear to be a different person. Smell and hearing were harder to fool than sight, which was the main focus of the skill. It was an illusion skill with ¡°image¡± in the name. Combined with her Mimic Skill, she is going to be devastatingly effective with it once it levels a bit. The revellers were out past the early hours of the morning. The streets finally cleared after about 2 am. Everything was quiet. The occasional watch patrol moved passed, usually collecting the passed-out drunks. I saw a lone thief making use of the opportunity. I followed them for a bit, but they were targeting wealthy homes, so I didn¡¯t interfere. It was about 5 am when I returned to the Inn. The sky was just starting to lighten with the dawn. It was too early for breakfast, although the kitchen staff were hard at work. I scammed a cup of tea from them while I waited for Tabitha. She arrived fifteen minutes later, and I also fetched her a cup. ¡°Anything?¡± she asked. I shook my head, ¡°You?¡± ¡°The Pack Rats'' leads fizzed. I think the Imperial had been at one of the sites, but they cleaned out the place thoroughly when they left,¡± she replied. ¡°Which means they are definitely in town,¡± I stated. Tabitha nodded. ¡°Should I try Tracking?¡± Tabitha shook her head, ¡°they were long gone, and it was a main thoroughfare. There were two suspicious boats at the public wharf. There was nothing on them that I could sense, and I am sure the port authorities were being thorough, but I took the liberty to slap a tracker on each.¡± We had taken Sven¡¯s sticky spider rope and cut it into small coins sized tags. I attached my Hunters Mark to them, and Tabitha carried them in her Spatial Pocket. I had pushed the Skill hard to get it to the Apprentice level, so I now had eight marks available and a nine-kilometre radius. The thing with the Mark at the Apprentice Level that I didn¡¯t realise was that it didn¡¯t just disappear once it got out of range. It just faded until it eventually disappeared, and I could reuse it. If I got back in range within the time, I could re-energise it and continue. I don¡¯t know how long it took to fade as I had only just gotten it to Apprentice level, but it seemed to be a function of Spiritual Strenght. Tabitha had been carrying five of these. I checked the Skill and sensed the two near the harbour. I brought up my Mapping Skill, and the markers were visible on the map. Since the Mapping got to Journeyman Level, it synchronised with all my different senses, and I relied on it more and more. I could always cancel the marks if I needed them. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°We have done what we could,¡± I said. ¡°I am going to get a couple of hours shut-eye. It is going to be a long day and longer night.¡± ¡°I will do the same. I have to perform tonight.¡± We split up, and I crashed into bed. I woke to an urgent knocking on my door. ¡°Wait a minute,¡± I yelled. T¨¡oke usually slept beside me for the body heat, but he wasn¡¯t there this time. I looked over, and he was curled up on the window sill, soaking up the morning sun. The sun was quite high in the sky, indicating it was late morning, and I had slept longer than planned. I was still mostly dressed, so I slipped my feet into my boots and opened the door to find Am''m¨¡ there and a sleepy Tabitha coming out of the room next door. ¡°Abigail has gone,¡± were the first words out of her mouth. ¡°Go on,¡± I said as I brought up my Map. I had kept a Hunter''s Mark on both Abigail and Mayakku. Actually, Mayakku had two marks as she could sense them, so I gave her a second and said if she was ever in trouble, she could break one of them, and I would come. This gave her more security than I thought they were worth, but she found comfort in it. Abigail couldn¡¯t sense them, so I never told her I had Marked her. ¡°App¨¡, T¨¡tt¨¡ and I took her out to Brunch in the market. We then browsed the early market, and when I turned around, she was not there. We searched for a short while, and then I came to get you. App¨¡ and T¨¡tt¨¡ are both still looking.¡± she said. ¡°Is that the market just north of the safe house?¡± I asked. She nodded. Abigail¡¯s marker was heading further north and at a fast walking pace, indicating it was deliberate. Whether it was voluntarily was yet to be determined. ¡°T¨¡oke and I will track her. She is moving north.¡± I turned to Am''m¨¡, ¡°Get App¨¡ and T¨¡tt¨¡ and go straight back to the safe house. Tell Skavt to change houses and go into lockdown.¡± She nodded and moved off at once. ¡°This could be a trap,¡± Tabitha said. I nodded. ¡°You should take Modrica for backup.¡± We both knew that Modrica stood out where ever she was, but Ruku was still slowed down by his injured foot. I retreated into my room and started putting on my armour as I thought about it. Tabitha watched me from the door. These were not street thugs. We had cleared out the low-level people. Ideally, this was a scouting mission, but if I didn¡¯t go armed for war, I knew I would regret it. I nodded to Tabitha, and she went to get Modrica. If I was going armed for war, I was taking all my weapons, including my bow and spears. The weapons would make it harder for me to blend in, but I had now changed this from a scouting mission to a hunt. I picked up my backpack, which was all ready to go, including Ruku¡¯s navy surplus. Tabitha, Modrica and Ruku met me as T¨¡oke, and I exited the room. Modrica was also dressed for war with her gauntlets and mace. Ruku and I exchanged nods. We were going to gather some funny looks when we got to the streets as everybody else was dressed for partying. I was done caring about that. I was keeping an eye on Abigail''s marker, and it stopped moving, so I concentrated on the Map and saw where it was. Then the marker disappeared. ¡°Shit, the marker is gone. Either she has gone into a shielded area, or they have someone with the Perception and Skills to remove it,¡± I explained. ¡°Then just go!¡± Tabitha said, and Modrica and I were off at a full sprint. We crashed down the Inn¡¯s stairs, through the lobby and into the street heading north. We might have to buy the Inn a new door. The lunchtime crowds were out, so the streets were busy. I let Modrica take the lead as people tended to get out of her way faster. There would be multiple complaints to the Watch about this. They can take it up with Modrica. It took us about ten minutes to get to the place the marker disappeared. It was the back entrance to a craftsman workshop, which had a sign-up that they were closed for the gala. Modrica and T¨¡oke went in to check it out while I circled the place, looking for a trap and/or where they may have gone. There were fewer people this far out from the festivities, and a lot of businesses had closed to join in. I had my bow in hand, and an arrow notched and ready. Most people who saw me scurried out of the way and got out of my line of sight as quickly as they could. One shopkeeper tried to challenge me, but I looked at him, half raising my bow and growled, ¡°Watch business,¡± and he backed off. He was too intimidated to challenge the lie even if he had looked for any Watch insignia. We should have appropriated some Watch badges, which may have been worth it. Never mind, intimidation worked. Modrica moved in on the yard at a walking pace, her hand on her mace. I know people look and Modrica and think she had no ranged options, but I knew that was mostly why she carried the mace. She rarely used it in close combat. She could throw it with lethal accuracy. When she entered the yard, T¨¡oke slid off into the grass. The feedback I got from him was there was no fight. He could taste Abigail and three others in the air, two humans, a male and a female and a Mer male. A Mer means there will be Sonar. T¨¡oke joined Modrica again, and they set off following the scent. I didn¡¯t join them this time but kept a parallel route and a sharp eye out for watchers. T¨¡oke disappeared into camouflage on Modrica¡¯s shoulder. I suddenly twigged to where we were headed and ran ahead. I was too late. Near the Fisherman''s Wharf, there is a place they clean fish. With the rotting fish smells, nobody comes out untainted. I circled the place, trying to pick up the scent again, without success. I had used this same place to mix up my scent so I couldn¡¯t be tracked. There were several other useful places in the city for this. Two different tanning places, an abattoir and Alchemist Lane, were the most well-known. We kept searching and asking the locals for information but drew a blank. We gave up mid-afternoon as we needed to get back for the banquet and concert tonight. 121. Accessorising: Tabitha

121. Accessorising: Tabitha

While Wiremu was off hunting, I had a light lunch, after which the city¡¯s second-highest-level Beautician was due to arrive. Linne had already scored the highest level one. This banquet was a chance for the rich to show off, so I had to do my best to look good for Eluf when he paraded me in front of everybody. I planned to partially mimic one of the empty airheads that circle Eluf. I say partially mimic because if I went full out, I think I might become one, which would be a fate worse than death. I was also planning on utilising my Distract Skill in this farce, as I wanted everybody distracted from the fact I was armed and coiled to strike. The Beautician wasn¡¯t just for me, though. For this, I had a partner in crime. I convinced Rotte to join me. When I asked Eluf how I could get another female inside, a small smile spread on his face, and he said casually, ¡°Sven doesn¡¯t have a date.¡± Rotte arrived at the Inn in time for lunch with me. She was in a casual shirt and trousers instead of her normal ragged and worn leather armour. She had washed, but that was of no concern as I knew the Beautician had commandeered the Inn''s baths as the first step. I could tell she was nervous. I am guessing she hadn¡¯t been mixing in normal society for at least a decade, possibly longer. For elves, age is hard to determine, but I am guessing she is at least Ruku¡¯s age, if not considerably older. Rotte was a bit taller than I was. Elves generally tend toward the tall and skinny look, and Rotte cleaned up, was no different. She had raven-coloured hair and an olive skin tone. When the hair was brushed back from her face, you could see the elven shape of her eyes and ears. I suspect she had a skill that normally helped her hide them. When we had finished our baths, I could already tell she was stunningly beautiful, and this was before the Beautician had even got underway. The problem with Rotte was not her looks. It was her attitude. She really didn¡¯t want to be here. When I asked her, she just said, ¡°Bad memories,¡± and wouldn¡¯t say more. Our tailor arrived mid-afternoon and fitted our dresses. Mine fit almost perfectly as it was made for me. It was a full-length black dress with two leg splits that came as high as my hips. It showed a lot of leg but allowed a lot of movement, which was my priority. It had full sleeves and a plunging V front which showed a lot of cleavage. The tailor had a second one available in dark red, which she fitted to Rotte. If she weren¡¯t an Elf, we would pass as sisters. I would be the ugly younger sister. I reached over and touched Rotte on the shoulder, ¡°What should we be calling you this evening?¡± That got a strange look from the tailor. Rotte thought about it for a while, and something seemed to change in her demeanour. Her posture changed and straightened, and she suddenly extruded a dangerous competent air. Then she said, ¡°It is time for the return of the Gwrach Waed. You may call me Gwaed.¡± ¡°Gwrach Waed?¡± I repeated. ¡°I remember some myths, horror stories to scare children, about a Gwrach Waed.¡± ¡°Really? Have the stories spread this far? I was young when I earned that title and was driven out of the Elven Forests. Probably about the same age the Black Butcher was when she earned her title.¡± She winked at me. The tailor and the Beautician were both staring at us, open-mouthed. The tailor plucked up her courage, ¡°A ¡­are you really the Gwrach Waed ¡­ the Blood Witch and ¡­ and the Black Butcher?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be silly,¡± Gwaed said with a laugh, ¡°the Gwrach Waed is only a myth to scare children with.¡± ¡°And the Black Butcher is dead,'''' I added. I don¡¯t think they really believed us. I must admit our smiles and our dresses, one black and one blood red, tended to give the lie to the words we had just said. Fortunately, Wiremu came in at that point, reporting the failure of the hunt. We chased out the tailor and beautician while we discussed what to do. I introduced Gwaed. Wiremu had never heard the stories of the Gwrach Waed, which translates as The Blood Witch. We look forward to hearing the truth. Wiremu decided to stay with Modrica and the outside force. We decided T¨¡oke would be helpful to be with me. I looked at my dress and wondered how I could carry him. He was still quite small, so I had him climb up my leg, and he wrapped himself around my thigh, locking his joints with Granite Bones. I moved him around a bit so his thin tail was on the inside of my thigh and wouldn¡¯t rub when I walked. With a small application of Body Image, he could pass as a snakeskin garter. ¡°That is handy,¡± Gwaed said. ¡°I wish I had somewhere for Difetha and Merch.¡± ¡°What about in your cleavage?¡± I asked. Gwaed looked down, ¡°Difetha is too big now, but Merch could snuggle in there.¡± Suddenly the smaller rat darted across the room and climbed her leg. She caught it and helped it snuggle in between her breasts until it was out of sight. Wiremu¡¯s parting comment was, ¡°I hope the beautician is finished.¡± I asked Gwaed about her bonds. ¡°Difetha has been with me since we bonded on the boat over from the Elven Forests. Merch is her daughter or the one I decided to bond with anyway. Difetha has a lot of children. She is also quite old now and may not have long to live, which is why I decided to bond with Merch. I don¡¯t think you have met Sugnwr, although Sten and Ruku have seen her. She is a vampire bat, and we have been learning from each other for three years now.¡± This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°How many bonds can you have?¡± I asked. ¡°That is a very personal question,¡± she replied. ¡°The Druid Class is common among Elves and helps them bond with all manner of creatures. Animals, elementals, Fairies, Nymphs, Slimes, Spiritual trees and many others. My affinity, which I think you have guessed at, changed my Druid Class to Blood Druid, and I am only able to bond to creatures with blood, but I get bonuses for learning from them and easier body modifications.¡± I raised my eyebrow at that, and she demonstrated by raising her hand, and a set of claws came out of her fingers, similar to a cat''s. ¡°Very handy when I need blood,¡± she said. ¡°That comes from my first bond. He was a stray Tomcat and a vicious fighter from whom I learned much. Avenging his death led to the legend of Gwrach Waed.¡± We only let the Beautician back in who finished off our hair. Then we helped ourselves to a drink. ¡°What is the program tonight?¡± Gwaed asked. ¡°Eluf and Sven should be here in a half hour or so, and it starts with a formal reception. It is basically pre-dinner drinks and nibbles and a chance for the rich folk to show off and try to put each other down.¡± ¡°Can I start a catfight?¡± Gwaed asked. ¡°If nothing has happened and we get to the post-show party, then sure,¡± I said. ¡°The reception will last about two hours, and then we will go to the banquet. This has fixed seating, and we will be at the Duke''s table next to our dates. There are some speeches scheduled before the main course is served. After the main course, we will go to the Bardic Concert Hall for the show, which I will obviously need to leave for. Dessert is served in the show''s intermission, and after the show, we go back to the dining hall for the after-party.¡± ¡°When would you strike?¡± she asked. ¡°During the show. It is dark, and everybody''s attention is on the stage. The Duke and special guest have taken over the Premier balcony seats. It seems like a ready-made opportunity.¡± ¡°What is to stop the food or drink from being poisoned? That seems the simplest way to incapacitate a crowd, making a strike much easier.¡± Gwaed said. ¡°The Duke apparently has someone with a highly developed Sense Poison Skill who will be checking the food and drink,¡± I said. ¡°There are numerous ways around that, especially as they will only take random samples.¡± She said. ¡°When would you strike?¡± I asked. ¡°If the aim is to assassinate one or two people, it is easiest done in a moving crowd, so either the reception, the intermission, or the after party. If the aim is to make a public statement, then it will be at the banquet meal when everyone is seated, and the focus is on the Duke¡¯s table,¡± was her response. ¡°How would you strike during the banquet?¡± I asked. ¡°Explosives are the easiest if you can get them close. That is the advantage of explosives. They only have to be close.¡± ¡°We have already seized two lots of explosives,¡± I said. ¡°What do we know about the lead assassin?¡± Gwaed asked. ¡°Not much. Imperial, based in Northport. Everybody is scared of her but won¡¯t say why.¡± I replied. ¡°So not a contract assassin then, but a purpose-trained imperial?¡± I nodded, and she went on, ¡°then she will stick very close to her orders. Imperials like people who follow orders and that is ingrained into their training. What do we know of her orders?¡± ¡°Only what we can deduce from their actions. The first action happened over two years ago with the poisoning of the Duke. Unable to be cured, and that led Eluf to come home from the Army.¡± ¡°I heard rumours¡­¡± she suddenly looked at me, ¡°How come you haven¡¯t accused me of doing that? I can think of three ways that I have on hand.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know whether or not you did that, but I am not here to save the Duke,¡± I said. ¡°Why are you here?¡± she queried. ¡°To mess with the imperials,¡± I replied. ¡°Have you got a blood feud like the Orcs?¡± ¡°Not to that extent. It is more opposition to slavery and those who perpetuate it.¡± I said. ¡°That is not that different,¡± she said. ¡°How do you know the Duke¡¯s poisoning was Imperial action? You should call it a disease as it is more likely to be the cause.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know that it was, but I don¡¯t know of any other reason,¡± I said. ¡°Then you don¡¯t know much about the Kirghiz Kingdom¡¯s politics. Do you know how they choose a king?¡± I shook my head. ¡°When the king dies or retires, and that crusty dwarf Thorbj?rn has ruled for too long now, then all twenty Dukes gather together and elect one of themselves to be the next king. This could easily be internal politics.¡± ¡°How do we tell?¡± I asked. ¡°Probably can¡¯t,¡± Gwaed said. ¡°If you get me some of his blood, I might be able to track down the source of the infection, which may provide a clue, but a lot of the nastier diseases are Elvish or Mer.¡± ¡°The most recent activation of agents in the city is in response to the Kirghiz Military Intelligence stealing secret enchanting plans from Northport. We think they also killed a number of key enchanters there. They want the plans back, or at least not in Kirghiz''s hands, and they have tried abducting our enchanter.¡± I said. ¡°If they had had their noses bloodied, they would want to make an example so that no one ever does that again. That is definitely the imperial way.¡± Gwaed stated. ¡°So you think it will be at the main banquet then,¡± I said. She nodded. ¡°Care to make a small wager on that?¡± 122. Reception Bombs: Tabitha

122. Reception Bombs: Tabitha

Eluf and Sven arrived in the Ducal Carriage to pick us up. They were stunned when we stepped out the door. It was more Gwaed than myself, but Eluf made all the right noises. I introduced Gwaed to both Eluf and Sven as she was unrecognisable as a proud, almost regal Elf. The last Eluf had seen of her was a hunched, crazy human blood alchemist. Nobody would make that connection from this striking Elf next to me. Eluf noticed T¨¡oke straight away, although he didn¡¯t say anything. I am sure he recognised him from the fight in the cave, but he didn¡¯t do more than raise his eyebrow. In the cave, T¨¡oke stuck with Mutalil, giving the impression he was bonded with him. Now I have a venomous garter belt decorating my thigh. T¨¡oke gets around. I saw Eluf staring at Gwaed¡¯s chest. Should I pull him up on it? We arrived at the banquet before I could really get started on the fun. Eluf and I were announced first, and all eyes locked on us. I swear half the females in the room wanted to murder me. Eluf looked pretty dashing in his dress uniform from the Army and his array of medals and honours. Maybe the assassin is just planning to let these women loose as her distraction. We moved to the side to greet the hosts, Linne and Reiner and the birthday girl. The reaction we got was nothing to when Sven and Gwaed were announced. Initially, there was stunned silence. Sven looked good in his carefully tailored suit. Gwaed, seemingly, towered over him, a stunning raven-haired Elf nobody had heard of before. She was actually only a few inches taller than he was, but her blood-red dress was displayed strikingly against his black suit, and he had changed his tie in the carriage for a matching red one that our tailor supplied. They looked amazing together. I am sure she had positioned Merch to enhance her cleavage, and it worked well. Then the whispering started. The previous rumours about Sven¡¯s dating life are going to pale to insignificance after this. Interspecies dating is an unspoken taboo. Never spoken about except in the naughtiest erotic fiction that was illegal in the kingdom. Anyone who knows even the simplest knowledge about Elves will know they would never deign to date outside their species, but this isn¡¯t going to stop the rumours. From the small smile on Sven¡¯s face, I could tell he was going to use this and enjoy it. Gwaed leaned over and whispered something into Sven¡¯s ear, and his smile widened. It looked like a very intimate interaction. She definitely has some sort of acting Skill, and she has played to a crowd like this before. I moved from greeting Reiner toward Linne, and she was just standing there with her mouth open, staring at Sven, like she had her world just turned upside down. Eluf reached up and tapped her mouth shut, saying, ¡°Pay attention, Sis. He is all grown up now. Please meet my date Skygge from the Elemental Traders and the Comedic Rhythm.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you, Lady Linne,¡± I said, giving a small bow. ¡°I have looked forward to meeting you as well,¡± Linne said, reaching out to shake my hand. ¡°I haven¡¯t had a chance to see your performance yet, so I am looking forward to tonight. You also seem to have charmed my brother,¡± she glanced at Eluf, ¡°and that takes more than good acting skills.¡± ¡°He is not easily fooled,¡± I replied. Then I took a chance to test her reaction. ¡°Do you know who wants him to be the next King? That is what all this manipulation is about, isn¡¯t it?¡± Linne¡¯s jaw dropped open again in surprise. I caught Eluf by surprise with that as well, although I could see his brain connecting the dots. Since Gwaed told me about how the Kingdom chose its kings, it seemed to make sense to me. The Duke¡¯s lingering illness, either real or fake, Eluf coming home as the heir after a distinguished military career, and the fact they will choose a new king in the next couple of years. One of the Empire¡¯s top assassins has an excuse to be in town, and her real target is unknown. Why send their own assassin and not just contract one or ten? Sending an assassin to retrieve some documents didn¡¯t really make sense. This is a strike at the future King. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. There must be a significant number of Dukes behind this, possibly his own father as well. Hence the illness may be faked. Once Eluf was made king, then Linne would move into the Duchess role. It seems nobody has told Eluf about their plans for him. His face showed shock, then calculated thought, before he shut down his expressions. I could tell his mind was racing. Linne¡¯s shock was more about the fact that I had worked it out and revealed it. She was in on it. Somebody had leaked the plan, and the Empire had thought it serious enough to send an assassin. I wasn¡¯t going to be there for the sibling discussion later. I wish I could be. I winked at Linne, ¡°It definitely takes more than a pretty face.¡± I said, going back to her first comment. I nudged Eluf, ¡°Come on, dude, get your Mental shit together,¡± I moved him along to make room for Sven and Gwaed. I distracted the people heading our way by flagging down a server carrying drinks. Eluf looked like he could use one. After a couple of minutes, and before he started his second drink, he asked, ¡°How long have you known?¡± ¡°I worked it out this afternoon. You have had a lot more clues than me. I thought you were good at this mental shit?¡± I teased. ¡°Apparently not,¡± he said. ¡°Cheer up, your majesty. At least we now know who the assassin is here for.¡± That sobered him up, not that he was anywhere near drunk yet. ¡°We have incoming,¡± I said as my spatial awareness tracked an older, important-looking man making his way toward us with a serious purpose. He was dragging a young girl behind him. I assume his daughter or the closest eligible female in his house. The reception began in earnest. Eluf was a bit slow getting up to social speed, so I carried him for a bit. I was a bit shameless and scandalised a few of the young women when I flirted with them. That seemed to get Eluf out of his own head and into the social game we were playing. I kept tabs on Sven and Gwead. They had spent more time with Linne and Reiner than was socially appropriate, holding up those behind them. I assume Linne was trying to look out for her younger brother. She obviously didn¡¯t realise that ship had sailed years ago. As Sven and Gwaed circulated, it was obvious Sven had his own sycophants. They were both male and female of the younger generation. Sven came across as friendly and fun, and I could almost see the webs forming. Gwaed played the part of a fun-loving Elf just out for a good time. She kept up the gestures suggesting intimacy, but I saw who she picked as targets for that. She was injecting herself into the Noble society and ensuring she would not be forgotten. I didn¡¯t know her plans, but I was starting to fear for the Noble society in Obalno. All the while, I was scanning for things out of place, which would give a clue as to where an attack might come from. The drinks and nibbles weren¡¯t poisoned. I made sure to test them myself extensively. The Servers all seemed to be acting normally. It was the nobles I would have kicked out for being out of place, but I guess this was normal for them. I caught Ruku¡¯s eye. He came as a plus one for the Comedic Rhythm, so they were way down the noble hierarchy. He was circulating through the common people who were lucky enough to get an invite. He obviously had not found anything yet. With Wiremu outside, those spear shafts he planted were nothing more than wooden staves. I hope he had left something Ruku could use. Knowing the assassin¡¯s target changed my focus. Collateral damage was not my major concern. I was here to take out the assassin, preferably before she struck. Wiremu would track the attackers back to the boat, and in an ideal world, we would call the navy down on their heads. With the incompetence of the navy letting the Swiftwave back in, the ideal world didn¡¯t seem likely. Abigail would turn up somewhere in the middle of that. The call went out to be seated for the banquet, so we moved through to the dining area. 123. Distraction: Wiremu

123. Distraction: Wiremu

Modrica had the Pack Rats covering the roads around the Bardic hall, looking for anyone who might be out of place. They probably only have a 50/50 chance of spotting stealth operatives, and I am giving them that high a chance only because of their bond senses. It is an overcast night, which adds difficulty to those without a high levelled Darksight. I am keeping on the move. I am continuously moving in a circuit around the Hall, keeping tabs on the Pack Rats and the Duke''s Guards. To be quite frank, I anticipate that the first sign of an attack will be me finding the bodies of some of the Pack Rats. Whoever organised the Duke¡¯s guard has done a good job. There are the visible guards, and then there are the hidden guards. If anybody were to attack this place, they would quickly find they have bitten off more than expected. He has visible sentries and archers and hidden backups for both, and then he has stealth operatives as well, and I don¡¯t know how many of those there are. Their stealth seems to be as high as mine. I was passing the dining hall when my Hearing Aid heard the sound of the bell summoning the guests to the banquet. I checked the next alleyway, spotting the rats that were doing the spotting. It made sense to have the rats watching the road and the people hidden as a backup. At least some of the Pack Rats had a brain. Just not as many of them as they should. Looking at the next road and the two Pack Rats were leaning against a wall in full view of the street, acting like street toughs. Such easy targets. I moved on to the next street when two explosions happened, one after the other. One was close, maybe two blocks away, and the other was further into the city. I went up onto the nearest roof and crouched in the shadow of a chimney. The near one looked like it was close to the Enchanters Supreme. It wasn¡¯t the Enchanters Supreme, but it was close. Then a third explosion happened. That was the Enchanters Supreme. I used my Mapping Skill and worked out the explosion further into the city was our safe house, the one that should be empty. Abigail must have talked. I just don¡¯t know whether it was voluntarily or not. Hearing Aid then picked up the sound of many running boots from two streets over. It was not a mob. It was coordinated running, like a trained military unit. It was heading to the Bardic Hall. I started to move to observe when I suddenly had to dive off the roof into a backyard to avoid the arrow that was shot at me. They had stealth units as well. I kept moving, and fast as I was now being hunted. If I had missed a shot like that, I would be moving to finish the job. I rolled and jumped the fence into the alley at the back of the yard and turned into the next alley and then scaled the nearest roof, went into camouflage, and readied my own arrow. A shape flashed past the end of the alley, but I held my shot. I think they were trying to draw out a reaction to check if anyone was waiting. I should have waited on the ground. Then I could have used Granite Sense on the stone road. I mentally kicked myself. I have to use all my advantages. None of these people are amateurs. Darksight and Farsight caught the flicker of something at the corner of the alley, and I let loose a triple shot. A body collapsed into the alley, but I was already moving in case there were two of them. Triple shot, with my venom arrows magnified by Sudden Strike, and I was confident the person was dead. I just hoped it wasn¡¯t one of the Dukes Stealth units by mistake. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. I stuck to the ground with my Granite sense pulsing through the cobblestone paving while my eyes constantly scanned the roofs above me. Hearing Aid heard the clash of weapons and the sound of arrows being loosed as the attackers struck at the Duke¡¯s guard. I wasn¡¯t expecting a frontal assault, even if this was just a distraction from the real attack. I moved to where I could see what was happening. There were about fifty well-armed and armoured attackers, and they all looked like army veteran-level skilled to me. There was fighting at the main entrance and several bodies, both attackers and defenders. The Dukes Guard must have considered this scenario as they barricaded the doors and had archers at the windows. I moved my eyes from the visible fight to the stealth fight that was happening on the roofs and alleys around the edges of the main fight. I could only catch glimpses of this fight. An arrow fired from a rooftop or a body suddenly falling into the street. Most of it was one-hit kills, like my kill. I suddenly spun, firing an arrow behind me, and my attacker coughed up blood as he collapsed. He had been good to get this close, and only Hearing Aid picking up the sudden spike in his heartbeat gave me time to react. I moved to where Modrica had been stationed as the two of us working together would be more effective. The big fight wasn¡¯t my concern. I just wanted to be able to track them when they retreated. A street fight was way down on the list of distractions I was expecting. It actually works in our favour, though, as street fighting is something we have a lot of experience with. I heard the fighting from Modrica¡¯s alley before I got into view. I cautiously approached the end of the alley, and it was just as well I did as a body flew out with its head mangled. I put it down to Modrica¡¯s mace, but she was just using her fists as I came into sight. There were several dead Pack Rats and stealth attackers in the alley. I put down the last one with an arrow in the back, saving the Pack Rat she had been fighting. Modrica had a knife sticking out of her back, which was causing her discomfort. I motioned for her to turn around, and I pulled out the knife and poured a healing potion on the wound to stop the bleeding. She grunted her thanks. When dealing with Modrica, you don¡¯t just have to know Orcish. You also have to know Modrica¡¯s Grunt language. I am surprised I don¡¯t have a skill in it yet. There were two Pack Rats alive, so the four of us moved to where we could keep an eye on the main fight. It did seem that they were already trying to disengage, but the Duke¡¯s Guard was not making it easy for them. It took another five minutes, but they started an orderly retreat. They were definitely a military unit, which brings up the question of where they came from. A military strike into the city of another kingdom is usually a cause for war. There were about thirty that made the retreat. We kept hidden as they moved past and started to pick up speed. I picked two of the more healthy-looking ones to place my Hunters Mark on. I then checked the mark I placed on Sugnwr, Rotte¡¯s vampire bat. I need to get used to calling her Gwaed. Sugnwr was just above the rooftops flying parallel to the invaders. I wish I could communicate with her because, with her Echolocation, she will be able to spot any stealth units that they may still have. We left the Pack Rats behind to wait for Rotte / Gwaed, whatever she is called. Modrica and I set off after the invaders. We left plenty of space in case there were ranging stealth units, but I didn¡¯t want to be too far behind when we got to the wall, boats, or however they got into the city. Finally, the alarm bells started ringing, alerting the Watch and the wall guard of an emergency in the city. I assume the pattern of the bells alerted those who knew that there were invaders. It has probably been fifteen minutes since the first explosion. There is something seriously wrong with this City, even allowing for the attacker''s sabotage. I think it is way past time that the useless Duke gets replaced. Sione needs to be replaced as well. 124. Banquet: Tabitha

124. Banquet: Tabitha

I was seated next to Eluf at the head table. Our table was raised at the end of the banquet hall, and we were only seated on one side. I assume this was so everyone could gaze at our magnificence or something. Maybe it was so we could survey those beneath us. What it felt like was like being lined up to be shot. At the centre was the Duchess. The Duke was not present. He was too poorly, apparently. Next to the Duchess was the birthday girl and then her mother, Linne and Reiner. Eluf was on the other side of the Duchess, his mother, and then myself, Sven and Gwaed. Except Gwaed and Sven swapped, so she was next to me. Maybe he was afraid of me for some reason. There were guards scattered around the edge of the hall. Two were stationed behind the head table, one near either end. I was keeping particularly aware of them, not necessarily trusting them. That was when the first explosion happened. That sounded a fair way away into the city, so most of the guests didn¡¯t hear it. The following two explosions were a lot closer and rattled the cutlery. Eluf got to his feet, giving a hand signal to the guards who moved to shut the doors and watch the windows. He tapped a glass to get everybody''s attention and was about to make an announcement when the two guards behind us caught a dart in the neck. There were two darts from two different directions. Their necks immediately started to turn black and rot. I moved, and I sensed that Gwaed did as well. I grabbed a silver platter, spilling food all over the table and swatted the dart that was aimed at Eluf. Gwaed raced past me, tackling the Duchess and the birthday girl to the ground. I saw two darts protruding from her back and her skin starting to blacken. The two guards behind me were already dead. There were at least three attackers. I had Nyx flood the hall with Engulfing Shadows. I didn¡¯t make it too dark to hamper people, just enough to Sense where everybody was. I pulled two war knives from my Spatial Pocket and shoved one into Eluf¡¯s hand. I sensed Ruku blasting the attacker on his side of the room with a targeted Water Surge, smashing them against a wall. Then everybody panicked. The sensible ones dove for the floor under the tables, and the rest started running for the doors causing mayhem and cover for the attackers. Then I sensed something I could not believe. The two dead guards behind me were getting up and drawing their swords. I grabbed Eluf on the shoulder and pointed to them, not understanding it myself. ¡°Shit,¡± he swore, ¡°a Death Affinity user with the Animate Corpse Skill. I¡¯ll go left. You take the one on the right. Don¡¯t let them scratch you. Disable their limbs, and they are useless.¡± I moved to the right and realised T¨¡oke was no longer around my thigh. I wished him good hunting. There were four attackers that have now turned into six with the two corpses. Ruku¡¯s one was at least unconscious. If he had killed them, they might well get up again. I had the other three in my senses, but it was mayhem down there, and I couldn¡¯t see them. Then the next strange thing happened that threatened to blow my mind. This loud Caterwauling sound came from behind the table, and then Gwaed sprang onto the table on all fours. I glanced at the Duchess, and she was protecting her granddaughter with her body, but Gwaed was transforming. The two darts were still in her back, but the black rot that I now knew as death affinity was retreating. The black rot was reducing. The same rot that when Wiremu got a scratch from a Death Shaman, it took everything T¨¡oke and ?rt could do to keep him alive. This same rot was being dealt with like it was a common poison. She must have some powerful Blood Skills. That was just the start. The darts fell out of her back, and her body was covered in coarse black fur. It was the same colour as her hair, but it was definitely Rat Fur. She was barefoot and had cat claws on both hands and feet, and when she looked my way, her mouth was filled with cat fangs. She looked ready to pounce and rip out throats with her fangs. All this was wrapped up in a blood-red ball gown. Then she did pounce and disappeared into the crowd. I saw two dark streaks follow her, which I guess were Difetha and Merch. My attention was then taken by the corpse swinging his sword at me. Do corpses have a gender? They have the physical goods they were born with but no longer have an identity. That was a weird thought to have in the middle of a fight. Fortunately, they were not as coordinated as they were, nor did they have the Skills of their original person. Cutting tendons means limbs no longer work, so I disarmed it first, not realising it would spray infected blood everywhere. That was a major health hazard. After that, I stuck to more surgical cuts, and it was soon on the ground flopping around. Then the strings were cut, and it lay still. I assume the Skill was deactivated. I hoped it was the person that was deactivated, but I doubted we were that lucky. I sensed Ruku watching over the Comedic Rhythm, who he had protected by upending a table. Eluf was coming back to me. Then he staggered into a seat. I saw black spreading up his arm, nearly at his shoulder. Then a worse caterwauling was heard from the crowd on the floor. There was a mad scramble as the crowd got away from something. Then Gwaed stood up in the middle of the cleared space. Blood was dripping from her mouth. I think she did just rip someone''s throat open with her teeth. Then I saw the dark still form in her arm. One of her bonds has been killed. A small black form ran up her body and perched on her shoulder. I needed to get her attention, so I yelled, ¡°Gwrach Waed! I need your help!¡± She turned a bloody smile at me. I saw blood on Merch¡¯s mouth as well. Let¡¯s kickstart her legend again. She strode over, and everybody gave her a wide berth. I pointed to Eluf¡¯s shoulder. Eluf was not really with it anymore. He was delirious and would be dead soon. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°Bloody fool,¡± she muttered. ¡°Fool, anyway,¡± I said, ¡°you alone are the bloody one.¡± She gave me another bloody-mouthed grin. She carefully placed Difetha on the table, and Merch scrambled off her shoulder to guard her mother¡¯s body. ¡°He needs a Blood Infusion,¡± she said, creating a wicked claw from her finger. ¡°Wait!¡± said the Duchess, ¡°he has a rare blood type.¡± Gwaed hissed at her just like a cat. ¡°Stupid woman. Blood Manipulation is the first skill I learned.¡± She swiped a claw across Eluf¡¯s throat and licked his blood. ¡°Hmmm.¡± Then she used the claw to slit her wrist and jammed her wrist hard against his throat. I assumed she was using her Blood Manipulation, which was why there was no blood being spilt anywhere. ¡°It is a potent concoction,¡± she said to me. ¡°A combination of Blood Cleanse and Blood Rejuvenation.¡± I watched as the black rot started to recede from his shoulder. It was slower than what I saw happen on Gwaed herself, but that was expected. The Duchess was not happy with the way she was spoken to and dismissed, but we were saving her son¡¯s life, so if she tried to say anything, I would shut her up myself. I think she knew that, and I was still holding my Blacksteel war knife. Speaking of which, I wiped the knife clean on the tablecloth. The corrupted black blood was dangerous. After a couple of minutes, she stopped the Blood Infusion. ¡°That should be enough,¡± she said. ¡°When I tasted his blood, he had a moderate level of Poison Resistance, so the normal healers should be able to take it from here. They shouldn¡¯t even need to amputate the arm if they are semi-competent healers.¡± The Duchess frowned at that comment as well. What does that woman expect? We just saved her son''s life for Blood¡¯s sake. Ruku came up. I could tell the Duchess recognised him and was hoping for support. He ignored her and said to me, ¡°One of them got away.¡± Gwaed hissed again. ¡°Do you know which one?¡± I asked. ¡°The one with the death affinity. She animated a corpse that I had to deal with while she escaped.¡± He replied. Gwaed hissed again, ¡°That bitch is mine.¡± Ruku continued, ¡°I got one of the Hunters Marks onto her, but it just rotted off as I watched. Death is a very difficult affinity to deal with.¡± ¡°Not for me,¡± Gwaed snarled. Then her demeanour changed again, ¡°Fuck, I have all this blood and I still couldn¡¯t save Difetha.¡± Then she turned to me, ¡°Do we know what she looked like?¡± ¡°Yes, hang on.¡± I scanned the bodies in the room and compared that with my memory from earlier and focused on the missing attacker. I then used Body Image to show what she looked like to everyone here. She must have come from outside in leather armour with a hood. She was shorter than I was and very thin. Because my Spatial Awareness sees through things, I reached up and lowered the hood showing her pale face. Everything about her seemed small, and she came across as undernourished. Once everybody here had a good look, I let the Image drop. ¡°That is a very useful skill,¡± Ruku said, and Gwaed nodded. Just then, T¨¡oke threw himself on the table, causing the Duchess to jerk backwards in shock. I reached down to let him know he was a good lad. This lady should be thankful I am not planning to marry her son, or her life would become one long nightmare. ¡°What is happening outside?¡± I asked Gwaed. She was silent for a moment and then said, ¡°Everybody is retreating to the north. The Watch is finally starting to take action. There are burning buildings causing some confusing smoke. Sugnwr has sensed Modrica in the distance but not Sten.¡± ¡°He will be there, ah T¨¡oke?¡± T¨¡oke nodded his head. ¡°His stealth is higher than most.¡± Just then, the guard captain came in with another squad of soldiers and medics and started to bring order to the mess. I noted Sione was with them. He made a beeline toward us. ¡°Report!¡± he demanded. ¡°To you?¡± I queried, ¡°No. Fuck off.¡± The Duchess was flabbergasted at the way I had just dismissed the head of Military intelligence in Obalno. Sione, however, was smarter than she was. ¡°Sorry,¡± he apologised, ¡°I am rather stressed right now. What I meant to say is, can I help?¡± ¡°Possibly,¡± I said. ¡°We are tracking the invaders north, and it looks like they are going over the wall rather than boats. Do you want to get that useless navy of yours sailing north to head them off in case we don¡¯t catch them?¡± Sione nodded, ¡°Yes, but you should know they have captured other civilians. The other explosions were on two of St?rst¡¯s properties and a random house that was abandoned. They must have had bad intel on that one. However, they have captured all five of St?rst¡¯s junior enchanters.¡± ¡°They also took Abigail earlier today,¡± I said. ¡°Shit, I take it you want to let them get out of the city?¡± He asked, ¡°Yes, They should lead us to the Swiftwave, and they will be easier to deal with if it is moored. I assume you want the enchanters back?¡± ¡°Preferably, or at least not in imperial hands. I will get the navy moving,¡± and Sione left. It seems like Sione has just told us to kill the enchanters if we can¡¯t retrieve them. I yelled at his back, ¡°We are not getting paid enough for this shit!¡± ¡°I know!¡± he yelled back as he disappeared out the door. I looked at the others, ¡°Do you all want to hunt?¡± They all nodded, including Ruku with his injured foot. I looked around the room, Eluf was semi-conscious in his seat, so I called a medic over. Everybody else was giving us a wide berth. When my glance settled on the Comedic Rhythm, Zabavano gave me the thumbs up, and Ruku said, ¡°They will be fine here.¡± ¡°Let''s go then,¡± I gathered up T¨¡oke, Gwaed picked up the body of Difetha, and Merch scrambled back into her bosom. As we went out the side door, I had Nyx make us disappear with Engulfing Shadows. The Medic started treating the Duchess for shock when she wouldn¡¯t respond to him. 125. Ranged: Tabitha

125. Ranged: Tabitha

It turns out running through the city in a full-length dress is not an easy feat, even with the two-leg slits as high as my hips. We paused, and I took my knife to it, cutting it off above the knees. Gwaed did the same to hers. I wouldn¡¯t be showing them to the tailor ever again. Gwaed¡¯s front was soaked in blood anyway. We took off again, Gwaed in the lead as she could track her bond Sugnwr. I followed, took over the Engulfing Shadows from Nyx, and sent Nyx on ahead to find Wiremu. He needed warning that Lady Death could be bearing down on him. Ruku followed me. It turns out these dresses were full-length for a reason. Without the length of material, the dress would frequently fly up, and I would get an eyeful of Gwaed¡¯s arse. It was a nice one, too, even though it was still covered in dark coarse fur. I remember saying, ¡®they don¡¯t give a rat''s arse¡¯ when they don¡¯t care about something, but I am starting to like this rat''s arse. It occurred to me I was flashing my arse to Ruku, and there was no fur on my butt. I darkened the shadows under my skirt, so I didn''t give the poor guy a heart attack. If Eluf hadn¡¯t been so careless in killing the corpse, he could have been the one following me. ¡°So tell me what you know about the Death Affinity,¡± I shot over my shoulder to Ruku. Gwaed replied, ¡°It should be called the Rot Affinity as that is what it actually does. It Rots everything, including flesh and blood.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Ruku said, ¡°Most of what the military knows is just theory, but that does sum it up. Skills revolve around rot and poison. I don¡¯t think anyone alive has seen Animate Corpse in action.¡± ¡°Until today,¡± I added. ¡°The day¡¯s not over yet,¡± Gwaed said cheerfully. ¡°The theory is the corpse must be infected with the rot, but it may be possible to infect an already dead body and use it,¡± Ruku continued. ¡°It is thought that the number of corpses is a function of Spiritual Strength, and they must be in the Spiritual Sensing range of the Affinity user. The corpses need muscles and tendons to move, and that is why Eluf said to disable the limbs, and then it can¡¯t do anything. It just becomes a Spiritual drain on the controller. They are mostly used to spread the infection.¡± ¡°We are lucky lady death decided to animate human corpses,¡± Gwaed said. ¡°If she had bought in rodent or insect corpses, she could have wiped out the local nobility.¡± That was a sobering thought. ¡°You obviously have Skills to counter the rot?¡± I asked Gwaed. ¡°Yes. Blood is life. It can also be death, but mostly it is for life and to enhance life.¡± She replied. We were coming up on the northern wall. There was no sign of guards or invaders or Wiremu and Modrica. We entered the already open door to the guard tower to climb the stairs to the top of the wall and found the desiccated bodies of the guards stationed there. At the top of the wall, I saw some of the bodies with arrows in them, especially ones close to the alarm bell. Either the assassin is an archer, or she infected the arrows for her archers. The first is scarier than the second, but they are both pretty bad. Think Wiremu with deadlier arrows than he already has. Gwaed reached down and grabbed a shield, sword and knife from one of the remains. I grabbed a second knife while I was at it, as I hadn''t got my other one back off Eluf before I left. Ruku had got some spears and a shield. A shield might not be a bad idea if we are going against a ranged Death Affinity user. I decided to stick with my dual-wielding and mobility. We moved to the wall''s outer edge, where we found a ladder and several ropes. Once the wall guards were down, the first wave came up the ladder and lowered ropes for the others. The trick was making sure nobody could ring the alarm bell. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. We moved to grab a rope each, and suddenly Gwaed shoved me to the side and deflected an arrow with her shield. I saw Ruku also duck behind a crenellation. Gwaed then threw her knife with a powerful throw toward something in the tree line outside my Sensing range. My Hearing Aid heard running footsteps. We are dealing with a ranged Death Assassin. ¡°How did you find her? The bushes interfered with my Sonar,¡± Ruku asked. ¡°Infrared Vision combined with Sense Blood.¡± she said, swinging herself over the wall edge and onto one of the ropes. ¡°Stay alert,¡± she added, ¡°this kid¡¯s good.¡± She got halfway down the rope when I heard, ¡°But I will take her down.¡± I followed her down the wall with Ruku beside me. The kid might be good, but it was looking like Gwaed had earned the nightmare myths that circulated about the Elven Blood Witch. Gwrach Waed, indeed. We entered the tree line, moving fast but carefully. The forests north of Obalno are mostly Pine and Spruce, so uunderfootwas a layer of needles, and it was reasonably open under the trees. None of us were trackers, not even Ruku, so we were reliant on Gwaed following Sugnwr. Nyx had not found Wiremu yet. We ran through the forest cautiously. My Spatial Awareness was good but too short-ranged for this. I am best at close fighting. My Darksight still worked well, and my Hearing Aid just moved into The Apprentice Levels. I was the least capable one of sensing in this environment. By the time my Spatial Awareness picked up an arrow coming at me, I would have very little time to react, and even a scratch from these arrows could be deadly. I think the most I have achieved to date is to move, so an arrow is nonfatal, but they have still struck me every time. I was not ashamed to be running slightly behind Ruku and Gwaed. I got the impression from Nyx that she had found Wiremu but couldn¡¯t communicate because he was busy using his bow and dodging return arrows. I spoke up, ¡°Apparently, Wiremu is in a ranged duel with the attackers.¡± ¡°Not sure who Wiremu is, but I am assuming it is the same person as Sten?¡± Gwaed said, ¡°Sugnwr has arrived at the coast, and her targets are being ferried out to ships, yes, ships, plural. There are two, not one. We are about an hour away from the bay.¡± ¡°And Lady Death is ahead of us,¡± I said, ¡°Probably not that far ahead, 5-10 minutes at most.¡± Ruku added. We would be travelling slower than everybody, partly because of Ruku¡¯s foot and partly through caution. The second ship made sense. The Swiftwave didn¡¯t travel to their base to resupply but to meet the other ship, which is where all the extra attackers came from. Being 5-10 minutes behind Lady Death is not good. She could kill everyone in that time. We picked up the pace. I checked T¨¡oke on my shoulder, and he was calm. I told him, ¡°T¨¡oke, can you try to get through to Wiremu that the Death assassin is coming in behind him, and he needs to watch out.¡± I really don¡¯t know how much he understood or could communicate through their bond, but it was the best I could do. T¨¡oke looked at me a flicked his tongue out. We will see. We crested a hill, and the sea came into view, at least for Ruku, who had the Darksight, Farsight combo. ¡°I can see two sets of masts. One is bigger than the other,¡± he said. ¡°One set of masts looked like a Baracuda Class Warship from the Empire. They are fast and moderately well-armed. They have a lower deck for slave rowers, which makes them faster than our equivalent ships. An Empire warship in Kingdom waters is an act of war, not even counting the fact that they raided a Kingdom city.¡± We pushed on down toward the bay. ¡°What kind of forces are on this Barracuda ship?¡± I asked. ¡°They configure them in different ways. The most common uses are for scouting and hit-and-run raids, just like this. Usually, there are 50-100 troops, plus twenty sailors and 30-50 enslaved people, for various tasks, including rowing when necessary. All sailors are trained in basic archer and sword work. The troops will have various specialities depending on the platoons assigned. The ship¡¯s bow is strengthened and enchanted for ramming other ships, and there are usually at least ten cannons with various alchemical and physical loadouts to be fired from them.¡± ¡°So there is no way we can take it,¡± I said. ¡°No. We would struggle with the Swiftwave, although if I can get the munitions placed, we have a chance at sinking that.¡± Ruku replied. ¡°Add in the fact we know there is an affinity user on board, and our chances get slimmer. There may be more than one affinity user as they are often assigned to ships.¡± ¡°What do we do then?¡± I asked. ¡°We try to rescue the civilians and see if we can stall them so the Navy can get here,¡± Ruku replied. 126. Armed: Wiremu

126. Armed: Wiremu

When the group I was following met with another group who had prisoners, Modrica and I decided we would try and slow them down. If Tabitha weren¡¯t following us, Sione certainly would be. The thirty we were following were joined by another twenty or so. There were five prisoners, all unconscious and being carried by the invaders. I should just call them soldiers because that is what they are. There is a clear chain of command, and they are well-organised with similar gear. My first shot was going to be my only freebee, so I tried to make it count. I put a triple shot into the person who seemed to be in command. With the Sudden Strike bonus and the Venom, she went down and wasn¡¯t getting back up. Unfortunately, the person in charge of the second group immediately stepped up and took control, and he seemed competent. Shields and weapons were drawn, bows were prepared, and at least two rogues disappeared into the trees. I got two more arrows away while this was happening, and I struck the leg of one person carrying a prisoner, and they went down. The other shot was deflected off the leather armour. I then retreated, joining back up with Modrica, who was looting two bodies. We figured when we attacked that the scouts would circle back, so Modrica was waiting for them. That was the end of our freebee advantages. Now they had all the advantages in numbers and organisation. They were moving a lot more cautiously, so our objective was achieved. We moved into a harassing tactic while trying to avoid their arrows and rogues. I was moving into position and a sudden pain shot up my leg. I toppled over, Granite Spiked the area, and my leg came free. Stupid, stupid, stupid. One of the rogues had trapped a likely spot, and I had walked right into it. Traps were one of my specialities. I should at least be looking for other people¡¯s traps. My Granite Spikes had ruined the trap. I heard some meaty thuds behind me as Modrica engaged the Rogue, who I am guessing was coming to try and finish the job. I pulled a health potion and spread some on my leg to stop the bleeding. We needed to move. I set off with a slight limp. Regeneration would fix it shortly, and it wasn¡¯t hampering me much. I felt Nyx enter the Blacksteel pendant I wore around my neck. It¡¯s the sudden drop in temperature that lets me know. I couldn¡¯t stop to find out if there was news, but it did mean Tabitha was on her way. Unfortunately, we had hit the beach. There were two ships anchored off the shore, and one looked like a warship. There were several small boats on the beach waiting to ferry people to the ships. I sprinkled them with arrows, making the guards duck for cover and wounding two of them. I then had to get out of the way as the main body of troops was arriving, and they immediately started loading the boats. The shield bearers formed a ring with shields up and facing the forest while they loaded the prisoners and wounded onto the boats first. Their archers lined up behind the shield bearers, and whenever I loosed an arrow, I got five in return. My Longbow Skill meant I got two of the rowers on one boat, and it slowed its progress till they could be swapped out. Having to move after every shot definitely slowed my rate of fire. I got an impression from T¨¡oke of impending death coming up behind me. I looked, and there was nothing there, so he was warning me of something coming. I got the impression of a girl with death surrounding her. I guess the assassin got away from Tabitha and was inbound. If the assassin got away from Tabitha, then she was very, very good. I warned Modrica, and we watched our backs. It was about a five or six minute round trip for the boats to get out to the ships and offload before returning to the beach for the next load. The prisoners were loaded onto the warship. I wondered if that was where Abigail was as well. That would be a problem. They were about halfway through the trips when Hearing Aid heard a heartbeat where there shouldn¡¯t have been one. Because I was already alerted, I rolled to the side immediately and loosed an arrow toward the sound. An arrow embedded itself into the trunk of the tree I had been standing beside, and the bark started to rot. Death affinity. Shit. My arrow went high, and I picked up a shadow moving. I snapped off another arrow and got one in return which grazed my leather armour. The leather near the graze mark started to rot. I remember the Death Shaman getting some of this poison on me, and it almost killed me. My Snakeskin was at Journeyman level now, so it should be a lot more resistant. My regeneration was also at Journeyman Level, so I wasn¡¯t as vulnerable, but this was also a much more intelligent and highly trained opponent. Suddenly another shadow loomed over the one that had shot at me, and I heard a meaty thud as Modrica landed a punch. The assassin rolled, dropping the bow, a knife appeared in her hand, and she launched herself at Modrica before I could do anything. Her knife hand was caught in Modrica¡¯s fist and stopped. Modrica kicked the assassin hard, and her body went flying. She still held the assassin¡¯s knife arm in her hand. She had torn the assassin¡¯s arm right off. I am not sure it was the Master of Unarmed Combat at work. I think it was more just brute strength. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. The assassin didn¡¯t stop. I saw a spurt of blood come from the shoulder, and then it stopped. The assassin kept rolling, so my arrow missed, and then she ducked into the trees and disappeared. Hearing Aid heard the occasion sound moving away from us, but more importantly, the Hunters Mark I got into her had her moving toward the beach. I moved to Modrica. ¡°Let''s get those gloves off you, and don¡¯t let them touch your skin. That¡¯s Death Poison.¡± She was wearing the Spiritually enhanced gloves she had got in Jern, so they were slowing the poison down from eating through, like my Troll armour used to do for me. Modrica dropped the arm she was holding, and I helped her get the gloves off. It didn¡¯t look like it had gotten through to her skin, but it was a close thing. We dumped the gloves into a small stream for the moment and I washed my armour. We then went to check on what was happening on the beach. They were loading the last of the boats, and I could see a one-armed figure in one of the boats. I fired arrows at them, only getting erratic return fire for the archers in the boat, and I only managed to wound a couple. I heard the sound of people coming up behind me, my link to T¨¡oke telling me who it was. ¡°So she got away,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Mostly,¡± I said. ¡°Modrica ripped one of her arms off. It is over there in the bushes.¡± ¡°Really?¡± she replied. ¡°Well done, my Krvne Sestre.¡± Gwaed looked shocked when Tabitha used the title. Modrica just grunted. Gwaed said, ¡°I should give you both a shot of Blood Rejuvenation to make sure none of the poison gets to you.¡± She made a cut on her hand and then on Modrica¡¯s hand, and then they clasped hands together for a minute. Then she did the same to me. I got a notice that my Regeneration was boosted for an hour. ¡°Should I swim out and plant the explosives?¡± Ruku asked. Both ships were raising their anchors. ¡°Do you think you will catch them?¡± I asked. ¡°Probably not, and their archers are watching the water,¡± Ruku replied. We watched as a set of oars came out from one side of the warship, and it started turning faster as the oars bit into the water. Five smaller ports opened on one side of the ship, and as it turned, these lined up with the Swiftwave. Suddenly fire spurted from the ports, and explosions happened on the Swiftwave. It looked like the Imperials didn¡¯t want to pay for their mercenaries and were sinking the Swiftwave. The second wave of explosions happened, and the Swiftwave started to list to the side and sink lower into the water. A final set of explosions happened, and the Swifwave broke into two halves and sunk faster. The second set of oars came out from the warship, and sails were lowered from the masts. It started to pick up speed toward the open ocean. We just stood on the beach and watched. Before they got out of sight, three Kirghiz warships appeared and gave chase. The imperial had a large head start and the advantage of oars, so they would not likely catch her. We couldn¡¯t see any survivors from the Swiftwave, but that didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t any. They could just be avoiding us. I would if I were them. Before we headed back to Obalno, Gwaed stopped us. I want to farewell Difetha before we head back. She pulled out the body of the rat from her bag. Merch came out from her bosom and scrambled up to one shoulder. Then a dark shape appeared, and Sugnwr landed on the other shoulder, her leathery wings spread across her back and arm. She held Difetha up, and I noticed her cat fangs were back. ¡°Goodbye, my spoilt one,¡± she said and then ripped the rat''s throat open with her fangs. She cupped her hand under the dripping blood and offered it to Merch and Sugnwr, who both drank some. She licked her bloody fangs. ¡°Normally, I would let nature take the body, but it is always better if the nutrient goes to benefit someone we know.¡± She looked up to T¨¡oke, who was still on Tabitha¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Are you hungry little one?¡± T¨¡oke slid off Tabitha¡¯s shoulder and then triggered his Grow Skill. All of a sudden, he was near eight meters long. ¡°Not so little, I see,¡± Gwaed chuckled and then offered T¨¡oke the body. Difetha was a very large rat, but T¨¡oke, in his large form, swallowed her in one go, and there was not too large a bump as it worked its way down to his stomach, where he would digest it over the next day or so. He then came to me and wanted up. He was heavy in this form, and he had to wrap himself around me several times. Gwaed looked at me, ¡°You had better learn that Growth Skill from him.¡± she said. Wow, it never occurred to me I could do that. T¨¡oke got it from the Shaman beast core, but it did not occur to me I could learn it from him, like the other skills we had learned from each other. I could be a giant. That sounds like fun. My clothes and armour wouldn¡¯t last but it sounded like fun, and a useful surprise to have. Tabitha caught the glint in my eye and she rolled hers. ¡°I now consider us to be allies,¡± Gwaed declared. We were happy with that and shook on it. At least that didn¡¯t involve blood. 127. Compensation: Tabitha

127. Compensation: Tabitha

¡°So they got away,¡± Sione said accusingly. ¡°Only if your Navy ships let them slip past again,¡± I said pointedly. We were at our warehouse with Wiremu, Modrica, Gwaed and Ruku. Sione had come to find out what had happened, so we had given him the bones of the story. ¡°I¡¯m going after her.¡± Gwaed declared suddenly. Everybody looked at her. Sione was especially wary. He had discovered yet another Affinity user had slipped into his country without Military Intelligence knowing. ¡°Even without the details and the kidnapped enchanters, my report to date has the Generals moving us to a war footing. They will try diplomacy, but I think war is inevitable,¡± Sione said. ¡°She killed my bond.¡± Gwaed stated. ¡°The last time someone killed one of my bonds, I killed them and everyone who tried to shelter them.¡± ¡°Just to be clear, for Sione¡¯s sake, you are talking about Prince Bwli and his father, King Ofnus, the former Elven King of the Western Forest,¡± I said. Gwaed nodded, and I think Sione paled. I wasn''t aware Mer could do that. ¡°It wasn¡¯t a request. I am going after her. I would appreciate some help, but I am going anyway.¡± Gwaed said. ¡°I am not sure that is a good idea,¡± Sione started to say, but Ruku interrupted him. ¡°I think that is a great idea,¡± he said, ¡°I will come with you.¡± Gwaed brightened a little. Ruku continued, ¡°I know what the loss of a bond is like. I would like to help.¡± ¡°That¡¯s probably a suicide mission,¡± Sione said. Ruku just shrugged. I said, ¡°I have a contact we can talk to about transport to Northport. We can discuss it later,¡± meaning when Sione was not here. Ruku looked at Sione, ¡°I am not sure why you are not fully getting behind this. They kidnapped Kingdom citizens, and we could see about getting them back.¡± Sione looked thoughtful, ¡°I will need to discuss it higher up.¡± ¡°You will also need to discuss our compensation,¡± I said. ¡°We worked hard on this and had significant losses, including a Bond,¡± I nodded towards Gwaed, ¡°and Modrica¡¯s Spiritually enhanced gloves.¡± The gloves weren¡¯t repairable. ¡°Yet Abigail and five other enchanters were kidnapped, and the main assassin escaped.¡± Sione countered. ¡°That¡¯s because you let a full Imperial warship into Obalno waters. We had an excellent chance of taking out the Swiftwave. We kept your Heir alive and cleaned out your gangs and the city Watch,¡± I said. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen any Enchanting plans,¡± he said. ¡°They seem to have got lost. Maybe they will be found when we see what compensation might come our way.¡± I stood up, indicating this was over for now. Sione also stood, and as I showed him out, I said, ¡°I expect to hear from you soon.¡± After Sione left, I sat down with the others. I looked at Gwaed and said, ¡°Your date at the banquet will have some contacts with smugglers that should help find a way into Northport. We will go and see him later.¡± ¡°Thank you for your help,¡± Gwaed said. ¡°That is what allies do,¡± I replied. ¡°You helped us. We help you. I never did find out how you recognised me as the Black Butcher.¡± ¡°Mostly guesswork,¡± Gwaed replied. ¡°I heard from Jern and Modrica the Merciless also has a reputation, and she stands out. Sugnwr also watched you break into the Enchanters Supreme with her Echolocation and Blood Sense. You had the same body and blood flow. I was fascinated when you brought Nyx to the meeting. I haven¡¯t seen an Elemental Bond since I left the Elven Forests.¡± She sounded a bit wistful when she said that. ¡°You can¡¯t bond with an Elemental, can you?¡± I checked. ¡°No, but you can learn so much from bonding with different creatures. Elementals are hard to learn from because they are so different, but I know one Elf who learned to become incorporeal from his elemental bond. That¡¯s something for you to work towards.¡± Gwaed winked at me. She turned to Ruku, ¡°We can see about finding you a new bond on our trip as well. Bonds are great.¡± You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. That was exciting. Think about what I could do if I could become incorporeal, even if it is for brief periods. Nyx and I will be spending a lot of time together on this trip to Kirghiz. The caravan is scheduled to leave in two weeks for Kirghiz. ¡°I might be ready for another bond,¡± Ruku said. ¡°You are the expert in bonds. What do you suggest?¡± ¡°Water affinity, right?¡± Ruku nodded, ¡°so, a water-based animal, but not exclusively water?¡± she asked. ¡°My last bond was a Bottlenose Dolphin, Opo.¡± Ruku said. ¡°The Osprey are quite common. They are more well known as the Sea Hawk. There would be a big boost to perception and ranged combat. What are you like at ranged combat?¡± Gwaed asked. ¡°Only mediocre. My speciality is more melee combat.¡± Ruku replied. ¡°Ok. Here is something a bit different for you to consider. About two hours south of here is a swampy area that is home to a colony of Salamanders.¡± ¡°Are they lizards? Wiremu asked. ¡°No. Lizards are reptiles, and Salamanders are more closely related to frogs, although they look similar to some lizards. They are amphibious, and one of the big advantages is their Regeneration. They can regenerate limbs. If you don¡¯t have the Regeneration Skill, you will be able to learn it. If you have it, then it will go up a category, at least.¡± ¡°My regeneration is at the Journeyman Level. You are saying it will jump to Master Level?¡± She nodded. ¡°So I can regenerate limbs?¡± She nodded again and continued, ¡°In addition, their skin is permeable to water and has a respiratory reservoir, which will help. Smell is one of their primary senses. They can breathe through their skin, and this particular type of salamander can also excrete a potent toxin from their skin. They need to be kept hydrated, but that shouldn¡¯t be a problem with your water affinity, and they will probably learn your affinity and be able to hydrate themselves.¡± ¡°So, no direct combat abilities, but Opo didn¡¯t either,¡± Ruku said. ¡°I would be interested in going to see them. I assume they are small?¡± ¡°About 20cm long as a full-grown adult,¡± Gwaed replied. ¡°Easy to carry with me, and I like moist. It matches well with my affinity. It is a long time since I have made an effort to learn something new, or even advance my Skills significantly. With the poison, I could probably poison my water attacks. Yes, let''s go and see them.¡± Ruku sounded like he had made a decision. ¡°My Animal Lore just levelled,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°As did my Aquatic Lore,¡± Ruku chuckled. ¡°The Druid Class required high Animal and Plant Lore,¡± Gwaed explained. ¡°What advice can you give to others in our group?¡± I asked, thinking mostly of Modrica. ¡°I think everybody should be trying to bond with an animal,¡± Gwaed replied, ¡°Affinities are one person in 10,000 - 20,000, but anybody with minimal Mental Attributes and a bit of training can bond with something. People will more easily bond with some creatures than others, like Ruku really needs something water-based. However, it is much easier to bond than get an affinity, and the benefits are huge.¡± ¡°Modrica is not here, but she got on well with the Catkin. Would a cat bond suit her?¡± I asked. ¡°Probably. With her, I would go with the big cats, Lions, Tigers, and Panthers, as she is a melee fighter as well, and that will help them be more compatible. You should definitely encourage the Catkin to bond. They will bond very easily with similar species, so on your way to Kirghiz, try and find some leopard or lion cubs for them. Beastkin can bond with more than one animal if they are of similar species.¡± ¡°Are you going to look for another bond?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°Absolutely, and I know where to go. We will need to stop briefly on the way to Northport to visit the breeding ground.¡± Gwaed responded. ¡°Breeding ground for¡­?¡± Wiremu left it hanging. ¡°A Griffon Vulture.¡± she said, then hurried on, ¡°They are birds, not actual Griffons. It is just what they are called.¡± ¡°Why that?¡± I asked. ¡°We are hunting a Death Affinity user. Vultures are scavengers. They can sense death and decay. It should also be compatible with my affinity and my general personality.¡± she replied. That was fascinating information. Nobody wanted to question her on what she meant about her personality. My mind also went to Najprej and Drugi?, who were the only members of the Canine Queen without a bond. I should get them to talk with Gwaed before we leave. Unfortunately, that wasn¡¯t to be, as Sven found a dodgy trader going to Northport. Gwaed and Ruku wanted to get away as soon as possible to get there before the war officially broke out and to not be too far behind the assassin. Ruku made time to visit the Salamanders and came back with a young one on his arm. He said his Regeneration did jump past the Master level. He seemed quite happy, even though my skin crawled at the thought of the slimy thing crawling over me. They left before we did. Sione out-fitted them with everything they asked for. The plan was to sail directly to Kirghiz once they had finished in Northport and meet up with us there. There were a lot of ifs in that plan, but the concept was good. Saying goodbye to Eluf was the hardest thing I had to do. It was an all-night affair, and he broke out a hot tub. He hadn¡¯t decided whether he actually wanted to be king yet, and he was far from the only contender. Stupid politics. It will take a lot to get used to politics, but if we can, we can use it against the empire. Obalno has certainly been a learning curve. We were not completely successful, so we had a lot of learning to do. One thing I have learned is monster hordes are easier than politics. 128. End of Book 3 Status 128. End of Book 3 Status Wiremu Hunter
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros MHunt Scout Assn Total
Type Attribute Level 11 11 8 3 5 5 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 11 2 22 1 5 50 132.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 11 4 5 1 38
Perception (PP) 11 2 22 1 3 5 44
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 5 5 31 88.0
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 8 1 5 1 32
Perception (MP) 11 1 10 1 2 25
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 6 11 3 5 38 105.0
Agility (SA) 8 2 5 8 1 5 6 35
Perception (SP) 10 5 8 4 5 32
Totals 92 44 53 33 40 12 25 22 4 321
Free Points 2 0 0 0 0 3 0
Resistances: Poison +19, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +28, Heat +20, Fire +13, Disease 1 Skills: Novice: Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Detect Traps 4, Spiritual Trapping 4, Petrification 4, Monster Lore 4, Sentient Lore 4 Granite Sand 4, Roleplay 2, Sudden Strike 3, Apprentice: Fishing 8, Sewing 8, Cooking 8, Tutor 9, Truth Sensing 9, Sense Treasure 6, Hunters Mark 5 Butchering 7, Weapon Repair 7, Repair Leather Armour 6 Plant Lore 8, Mineral Lore 6, Granite Quake 7, Granite Wall 5, Animal Care 7, Venom Arrow 8, Veneer 7, Map Making 7, Dwarvish 9, Triple Shot 6, Longbow 7, Granite Manipulation 5 Journeyman: Hearing Aid 13, Hammer 13, Mapping 10, Identify 11, Deceive 12, Manipulate Status 10, Granite Spike 13, Granite Sense 11, Granite Bones 12, Granite Shield 11, Trapping 10, Tracking 11, Skinning 10, Bow 12, Small Blades 13, Unarmed Combat 11, Throw Weapons 12, Spear 12, Quick Strike 11, Power Strike 10 Darksight 11, Far Sight 11, Bond Senses 11, Orcish 11, Camouflage 11, Animal Lore 10 Imbue Venom 11, Snakeskin 11, Regeneration 10 Hide Armourer 11, Riding 10, Sense Spiritual 10 Master: Stealth 16, Animal Bond 15 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 8 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +22, Cold +29, Heat +20, Fire +13, Pain +11 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 2, Sudden Strike 1, Hunters Mark 1 Apprentice: Power Strike 9, Granite Spike 6, Strength Boost 9, Venom Spit 9, Granite Shield 7, Grow 9, Regeneration 7, Granite Sense 7, Granite Manipulation 8 Journeyman: Camouflage 13 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 17 Affinity: Granite Tabitha Carter
Tabitha Carter Class Thief Merch SPred Rider Rack Enter Brglr Total
Type Attribute Level 13 11 10 5 4 5 This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. 2 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 2 3 2 7 2 5 30 120.0
Agility (PA) 12 3 13 10 5 2 45
Perception (PP) 11 5 13 11 5 45
Mental Strength (MS) 8 3 4 6 1 4 5 31 114.0
Agility (MA) 12 2 1 11 2 1 5 5 39
Perception (MP) 10 1 13 11 4 5 44
Spiritual Strength (SS) 9 1 6 3 11 6 2 2 40 122.0
Agility (SA) 10 1 5 3 11 10 40
Perception (SP) 10 4 7 8 9 4 42
Totals 91 22 65 55 50 20 20 25 8 356
Free Points 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Resistances: Cold +20, Poison +3, Pain +4, Disease 1 Skills Novice: Sewing 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Syphon Energy 4 Elemental Senses 2, Body Image 1 Apprentice: Pickpocket 7, Trapping 5, Shadow Puppet 7, Blunt Weapon 9, Knockout Strike 9, Parry 7, Cooking 7, Animal Care 9, Hearing Aid 5 Sleight of Hand 9, Dual Wield 7, Rampage 7, Sentient Lore 7, Orcish 6, Performance 7, Adjuster 6 Binding Shadows 5, Spatial Pocket 7, Journeyman: Riding 11, Bargain 11, Appraise 10, Lock Pick 10, Detect Traps 10, Detect Spiritual Traps 10, Disarm Spiritual Traps 10, Sense Spiritual 10, Confuse Status 10, Identify 11, Distract 13, Disarm Traps 10, Dwarvish 12, Lute 10, Coax 10, Mimic 10, Elemental Bond 10, Engulfing Shadows 13, Shadows Embrace 14, Intimidating Aura 11, Spatial Awareness 11, Small Blades 13, Unarmed Combat 10, Swords 10, Master: Stealth 16, Darksight 15, Shadow Manipulation 15, Affinity: Shadow Bond: Nyx, Shadow Elemental Skills: Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry, Coax, Engulfing Shadows, Sense Spiritual Ruku
Ruku Class Fisher Diver War Commando MHunt Lead Trainer Total
Type Attribute Level 14 9 12 9 7 9 5 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 12 7 14 3 24 9 7 76 188.0
Agility (PA) 10 5 14 9 10 9 7 64
Perception (PP) 11 2 10 9 0 9 2 5 48
Mental Strength (MS) 12 8 0 3 12 7 9 51 115.0
Agility (MA) 12 5 3 9 5 34
Perception (MP) 9 2 5 9 5 30
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 5 9 8 0 7 42 118.0
Agility (SA) 10 5 5 3 5 4 3 3 5 43
Perception (SP) 8 2 8 1 9 5 33
Totals 94 39 56 36 60 45 34 32 25 421
Free Points 0 0 0 0 1 4 0
Resistances: Pressure +35, Cold +49, Poison +27, Pain +26, Disease 1 Skills: Novice: Cooking 4, Weaving 4, Carpentry 4 Apprentice: Shield Bash 8, Sewing 6, Coach 7, Skill Book 5 Sailing 8, Throw Weapons 9, Stealth 9, Harpoon 7 Animal Lore 6, Monster Lore 5 Orcish 7, Barbarian 8. Journeyman: Sword 11, Shield 12, Axe 10, Unarmed Combat 12 Piercing Strike 14, Camouflage 10, Fast strike 13, Sonar 13, Farsight 10, Tasty 11, Ocean Sense 10, Sense Spiritual 12 Interrogate Status 12, Hide Status 13, Identify 12 Tough Hide 11, Water Sprint 10, Spear Fishing 10, Repair Weapon 11, Water Surge 12, Refreshing Mist 10, Hydrate 11, Whirlpool Shield10 Inspiring Aura 10, Enhance Attribute 11 Dwarvish 14, Mer 10 Aquatic Lore 11 Master: Darksight 16, Animal Bond 15, Spear 15, Small Blades 16, Fishing 15, Water Manipulation 15, Oxygen Efficiency 15, Regeneration 17 Affinity: Water Monster Kills: 6 Bond Opo Dolphin, Deceased. Salamander - Wai Paihana Affinity: Water Toxic Skin, Oxygen Absorption, Regeneration, Olfaction, Permeable Skin, Hydrate, Water manipulation, Interlude: Where to next? Thanks for reading Triple Strength. If you have made it this far, you must still enjoy it. I am still enjoying writing it. I hope you are working on increasing your Physical, Mental and Spiritual Strength as much as Wiremu is. What is coming up? For this next Novela-length section, I am labelling it book 3.5 as it is the excursion of Ruku and Gwaed into Northport. Blood and Death as Gwaed seeks revenge. I am going to increase the release rate as I have built a buffer, and I know people are keen to get back to Wiremu and Tabitha. I am writing about Wiremu and Tabitha now. They are monster-hunting their way south to Kirghiz. Wiremu is also, finally, putting some effort into his Spy Class and the associated and neglected skills. Tabitha is making coin and causing trouble.

Book 3.5 Blood and Death

In this section with Ruku and Gwaed, you will learn more about bonds, alchemy, and how Gwaed got her reputation. You will also learn more about the Slave Class. Yes, this is some of the information Wiremu needs. If you choose to skip this and wait for Wiremu, you will still find out which ONE of them returns, but you won¡¯t find out why.

Names

If you haven¡¯t worked out the naming conventions I am using, here is some background for you. Humans. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Humans are usually using English names. The Empire is mostly human, so they are English. There are exceptions like ?rt, who have spent a lot of time with other races. Dwarves. Dwarves are Scandinavian mythology, so I am using Scandinavian names for people and towns. Sometimes I look up common people''s names, and sometimes I use google translate to find names. For example, translate ?rt and Kryddor from Norwegian. Orc. Orc names are based on Slovenian. That was a bit of a random choice on my part. I blame Koza and Velikan. Elf. Elf names are based on the Welsh. I just liked the way they spelt things. Mer The Mer are based on the south pacific languages. Sione is a very common Samoan name. Wiremu is, in fact, a very common Maori name. I had intended to have more Maori culture, but then he got abducted by an evil empire and ended up in a Dwarf / Orc / Human Kingdom. Catkin The Catkin names are Tamil (South India) because I once visited there for a few weeks. Several decades ago. There are a lot of other Animal kin races, and names will vary wildly depending on the animal and where it is found. For example, Wolf kin are probably North American languages. Desert animal kin will probably be from languages around the Sahara, Kalahari, etc. I am thinking desert as we will be reentering the Empire from the south, which means skirting the edge of the Great Desert. See the rough map in the post-chapter notes below. Avion You haven¡¯t seen the Avions yet except in passing. There are as many variations of Avions as there are Mer. They rule the skies and have the only air travel system available. Their names will come from Asian languages. If you want to message me, it is better on my discord channel - see below in the post-chapter notes. Enjoy. 129. Wai Paihana: Ruku. I named the little guy Wai Paihana. I will call him Wai for short. He was little, too. He was no longer than my forefinger when we bonded. He will grow a bit, maybe double the size. He is a Salamander with the biology of a frog but the shape of a lizard. When we bonded, my Regeneration jumped up past the Master''s level. I can regenerate limbs now, and everything will heal faster. I also got a large boost in Poison Resistance. Wai got a boost to his intelligence and my water affinity. He immediately learned to Hydrate himself to keep his skin moist, and he learned Water Manipulation. I think Wai will get more out of this bond than I will. We have a couple of months aboard ship to learn from each other. This is helped by the fact I already have a Master Level Animal Bond Skill. A lot of Wai¡¯s abilities work through his skin, including his poison, and his skin is permeable to water and helps his breathing in some way. I think it absorbs oxygen. I am not sure how yet. At the lava stage, Wai had gills, which are gone now. If I can figure out how his skin works, I might be able to stay underwater almost indefinitely if it combines with my Oxygen Efficiency Skill. The first thing I want to learn from Wai is his poison, and the first thing I want to teach him is my Whirlpool Shield. He is quite vulnerable. I have the Tough Hide Skill I got from my previous bond Opo, the dolphin. I might be able to teach him that, but I don¡¯t know how well that will work with his permeable skin. We will have to experiment. Wai is so small he can crawl under my clothes. Having his cool, moist skin against mine is quite nice. His legs grip very well. They are plate-like webbed feet that seem to grip by suction. That might be a useful thing for me to learn as well. His tail can also grip and grasp objects, and he can hang from it. Wai is black with bright yellow markings. This signals to predators that he is poisonous and warns them away. We will need to work on Camouflage for him as well. If Wai can learn Whirlpool Shield and Water Sprint from me, combined with his small size, he will be almost uncatchable. Wai eats insects and worms, so he is very easy to feed. He will eat basically anything small enough. His tongue darts out to catch his food like a frog. Wai¡¯s poison is only used as a defence ability at the moment. He doesn¡¯t seem to have any offensive abilities. I hope I will be able to learn his poison and then use it to poison my Water Surge skill and then teach it back to Wai. We will have to see how that goes. Water Surge is a very versatile Skill, from making a wave to pushing things to being able to narrow the focus so it cuts through things. I have used it to propel me faster in the water as well. We are going to hunt an assassin with a death affinity. The boosts to Regeneration and Poison Resistance alone have made this bond useful. A bond is not there just to be useful. A bond is a partnership that involves a relationship, even though that relationship is very different to human relationships. Opo and I were together for thirty years and got to know each other very well. Wai and I are just starting to get to know each other. He is very different to Opo. Opo took joy in simple things like speed swimming, leaping and chasing fish. Wai is a lot more sedate. He is happy just to sit and watch things around him. Sort of like what I was doing in my two years of retirement from the Royal Commandos. Things between Wai and I are starting out very well. One thing I am worried about is how Wai will handle salt water. He is only used to fresh water, and with his Permeable Skin, I am worried the salt might get in and kill him. Maybe it wouldn¡¯t kill him with his level of Regeneration, but it could be severely crippling while immersed. We will have to test it and see what we can work out. We will be spending over two months at sea. Salt gets everywhere. I am sure we can work out a solution with our Water Manipulation Skills. This is going to stretch me after I have been lazing about for a couple of years. No time to concentrate now, though. Our ride to Northport is leaving on the high tide. Gwaed and her contact arranged the ride. It was a fairly rundown trader that I would be sure to inspect thoroughly if I was back doing Customs work. We will have to leave the ship and make our way into Northport as their Customs inspections are stricter than ours. That is a task for later, assuming the ship makes it to Northport. That is not guaranteed. It is not a passenger ship, so we will need to work for our passage. I signed as a general seaman. My experience on Navy ships means I am very familiar with sailing work. My Sailing Skill is upper Apprentice Level. Gwaed signed on as assistant cook and medic. She had an ID from the Mercenary Guild as an Alchemist Healer under the name Rotte. She gave the Captain the name Rotte and took on her human disguise. He was not sure about someone with the Dwarvish name of Rat being a cook. He was less impressed when she introduced him to her bonds, Merch the rat and Sugnwr the vampire bat. She was told in no uncertain terms to keep them out of sight and out of the food stores. I caught Gwaed passing over some extra coin. Wai barely was glanced at after that. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The Captain was a slimy fellow. I am not sure what type of Mer he was, but he definitely had some hagfish in him. The ship was optimistically called Sea¡¯s Fortune. It was a three-masted Caravel that had seen better days. There was a crew of around forty. I was under the orders of the first mate. She was also a Mer, as were about half the crew. The rest of the crew were Human, with three Dwarves and two Orcs. The Orcs were specialised security personnel, and one was the Master of Arms. Well, that was what he would have been on a Navy ship. I don¡¯t know what they are called on a civilian ship. I guess I will find out. There were two shifts for us seamen. Dawn till dusk and then dusk till dawn. A bell would signal an all-hands situation. We would get rotated through both shifts following the First Mate. The alternate shift was under the Captain. I was bunking in the main bunkroom. There were about twenty hammocks that we hot bunked in with a mate on the alternate shift. Each crew had a locker for their personal gear. Gwaed was bunking in the sick bay with her bonds. The first few days were slowly getting used to everything and learning the ropes, literally. There were only four of us newbies on our shift. The rest were old hands. I enjoyed getting up in the masts and working the sails the most. When the First Mate found out I had Farsight and Darksight, she had me up in the crow''s nest for some of the shift. We started with the night shift. I gradually settled into the routine, and my body got used to the work and the climbing. We were fed before the start of the shift and after we finished. We got a piece of fruit at around lunch until it went bad, and then it was some salted meat to chew on. There was always water available, and one of the regular jobs was to work the pump to refill the barrels. The pump was fascinating as it was pumping seawater, and there was a series of runes to separate out the salt and other impurities to make clean drinking water. The pump jammed at one point, and I helped the ship¡¯s carpenter to open it up and fix it, so I got a good look at the inner workings. The runes were beyond us, but the carpenter knew which general set of runes did what, and there were two main sections that cleaned the water. One was specifically written for the salt. Seawater came in, clean water went into the barrel, and impurities went back over the side of the ship. When we operated the pump without the cover to ensure it was working, I watched with my Sense Spiritual as the water passed each rune section, and I got an idea of what the runes were doing to the water. Now I need to try and replicate it for both Wai and me. I got some funny looks because after we had eaten after our shift, Wai and I would sit on the deck for an hour or so with a bucket of seawater and stare at it. Every few minutes, I would scoop out a handful and stare at that. What was happening was that I had our bond at the forefront of my mind and tried to replicate the runes using my Water Manipulation while observing in the Spiritual. I was trying to walk Wai through what I was doing, and he would try and copy me. It took us over a week of regular practice before it finally clicked into place. Purifying Water was the name of the skill, and as soon as I got it, so did Wai. It could be used on myself or on someone else by touching them. It would grow in the water volume and the cleaning ability as it levelled. The cost of use would also reduce. Wai tried it out in the bucket of seawater, and I could tell it still wasn¡¯t pleasant for him, but he could survive for a good length of time. Every now and then, he would poop out the impurities. Seawater is never going to be his thing. I tried it on myself, and a cleansing wave moved through my body. I had to rush to the side of the ship and stick my butt over as I also needed to poop out the impurities. Daily cleansing will be good for me. This will also be a good skill to have against a Death affinity user. I need to level it as much as possible. On the easier front, going up and down the masts and rigging meant Wai could teach me how he used his suction pads. I picked up the Skill Suction Grip quite easily. The Suction Grip is not strong enough to hold my weight on its own yet. At Apprentice Level, I will need all four points of contact to be able to hold in place solely with only the grips. At Journeyman Level, I will only need one point of contact. At Master Level, it won¡¯t need to be my hands and feet, but any point of contact will do. Obviously, the more weight I carry, the more grips I need. The best use for it now is to supplement my grip, reducing my physical exertion. It is getting plenty of practice. I haven¡¯t been able to work out anything about how Wai¡¯s skin works yet. There are poison glands spread throughout his skin, but I don¡¯t know how they work. His permeable skin and respiratory skin are just a mystery. I am happy we managed to figure out how he could survive in seawater. That was the most important thing for us to discover. 130. Alchemist: Gwaed.

130. Alchemist: Gwaed.

The bloody fucking useless captain. He should be thankful he has a medic willing to work on this wreck he calls a ship. He should not be extorting more coins just because I have some bonds he doesn¡¯t like. I think I will concoct something that will keep him shitting for the next couple of days. Never upset your bloody healer. I have a lot of luggage with me because I brought some basic alchemy supplies. The sick bay was tiny. I reduced the two cots to one to make room for my alchemy and strung up my hammock in the corner. Above the hammock, I curtained off the corner so Sugnwr had a dark place to sleep. I left a rope hanging from the hammock, so Merch could come and go as she liked. The first few seamen to come to the sick bay got the rough treatment. One got a potion to ¡°clean out the disease,¡± which left him puking and shitting all night. The others got absolutely vile concoctions, whether they needed them or not. The idea was to get the word around about this so people would think twice about coming to see me. Should they just tough it out? Yes, they should, in 90% of the cases. This will make my workload easy for the trip. My schedule is pretty cruisey. I am up a 4 am for the breakfast crowd. The off-shift comes through first, and then they go out and relieve the others, who come for their meal. I am done by 8 am. This is repeated in the afternoon, and I am busy between 4 pm and 8 pm. This is minimal effort for my Journeyman Level Cooking Skill. There is a lot of crossover between cooking and alchemy. The rest of the time, I am on call as the healer, and I made sure there was minimal call for the healer. The trip to Northport will take about three months. That includes several stops on the way to small independent villages. Without the stops, it would take us just over two months, and I am sure the Imperial Navy will have it done in 6 weeks or less. I figure we are going to be two months behind this assassin. If she stays in Northport, that is fine. If she moves on, that is a problem. I know what she looks like, thanks to Tabitha. I have her smell and the taste of her blood, thanks to Modrica. I still can¡¯t believe those two are Blood Sisters, Krvne sestre. I am a bit envious. I wish I had someone like that. Never mind, my bonds have always been enough. I am starting to prepare my bonds for another one to join us. Merch is my latest bond, so Sugnwr has been through this. It still takes a lot of work to fit a new personality into our family. It took six months for Difetha and Sugnwr to settle. It only took a couple of months for Merch to settle in as she was very similar to her mother, Difetha. If I manage to bond with a Vulture, that is going to be a huge change. Our timing is not the best either. The best way would be to bond a new hatchling, but by the time we get to the breeding grounds, which is our second stop, the chicks will be just learning to fly. They will already have a basic personality and have fought with their siblings over food and a lot of other things. We will have to wait and see if I can find one I can bond with. I have more reasons to bond with a Vulture than just the sensitivity to rotting carcases, although that ability will be invaluable, especially if the assassin has moved on from Northport. Vultures have very potent stomach acid to break down bacteria. I already have the Skill Strong Stomach from my rats, but this acid could be used as a weapon and in my alchemy. It will be useful, even if I have to throw up to access it. Vultures also have good thermoregulation to keep their body temperature in a certain range. Being able to adjust my body temperature will help my blood alchemy. When I learned Infrared Vision from Sugnwr, it was a game changer for my alchemy. To be able to see when something is at the right temperature stopped so much wastage and upped the potency of the potions I could brew. Being able to regulate the temperature of my blood should mean I can increase the potency of my Blood Alchemy in the recipes that use my own blood. I am also looking for more movement skills, but I have not been very successful at learning these from Sugnwr, so I am not getting my hopes up. I have got so many other things from Sugnwr I am not complaining. Infrared Vision, Echolocation, Blood Infection, and boosts to Sense Blood and Blood Poison all came from her. She seems to have the raw end of the deal, only learning Hidden Strike, Stealth and Blood Manipulation from me. She seems happy. My rats Difetha and Merch have given me Olfaction, which is similar to the Hunter version of Blood Hound. Enhanced smell. I also have a Strong Stomach from them, allowing me to eat almost anything, and, of course, Rat Fur. Difetha learned several Blood Skills from me, but Merch is young and has only Stealth. The Skills from my first bond, Tom, are still there, but they only grow slowly. My fighting style is called Catfighting, and I learned it from him. It best uses the claws and fangs I got from him. Tom was my bond through the time I was learning Alchemy and the specialisations of Poison and Blood Alchemy. I studied Ninjutsu from childhood, so I have the standard Stealth, Throwing Weapons, Staff Weapons and Small Blades from that. My Unarmed Combat was merged into my Catfighting Skill, which boosted it to the Master Level. Druid was my second class, and my Blood Affinity seemed to change it into Blood Druid with the limits and benefits of that. I could never bond with something like Nyx. My bonds require blood, and no sap doesn¡¯t count. I tried it. It was my Alchemy and, in particular, the Blood Alchemy that really made my reputation as the Gwrach Waed or Blood Witch. The key to that was learning the Spiritual Sensitivity Skill. This meant I could tailor the amount and flavour of the spiritual energy into the potions. It made them very effective, especially if I could get a taste of my target blood. This Death assassin will need something very different from anything I have done in the past. Thanks to Modrica, I got to taste her blood, and I have some stored. This will probably be enough to push my Blood Alchemy Class to the Master Levels. I have never known anyone with a Class at the Master Level. It is very difficult to get there, and good things are supposed to happen. There are some ancient Elves who apparently have done it, but none of them were less than 200 years old when they did it. I am only just closing in on my first century. It is probably got something to do with the Elven philosophy of ¡°slow and steady wins the race.¡± Elves are risk-averse in general. I have set up my alchemy to analyse Lady Death¡¯s blood. Using someone''s own blood in the final poison is often very effective, but not in this case. Rot and Death are going to need to be countered with life and growth. The basis for this poison is going to be a mixture of a health potion and a fertility potion. Ideally, I would like to use the blood from a goblin, or preferably a goblin Shaman, as the base ingredient. I am not going to find any of those around here, so I will have to substitute things, and that will make it more complicated. My blood has many cleansing and rejuvenation abilities, so I will start with that as a base. Zebrafish can apparently regenerate their own heart, and Ruku is a fisherman. He might be able to catch me some to use. Now, let''s see what other ingredients I will need. Jellyfish or stingray poison can add some bite to the concoction. The idea at this stage is to negate the death and rot with a healing base and then add something that will kill or, more likely, incapacitate. Healing and poisons don¡¯t usually combine into one potion. A lot of this poison will be from ocean sources. I am going to need to lean heavily on my Improvise Skill. This is going to be a long process. Fortunately, I have some months on hand to work on it.
Gwaed Class BDruid Alch BAlch PAlch Ninjutsu Total
Type Attribute Level 11 10 14 8 10 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 6 3 8 0 If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. 7 6 30 112
Agility (PA) 12 2 3 4 5 16 42
Perception (PP) 10 1 4 0 11 14 40
Mental Strength (MS) 15 8 11 3 5 42 131
Agility (MA) 20 4 11 10 0 8 2 55
Perception (MP) 15 2 0 3 0 4 10 34
Spiritual Strength (SS) 7 2 3 10 14 4 40 137
Agility (SA) 8 2 11 10 14 8 53
Perception (SP) 7 1 4 10 14 8 44
Totals 100 25 55 50 70 32 48 380
Free Points 0 0 0 0 2
Resistances: Cold 24, Disease 32, Poison 33, Pain 24 Skills: Novice: Apprentice: Sewing 9, Conceal 8, Herb Lore 7, Fungus Lore 5 Sailing 8, Throw Weapons 9, Staff Weapons 7, Blunt Weapons 5 Mammal Lore 5, Sentient Lore 9, Anatomy Lore 6 Haemorrhage 8, Blood Infusion 9, Blood Infection 8 Barbarian 8, Infrared Vision 7, Claws 8, Stalk 8, Fangs 9, Journeyman: Common 11, Dwarvish 10, Animal Lore 11, Plant Lore 10 Echolocation 11, Olfaction 11, Sense Blood 14, Blood Clot 10, Blood Cleanse 11, Poison Blood 10, Blood Rejuvenation 11, Tasty 10. Cooking 11, Strong Stomach 13, Rat Fur 10 Measure 10, Purify 11, Sense Spiritual 13, Spiritual Sensitivity 11 Poison Blade 10, Hidden Strike 11, Stealth 10, Obfuscate 11, Veil Status 10, Improvise 14 Master: Nightsight 15, Animal Bond 17, Small Blades 16, Catfighting 15, Blood Manipulation 15, Affinity: Blood Monster Kills: 0 Bonds Sgrapiwr - (Deceased Tomcat) Difetha - (Deceased Rat) Merch - small daughter rat Stealth, Strong Constitution, Olfaction Sugnwr - vampire bat - Echolocation, Infrared Vision. Disease - rabies Blood Infection, Blood Poison, Blood Rejuvenation, Stealth, Sense Blood, Hidden Strike, Stealth, Blood Manipulation. 131. New Bond: Gwaed.

131. New Bond: Gwaed.

Another bloody Health potion. Either the mixtures fail, or the healing portion overwhelms the poison or vice versa. For three weeks, I have been at it with no apparent progress. I have a supply of health potions, although some of them have some interesting side effects. I have mostly been using my blood and the Zebrafish Wiremu caught for me. Poisons have been from the stingray, box jellyfish and barracuda. I have also created some interesting poisons, but nothing suitable for the Death assassin. My Poison Resistance went up a level, so some of the poisons are potent. We will be docking this evening at a small fishing village, and I have a trek inland to try and find a bond. The ship will only be here for three days to trade, restock, and give the crew two days on land. I have a long way to go to get there and back in three days, so I will be leaving as soon as we dock. Walking through the night doesn¡¯t worry me. I have Nightsight, rather than the fancy Darksight, but with my Echolocation, Infrared Vision, Olfaction and Sense Blood, I should be able to avoid anything and make fast progress. I also want to find a number of specific plants for my alchemy, and I am always on the lookout for new plant and animal materials to experiment with. Sugnwr will also scout for me, which is another reason to leave at night. I have been working with both Sugnwr and Merch on their skills, and Sugnwr has not learned anything new, but Merch has learned Blood Rejuvenation which might help keep her alive, even though it wasn¡¯t enough for Difetha. I hadn¡¯t been to this area for over thirty years when I was first sailing for Obalno, but I imagine it hasn¡¯t changed much. These areas don¡¯t seem to change as they are mostly just wilderness and mountains. Lots of mountains. Mountain Troll blood would be good to try in my potion, but I doubt I could take one down alone. Actually, that could be a good enterprise if I bond with a vulture. Searching for Monster carcases and scavaging the beast cores from them. Feeding my bonds Monster meat also allows them the grow much stronger than a normal animal. The cores are very dangerous for them, though. Wiremu got very lucky with T¨¡oke. I learned through my Druid Class, though, that if you feed your bonds enough Monster meat, they can develop their own cores over time and become monsters. It is much safer than letting them eat a core. I have my pack prepared, and I am ready to go as soon as we dock. I have let the captain know, and Ruku will hopefully stop them from leaving me here if I am back a little late. Ruku wanted to come, but it is better if it is just me and my bonds. I have given Ruku a list of local ingredients to get for me and, of course, any monster meat or blood. Sometimes the village hunters have to take out monsters, so you never know. I have packed most of the poisons I have created and some of the more potent health potions. I have a Staff, and while I have the Staff Weapon Skill, it is better for me to use weapons that draw blood. My claws and knives are better, and I can use my skills like Haemorrhage, Poison Blood and Blood Infection. My Throw Weapons Skill is the only ranged attack I have, and I have some throwing stars for that. It is a weak area for me, and Sugnwr is only of limited help. I am taking Merch with me, even though his strengths are in a city. In the wilderness, she is mostly just prey. It is better for the new bond if all the other bonds are present. I think she likes snuggling in my bosom. We docked in the late afternoon as expected, and we were down the gangplank almost as soon as it was lowered. Sugnwr had left earlier and had started scouting the edge of the village. The villagers were happy to see the trading vessel and were gathering their wares to try and sell. I am glad I am not a Merchant. I stopped and bought some supplies for the trip and got information on the local monster situation. I soon left the village behind me. I have Journeyman Stealth, so I can move quite quickly with a reasonable amount of stealth. We set off at a steady jog. There are normal animal signs, although I am no tracker. I saw moose and deer and normal predators. In these mountains, the normal apex predators are the wolf, bear, coyote and fox. There are numerous lesser predators. Sugnwr has already spotted a bear and a small wolf pack. I altered my route to avoid them. Three hours later, it was full night, and I was descending into a valley when Sugnwr indicated she had found something interesting. I altered my direction, and when I got close, I went into full stealth. It was a fight, but not just any fight. A pack of coyotes were attacking a fox, but not just any fox. It was a Monster Fox with a fire affinity. How the hell a fox awoke a fire affinity out here was a mystery, but it wasn¡¯t doing so well. Affinities are awoken in a person or beast, not gained any other way. It looks like the coyotes had hamstrung the fox, so it couldn¡¯t move well. The fox was burning all the coyotes when they approached, and a number of coyote corpses were scattered around. There were other smouldering fires around in the pine needles and grasses of the forest floor. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. This was an opportunity for me to scavenge a monster kill and a monster core. I have not had a monster kill before. The Druid class, or Dryw in Elvish, provides a particular specialisation for those with a monster kill. The Gwarchodwr Dryw or Sentinel Druid in the common tongue. Skills the class gives were many and varied, but now was not the time for speculation. It was the time for action. I withdrew three throwing stars and put one in each coyote and one in the fox. The female coyote took the star in the throat and, combined with the other injuries, she collapsed to bleed out. The male coyote moved, and the star lodged in his shoulder muscle. That was enough for him, and he retreated at speed. I swore at him. I don¡¯t have many of the throwing stars. Maybe I will track him later. I have his scent. The fox was the best throw, and the star hit him in the neck, severing his spine. I moved forward carefully and killed the fox. I dug out the Beast Core and then drained his blood into a container. I then cut the fur off as best I could. I didn¡¯t have a Skinning Skill, so I didn¡¯t really know what I was doing, but I knew it was worth something, even just as a bed for Merch. I then let Merc out and called Sugnwr to feast on the corpse. One of the reasons Difetha go so big and learned so many skills was the amount of monster meat I could feed her. She had not become a Monster when she died, but she was well on her way. I tore off a raw leg to chew on myself while I checked on my status. Raw meat is no problem for me with my Fangs and Strong Stomach Skills. I did still prefer my meat to be cooked. Then I heard the whimper and whine and picked up movement among what I thought were coyote corpses. A young coyote was crawling toward me. He had burned fur around his mouth, and his back leg didn¡¯t work. When he was close and saw he had been noticed, he rolled on his back, presenting his throat and belly to me submitting. ¡°Oh, bloody hell no,¡± I said, ¡°you are not joining my pack.¡± The coyote stayed with his belly up and whined/whimpered again. ¡°No. I should just put you out of your misery,¡± I threatened. He whined again and wriggled closer to me, still on his back. ¡°What the hell does our pack want with a dog?¡± I asked. He yipped at me a few times. ¡°I know you are fast, faster than any wolf. Yes, I know you can track, but you will piss everywhere, marking your territory.¡± I complained. He whined again, wriggling closer. ¡°Shit.¡± This was the first time an animal had chosen to bond with me, rather than me choosing who to bond with. The bond was mostly done at this point, fucking dogs. I ripped off the other hind leg from the fox and tossed it to him, completing the bond. ¡°You had better bloody well earn your keep,¡± I told him as he scrambled to get the leg and started ripping the meat from the bone. His mouth must have been really hurting him, as a whimper accompanied each bite. Bloody hell, ¡°Come here,¡± I told him, and he picked up the fox leg and limped over. I pulled out one of my healing potions and poured some into the cup of my hand for him to lick. I then spread some on his other burns and had a look at his hind leg. The bone was fine, but the tendon was cut and burned. The fox did a number on it, and it will take a while for it to heal. I spread some of the potion over it and fed the rest to the mutt. I then cut my wrist and used Blood Infusion to give him a Blood Rejuvenation and Blood Cleanse. He picked up my affinity straight away, which I think is why he wanted the bond so much. I suspect he had a latent Blood Affinity in him. ¡°You need a name,¡± I said. What do I name a Blood Affinity coyote? Blood Sport? No, the Elvish is too long we need something simple. Whiner? He had a typical grey coat of fur with no special markings. I judged him to be about the age of a teenage coyote. He went back to chewing on his fox leg. Stubborn? Almost dogged stubborn? That is a good quality to have and means he is going to be very loyal. Pybyr is Elvish for staunch. Pybyr it is. I have never had a bond with its own affinity. My bonds tend to learn my blood skills through our bond, but not the affinity itself. I don¡¯t actually know what that means. Animals who become monsters will awaken an affinity, which I guess is why it is so hard for animals to do. Will he become a monster easier and sooner than the others? I don¡¯t know. Will his affinity skills be stronger, and can he learn them easier? Probably. Pybyr finished his leg and moved to partake of the main carcass. Merch squeaked at him a waved a paw at him, and he backed off. At least he knows his place at the bottom of the pack. Seeing a rat tell off a coyote was pretty amusing. The thing with Merch and Sugnwr is they won¡¯t eat a lot, so there will be plenty for Pybyr to finish. I fished out the fox¡¯s guts and organs and tossed them to him, except for the heart. I took a bite from the heart and then gave the rest to Sugnwr. It was chewy. 132. New Class: Gwaed.

132. New Class: Gwaed.

I didn¡¯t want to spend too long with all these carcasses. They will attract scavengers. I don¡¯t want to bond with adult vultures. I do still have a bond connection available for a vulture. I can have my normal bond, and then I get another bond for every five levels of the Druid Class. So I get a Bond for Novice, Apprentice and Journeyman levels. So that is four total, and being an Elf, it is easier to get more based on my Mental Attributes, but the more bonds I have, the more complicated everything gets. Time to look at my status. I first noticed that Throw Weapons had bumped to Journeyman Level. It must have been on the verge of levelling. My new class was there. Sentinel Druid. It is a full five-point Class with one point assigned to each of the Physical Attributes, one point to Spiritual Perception, and one free point. Finally, a class that gives me a point in Physical Strength. My Ninjutsu Class gave me points in Physical Agility and Perception as well as Mental Perception, but none of my classes gave me Physical Strength. I sunk a lot of free points into that to try to keep up. The Skill that Sentinel Druid gave me was interesting. A druid is someone who watches over and cares for the forest. A sentinel is also someone who watches or stands as if watching or on guard. The Skill is called Scry and is based on Mental and Spiritual Perception. If I have an object with a Spiritual connection to someone, I can generate a vision of where they are. It uses Mental and Spiritual Energy, so I would tire quickly. It wouldn''t tell me much if I used it on a Death Assassin, through their blood, and she was asleep in a bedroom. But if she was out and about, I might see key features of her position. It uses my highest Sense first, which is Nightsight for me. As it levels, the costs reduce, but more senses become available in the vision, in order of their level. For me, this is Nightsight, Sense Blood, Sense Spiritual, Olfaction, Echolocation, Tasty, and Infrared Vision. I see Pybyr has Hearing Aid, so I will learn that soon so I can hear what is going on. Tasty will be useless, but all the others can add value. As the skill levels, it adds one Sense to every level, and once all the senses are engaged, it increases their power, so I will see more and smell more etc. I can choose not to have some senses included, so I exclude Tasty straight away. Once I get Hearing Aid, I will be able to have a three-dimensional view with all the senses involved. The longer I hold it, the more costly it becomes. The fact I had Spiritual Sensitivity means even the smallest spiritual link should be available to me. Spiritual links fade with time, even in the blood, but they can be preserved the same way I preserve blood for my alchemy. I decide to test the skill, so I go over to where the coyote who ran off was and collect some of his blood. I use my Sense Spiritual to find the link and engage Scry 1. I get a dark image of the coyote curled up and licking his wounds. He must be in his den, which means it is not far away. There is no sign of my throwing star, so it must have fallen out somewhere. I have to drop the image after about ten seconds, but that is enough. I will be able to hold it longer as it levels. My recovery rate for Mental and Spiritual energy is pretty good, so I will be able to use the skill again in about four hours. I will look forward to the cost reductions. I looked at the other dead Coyotes in the area, and all their pelts had scorch marks. I had no skinning skills and didn¡¯t want to lug around unnecessary weight, so we just left them. I had Pybyr track his ex pack mate to try to find my throwing star, but Merch or I could have tracked him just as easily with our Olfaction Skill. The star was lying on the ground only five minutes away. Pybyr was limping but could keep up with our jog with only three legs, so we set off again. We jogged through the night. About two hours before dawn, we stopped for a power nap. I left Sugnwr on watch, and we had a quick nap. Pybyr was nice to sleep against. We had cold meat for breakfast, and I made a nice place for Sugnwr to sleep in my pack during the day. We are basically at the breeding grounds, so the day will be locating nests and seeing if I can form a bond. It took two hours to find the first nest, and it was empty. It is going to be a long day. We had checked four nests by lunchtime. Three were empty. The fourth has three nearly adult chicks. They had very little down left on them, so they were almost ready to fly away. They were squawking and attacking each other, and I didn¡¯t have a good feeling about this, so I just stealthily backed away. We sat on an outcrop and had jerky for lunch. As we sat, I watched the sky, looking for vultures coming and going. I didn¡¯t have Farsight, so I was restricted to just using my Physical Perception attribute. Then I saw a big black bird take off from the next mountain over. That was a Condor. I think it was a Kirghiz Condor. Kirghiz Condors are the largest land bird on this continent. Some sea birds are larger, e.g. the albatross, but very few. The wing span grows to well over three meters, and they weigh up to 15kg. Condors are the largest type of vulture and are very rare, almost extinct. The main difference between them and other vultures is their feet. They don¡¯t have claws on their feet, which means they are more adapted to walking than their relatives. Their feet are, therefore, not useful as weapons, and their only attack is their beak. They are scavengers, so they rarely attack things. They are nicer looking birds than their cousins, with their black feathers. They are soaring birds, so they can stay in the air for hours with little effort. I think it is worth the hike to see if there is a nest, even though It might take about three hours or more at our jogging rate. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. It was a tough climb, especially as I had to carry Pybyr for the last part of it. Bloody dog. At least Sugnwr is small and light. The nest didn¡¯t have a chick. It had a young adult. I had forgotten Condor chicks stayed with their parents for up to two years before getting kicked out by the next chicks. This fellow was thin to the point of starvation, and when he extended his wings, one of them was crooked. It had been broken and obviously healed wrong. He had the typical bald head and black plumage. I tossed him some jerky, and he gobbled it up quickly. I held out some more as I eased myself onto the ledge with the nest. He snatched it from my hand, almost taking a finger with it. I tried to form a mental bond with it, talking softly while holding out more jerky. This is made simpler because he can¡¯t just fly away. ¡°Do you want to come with me, boy? I can fix the wing as we can see the world.¡± Ok, so I was exaggerating. He had not had his intelligence boost yet, so he couldn¡¯t tell. I had the bond form, but there was a lot of mental shuffling going on here. I have four very different bonds. It was getting crowded in my mental space. I had three spare attribute points, so I put two into Mental Strenght and one into Mental Agility and helped things settle. It was going to take a lot of getting used to. Two bonds in a day was incredibly stupid. I usually have years between new bonds. First things first, let''s get some food into the bird. I pulled out the remains of the fox that I had kept safe from Pybyr, the greedy guts. I fed it to the Condor. We need a name, and we need to fix the wing so it can start healing right. Esgyn is a good name for s soarer. I am going to need to carry both Esgyn and Pybyr down from this ledge. That is going to mean two trips. Esgyn first, Pybyr will be fine here for a half hour or so. I left Esgyn with a sleepy Sugnwr and Merch and my pack while I went up to collect Pybyr. He was barking away at mum and dad Condor, who had returned to the nest. Bloody nuisance dog. I need to stop calling him a dog. He is a coyote. He is still a bloody nuisance, though. When we were all gathered at the edge of the forest, I went looking for something to use as a splint for Esgyn¡¯s wing. The sooner we get it re-broken and set properly then, the sooner it will heal. I sent Pybyr and Merch out to look for something for Esgyn to eat. I was really just letting Merch have a runaround and do his business. I carved a stick into the right shape and sat down beside Esgyn. I talked him through the process and then broke his wing. I stitched the splint to his bone with my Level 9 Sewing, gave him a healing potion to drink and used Blood Infusion to inject Blood Rejuvenation. I am starting to feel like a Vet in a bloody animal hospital. The wing wouldn¡¯t fully close with the splint. I would be carrying him out. He is a bloody hefty bird. This certainly wasn¡¯t going as planned. I guess I will have to call it good bonding time. Pybyr, the stupid animal, didn¡¯t lead us to carrion to feed but herded a deer to us. I grabbed my staff and was able to break a leg, and then I slit its throat with my knife. I guess if he is a greedy guts, he at least got enough for everyone. It made me scramble, though. Luckily I had finished with Esgyn¡¯s wing. I decided we had enough time to cook my venison, so I started a small fire, and we rested for a while. Esgyn certainly gorged himself. The skin was tough for his beak, so he waited until Pybyr ripped open an area and dug in. Then I came in with a knife and cut off a leg to roast. I sliced the deer right open, so the guts spilt out, and everybody ate their fill. I sat there looking at my small fire and thinking about the fire fox and the Beast core in my pack, and it suddenly occurred to me what an idiot I was. I had spent the last three weeks trying to concoct a potion to counter the Death Assassins¡¯ strength instead of attacking their weakness. Rotten things burn, as shown by the sticks in my fire. I need to learn a different speciality of Alchemy and create a formula that will stick to her and just keep burning. Pyro Alchemy or fire Alchemy. I will need different ingredients. Oils and fats. My Alchemy Class has the basic knowledge. Now I need to specialise. I got up with a new purpose and direction. The sun was setting, so I put out the fire and gathered Esgyn in a makeshift sling, Merch in my bosom and sent Sugnwr and Pybyr out scouting. I packed a slab of venison for later and left the rest for the other scavengers. Now all I have to do is convince the Captian to let me on the ship with two more bonds. Big ones at that. 133. Axe Fishing: Ruku.

133. Axe Fishing: Ruku.

I think Gwaed¡¯s mission must be to upset the Captian as much as possible. They spent almost an hour arguing whether she could bring her new bonds onto the ship. I think she paid him some more coins, promised to feed them herself, and not let them mess everywhere. Both the Condor and the Coyote are scavengers, so they eat just about anything. I think she went from the Captian¡¯s office to the head cook and negotiated the disposal of the scraps that would normally be thrown overboard. She came to me to ask me to catch some fish as well, and in exchange, she would help me learn from Wai. The skin abilities are difficult to learn, but she has more experience than I do in that. She also wants me to catch some high oils fish for her alchemy. So that means Tuna, Swordfish, Mackerel, but mostly Herrings. Herring oil is often used in lamps. The captain lets me keep lines out as long as I supplement the food supply. It works for me. I wonder what will happen if the Captain finds out Gwaed is experimenting with Fire Alchemy on his wooden ship. Apparently, Gwaed also has a new class and Skill. The Scry skill lets her see someone, and she has tested it on the Assassin, who is still on the Imperial Warship. I heard her mutter that she hadn¡¯t had a Novice Skill in a long time. Like most people, including me, she has been coasting along on what we know. I have two new Skills to level as well. I have discovered Suction Grip will not work on porous surfaces, like the sail. Solid surfaces only. Fortunately, I caught myself on a rope before I went for a swim. I do go for a swim regularly when the ship is moving slowly enough in a light wind. I can move through the water fairly fast. The first time I stayed submerged for over twenty minutes, the other sailors thought I had drowned and pulled up the rope I dragged to climb back onto the ship. That gave my Suction Grip its first real workout, and it levelled to Apprentice as I worked my way up the hull. I wouldn¡¯t have made it the whole way, but one of the sailors heard me and lowered a rope. Everybody became aware I had a Water Affinity at that point. There was a lot of speculation about why I was working my way on the ship as a regular seaman. The one person brave enough to ask, I shut down with, ¡°It is better you don¡¯t know.¡± Obviously, rumours are flying through the ship. They will die down. There is still a long way to go. Wai doesn¡¯t come swimming with me, but he does regularly dip into a bucket of seawater to level his Purifying Water skill. He does not like it, but it is getting easier. I use the skill every day. I do try to keep it for when I am swimming as discharging waste is easier then. We had a pod of dolphins join us yesterday. I was able to join them in the water, and we had fun swimming and leaping. It brought back some good memories and provided some entertainment for the crew. I was made aware of how out of practice I was. The first few leaps where I tried to show off with summersaults ended up with me crashing back into the water rather than the graceful dive. I soon got back into the swing of things, with all sorts of acrobatic manoeuvres in my leaps. It was a whole lot of fun. I think the Dolphins also enjoyed it, and we coordinated some leaps together. It was only simple stuff, nothing like what Opo and I used to do. Dolphins are fun animals. Gwaed¡¯s condor, Esgyn, gained weight fast. He couldn¡¯t fly for over two weeks, but that passed quickly. When Gwaed decided he was ready, I helped her to get him up to the crow''s nest so he had space to launch the first time. He flapped his wings a few times. I suppose he was getting the feel of them again. Then he was off. Three flaps, and he was soaring over the ocean. We were far from shore at this time, so the ship was the only place for him to land. I think Gwaed summoned him back after only a short time. After that, he would fly for longer and longer. Sometimes he would be out all day, returning to be fed. Sometimes Gwaed would stop us from feeding him as he had eaten while out. The land might be over the horizon from us, but not for Esgyn. Pybyr, the coyote, was fast becoming the ship''s mascot. He wormed his way into everybody''s favour. I even caught the first mate slipping him a snack. That crafty coyote was into everything and seemed to get away with it. I think he must have already learned Stealth from Gwaed, as he was nowhere to be found when there was trouble. Maybe that was a natural ability of his. When I talked to Gwaed, she had taught him Stealth and Stalk. She was surprised he didn¡¯t have something like Stalk, but I guess he was young. She spends an hour after breakfast every day training him. She said he was a slow learner. He seemed a bit too intelligent to me, but maybe that was what she meant. Wai generally spends all day with me, except when I go swimming. He likes to cling to my forearm, but if I am too active, he will cling to my upper arm. That way, we can work together when I have some downtime on shift. I have been examining his skin with my Sense Spiritual. I am concentrating initially on the poison glands. They are spread all over his body but concentrated on his upper body. At first, he didn¡¯t know how to trigger the poison consciously. It was an automatic defence mechanism. I enlisted Pybyr¡¯s help, as I figured if he didn¡¯t have Poison Resistance, he would soon. With Pybyr growing and barking at him, Wai soon learned how to trigger the poison. I think it was the increased intelligence working. I think I am getting close to figuring it out. I was on the day shift and suddenly looked up and searched the horizon. My Ocean Sense is telling me something is not right. I was on deck, so I had less of a view than if I was in the rigging. I couldn¡¯t see anything, but I had too much experience to ignore it, and I made my way toward the First Mate to report. I was just approaching when Gwaed rushed out of the cabin area. ¡°A swarm of flying fish are approaching. Esgyn spotted them about ten minutes out.¡± she said. The First Mate immediately rang the all hands on Deck bell. Flying fish don¡¯t actually fly. They leap and glide. The trouble is their fins will slice through soft things like flesh, and that is what the Monster swarm will feed on. They won¡¯t penetrate hard surfaces like the hull and masts, but they will tear through the sails and rope. Everybody got out, lowered the sails, and removed as much rigging as possible. We removed everything from the deck we could, similar to storm preparation, and then everybody went below deck, and battered down the hatches. I say they because the Captain wanted someone in the Crows Nest to keep an eye on things. The Flying fish shouldn¡¯t get that high. But there are no guarantees. I volunteered as my Whirlpool Shield, along with my Tough Hide should give me some options if I need to do something in the swarm. I kept a shield, a one-handed axe, and my usual knives. Individually Flying Fish are small and fast but easy to kill. The best technique would be to shield bash them to the deck and chop them with the axe, hence my equipment. With there being no food available on the ship, i.e. flesh they can eat, the swam should just roll over us and carry on. However, this is also an opportunity to get some Spiritually enhanced flesh for our bonds. Gwaed told me about the benefits of feeding Spiritually enhanced flesh to our bonds, so I am keen to get some for Wai, and I know Gwaed wants some for her bonds. My plan is to stay in the Crows Nest until the bulk of the swarm has passed, then slide down onto the deck and pick off the stragglers. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. I was in the Nest watching the swarm approach when my Sonar picked up movement on the deck. I looked, and Pybyr trotted around the corner. I swung myself out of the nest onto the mast and controlled slid down. Suction Grip wasn¡¯t designed to control a slide, but it could be made to work that way. When I reached the deck, I noticed Merch was riding on Pybyr. Then Gwaed came around the corner. Gwaed was covered in fur but only dressed in what I would generously call rags. Not even any armour, although she had a shield and hatchet. ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked. ¡°The three of us want to get the Tough Hide Skill,¡± she replied. ¡°We thought this would be a good opportunity. Rat Fur is good and waterproof, but it is not tough.¡± ¡°You are mad,¡± I said. She grinned, ¡°We can duck behind the leeward side of the cabin if we need to. We should have enough Blood Rejuvenation between us to survive and level it. I am also hoping Merch and Pybyr will also pick up Blood Clot to stop the bleeding. They will certainly discover the benefits of it.¡± She grinned again. She is crazy, and I am starting to pity her bonds. ¡°How big is the swarm?¡± I asked. ¡°From what I can sense through Esgyn, it is quite large. It might take 30 - 40 minutes to pass.¡± ¡°That is big. I suggest we start in the lee of the cabin as the front of the swarm is always the worst.¡± I took my own advice and put the cabin between the swarm and me. Wai was on my forearm that was carrying the shield. I started Whirlpool Shield, which swirled over him. I was hoping he would learn Whirlpool Shield and possibly Tough Hide. I think that Tough Hide might be incompatible with his natural skin abilities, so I wasn¡¯t pushing it. I will also be using Water Sprint a lot in this fight. Whirlpool Shield and Water Sprint are two essentials I think Wai should definitely learn. His small size and speed are his best defence. I engaged Tough Hide. The swarm hit us with fish everywhere. The water was churning as they were in the water as well as in the air. The fish could alter their trajectory to a certain extent, but most of it was from their initial leap. Some didn¡¯t make it and hit the cabin and bounced. They tried to wriggle their way back to the water, but I started clubbing them with the back of the axe or the edge of the shield and chucking them into a tub I had prepared. Gwaed was copying me. Pybyr was grabbing them and chomping down with his teeth. I saw he had small cuts around his mouth where he got close to the fins. These were closing quickly. Merch just huddled on Pybyr¡¯s back. Smart rat. Then Gwaed decided it was time to move out into the swarm. She was definitely crazy. She called Pybyr and Merch out, and they started to take some injuries. Gwaed used the shield mostly to protect her face. I saw fish hitting their fur. Gwaed almost never bled, which I assume was her using Blood Clot. Pybyr started bleeding as the injuries were mounting beyond his Rejuvenation. I saw Merch also take a hit. I was worried about Merch, as she was so small that one of these fish could easily remove a limb or a head if it struck right. She was Gwaed¡¯s bond and Gwaed¡¯s responsibility. Gwaed started bashing fish towards me to put in the tub. I wasn¡¯t mad enough to leave the lee of the building yet. Pybyr would grab them with his mouth and then toss them my way. I might need a bigger tub. I was expecting to be the only one fishing in this swarm and only with the stragglers. Pybyr was losing a lot of blood. Merch also had some injuries, but Pybyr was who I was mostly concerned about. Coyotes were fast, but he was losing a lot of blood. I then saw Gwaed shield them and place one of her cuts against one of his, and I am going to assume she was doing a Blood Infusion. She did the same to Merch. Then they carried on. I saw them being reasonably successful, so I ventured around the corner. My shield and Whirlpool Shield immediately started taking hits. Then one broke through and hit my Tough Hide. I engaged Water Sprint and Enhanced my Physical Agility Attribute. I was able to dodge the worst and start picking my kills, choosing the larger fish to attack with my Fast Strike Skill. I was keeping my Animal Bond open to Wai so he could sense everything I was doing. I took some repeated hits that cut through my Whirlpool Shield and Tough Hide, but my Regeneration was my highest-level Master Skill, so it wasn¡¯t a problem. Thanks, Wai. After ten minutes of this, I moved back into the lee of the cabin to rest. The tub was overflowing, and we were piling dead fish around it. I don¡¯t know if the cook on this boat has the specialisation to prepare Monster meat for sentient consumption. I suspect he doesn¡¯t, as the Captian seems to be budget-focused rather than quality-focused. The state of the ship screams that out. I am not sure what we will do with all the fish. I can keep it reasonably fresh for a week or so with my Refreshing Mist Skill, but it won¡¯t last forever. I take a moment to see what Gwaed, Merch and Pybyr are up to. They are all still alive. There seems to be less blood around them. I am not sure if that is because they have levelled their Rejuvenation, learned Blood Clot and/or Tough Skin, or something else. I also check on Wai now that I can take a moment. I see he is added Whirlpool Shield to his abilities and is merrily circulating water around my arm. I notice something different about the water. It is a different colour. He has expelled poison from his skin into the Whirlpool, and it is slowly expanding into my Whirlpool. I look at his status; he has also created a new Skill, Poison Water. That is what I want to learn instead of fiddling around with glands. I concentrate on Wai¡¯s poison spreading into my Whirlpool Shield and encourage it to spread and to be stronger and more concentrated. It took about five minutes of intense concentration, in which I took several hits from Flying Fish. It was worth it. I got the Skill Poison Water, and I can add poison to any of my Water abilities. It is very weak at Level 1 but will get stronger as it levels. I definitely owe Gwaed for encouraging me to bond with a salamander. I would never have considered them. Time to get back out there and see if Wai can learn Water Sprint. The density of the fish was lessening as the front wave had now passed. It was easier to dodge and pick my target. I had Water Sprint active, and I suddenly thought Wai would only learn it if he had to use it. Wai was not keen on that idea. As an example, I pointed him to Pybyr and Merch and their ripped and scared fur. That was the exact reason he didn¡¯t want to try it. I lowered him onto the ground. He strengthened his Whirlpool Shield, engaged Water Sprint, and darted off to bury himself under the dead fish. I doubted he was coming out again, but he learned the skill, which was what mattered. I sent encouraging feelings through the bond, and I got slapped in the face by a fish for my trouble. That will teach me to get distracted. It was a big fish with sizeable fins. It had sliced through my Whirlpool Shields and Tough Hide and sliced me from hairline to jaw. Fortunately, it missed the eye. I could grow a new eye these days, but I don¡¯t want to see how long that might take. Time to concentrate on my own Skills. I killed the fish first and noticed I got a Monster Kill For it. I hunkered down behind my shield and got a knife to cut open the fish, and there was a monster core. Amazing. I figured a swarm of this size would have several Monsters as part of the swarm, but I did not expect to kill one. I tossed the fish to one side of the main pile and told Wai that he might want to start eating that one as a reward for learning the skills. I caught a glimpse of his tail disappearing into where I had cut out the core. I smiled. He was going to make good use of the Water Sprint Skill. There were 15-20minutes left of this swarm. I need to use it to practice and hone my skills, as I have been lacking in practice time. I have a Skill called Spear Fishing. I wonder if there is a Skill for axe fishing? Time to find out. 134. Dead Fish: Ruku.

134. Dead Fish: Ruku.

I didn¡¯t learn the axe fishing skill, if there is one. I did get a level in Axe, Shield, Tough Hide and Water Sprint. Along with my new Skill, Poison Water, and a monster core, that was a very good fight. Gwaed and I went through the fish; there was only one core of the two hundred and twelve fish. Pybyr ate five, and Esgyn ate six. Merch ate one. Wai and Sugnwr shared the monster fish. That left 199 fish that I could keep fresh for about ten days. The Cook did not have the Monster food specialisation, so that meant we couldn¡¯t eat them. If we kept six a day as food for our bonds, that is total, not each, that accounts for another sixty. We would not let them gorge themselves silly like today. Today they earned it. Gwaed wanted all the innards, organs and guts for her Alchemy. So we filleted them all. We separated the fins, scales and bones, which would keep and be useful for other craftsmen. Gwaed took some samples to grind up and see what alchemical properties they might have. Two fillets per fish left us with 278 fillets of Monster fish that were going to rot away. It turns out the cook had some space in his Cool Store. We crammed in 159 fillets. In payment for the space, up until the next port we were stopping at, we gave 60 of the remaining fillets to the cook so he could see if he could learn the monster Cook Specialisation and as payment for some salt so we could preserve the remaining 59. Preserving monster meat this way degrades the Spiritual aspect of it, which is why you need a specialisation to cook and preserve it properly. Our next stop was just over two weeks away at another small village. There was no guarantee that there would be anyone at that village we could sell them to, but it was better than letting them rot. The beast core was interesting. A flying fish monster. I don¡¯t know what skills they might have, and I didn¡¯t get to see them use any. My Aquatic Lore and Monster Lore were silent. I would need to look up information or ask someone. They probably had a Water affinity, but it may be Air or something different. It seemed to be more manoeuvrable in its flight, as I believe it targeted me. A ritual can be performed to find information on a Beast Core, but I am not a ritualist, and we are heading into hostile territory, so it will have to wait. Monster meat needs time to be absorbed by the bonds, so it is not good for them to gorge themselves. Spiritual poisoning is quite debilitating and takes a long time to clear. The damage to the ship was light as we had time to store the vulnerable equipment, thanks to Esgyn. The ship''s carpenter was busy replacing some of the thinner spars that got broken and strengthening some areas that were weakened by the fish. We would spend longer at the next village while he did some more permanent repairs. Looking at the state of the ship, I think actual repairs are a long way off, and more patch-up work is going to happen. The next two weeks, we got back into the routine, the only issue being a three-day storm. That was rough, literally and figuratively, but the ship didn¡¯t sink, and we gained a day. We are docking a day early at this village. We are closer to Northport than Obalno now. We are still travelling through wild, mountainous, no man¡¯s land. As was typical, there was only one long wharf to dock at. When Gwaed finished the breakfast shift, we grabbed a sample of the fish and went to see who might be interested. Pybyr trotted alongside us. Wai was on my upper arm under my sleeve. There was a general store, and the merchant was excited to have new customers. He lost his enthusiasm when we showed him the meat. He had no way to sell it before it went off. The only suggestion he had was an Animal Tamer camp outside of town. They were hunting the area for beasts to tame. Animal Taming was not like bonding. This Animal Tamer rubbed us up the wrong way from the start. There was no partnership here. There was dominance and submission. The Tamer had several wild animals tied or caged in his camp. He was a very unpleasant Dwarf and tried to dominate us as soon as we met him. Animal Tamers didn¡¯t have to be cruel, but he definitely was. I took the lead in dealing with him as I have the leadership specialisation and high Mental resistance to that crap. If I had left it to Gwaed, she would have killed him. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. He had a mountain lion collared and chained and two wolves in separate cages. He had some smaller animals and cages of colourful birds. He claimed the mountain lion was well advanced in training and demonstrated it roaring on command. He said the wolves were being trained as guard animals and wanted to test one of them against Pybyr, as people with bonds always claim they are better. I quickly steered him away from that topic before he died on me. I could tell Gwaed did not want to deal with him. In the end, I quadrupled the amount I was going to ask for the fish, and he haggled me down to triple the price. He wanted to part-pay with one of his parrot-type birds, but I was not interested. The meat would enhance his animals just like any animal. I left Gwaed in the village while returning to the ship and delivering the fish. He might find his camp mysteriously raided if he doesn¡¯t leave before us. I didn¡¯t warn him. One good thing was that he paid in Imperial Coin, and we would need that coin in Northport, or we would stand out as strangers. We ended up spending a week in the village instead of the scheduled three days. There was not a lot to do in the village, so Gwaed and I decided to go hunting. The Captian was buying meat for the next leg of the journey. The first time we went out during the day with Esgyn guiding us. The trouble is she didn¡¯t guide us to live prey, but carcasses to scavenge. Gwaed is trying to teach him to find monster carcases so we can scavenge the cores. It is a good plan. It is still a work in progress. I am no tracker, but Pybyr is pretty good, and we came back with a deer and a goat. Gwaed came back with a big sack full of plants for her alchemy. I got the feeling some of the plants were for known potions, but others were for her to experiment with. I got the feeling she didn¡¯t know what she was doing in some areas, but that''s how to expand your knowledge. The second time we went hunting was at night, and we took Sugnwr. She was getting Sugnwr, Pybyr and Merch all to work on their stealth. She found it unacceptable that Sugnwr was spotted by Wiremu and me back in Obalno, even though I pointed out we both had high Physical Perception. Merch was the best of all of them. I took the opportunity to teach Wai stealth. It came pretty naturally to him, and my Trainer Class and Coach Skill helped. Now we just have to work on his camouflage. I Coached Gwaed¡¯s bonds as well, and they made significant improvements. We bought back another deer that night. The ship was definitely looking worse for wear. The next stop was the last before Northport. Gwaed used her Scry ability, and the assassin was on land, but we are not sure where. We assume Northport. I purchased a small canoe and paddles at the final village. I got several comments about not trusting the ship to stay afloat. I thought we needed to leave the ship before hitting Imperial customs. With Esgyn in the air, we will hopefully have plenty of warning about patrolling ships. Gwaed woke me urgently one night to put out a fire in the med bay. I wonder how that happened. We managed to stop it from spreading and aired out the foul-smelling smoke. When a sailor was sent to investigate, we blamed it on Alchemy gone wrong. That was not quite correct, as Gwaed was quite pleased the alchemy had gone right. She just needed more protections in place. She wanted me to move in with her, but that was not happening. Too many animals, too small a space and too much foul-smelling alchemy. I organised a couple of buckets of water and a tub of water with a blanket soaking in it. She should be able to control most things until I can get there. We had managed to make up some time, so we were almost back on schedule. We were about a week from Northport. It was late in my day shift when I looked up from scrubbing the deck. Fortunately, our axe marks in the deck went unobserved due to the Flying Fish marks. Then my Ocean Sense started to nudge me. Ocean Sense is a subtle Skill that senses changes or anomalies in my environment. I looked around, saw something move in the sky, and focused on it with my Farsight. It was an Osprey or Seahawk. It was a long way from shore. Then it dawned on me that it belonged to an Imperial scout stationed on a ship somewhere. It was time to abandon this ship. 135. Abandon Ship: Gwaed.

135. Abandon Ship: Gwaed.

I was serving dinner, and when Ruku went past, he said, ¡°It is time to go.¡± I nodded at him. We knew this time was coming, but I don¡¯t know what tipped him off. My alchemy was semi-packed, so it wouldn¡¯t take much to finish. Ruku had been organising supplies. The canoe he had purchased was quite small, and I wasn¡¯t sure how the supplies, my alchemy, the bonds, and both of us would fit. Can¡¯t change it now. We had already bribed the captain about us leaving early and them staying quiet. Whether he would or not would probably depend on the pressure that would be put on him. Part of the bribe was a selection of my health potions and a couple of poisonous ones. After the dinner shift was completed, I headed to the cabin to finish packing. Ruku was there with his pack. I packed up everything, and we headed to the deck. We loaded the gear and the bonds into the canoe, and a seaman helped Ruku lower it and me to the water. It was a calm night, but there was a high layer of clouds that muted the moon''s light. This affected my Nightsight more than Ruku¡¯s Darksight, but I had enough to see by. There really wasn¡¯t room for Ruku as well, and then I heard a splash as he dove into the water from the deck. Then I realised Ruku wasn¡¯t planning to get into the canoe but to swim. I moved onto the central seat and picked up the paddle. Pybyr settled to lie with his head propped up on the edge of the canoe, with Merch perched on his head. Esgyn was sleepy and uncomfortable while Sugnwr flitted around the canoe quite happily. I am pretty sure Wai was tucked away in the canoe somewhere, but I couldn¡¯t sense him. Actually, maybe I could sense him as a small amount of blood was moving under Ruku¡¯s pack in the front of the canoe. I used the paddle to move the canoe away from the ship and orientate it to where I thought the shore was. We hadn¡¯t been in sight of the shore for a week or so, but I knew roughly where it was from Esgyn¡¯s flights. He much preferred to fly to the land than out to sea. Ruku¡¯s head popped up at the front of the canoe, and he grabbed the rope there and tied it around his waist. Then he started swimming, towing the canoe. With his Attributes, Water Manipulation, and periodic applications of Water Surge and Water Sprint, we were moving faster than any ship I had been on. I saw him keep pace with the dolphins, but this brought it home about how fast he actually was in the water. The aim was to make it to shore before daybreak. I knew how far it was and had doubts about making it until I saw how fast Ruku could move in the water. Hopefully, his stamina will last. He is pacing himself; this does not seem to be the first time he has done this. All I had to do was keep the canoe straight and steady with the occasional application of the paddle. My time on the ship was productive. On the day of the fire, or the first fire Ruku was aware of, I gained the Fire Alchemy Specialisation. I found it very difficult to get that specialisation. I guess the reason was that I hadn¡¯t done any alchemy in the last two decades that wasn¡¯t related to my blood. I had been very focused and specialised. Now I need to broaden my repertoire. Fire Alchemy is a four-point Specialisation. One point is assigned to Spiritual Strenght and Spiritual Agility, and one point is to Mental Agility. One point is free per level. The Skill I got with it is called Spiritual Candle. I can create a small flame on my hand. It is designed for me to ignite my potions. The flame is only the size of the tip of my thumb at the moment, and it will grow to about 200mm at the Journeyman level, and the cost will drop. It will never be a fireball, but I can create those with my potions. I now have several potions that will burn. I gained a level in my general Alchemy class and am a level 3 Fire Alchemist. I am still working on a formula to make it a stickier consistency so it sticks as it burns. I will get there. I just need to find the right ingredient. I am planning a night raid on the Northport Lore Society. There is another Specialisation I want as well, especially after bonding with Esgyn. I want to make Acids. Acid Alchemy is uncommon, but acids are much more discrete than fire. This will have to wait until after we have dealt with Northport, but hopefully, there will be information I can pick up at the Lore Society. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Dawn was breaking when we finally got to the surf. I had to be quite active in keeping the canoe straight so we didn¡¯t tip. Esgyn had taken to the sky, so I had more room. I surfed the canoe in and beached it, immediately getting out to grab it and hall it ashore. Ruku arrived, and we carried it all the way to the tree line. Ruku grabbed a branch and smoothed the sand, so there should be no sign of our arrival. I rummaged in the top of his pack, and I tossed him some trousers when he got back. Ruku always swam nude. The guy''s Cold Resistance must be very high as these northern waters are not warm. Ruku was worn out, but we decided to head inland for a couple of hours before taking a break. Esgyn and Pybyr were off scouting while we sorted the packs and hid the canoe. Sugnwr settled in for the day in the space on my pack. Merch also rested on the top of my pack. I caught a glimpse of yellow on Ruku¡¯s arm, which showed where Wai was. He needs to learn camouflage. We headed out following a small creek. We kept to the trees. I was still having trouble with two bonds sending me information at the same time. I had some spare points, so I bumped Mental Agility, so it was over 60, and that helped. In fact, I could feel another Skill was available to me. I worked at it as we walked, and it clicked into place. Multi-Tasking needs a Mental Agility of 60 and a Mental Strength of 40. The number of things I can concentrate on at one time is a function of Mental Agility, and how well I concentrate on them is a function of Mental Strength. The Skill level makes everything easier and requires less effort. Suddenly, it was easier to juggle the multiple pieces of information and concentrate on where I was walking. Skills from attributes get fewer and fewer. This Skill was going to be a boon for my Alchemy as well as for managing my bonds. We found a small pond, and Ruku settled down for a power nap. I saw Wai dart into the pond. I guess he was missing his usual habitat. Merch went exploring while I settled down, chewing some jerky and mulling over Alchemy recipes in my head. We were about a week from Northport by ship, so maybe two weeks for us travelling overland, but travelling light and fast. While I had time, I decided to use the Scry skill to look for the assassin. The skill is at Level 2, so I can use my Nightsight and Sense Blood Skills. I am hoping the Sense Blood will give me insight as to who she might be with and how many are there but not in view. It is mid-morning now, and Northport is close enough to be about the same time. I get a drop of her blood out and concentrate on activating the skill. The first thing I notice is the benefits of my Multi-Tasking Skill. I can keep track of my bonds while I am using this Skill, and the two senses coming from the skill are easier to interpret. The assassin is dressed as an Imperial citizen and walking through a market. I try to memorise the features in the background so that when I get to Northport, I will hopefully recognise the market. Sense Blood isn¡¯t useful here with so many people. I push the skill to the limit to try and level it. If I can get it to level 3, I will enable Olfaction, and the smells will help with tracking her. The Skill eats through my Spiritual Energy, which is also called Spiritual Constitution. It is the energy that Tabitha¡¯s bond Nyx siphons. If your Spiritual Consitution gets to zero, you will die. Having used so much on this one Skill, I will have to be careful with other skills until it regenerates. I am quite envious of Tabitha and Nyx as Nyx feeds her Spiritual Energy. I will never be able to bond with an elemental. At least the Scry levelled, so the cost is reduced, and I will be able to use Olfaction next time. I have the Blacksteel pendant that Tabitha gave me. I could use Scry on that and see them. It would be interesting to know if it worked on Tabitha or Nyx. I have to watch the time zones. I am not sure if they are ahead of us or behind us. Time zones are some sort of navigation tool that doesn¡¯t affect most of us. The night might be the best time to see Tabitha. I don¡¯t have the energy now, so it will have to wait. They should be on the road to Kirghiz anyway, but it could be good to do just to level the Skill. I check with my bonds. Everything seems normal. Time to get back on the road. Not that there is a road. 136. Northport: Ruku.

136. Northport: Ruku.

Northport looks to be bigger than Obalno but smaller than Kirghiz. There is a strong wall around it, and the harbour has a lot of defensive emplacements. Wiremu is not here, so we cannot get an easy way in or out. My Suction Grip will work, but only for me. ¡°We will need to establish a hideout here for our gear and bonds,¡± I told Gwaed. ¡°There are too many farms here. We will need to be another day away, perhaps near where we camped last night,¡± she replied. Esgyn and Pybyr will be too noticeable in the city. Esgyn is probably giving Gwaed a bird''s eye view of the city now. In the two weeks it took us to get here, I taught everybody Camouflage. I levelled my Coaching Skill. I also helped everybody improve their Stealth. Except for Esgyn. He can¡¯t learn Stealth, which I guess makes sense. I big black bird flying in the middle of the day. He did learn Camouflage and seemed quite pleased with it, according to Gwaed. He can camouflage himself when he is on the ground or in a tree. He is still a big bird, but it helps. Wai can now camouflage on my arm, and getting him into the city will be easier. Wai is also a few centimetres longer and more intelligent from eating the spiritual fish. Gwaed, in turn, taught me Poison Blade, which was made easier as I had Poison Water. She also tried to teach me the Haemorrhage Skill. Haemorrhage is more about where the arteries are in the body and targeting strikes there than it is about Blood. I have not learned it yet; she thinks it is because I don¡¯t have Anatomy Lore. Getting Anatomy sounds like a lot of studies. We backtracked and searched, eventually finding a shallow cave on the side of a hill. It will provide shelter for Pybyr and somewhere for Esgyn to land easily. ¡°I still think we should swim around the wall,¡± I said. ¡°It will be watched and trapped, and not all of us have the skills to avoid those,¡± she replied. ¡°I will be better going through the gate. I can be a travelling Alchemist, and I have Obfuscate, Improvise, and Conceal to get around most people. I can take some gear for you if you like.¡± ¡°I will be fine. I will check the harbour out; if it is too hard, I should be able to go over the wall. Where shall we meet up?¡± I asked. ¡°What about the Lore Society? It should be well known.¡± ¡°OK. Are you a member?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯m not, but I would meet their criteria if I chose to join,¡± she replied. ¡°Why don¡¯t you? It would be an easy way to get access to their books.¡± ¡°The problem is Identification, especially here in the Empire. They are very fond of their pieces of paper.¡± She said. ¡°Won''t that be your problem at the gate?¡± I asked. She shook her head. ¡°Obfuscate.¡± is all she said. Now I was confused. I am not sure what that Skill did, but she was relying on it and had obviously done so in the past as well. I decided to leave her to it. I left some of my gear and headed out straight away. If I didn¡¯t get into the city tonight, I would have to wait until tomorrow night. I was just an old Marine with no deception skills as such. As I left, I saw Pybyr marking his territory and Gwaed frowning at him but not stopping him. It was well after midnight when I got back to the city after a brisk run. I decided I would try the wall first, as a test for Suction Grip combined with Stealth and Camouflage, and also that the harbour was probably another two hours'' run away. I was familiar with imperial fortifications and the way they usually enchanted them. We often trained to infiltrate a mock fort. I looked for the spot that had the least points overlooking it and engaged Suction Grip and Camouflage. Suction Grip was Apprentice level, so I could carry my weight with all four, but even with a smooth wall, there were small grips I could use. It was going to be a challenge, especially with the half-full pack I was carrying. Slow and steady was the name of the game. Stealth would help even though it was barely Journeyman Level. I started the climb. After five minutes, I found a place I could hold on to, so I engaged Camouflage and rested Suction Grip. After a rest, I then started again. I took another rest just below where the enchantments started. All the main defence enchantments wouldn¡¯t engage automatically. They need to be manually started. It was the smaller detect enchantments that would alert the guards to my presence that I was worried about. I knew what they looked like and the way the Spiritual energy flowed around them, so I should be able to avoid them if I was careful. I made sure I was very careful. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. When I got to just below the wall, I sent Wai to check where the guards were. I was envious when I saw him scurry along the side of the wall with no problems. It is a serious effort for me. When he indicated it was all clear, I dashed across the wall and onto the inner face. Then it was just a matter of reversing the process. The Inner wall only had the detect enchantments, making them easier to locate. Wai joined me again, and we got down. Suction Grip levelled twice. We had to wait in camouflage for a patrol to pass and then dashed across to the town. I found a quiet alley in a tradesman part of town and hunkered down to wait for the morning. Once the morning traffic got going, I would then go and buy some local clothes and then find an Inn to settle in for a couple of days. I will probably try and find something down by the dock as I will fit in better down there, and it should be closer to where my tasks were. Gwaed and Merch were hunting for the Assassin. They would split up and go around the better parts of the city looking for key landmarks and scents from her Scry Skill. Gwaed had also learned Sense Decay from Esgyn. It was only Level 1, but as she said, a city is a good place to level it. My job is to find out what happened to the Enchanters and Abigail and secure a boat out of here. I hoped we could go by sea, but we need multiple options. We must be able to leave in a hurry if necessary, so I also need to look at the Harbour defences. This undercover spy-type work is not my strength. I am more of a lead-the-assault type of guy. First, some local clothes and breakfast that is not cooked over an open fire. I waited until the street traffic picked up and then entered the flow. My dirty armour, pack and weapons painted me as a hunter. I was in a poorer part of town, so I didn¡¯t stand out too much. I found a tailor with some ready-made town clothes that should fit me, and he was happy to do the alterations then and there. He also provided a basin of water, and I cleaned up a bit and packed my armour into my pack. I left looking more respectable and headed out to find some food. I was making my way toward the harbour, but this meant moving through a better part of town. When some of the soldiers on patrol started giving me a second look, I realised a quick wash was not going to be enough. I needed a haircut and a shave as well. I stopped at a street stall and picked up some kebabs with meat and vegetables. There were quite spicy. I found a barber, and he cut my hair. He convinced me to keep the beard and trimmed it into a very smart-looking arrangement. I thought I looked very good. I was right in that there were very few visible bonds in Northport. What I would need to get used to were the slaves. They were mostly in this richer part of town. Rich people owned slaves. Poor people became slaves. The slaves that I could see were mostly doing menial labour. I tried not to gawk like a foreigner. People here generally ignored the slaves. I stopped at a bakery and picked up a pork bun and some sweet bread for a treat. I found a reasonable Inn not far into the harbour worker''s district. I would need to learn the districts'' names, local food, etc. The Inn was called the Harbourview Guest House. I assume they wanted the rich neighbours as customers rather than the harbour workers. It turns out some of the rooms actually had a view of the harbour, and I booked one for a week. It would let me keep an eye on the shipping. I got directions to the major points of interest in the city from the landlady. She was used to hosting foreign ship officers and assumed that was what I was. That was actually a reasonable cover story. She caught me up on the local rumour mill, and the Navy was apparently gearing up for some sort of action. The rumours suggested that another war with the Kingdom was coming, but nothing official had been announced. Most of the common people were not that happy as war meant all the navy ships would be out at sea for months at a time, depriving the town of over half its usual income. The only ones that were happy were the larger organisations with supply contracts to the Navy. I wasn¡¯t scheduled to meet Gwaed until tomorrow, so I got some fancier clothes as the Lore Society was in the middle of the city with the other expensive places. The Assassin was likely living in at least a modest part of town and possibly with the elite. I couldn¡¯t see her in a military barracks, fortunately. We will see. I wandered down to the docks as well to check out the ships. The trader we sailed in was there, but I didn¡¯t go near it. Half the dock area was walled off to civilians, and that half was a frenzy of activity. The Navy making final preparations on their warships. As I watched, one came into the dock and another left. It was a well-organised system. I decided to go to a tavern in the Dock area and hear the local gossip. There didn¡¯t seem to be any. I went to the bar and asked the bartender some discrete questions. I thought they were discrete. The bartender shut me down quickly. ¡°You''re new in town. It is obvious,¡± she said, ¡°You get one warning. Don¡¯t ask questions outside your area, especially not about the military, or you will soon find yourself interrogated by an Inquisitor. They offer good coin to be informed about people who ask too many questions.¡± She turned away to the far end of the bar. Shit. You hear about the Imperial Inquisitors, but it does not sink in until you are in one of their cities. I had not been to an Empire City before. Here I was infiltrating an imperial city with no Spy, disguise or acting skills. Now I am starting to understand why Sione thought it was a suicide mission. I wondered if my Landlady had already informed on me. I didn¡¯t think so, but what would I know? I grabbed some dinner from a different tavern, but I kept to myself. Then I went back to the Inn. No soldiers were waiting, and my room did not seem disturbed. I had learned Olfaction from Wai, but mine was only Level 1, so I had him check for strange smells. There didn¡¯t seem to be any. I stayed up late into the night watching the ships come and go with my Darksight / Farsight combo and contemplating my actions and how out of my depth I was. I am operating inside enemy territory with no backup except Gwaed and the bonds. 137. Lore Society: Ruku.

137. Lore Society: Ruku.

I sat in an outdoor cafe area across from the Lore Society. I was dressed in my fancy clothes, and I had purchased one of the shoulder bags that were popular here. In the Kingdom, it would be looked at as a woman''s bag. It was bigger than that, but everybody had them here. They were made from fabric and were quite colourful. I ordered a strange drink, made from some type of beans, called a coffee. We will see what it tastes like. I was waiting for Gwaed. I finished my pastry when a very colourfully dressed human woman sat opposite me. ¡°It is good to see you have gone native,¡± Gwaed said. She had done something to conceal her elven features again. I had forgotten she could do that. I am really floundering here. I nodded at her, ¡°It is good to see you. I guess you have somewhere to stay?¡± It was her turn to nod, ¡°I rented a small apartment not far from here. It is on the second story with a balcony, so has easy access for Sugnwr. It has a spare room if you need somewhere.¡± ¡°I am good. I have an Inn where I have a view of the harbour. You have started searching already?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes. Merch is moving through different market areas, trying to find the markets we saw her in through their smell. Esgyn is over the city now, trying to sense major decay. He is a bit too obvious, though. I will send him away soon. Sugnwr will go out tonight,¡± Gwaed replied. She moved quickly. It is a big city, and even if we find her, it might take some time to work out how to kill her. ¡°What about you?¡± Gwaed asked. ¡°The Navy is super busy. Two ships came, and three departed overnight. Prep for war, probably. I am going to need to get in there, as that is almost certainly where the civilians are. I don¡¯t have the skills for it, though.¡± I replied. ¡°You don¡¯t need the skills,¡± she said pointedly, looking directly at where Wai was under my shirt. How she knew he was there, I don¡¯t know. Probably a blood thing. She had a point. Wai could get in and find something specific. I had spent some time with Abigail and could give Wai enough for him to find her. It is a shame I didn¡¯t have Olfaction then, as tracking by smell would be the best, but visual would work as well. It would just take him longer. ¡°Point taken,¡± I said. ¡°What are we going to do about that?¡± she asked, nodding to the Lore Society across the road. ¡°First, we must consider if we really need to get in there. Is it worth a possible manhunt?¡± that was one of the results of it going wrong. ¡°It would help with my alchemy. I am close, but I am missing something, and I think it is an ingredient. I think they will have what I need. There is no civilian alchemist in fire or explosives. They are all recruited into the military or trained by them,¡± she explained. ¡°Besides, we might also find something to inform us about slavery.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have the skills to get in and out without it being noticed. I am used to a smash-in-the-front door type of approach.¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t have the skills either,¡± Gwaed said. ¡°Your life of crime didn¡¯t teach you that?¡± I asked. ¡°I was more into enforcement and discipline,¡± she replied. ¡°What a waste of two decades,¡± she added regretfully. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°I guess Merch and Wai can explore, but they can¡¯t read,¡± I said. ¡°I might pay for a consultation with a Society member. The trouble is if I ask about anything that can be weaponised, I am likely to get a visit from the Inquisition,¡± she said, ¡°I can ask about general alchemy, and I might get a glimpse of what they have.¡± ¡°Take Wai with you, and we can get some idea of the layout of the place.¡± I reached over and shook her hand, and Wai slipped out from under my sleeve into hers. She stood up to leave. ¡°My apartment is on Fifth Ave, three doors down from Cobble lane. It is above Albert¡¯s Astute Attire, apartment 2D. The balcony looks out over the backyard and alley, and it is an easy climb.¡± ¡°I am at the Harbourview Guest House, just inside the Seaman District on Harbour Boulevard, which is the main road to the docks.¡± I watched her wander across the road and enter the Lore Society building. She was only in there for about ten minutes before she came back out. She came back over to me, ¡°I made an appointment with the Society Alchemist for tomorrow. You might want to find somewhere less obvious to wait.¡± She had left Wai in the building, so I would want to concentrate on the senses coming through the bond for a few hours. ¡°Follow me. I saw a place down this way.¡± I got up and paid for the lunch. Coffee was not my favourite, but I could get used to it. It was better with goat''s milk. She led me to Cara¡¯s Bath and Masseuse and booked us the full session, which would take us about four hours. I was assigned a curvy female as a bathing assistant and masseuse, and Gwaed got a well-built male. Both were slaves and barely dressed. It was clear there were additional services available, but I declined. With a slave, you could never tell if they wanted to be there. Gwaed declined as well, but I think that was mostly because she couldn¡¯t maintain the image of being a human if she had sex. Female Elves only looked different to humans with their eyes and ears, which Gwaed was well practised at hiding, but they were very different on the inside. Apparently. I don¡¯t have personal experience. Elven males were more obvious as they had retractable male organs. Relaxing in the baths and on the masseuse''s table meant I could give my full attention to my bond. It was afternoon, so there were people in the Lore Society, so Wai had to be very careful. He was making good use of his Stealth and Camouflage skills. I was using my Sense Spiritual Skill through the bond. It would be better if Wai had the skill, but it was still a new bond, and we had come a long way in a few months. Some books had a spiritual component, for example, Skill Books, and others absorbed Spiritual effects when they spent extended time with people who used Spiritual Skills frequently around them. For example, Enchanting and some Alchemy books. There were no such books on the ground floor. There were stairs down to a basement and two stories up. I had Wai go down first. The basement had an open area and then a series of cubicles that could be curtained off. Consultation and reading spaces, I assume. There were also two vaults with a lot of enchantments. Wai followed a Lore member into one of them, and they felt like they were Skill books. I had used Skill books to train Commandos and had a class for it, so I was sure of what they were. Wai very nearly got locked into the vault. He was very lucky to get out still unseen. It took Wai some time to get to the first floor. As he worked his way around the shelves, there was a smattering of books giving off a Spiritual vibe. I had no way to tell what they were, but if we did break in, I knew where to look first. There were reading spaces scattered around the floor, and it was halfway around that Wai struck trouble. There was a cat sunning itself in one of the reading nooks. I couldn¡¯t tell if it was a bond or just a cat they kept to keep the pests away. It was sensitive and seemed to sense Wai or that something was there that shouldn¡¯t be. Wai had to use Water Sprint to avoid the pounce, and he ran up the wall where the cat couldn¡¯t go. Unfortunately, he was quite visible against this wall, so he dashed for a bookcase, went into camouflage, and waited. The cat settled down, and he stealth along the books away from the cat. Hearing Aid would be useful, but neither of us had it. The remainder of the floor was a lot slower to avoid the cat, but I got a sense of the layout and where groups of Spiritually marked books were. The top floor was more open and had a lot of scrolls and books locked in display cases. Most were giving Spiritual vibes. The top floor was only half the size of the building and opened to a rooftop garden. Wai didn¡¯t bother going back down inside but went out into the garden and down the outside of the wall. As Wai was making his way towards us, we were lying on the masseuse table in post-massage bliss, knowing we had to get up but not wanting to. We eventually made it outside. There were benefits to being in a city. Wai joined me, and we split from Gwaed to head to the Guest House. I am glad I had a relaxing afternoon. We all need downtime. It was also going to be a long night. There was an added benefit of the soaps and oils masking my scent tonight. 138. Looking for Death: Gwaed.

138. Looking for Death: Gwaed.

The bath and massage were nice, but they left me bloody horny. Ruku can go and find a brothel to relieve himself, but I bloody can¡¯t. Not only have I not seen another elf in this god-forsaken city, but I also wouldn¡¯t dare risk breaking cover here. Anyone can be an informant, and a lot of information will flow out of the brothels. I hope Ruku knows that. I am sure he does. On the way back to the apartment, I used Blood Manipulation to reduce the flow of blood through my reproductive system to reduce my horny hormones. It is not good to use my Skills like this, but it is not easy for us elves to relieve ourselves as humans and orcs do. I picked up some food for me and the bonds. Esgyn had been flying over the countryside and found something to eat. Prybyr was pining to join us. He was strongly pack-orientated and didn¡¯t like being on his own. Esgyn would join him tonight, which would help a bit. Merch was heading back to the apartment, and Sugnwr was just waking up. This number of bonds took some work to keep up with, even with Multi-tasking. I fed Merch and Sugnwr and then got set to Scry for the assassin again. I was 90% certain she was still in the city. I can only Sry twice a day at the moment, so I have been varying the time of day I look for her. I caught her bathing once, so I got a good look at her body. She has a new arm, and I am not sure how, as it hasn¡¯t been that long. The arm will be weak and not yet have the muscle memory of the other, so if we get into a fight, that is something to take advantage of. I am hoping I will be able to kill her without a fight, but we will see. I also got the scent of the soaps and perfumes that she would use to mask her natural odour. That was a very useful session. Today she was out to dinner with a guy in uniform. Military, but not the navy, I think. I spend time looking at the restaurant and the serving staff, and the logo on the napkins. It was a high-class restaurant. I took the time to sketch the logo. A minimum of four hours before I can try again, six if I want some energy reserves left. I might try a short Scry in four hours. Is the guy a date, a target, or something else? Is she going to sleep with him or kill him, or both? Maybe it is just a business contact. I eat and dress up for the night. Dark colours, but smart. I am visiting fancy restaurants tonight. I sent Sugnwr toward the east to search and headed to the richest part of town. Three hours later, I was still unsuccessful. I finally got fed up and asked a doorman about the logo, meeting a friend you know. He didn¡¯t believe me and knew I was not from the Empire. It turns out the logo is the Empire Guild Restaurant. Very famous with restaurants in every major city. The Empire Guild is an exclusive guild for high-standing members of the Empire only. Only the elite of the Empire can get membership, whether that is military, political or financial. The Northport Restaurant is next to the Military Headquarters, which is closer to the harbour. I went there to eyeball the place. She was either here or she is in a completely different city. My Olfaction didn¡¯t pick up anything. The soaps and oils must be very common, which is what you want to go for if you are trying to mask your scent. My Level 1 Sense Decay didn¡¯t find anything, as expected, and my Blood Sense told me she wasn¡¯t around. I obviously couldn¡¯t go into the building. Merch could get in, but she didn¡¯t have Blood Sense yet. Her blood is pretty unique to my senses. I don¡¯t know if she is a member of the Empire Guild or if she is a guest there tonight. We are getting closer. It was time to get back to my apartment and Scry for her again. I then have some alchemy to do. We need an exit plan from the city. Ruku will hopefully secure a ship, but I am going to assume we will have pursuers, and we need to slow them at least. I have a couple of options in mind. When I did Scry her again, she was sitting in a cemetery. It was an older cemetery with no open graves, so she wasn¡¯t burying a body. I couldn¡¯t make out the grave markings, but some larger mausoleums were in the distance. I guess I will need some sombre clothes tomorrow to visit my ancestors'' tomb. If I can find it. I wonder how many cemeteries the city has. A cemetery is an interesting place for her to visit. It is a place of death and rot. It is probably how she awoke her affinity. Maybe she grew up there as a street kid, or maybe she just has a morbid fascination for death. Maybe she was just visiting the grave of someone close to her. It will be a good place to level my Sense Decay Skill. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. We are also going to need some help breaking into the Lore Society. In Obalno, I know exactly who to contact. Here it would be very risky to try to make contact with the underworld. They would sell you out at the smell of coin. The second place to hire someone would be to advertise to the blacklist of the Mercenary Guild. That is risky as well, but probably less risky and less time-consuming than trying to contact a Crime Lord, assuming they have such things here. I need to schedule a visit to the Mercenary Guild tomorrow as well. I know there are two guild halls here in Northport. One is in the centre of town and is all fancy and rich, but has the best trade hall. The other one is down closer to the harbour. I assume it is for visiting members. It is less fancy and is right next to the Shipping Guild. I might take Ruku, as the Shipping Guild will probably be the best line for a legitimate exit from Northport. I doubt that will happen, but maybe they have a Blacklist for smugglers, etc. I don¡¯t know much about the Shipping Guild. I got about three hours of sleep last night, which was not much less than I normally needed. My first appointment is with The Lore Society Alchemist. Hopefully, he or she will give me information on local cemeteries, although I will have Esgyn note them on his flyover later today. At least cemeteries are obvious from the air. The Lore Society Alchemist was a really old stout dwarf. I would peg him at upwards of the 200-year mark. I told him I had the Basic Alchemy class at Journeyman level and I was looking to specialise. ¡°I have a potential client whose business is to remove soft material, like cotton and leather, from steel. He wants to know if he can do it with an alchemical solution and if it could be cleaner and faster.¡± This was the excuse I bought up for potential Acid alchemy. ¡°Hmmph. Just burn it off,¡± was his gruff suggestion. ¡°That is what he does now, but is there an alchemical method.¡± This guy was going to be difficult. ¡°Alchemy can do most things, but it is likely not easy or cheap,¡± was his reply. ¡°Follow me. The Alchemy books are on the first floor.¡± He took me upstairs and told me to sit in one of the alcoves. ¡°Don¡¯t move or touch anything, or this consultation will be over with no refund, and you will be banned from the Society.¡± He went down to a nearby shelf, picked out two books, and brought them back. He put them on the table. ¡°This one,¡± he pointed to the biggest book, ¡°is an introduction to industrial alchemy. Chapter fifteen is about common acidic solutions and their uses. This book,¡± he pointed to the smaller one, ¡°is about using alchemy in waste disposal. You can read them for one hour. They are not to leave the building. I will be over there if you have questions. Do not wander off or look for yourself.¡± He moved to a nearby seat and got out his own book. I started with the smaller book as both acid and fire were in fact, used for waste disposal. Maybe I wouldn¡¯t have to break into the place. Incineration was a viable method, but the book focused on fire starter mixtures and accelerants. I noted some good ideas and recommended ingredients. I did the same for the acids in incase he checked my notes. I scanned the contents page of the big book. There was a whole chapter on Fire Enhancers, particularly useful for advanced Blacksmithing and similar. I also looked through a section on industrial adhesives, as I wanted the fire to stick. I noted down some ideas and made sure I was looking at chapter fifteen when the hour was up. I am pretty sure I have enough information to create my sticky fire and start my Acid Specialisation. That was easy. We won¡¯t have to break into the place after all. I was escorted to the public area where the final cost was added up, depending on the books I had consulted. They were both introductory books, making the consultation cheaper but still expensive. I guess the Lore Society has a lot of expenses, and I have essentially got enough information to boost two specialities. They tried to get me to join, as the costs were less, and I could make contributions to the Society to offset them. I said I would consider it. That was a very profitable morning. I flagged going to the Mercenary Guild instead of going to a market to get ingredients to try my alchemy ideas. Then I went home to practice alchemy. Esgyn will be doing his flyover soon, so I can visit some cemeteries later. I still haven¡¯t learned to reproduce Esgyn¡¯s stomach acid, although I had him regurgitate some for me to experiment with. I got some out to taste. You will be surprised how effective the Taste Skill is in Alchemy. In this case, Esgyn¡¯s stomach acid burned through my taste buds. I focussed on Blood Regeneration, and they would be back in half an hour or so. It is not the first time I have done that. The cemeteries might have to wait until tomorrow. Alchemy is much more interesting. 139. Unskilled Labour: Ruku The Lore Society was a good practice run for Wai. It was low risk, and we both learned a lot. The naval base is definitely high risk. What I learned was that we need to share a sight skill. I made a deal that I would learn Olfaction from him if he learned Farsight from me. I doubted he could learn Darksight as it was too close to his natural Nightsight. After breakfast the next morning, we sat at the window of my room and watched the ships on the harbour. It was a very pleasant few hours. Farsight was not natural for him, but once he learned it, he could definitely see the use for finding food and watching for predators. Then it was my turn. That wasn¡¯t unpleasant. We wandered the markets and down to the docks, and I concentrated on what he was sensing through our bond. I had picked up Tasty already, which was really smelling underwater, so it didn¡¯t take long to pick up Olfaction. I wanted Wai to pick up Sense Spiritual as well, but that was enough for now. We would both need time to get used to our new skills. We stopped for a late lunch at a cafe by the docks and then wandered back past the entrance to the Naval base. While Wai was exploring, I was looking for somewhere I could be for an extended period. I wanted to be close. The main business near the base were taverns and brothels, neither of which would be suitable for my purposes. We kept walking, looking at the businesses, and moving into a residential area. I decided we wouldn¡¯t be tackling the naval base tonight. We needed a low-risk run to test our abilities. I decided to swing past Gwaed¡¯s place to see if she had ideas to tackle the Lore Society and to familiarise myself with where she was. Surprisingly she was in. She had been busy, and the whole kitchen and lounge area was turned into an alchemy lab. She had obviously purchased a fair amount of equipment as she didn¡¯t bring all this with her. We might need to start watching out for our expenditures. Spiritual fish can only go so far. ¡°Greetings,¡± I said. I spied Sugnwr in a dark corner. She was awake. I guess it was late in the day. ¡°Hi, I am making real progress here. I think I have a mix that will work with the sticky fire, and I am trying to improve it here. Over here, I have an Acid brewing, and over there is something that I hope will help us get out of here, but more on that later. I have a skill, Multi-Tasking, and it is great. I don¡¯t lose track of what I am doing now.¡± Gwaed sounded excited. ¡°That¡¯s great. Didn¡¯t we need to break into the lore society for some of that information?¡± I said. ¡°The consultation gave me enough information. It cost a packet, but well worth it,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t need to get in there, although I am sure there are books there that would help me leap ahead.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. Wai and I were looking for a low-risk task to test our shared sensing skills before we attempted the Naval Base. For me, the main thing of value in the Lore society would be the Skill books, which are locked away tight,¡± I mused. Gwaed looked at me, ¡°Rune locks, you say?¡± I nodded. She looked over to the table that had a container of acid simmering away. ¡°I might be able to help with that. After all, you need some reward for this venture.¡± ¡°That would be nice, but it does have to be our lowest priority,¡± I said. She nodded. ¡°It seems like I am free tonight, then. Would you like some amateur help here?¡± I asked. ¡°Sure, I can multi-task my brain, but I only have two hands. Do you have Acid Resistance?¡± She asked. I shook my head. ¡°Do you want to learn it? How is your Pain Resistance?¡± Acid Resistance is very painful to learn. I got another point in Pain Resistance learning it, which is rare these days. The major thing I learned that night was that I did not want to become an Alchemist. I didn¡¯t understand anything she said, except for, ¡°Stir this until it thickens,¡± or ¡°Grind that to a powder,¡± ¡°no, it needs to be finer than that,¡± and so on. She wouldn¡¯t even let me measure anything; they needed precise amounts, and she had a skill for that. Alchemy is not for me. Wai is in full agreement with me on that. Sugnwr was out all night searching the city. I didn¡¯t see Merch anywhere. I got a few hours of sleep on her spare bed. Gwaed worked through the night. She did say that learning Alchemy was a seven-year apprenticeship. That is insane, and no wonder full alchemists are expensive. She did say she was selling simple formulas after her second year, under the oversight of a Journeyman Level Alchemist. A lot of the repetitive work is done by the apprentices, but it does depend on whether they have learned the right Skills. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. We left Gwaed to find some breakfast. I was then planning to visit the Shipping Guild and probably the Mercenary Guild. After that, I was thinking of another test run with Wai through the Lore Society. If I could share his vision, I could read the book titles. Tonight we would have our first attempt at the Naval Base. The Shipping Guild was easy. I got a list of all the ships in port or expected soon and their departure dates for those heading to Obalno. The ones accepting passengers were marked. There was a caveat of possible military action upsetting the schedule, and all ships had to submit to a full inspection before leaving port. They also had reports of Naval ships stopping traders for inspections at sea. There were several recent complaints. I debated whether to do this, but in the end, I needed information. ¡°I had a mate who was a sailor on the Seabreeze, but I haven¡¯t heard from him for over a year. I think this was his last known port. Is there any information I could track him down?¡± The Seabreeze was Abigail¡¯s parent''s ship. ¡°The Seabreeze, you say, about a year ago? I can look it up.¡± He went out to the back of the open area where there were shelves of files. He was gone for fifteen minutes and then came back with a box. He worked through the box, which I saw had a date on it. ¡°Ah, here we are. The Seabreeze left port on Oct fifth last year and got into trouble. The Navy rescued it and towed it back, but the owners couldn¡¯t pay for the service and repairs and were made Debt Slaves to work it off. The ship was claimed as salvage for the Navy. Some of the crew were lost at sea, and the rest were disbursed. What was the name of your mate?¡± ¡°Algot, from Obalno,¡± I said, knowing it was the first mate''s name that got away with Abigail. ¡°He is not listed amongst those rescued, so I presume he was lost at sea. I am sorry.¡± The man seemed quite genuine. ¡°That''s OK. It''s been a while,¡± and I took my leave. The Mercenary Guild was different. I am not a member, so I had very little knowledge of what processes they followed. Mercenaries did not have a very good reputation from the military viewpoint. They were considered under-trained and generally unreliable, if not traitorous. I have since met some mercenaries I liked, namely the Canine Queens, but my general attitude has not changed. I am able to post an ad to employ someone. I was taken to a private room and questioned about the job. Apparently, breaking into a non-military Organisational Headquarters requires a Class C operative and payment. Assisting a non-class person into the building then bumps it up to C+ as they have to cover for idiotic mistakes. He didn¡¯t say, ¡°idiotic mistakes,¡± that was my interpretation. A Class C payment is an average-level job. Coins can be held in trust by the Guild for a small fee. I decided to post the job and see what comes from it. However, smuggling live cargo to Obalno is another story due to rising military tensions. For another small fee, I was provided with a list of possible captains, but the negotiation was entirely up to me, and Guild Guarantees would not apply. I took the list. It wouldn¡¯t hurt to talk with the captains. We went from there to the Lore Society. I didn¡¯t book a massage this time but sat in the cafe across the road. I ordered a different type of coffee drink to see if I liked it better. Wai scaled the outside of the Lore Society building and went in through the roof garden door. There was only one person on the top floor at the moment, and she was reading. Farsight was working, and I could share what he looked at. It was very disconcerting as I lost sight of what was around me, so I only had it active for short periods. According to Gwaed, I would need to double my Mental Agility before I could get the Multi-Tasking Skill. I was a Physical focussed person until recently with my Leadership and Trainer Classes. I moved to Olfaction, and it was less disconcerting. I didn¡¯t rely on my sense of smell as much as my eyesight. Maybe it was because the Skill was new, and I had spent decades with the other senses. Olfaction wasn¡¯t going to help here. I had Wai move to one of the locked display cases and read the title of the book. Advanced Metal Working. A valuable book, but not for me. I had Wai move to the shelves, and they were grouped into common areas. The frustrating thing was a lot of them didn¡¯t have names on the spine. Most of the top floor was actually dedicated to Spiritual Materials and their uses. The next floor down hand many sections. I marked where Alchemy and Enchanting were, thinking of Mayakku as well as Gwaed. I also marked where the Fighting and Weapon sections were. The ground floor was all beginner texts. The vaults were locked up tight, and nobody was around, so we left it for the day, and Wai came out the front door. We headed back to the Guest House to get some rest. It was going to be a long night. 140. Naval Base: Ruku.

140. Naval Base: Ruku.

It was after midnight, and I was sequestered on the roof of a brothel. It was cold but relatively safe. The Naval Base was well lit up and still very active. I observed a change of shifts around 8 pm. The naval base was bigger than Obalno, and they didn¡¯t have the Marine Training we had. The Empire didn¡¯t train specialised troops for their ships but assigned regular platoons. There was a large barracks area. The problem was there were a lot of patrols, not just human patrols. There were dogs, wolves and a couple of cat species. I didn¡¯t know if they were bonds or trained animals. I assumed a mixture of both. Wai will need to be very careful. I had Wai skip past the Admin and barracks as there were too many people. We would explore the rest of the base and come back later. Early morning might be a better time. Past the main buildings was a series of warehouses and work spaces lining the wharves. We did a cursory check of each, but they were what I would expect. Ship maintenance and supply mostly. There were a lot of open spaces, and Wai was using Stealth and combining it with Camouflage and Water Sprint. We were working our way to the end, but it was taking time. There was a building at the end I was interested in. It was backed up against the cliffs, and I only caught a glimpse as Wai worked his way closer. There was a Wharf with one ship decked at it, but there was a fence and additional guards. I was thinking secret project and maybe imprisoned enchanters. As Wai got closer, I could see the burnt-out remains of a second building. This was lining up with the story Abigail gave us. I still wasn¡¯t sure how much to trust that girl. I would need to check out the top of the cliff as a possible entry point. I doubt the Navy neglected to guard it, though. I will ask Gwaed to send Esgyn over. Wai slipped through the wooden fence easily enough. Finding a way into the building wasn¡¯t quite so easy. He first went under the wooden floor and worked through the foundation piles. Several plumbing pipes were coming through the floor, but no cracks were big enough for him to squeeze through. He came out the other side of the building, and there was a forge and some other equipment I didn¡¯t recognise. Wai worked his way along the side of the building and found a window open a crack and shot through it. It was a bunk room with sleeping people. There were twelve beds, eight of which were occupied. We couldn¡¯t see most of them well enough to work out who they were. We got a good look at four faces and the scent of all ten. There were eight humans, three males and five females, and two dwarfs, both male. Wai slipped under the door, and there was a hallway. There was a kitchen and dining area opposite, and then a series of rooms set up as workspaces, and I recognised some enchanting equipment. There were two guards stationed in the building. It was looking extremely likely this was the place I was looking for, and those were possibly the enchanters and maybe Abigail. We definitely couldn¡¯t get them through a busy military base, so the options were the cliff or coming in by sea. I know which I prefer, but we need to keep our options open. I am going to see if Wai can get out by climbing the cliff. It will let me see what is up there. Wai reversed his direction and went back out the window. Wai was making his way across the open area to the forge when something excruciating struck his back. He ripped free, and Water sprinted to a wood pile. When I say ripped free, his tail was ripped off. He looked back once he was in the wood pile, and a large cat was spitting something from its mouth. On closer look it wasn¡¯t a cat, it was a serval. Servals are a type of wild cat that is strong, fast and has an incredible capacity for jumping. It was definitely a bond. What it spat out was Wai¡¯s tail. The good lad poisoned it. The serval started looking around for Wai, and I could see its nose twitching. Suddenly a black winged shape flashed into view, and I saw Sugnwr¡¯s fangs bite into the creature. The serval wasn¡¯t down; they were known to bring down birds from the air. Wai was on the move again towards the serval for some reason. The serval was starting to swipe its paws to dislodge the bat, but Sugnwr flapped his wings briefly before coming down for a bit in a different place. Wai Water Sprineted onto the Servals back. I could tell through the bond that he had a poisoned Whirlpool Shield activated and ran over the wound Sugnwr had made, adding his poison to it. Wai deactivated his shield for some reason and then ran onto Sugnwr¡¯s back. Sugnwr took to the air, but the serval wasn¡¯t done and leapt at Sugnwr, and Wai caught a glimpse of claws raking her side before falling away. I disengaged the sight as it was very confusing but kept the bond open. Sugnwr will be going to Gwaed¡¯s place, so that is where I need to go. I climbed down and started making my way there, being careful I was not seen or followed. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. It took me about forty minutes to get to Gwaed¡¯s apartment. I climbed onto the balcony, and she had the door open for me. Sugnwr and Wai were both there. I nodded to Gwaed, ¡°Thanks,¡± and then I did the same to Sugnwr. ¡°Is that the right place?¡± Gwaed asked. ¡°Pretty certain it is,¡± I replied. ¡°I have given Sugnwr and Wai a potion each. Wai¡¯s should help him regrow the tail in a few days rather than a week or so,¡± she said. ¡°Thanks again,¡± I said, picking Wai up. ¡°You did great, Wai. I am very impressed. We need to get some fresh bugs for you.¡± ¡°The serval may survive. Sugnwr gave him rabies, so he will be out of action for a while. Combined with Wai¡¯s poison, it may be enough to kill him, but a lot will depend on the vets they have on base and his resistance. If they realise and treat it fast, they might stop the infection from spreading. If not, it will be fatal. If they just treat Wai¡¯s poison, that will give the infection time to take hold.¡± Gwaed said. I nodded. It was going to be a bad time for whoever it was bonded to. ¡°It is going to be a difficult job rescuing those people,¡± I changed the subject. ¡°Even harder if they are slaves now,¡± Gwaed said. ¡°We may just need to kill them.¡± I didn¡¯t want that, but it was certainly an option. ¡°If you have anything at the guest house you want, it would be best to go and get it now. You can base yourself here now.¡± Gwaed said. ¡°You think they have enough to track back to me?¡± I asked. ¡°They have Wai¡¯s tail. The first place they will check is the Inn and visitor accommodations,¡± she said. ¡°Shit. There are a few things there. I will be back before dawn.¡± I didn¡¯t have a lot there, but I would clean the place out and come back via one of the scent-masking areas. That also means they will be increasing security on the enchanters. They might move them, but it looks like they were building something from the forge. Probably one of those fancy enchanted engines. I did make it back before dawn, just. Just as I was ready to bunk down for a couple of hours'' sleep, Gwaed handed me two vials. ¡°What are these?¡± I asked. ¡°Take that one first. It is a vaccine against Rabies,¡± she said. ¡°OK.¡± I tossed it down my throat to try to avoid tasting it. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t have any side effects, and your Disease Resistance should go up. We will wait a few minutes to check.¡± After about ten minutes, I felt no change, and Disease Resistance was at 2, so I said that. ¡°There will be side effects from the second one,¡± she said. ¡°I suggest you take it and go and then drink water and lie down.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± I asked. ¡°It is a vaccine against our ¡®if all else fails¡¯ plan,¡± she said. ¡°You definitely want that one.¡± ¡°That bad, huh?¡± I said. She nodded, ¡°It would cripple the city for months. It will probably kill most people with a Physical Consitution under about 60 and half the people with Consitution at 120, depending on their Resistances, healing abilities, access to potions etc. It will make most people sick for weeks unless your Physical Constitution is well over 200 or you have the right resistances.¡± ¡°So it will kill the young, old and weak and cripple the rest for a while?¡± I asked. ¡°That is what diseases do. It is amazing how much these ¡®old¡¯ and ¡®weak¡¯ people contribute to society. It can bring down a kingdom.¡± she replied. I had forgotten who I was working with for a while. This was the Gwrach Waed, The Elven Blood Witch, who had brought down a kingdom. I checked my Constitution as I had a Physical based build, and it was only at 188. I also had a very high Regeneration and Poison Resistance, but now I also have the right disease resistance for it. I did start to break out into a sweat and felt like the world started to spin around me. I swigged some water and lay down. 141. Infectious Joy: Gwaed.

141. Infectious Joy: Gwaed.

It was just as well that I had Sugnwr follow Wai. Wai might have escaped, but it would have been touch and go. Even then, if Sugnwr hadn¡¯t learned Tough Hide from me, the serval would have brought her down. People forget that bats are mammals, and they can learn most skills a mammal can. The serval was almost certainly killed, but diseases take time to kill. That is also why I had Ruku take the vaccine for our ¡®if all else fails¡¯ plan now. It is not an ¡®if all else fails¡¯ plan. It will take at least a ten-day to spread and be effective. It has a two-day incubation period, and people become infectious after the first day. It then takes five days to get worse, resulting in death, or you level off and slowly fight back. An absolute minimum of two weeks recovery, which is a minimum of three weeks out of action. People are infectious for the entire first week. Ideally, we would want a two or three-week lead in time. Merch and I are planning to start spreading the disease tomorrow night. Ruku is the sort of person who is worried about the ¡®innocents.¡¯ His country is about to go to war and destroy who knows how many lives, and he goes all soft over a few cute kids. It won¡¯t actually kill many kids as they have a high regeneration as they grow. It fades as they hit the teen years, and they stop growing. I discovered this when I first used this in the Western Forest. Some kids will contract the disease and die, but most who get it will live and end up with Disease Resistance. All who live through the disease will end up with Disease Resistance, so it is a one-time plague. The death toll should be in the low thousands. I never claimed to be on the good side. In fact, I don¡¯t think there is a good side. It is just people fucking each other over. Don¡¯t fuck with me or my bonds. How far it spreads will depend on how fast the empire closes and isolates the area. It should shut down the navy operating from Northport for a few months. The Kingdom should be thanking me, but I doubt they will. The travel times between ports and towns will mean the disease will stop being infectious before it gets too far, so it is mainly Northport that will suffer. The plague should have mostly run its course in eight to twelve months. Recreating a disease I had used before will not take my Blood Alchemy Class to the Master level, unfortunately. However, I have increased my Fire Alchemy and learned the Acid Alchemy Specialisation. I think I should join the Lore Society if an hour with two books can be that profitable. Acid Alchemy gave me Spiritual Perception instead of Spiritual Strenght, but the rest was the same as Fire Alchemy. Acids were surprisingly fickle in the amount and flavour of Spiritual input they required. It is why Spiritual Sensitivity is a core skill for basic Alchemy, and that is what holds back so many apprentices. The Skill I got for Acid Alchemy is fantastic. It is called Potent, and it increases the potency of any of my alchemy recipes. Yes, this plague is a more potent version of the one I used in the Western Forest. Initially, the Skill enhances my Spiritual Perception and gives hints as to what changes could be made to increase the Potency of the brew, either with ingredients or the strength or additional flavours of the spiritual input. At the apprentice level, it will also start directly increasing the potency or decreasing it as desired. It didn¡¯t take me long to get it to the Apprentice Level. Some of my acids are designed to eat through stone, some through metal and some through flesh. I forgot to ask Ruku if he had fire resistance, as that is something I have achieved when testing the potency of my fire mixtures. I am very pleased with the Potent Skill. This just shows how much I needed to get out of Obalno. I was stagnating there. Ruku was going to be asleep for 4-6 hours, and when he awakes, he would be quite weak for a day. It is a Potent vaccine. I had left Merch watching his Guest House. Sure enough, search parties moved from Inn to Inn, and they stopped when they got to his Guest House. We are going to have to do something to change his appearance. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. It was daytime, so I had Esgyn do a flyover of the navy base and the cliff. On top of the cliff, there is a recent military establishment. These are not the barracks but the officer quarters. I guess they want to oversee their domain. At the far end of the cliff is a fort and watch tower. It is a bit further along than the enchanter building but will make an escape by boat difficult. The security is probably tighter on top of the cliff than at the main base. Esgyn then went in search of a meal. Pybyr is pinning worse, the stupid mutt. I have given him the task of investigating the coast. I am almost certain we won¡¯t be able to leave from the docks, so we will need to get picked up somewhere along the coast. We need a fisherman¡¯s wharf or a small boat. Esgyn knows where the wharves are. Pybyr can look for the boats and familiarise himself with the land. I am going to have to go out and spend a night with him or get him into the city. That will be more difficult now because they will tighten security on the gates if they are looking for a spy. They will be trying to close a net around us. Fortunately, I have a plague that will rip holes in it for us. My Alchemy is now in a position I can concentrate more time on running down this assassin bitch. I would love for her to spread my plague, but her resistance will be too high. She is a death and rot specialist. She will have high poison and disease resistance. She was definitely in Northport two nights ago. We found the cemetery she was at. I took note of the graves around where she was, but nothing stood out to me. I still don¡¯t know her name. I move to the front room and sit down to Scry, the assassin. It was about lunchtime, and the assassin often slept till now, the lazy cow. She was up. In fact, she was at Ruku¡¯s Guest house with the investigation squad. I checked where Merch was, and she was still nearby. I geared up. I had purchased a long coat with lots of pockets, and I had the tailor add some additional inner pockets. I had to be careful carrying potions so they wouldn''t rattle or smash. The tailor had done a good job. Now I was going to try to get eyes on the bitch. I grabbed some vials of plague as well. I might as well start spreading the joy. Actually, that might be a good name for my plague. Joy. Spread the Joy, infectious Joy, have a Joyful day etc. I was in a good mood. I had to move through the expensive part of town to get to the Guest House. It was the ideal place to share my Joy. So many plagues start with the poor, and the rich miss-out. Not this time. I sprinkled my Joy onto some plates of food a server was carrying. It was the seasoning of Joy. Jugs of ale would always be known to bring Joy. I only had time to sprinkle a little Joy here and there as I had somewhere to be, but when the opportunity was there, I made sure it was Joyful. I was starting to consider whether Ruku might have slipped a little happy mushroom in my last meal. Merch informed me the Assassin was on the move. He had her scent. I asked Esgyn to fly over. He was reluctant as he had found a carcass and was eating. He was on his way but was a long way off. I picked up the pace. I was worried the bitch would sense Merch. I warned her to keep well back. From where Merch was heading, I figured she was heading to the Inquisitor Headquarters. Of course, she works for the bloody Inquisition. I should have staked it out the first day I arrived. I moved to intercept. The Inquisition HQ was right by the City Patrol HQ. As far as I knew, the City Patrollers were failed or retired Soldiers, and there was always a Platoon of regulars stationed there. The military also provided security and the heavy hitters for the Inquisition. I got there too late to see her. She had already gone inside. I also had her scent through our Bond. There is one additional thing that is now a problem. She now knows she is being hunted. She fought Ruku in Obalno. She will have his scent. The same scent from the Guest House. We also crossed claws when she killed Difetha. If she smelled Merch, she would know she belonged with me. How do I know she has Olfaction, Blood Hound, or similar? She is a huntress. She would have the tools. I made sure to spread lots of Joy around the Inquisition HQ. 142. Mass Murderer: Ruku.

142. Mass Murderer: Ruku.

Gwaed wasn¡¯t present when I awoke. It was well after lunch, and I still felt weak. She had left a note saying, ¡°Located the bitch. She¡¯s working with the Inquisitors. Your cover is blown. Gone out to spread Joy to the world.¡± I have no idea what that last bit meant. I definitely couldn¡¯t take it literally. I grabbed something to eat, but I was never sure what was safe in Gwaed¡¯s kitchen. I had best not go out yet if my cover is blown. I will need to disguise myself somehow. I am not sure I was up to going out anyway. I checked with Wai, and his tail was already starting to grow back. While I am feeling weak, I need to help Wai learn some more Skills, and I am still wanting to learn about his Permeable Skin and Oxygen Absorption. Ocean Sense and Refreshing Mists are two of my go-to Skills. I haven¡¯t used Refreshing Mists much because of my increased Regeneration, and Gwaed banned me from using it in the apartment. Apparently, it messed with the moisture content in her potions. Ocean Sense alerts me to anomalies in the environment. It hasn¡¯t been a lot of use recently as there are too many strange things that are new to me in this foreign city. I think Wai would find it useful. I got the impression from Wai that he has a lot of new Skills and would like time to get used to them. He is quite happy to teach me something, though. I grabbed a bucket and filled it with water using Water Surge and Water Manipulation. Wai sat on my palm, and I submerged both in the bucket. I worked out that both his Toxic Skin and Oxygen Absorption are only possible because he has Permeable Skin. I had been trying to learn Toxic Skin without Permeable Skin. With my Bond and Sense Spiritual active I looked at what he was doing. He wasn¡¯t changing his skin. He was making better use of the pores in his skin to allow water to move through. I tried to replicate it in the hand that Wai was sitting on. My pores were not that flexible and only used to excrete waste in the form of sweat. That will have to change. It was about an hour later, I suddenly woke up to the fact that Permeable Skin was the opposite of Tough Hide. Tough Hide closed the pores in the skin and hardened the layers of skin. I wanted to open the skin and let water and other items through. I flexed Tough Hide a couple of times, re-familiarising myself with what it did. Then I tried to reverse it, loosen the skin and open the pores. This was making progress. All of a sudden, there was flapping in the room, and Sugnwr flew out the open window. I hadn¡¯t realised it was now evening. I looked for something for Wai to eat, but Sugnwr must have eaten all the bugs in the place. I fed him a piece of jerky and looked for something for myself when Sugnwr reappeared with a large cricket in her mouth. She dropped it by Wai and then left again. Wai preferred the cricket to the jerky. About twenty minutes later, Gwaed came in, carrying some food. ¡°How are you feeling?¡± She greeted me. ¡°I am still a little weak, but not bad. What is happening out there?¡± I replied. Gwaed brought me up to speed on the assassin. She was right about them having my scent. Even if the assassin herself didn¡¯t have a smell skill, then the Inquisition would certainly be hunting me by scent as well as description. ¡°They have doubled the gate and wall guards, and there are scent-based animals at the gate and patrolling,¡± she concluded. ¡°What should I do? This is not my area of expertise.¡± I was feeling out of my depth. Gwaed, in contrast, seemed quite calm and in control. She thought for a moment. ¡°I can brew a potion that will change your scent for a few days, although I can¡¯t do anything for Wai. I can get another potion to dye your hair, and we can remove or change your beard.¡± She paused in thought. ¡°What would probably help most is if you were to get out of the city and lead them on a merry chase for a few days.¡± ¡°That sounds like something more in line with my skill set. What would it accomplish?¡± I asked. ¡°It would ease the pressure here so I can get things moving. I might even get a crack at the assassin,¡± she replied. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. That made sense, but I got the feeling there was something she wasn¡¯t telling me. ¡°I have an appointment at the Mercenary Guild the day after tomorrow to interview applicants for the Lore Society job. I also have a list of possible smuggler Captains to talk to about blockade running. Then there are the enchanters.¡± ¡°There is no way you will get in and out of the Mercenary Guild un-noticed. I can talk to the Captains. There is a fishing Cabin about two days south of there. If you can throw the pursuers off and get there, I can arrange for the interested ones to meet you there. Say, two weeks'' time? The Enchanters are a problem. What do you think from Wai¡¯s incursion?¡± ¡°I have a blank, especially if the cliff is a non-starter. I can come in from the sea, but what will that accomplish?¡± I really was stumped about that. ¡°We can destroy it. If they are modifying the ship, you can blow it, and I can probably rig Esgyn to firebomb the building. I don¡¯t know about rescue. I will look into it, and we can discuss it when you get back in a couple of weeks,¡± Gwaed said. ¡°Evading multiple military patrols, with tracking animals, is not going to be easy,¡± I said. ¡°I know. I will send Prybyr to help. He is lonely anyway. Esgyn can spot patrols from the air, but I am not sure how he can communicate with you. With my Multi-Tasking, I can probably relay urgent info to Pybyr. He is getting smarter for a mutt.¡± ¡°What exactly will you be doing in the time I am gone?¡± I knew something was up. ¡°I am going to do my best to take out the assassin, and I don¡¯t mean out on a date. I also anticipate that we will have considerably more opportunities to try and rescue the enchanters in a couple of weeks,¡± she replied. ¡°Why. What is changing in two weeks?¡± I pressed. ¡°This was never going to work without a massive disruption in the city. I initiated the ¡®if all else fails¡¯ plan. It will take a couple of weeks to spread.¡± Gwaed stated flatly. ¡°You set off a massive disease in the city?¡± I was bloody outraged. ¡°We didn¡¯t need to do that. Thousands are going to die!¡± ¡°Yes, we did need to do that. Yes, thousands will die, just like thousands will die in your stupid little war,¡± she responded. ¡°Those are soldiers, trained and there by choice, not civilians, not children,¡± I argued. ¡°Children die in wars all the time, hell I have seen children fight in wars. If you think soldiers choose to fight, especially here in the empire, I think you have blinkers on. You have supposedly led troops. Did you give them a choice?¡± She said. ¡°They chose to enlist,¡± I responded. ¡°Not all of them, even in your ¡®wonderful¡¯ kingdom. Even less here. Anyway, it is done. No going back now,¡± Gwaed stated. ¡°I think I do need to get away and clear my head,¡± I said. ¡°A few more hours, and you will be back to full health. I will brew those potions for you, especially the scent ones.¡± She turned to her alchemy. I went into the other room. Bloody hell, I am an accomplice to mass murder. She is a mass murderer, and she is quite comfortable with it. Maybe I should kill her. It won¡¯t stop this, but I don¡¯t think she should be loose to do this again. She has bloody done it before. Should I turn her over to the Empire? I wouldn¡¯t survive that. I know I knew it was possible as a last-ditch method, but it sounds like she was always going to use it. I do need to get away and think this through. I am not sure I want her potions. I guess if she were going to poison me, she would have already done it. She may have already done it. She certainly doesn¡¯t see people¡¯s lives as significant anymore but just as a means to an end. I am very certain that we do not want her back in the Kingdom. She should be on every Kingdom¡¯s hit list. I tried to distract myself with Wai and the bucket, but it wasn¡¯t working. I packed everything together a prepared to go. Gwaed came in with some vials at about 2 am, and I got out of there. I moved in stealth along the rooftops for as long as I could. I hit the ground on a major road with lots of people''s scent. Gwaed could have Merch or Sugnwr following me. It is funny, but she seemed like the greater enemy now. I cut from the main road down some alleys, making sure to leave a scent trail, but a minimal trail. I came to the wall and found a spot to climb. When I got to the top, I waited for two guards and enhanced my Physical Agility for Speed. I struck from behind with my knives, using Fast Strike combined with Piercing Strike and Poison Blade. I took them both down silently. I then went down the outside wall as fast as I dared and took off into the night. The bodies would be found in 1-2 hours then the chase would be on. My scent was all over them. I pushed the Physical Agility and left the Attribute Enhancement on as long as possible, running at full speed. I wanted to get out beyond the farming areas before full light. This would be a very long couple of weeks for me, but I knew and had trained for this. 143. Exploding Cocktails: Gwaed.

143. Exploding Cocktails: Gwaed.

I knew Ruku wouldn¡¯t be happy about me releasing Joy. It is a bit hard to tell how unhappy he was or whether he would do anything about it. Sugnwr watched him go over the wall, and his takedown of the guards was very professional. Sugnwr stayed to watch the discovery of the bodies and the organisation of the pursuit. Esgyn would find him soon enough. Several dogs and a couple of wolves were brought to pick up the scent. I am sure some of the Guards had Scent abilities as well. I didn¡¯t see the assassin. I thought she might have come. I guess there were enough people around now to link this person to the one that was in the Guest House. Ruku was careful not to leave a trail back here, but it was time for me to move, just in case. I don¡¯t want to underestimate these imperials. I will have to leave most of my equipment, but that is OK. I have finished the bulk of my alchemy. I packed up one set and left the rest. The Apartment was leased for a month, so no one should come in. I placed some volatile vials in strategic places. Not a trap as such, but if they are disturbed, they should cause a fire to cover some of the evidence. The best-case scenario is that the landlord opens it in a month, and I am long gone. The next hideout was not nearly so nice. It was a burned-out building in the poor Fisherman¡¯s District. Merch had found it for me. There was a sizeable and intact basement. There was no light, but with my Echolocation and Nightsight, that was no problem. There was a nest of rats at one end, so I set up at the other end and kept tabs on them with my Infrared Vision. I would need to keep tabs on Merch as well. This wouldn¡¯t be a great time for her to go and get pregnant. I have two tasks today. The first is to brew another batch of Sticky Fire. I really need a better name for it. Tacky Heat? Hot ¡®n Wet? Clinging Flame? Gluey Bonfire? Burning Adhesive? Slimy Burn? Viscid Pyre? Let''s just stick with Liquid Inferno. I can¡¯t really be cleaver today I have pulled too many long days. My other task is to spread Joy into the Navy base. This should be easy enough. Off-duty soldiers frequent the taverns and brothels near the base, and the big organisations who supply the base go in and out a lot, so we just need to infect their warehouse areas. I set a brew of Liquid fire going and then went tavern hopping. All I really needed to do was infect a bartender and/or the wait staff at each place and let them do their jobs. This actually seemed much more effective than infecting the prostitutes. As for the warehouse areas, I used the same tactic and infected the bakeries and street food vendors. By the time I got back to the basement, I was a bit tipsy and stuffed full of food. The Joy will need a few days to become infectious and spread. They will be infectious tomorrow, and then the Joy will start spreading. The first symptoms will start in about three days, so at least a week to start in the Navy base. I am going to need something to appease Ruku. Getting those Skill books from the Lore Society might help. I will go to his interviews tomorrow and see if I can hire someone to help. We will try to hit it the night after my attempt on the bitch assassin. As best I can figure, she is actually staying in the Inquisition HQ. We are good to go as long as she is in the building. Even if I am not successful, the hit on the Inquisitor building should cause enough disruptions to make the Lore heist a walk in the park. In the meantime, I have very little to do but wait and brew Liquid Fire. Esgyn has not located Ruku yet. There is another bond in the air, a hawk, so he must be hiding from an aerial view. Esgyn has seen a large number of soldiers scouring the landscape. More than I expected. I hope Ruku is up to this. I sent Pybyr back to the cave with the gear, as it would be too easy for him to get caught and killed. That is also the place Ruku will come to collect his gear if the soldiers don¡¯t find it. Bloody Gryphon, I left my Monster Core there. Pybyr can escape with it if needed. If he eats it, things won¡¯t go well. I don¡¯t think a fire affinity will mix well with his blood affinity. However, the fire affinity was from a fox, which is also a canine. Maybe he wouldn¡¯t go monster mad. Not worth the risk. Bloody arrogant thieves. I hired him anyway. We will have to action this Lore Society Heist in the next couple of days because this idiot is going to become very Joy full. At the moment, I am looking at the Inquisitors HQ. I am 90% certain the assassin is in there. I Scryed her to check, and I think so. The building is stone, with a slate-tiled roof. There are two entrances, and all the windows on the first two levels are small slits. It is a fortress. The third and top level has balconies and big windows. I am guessing it is for important people. I don¡¯t know how many levels below ground it goes. It will definitely have a Dungeon. I also don¡¯t know how many below-ground exits there are. There will definitely be one to the Patroller¡¯s HQ next door and at least one hidden one. The Patroller HQ is a two-story wooden structure. Solid, but wood. A bunch of naughty street kids ran past it earlier today, flinging mud at it. The idiots had to do a second pass before I was happy, and they got paid. Those patrollers aren¡¯t very fast on their feet. Now there is just the stone Inquisitor building to deal with. Fortunately, the Inquisitor building is not very active at night. The Patrollers are active all the time. Painting the two doors of the inquisitor HQ was not hard. The street gang are hidden in the surrounding streets with a bottled formula I call an Exploding Cocktail. They are waiting for my signal. Then they are to light them, throw them at the building, and run. Even if only half of them hit the building, it should be fine. The key ones are those targeting the front and rear entrances of the Inquisitor''s Building. They are a must. I have two of the older kids at each of the entrances. I probably could have talked them into firebombing the Patroller¡¯s HQ for bragging rights alone. Nobody wanted to go against the Inquisitors. Time for my part of the show. I dashed across the street and lept for a second-story window sill. The pack on my back weighed me down, but I caught the sill and scuttled up the stone to the roof. It was rough stone, so was no problem getting a grip. I only had to use my claws once. I moved with stealth around the building, pouring Liquid Inferno onto each of the balconies of the upper floor. I went to the highest part of the roof and lit my Spiritual Candle for everyone to see. I saw some street kids start moving. That was good enough. I used the Candle to start lighting my Exploding Cocktails for the balconies. I did one on each side of the building, grabbed my crowbar, and dug into the tiles on the roof. Once I had holes big enough, I threw Liquid Fire around and followed it with Exploding Cocktails. Time to depart. I threw the final Exploding Cocktails on the remaining balcony and through one window, then I lept for the roof of the building across the alley to the HQ. The HQ was three stories, and this building was only two, so I figured I would be fine. I was fine, except the roof wasn¡¯t strong enough to hold me, and I crashed through to the top floor. Ow! That hurt. The building was a business and appeared to be empty, so I limped to a window away from the now-burning HQ, broke it and climbed to the ground. My leg didn¡¯t seem to be seriously hurt, just bruised. My Blood Rejuvenation will fix it soon. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Time to do a quick Scry for the assassin. Yes! I caught the flicker of flames as she hurried through a corridor. This is really just to chase her out to where she is vulnerable and without her usual guard. Plus, it is to generate havoc in the city, and it should hinder the pandemic response. I moved to where I could see the buildings. Both were well ablaze. A bell was ringing frantically. I assume it was a fire alarm. They will have Water Affinity users at the Navy Base, but by the time they get here, there will hopefully not be much left to save. If the Navy even bothers to send their precious affinity users. I have Sugnwr circuiting the area a block out, looking for random groups of people spilling out onto the street. In other words, where the secret exits were. I kept moving and picked up the second backpack that I had stashed. This one had greater variations of potions, and I stocked my coat pockets. Time to hunt. I kept my scrying for the assassin brief so I could do it more often, but there is still a finite number of times I can do it. She is moving through a dark corridor with a number of other people. I am not sure where, but my Olfaction is strongly smelling smoke. I watch the rear door of the HQ, and they suddenly explode outward as some people try to escape the building. I throw a bottle of liquid fire at them and another in through the doors. Both catch on fire straight away. The same thing might be happening out the front of the building, but I can¡¯t be everywhere. Sugnwr has seen some people coming out a door a block over. I send Merch to see if the assassin is with them, although the strong smell of smoke will hinder her. I continue to wait in the shadows. Some of the Patrollers that were out on the streets have arrived and are trying to organise buckets of water. And to get people out of the burning building. They are concentrating on the Patroller HQ, which is fine. I bet the Inquisitors aren¡¯t popular even with the patrollers. Should I Scry again, or should I wait longer? Merch hasn¡¯t found her yet, although there are still people coming out of the building. I decided to wait a bit longer. Those outside the building are getting organised, but I don¡¯t think they will save much of it. Those were Potent alchemical mixtures. I suddenly had a sense of alarm from Sugnwr. Something had just ripped through her wing. She was ducking below the roofs, looking for a place to hide. Whatever it was, it was small and went straight through the wing. Then I sensed the rot in the wound. The assassin is over that way. Sugnwr might be OK dealing with this alone. She has Blood Rejuvenation and Blood Manipulation, but she doesn¡¯t have Blood Cleanse or Blood Clot. She has found a small gap in an eave and has landed as I head in her direction. I encouraged her to use Blood Manipulation to stop the blood flow to the wound, slowing the rot. Obviously, pump the wing full of Blood Rejuvenation. I would like to give her an injection of Blood Cleanse, but the assassin is out there and alert. Possibly hunting me. I don¡¯t know if she recognised Sugnwr as belonging to me or just thought it strange that a bat was flying so close to the fire. Probably the latter. I was moving as fast and as stealthily as possible to the area where Sugnwr was flying over, hoping to pick up the assassin¡¯s trail. I didn¡¯t want to stop and Scry; hopefully, I would have enough time to give Sugnwr a quick infusion. I called Merch to help as she has a good nose. At least it appears the assassin hasn¡¯t got her bow. Do you think she is running, or do you think she is hunting? She is an assassin. I think she is hunting. This is what I wanted. I pause and stash my pack, just keeping the essentials. I slip a knife in one hand and a potion in the other. I am hunting. I move quietly through the backyards and alleys toward Sugnwr. I haven¡¯t sensed anything yet. I come to the row where Sugnwr is hiding. I move very carefully. I will give her a quick infusion and then try to Scry the assassin. I need all my skills for this one. I pause under the eave where Sugnwr is. I reach up to her, then duck and dive away. Echolocation had three darts coming for me from across the alley. The darts thud into the wall of the building where I was. She probably can sense the Rot she has created in Sugnwr and set a trap. I use the roll to move in her direction as I need to close the gap. I am a close-contact fighter. My claws and fangs extend. I am covered in black Rat Fur and Tough Hide. I pick up the scent of Rot and smoke as I cross the alley. I see her move as she tries to create distance. Two more darts come at me. I have less time to react now, and one embeds itself in my chest. If my boob rots off, she will pay. She will pay anyway. I knock the dart out and cycle my Blood Skills. She tried to jump onto a roof, and I threw my knife. Yes! The knife pierces her leg. That will slow her down. I throw the potion in my other hand, and it splashes against her armour. I hear her hiss as she removes the knife. That¡¯s right bitch. I didn¡¯t poison the knife. I coated it with acid. My poison would do very little against her Resistances. I pull another knife and another potion out. I leap onto the roof as well, and she turns to face me. She won¡¯t be able to run with that leg. Three darts come at me in quick succession. I duck one, but the other two hit. However, I am now in striking range, and my new acid knife draws blood. My potion is thrown at her head but splashed off her arm as she fends it off. This potion was acid, and I think it is burning through her sleeve. I claw swipe her face to make her duck, which she does, but she got a knife up and cut my arm. It is not bad, and I use Blood Clot to stop any bleeding and slow the Rot. I go for another potion, but she recognises the danger now and grabs my arm. It is not that arm you should be concerned about bitch. My other knife arm stabs the knife into her side and then triggers Spiritual Flame. This ignited the first potion of Liquid Fire that splashed against her armour. She threw herself off the roof to try to roll the fire out on the ground, but I pounced after her. My claws pierced her and the fire. This was my kill, and a bit of fire was not going to stop me. I grab another Liquid Fire and smash it on her face. The fire spreads quickly. I stab my knife into her eye, piercing through to her brain. I leave the knife there as the fire spreads to my hand. I quickly throw off my coat as it has Liquid Fire on it and is starting to burn. I find another Liquid Fire potion and spread it on anything on the body that is not burning. There is no coming back from this bitch. The trouble is I am on fire and rotting. I grab another knife and cut the skin off my arm and hand to remove the Liquid Fire from it. I stopped the bleeding with Bood Manipulation as this is too much for Blood Clot. I need to get back to where I stashed the pack, as the healing potions I had in my coat are burning. It is only two blocks, but I am in pain and trying to hold the rot at bay. Merch runs up to me, and I send her to the pack. She might be able to get one of the potions. I keep staggering onward. My energy levels are getting very low. I am halfway to the pack when merch comes back with a potion in her mouth. It is a healing one as well. I pour it on my arm and the dart holes. It has a fishy smell. It must be one of the ones from the ship. I reach the pack and find another healing potion. This one I scull. I call Sugnwr to me, and he flaps over. I look at his wing as I grab another potion. I switch the potion for a knife, cut the rot out of his wing, and then feed him a healing potion. He only has half a wing left, so he won¡¯t be flying anywhere for a couple of weeks or more. After about ten minutes of rest, I gather everything up, and we move out carefully. Hopefully, everybody is concentrated on the fire, but I am still careful and take the time to confuse my scent trail. Resting up in a burned-out basement is not as pleasant as my apartment. However, it is safer as there will be a city-wide manhunt tomorrow. 144. Hide and Seek: Ruku.

144. Hide and Seek: Ruku.

I guess I did want to get out of the city. Lying here underwater at the bottom of a muddy swamp is not my idea of fun. Ok, it is sort of fun. The first time I did this, I learned Permeable Skin. After that, Toxic Skin slotted into place. Oxygen Repository took some work, but I now have that as well. They both only work with Permeable Skin, and Permeable Skin won''t work with Tough Hide. Oxygen Repository works well with my Master Level Oxygen Efficiency. Once it gets to Apprentice Level, I will be able to stay underwater indefinitely as long as I am not too active. The trouble in this swamp is the muck and mud. Permeable Skin is also permeable to the impurities in the water. I have to constantly cycle Purifying Water to cleanse the gunk, which takes energy. I have been at this for four days now. I managed a couple of short naps in that time. I am thankful for the blessing of a high Physical Constitution. Last night half my pursuers seemed to turn around and head back to the city. I don''t think they gave up. I think Gwaed must have done something. I have seen Esgyn looking for me, but I hid from him as much as the other bonds pursuing me. This will make things easier for me. There is one particular canny tracker with a mid-sized wild dog as a bond. The dog is lean and fast, and I know from my Animal Lore that they hunt in packs in the wild and are very successful. He has almost caught me twice now. I had to fight my way out the first time. I left three bodies behind that time, and if my Regeneration were not so high, it would have been the end for me. I also lost my pack in that fight. I have had to scavenge since then. All my essential equipment is kept on my body. I learned that lesson early in my career. I am going to have to kill this tracker if I want to disappear. This is the reason I am currently lying at the bottom of a swamp. I have been here for over an hour. That dog is persistent. Wai is keeping an eye on them for me. He is much better at camouflage now. Wai indicated the dod had moved on. I waited another five minutes and moved carefully closer to the edge of the swamp. I was trying not to disturb the water. The water got too shallow for that, so I rose cautiously to my feet. This tracker had better stealth than I did. That was how he got away last time. I waded toward the edge, then ducked back into the water. The arrow only clipped my armour. Of course, the tracker set a trap and was skilled in ranged attacks. Without the warning from my Sonar, I would be severely hampered now. However, I now knew where he was, from where the arrow came from, and I was in the water. I activated Water Surge and Water Sprint and literally launched myself at him. I also activated Whirlpool Shield and switched Permeable Skin for Tough Hide. Whirlpool Shield would have disturbed the water too much for me to hide in the swamp. Even though I surprised him, he still got off another arrow. This one was deflected by Whirlpool and lodged in my soaking-wet armour. I hate swimming in clothes. He dropped his bow and moved deeper into the trees, but I was coming too fast. I body-tackled him, and we rolled through the scrub. The dog clamped its jaws on my arm. The initial bite was blunted by Whirlpool and then my armour. His teeth still went through as far as my Tough Hide. He tried to work his teeth in further, but he was within my Whirlpool Shield, which was now poisoned, and I was flooding his nose and mouth with Poison Water. He let go quickly. What he didn''t realise was Wai was now firmly attached to his back in camouflage and poisoning him with his Toxic Skin. Meanwhile, the tracker and I were exchanging blows. He was desperately trying to disengage. Close combat is not his speciality. He is a Tracker and Hunter. I am a Warrior and Commando. Close combat is my speciality. The dog was trying to help by darting in for bites. This was good, as the longer it took for him to realise Wai was attached to him, the better. My poisoned Whirlpool Shield was also affecting the tracker, but it was taking a while to get past this Resistance. Unarmed Combat was doing a much more effective job on him. Those sparring sessions against Modrica were definitely paying off. I eventually slammed my elbow against his head, grabbed my knife and stabbed him in the heart. The dog tried to go wild but was too weak with the poison. I put it out of its misery. Wai rejoined me, and I grabbed what I could from the tracker''s body, and we left as the army patrol was closing fast. I followed my growing Olfaction sense and found where he stashed his pack and grabbed it, and ran. It would take me a few hours to lose these soldiers, but without their tracker, it shouldn''t be a problem. Running from the soldiers also gives me an idea about how to get in to rescue the enchanters. I am a soldier, and I have been an officer for decades. Impersonating an Imperial officer should be within my capabilities. Once I have more details, I can look at what to do next. I will need a uniform. The tracker was military, but preferably I would like a higher rank. My plan now was to escape these idiots completely. I will give myself 24 hours to do that. Then I need to circle around to where we hid our gear. I am guessing Pybyr will then show me to the place where Gwaed will send the smuggler if she manages to contract one. I don''t know what to do about Gwaed. I am adamant about not letting her back into the kingdom. I want to distance myself, but I don''t have a lot of choices right now. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. I lost the troopers and found a place to hide for a few hours. I saw Esgyn in the air again. There is another hawk up there that I am sure is also a bond. That brought back into mind Wiremu killing Alessia and her hawk bond Aurora. I really wish I had stayed with them. Knowing them, it wouldn''t have been peaceful, but at least I would have my clan at my back. All I can do is move forward very carefully. I look through the tracker''s pack and sort through what I want to keep. I dumped the spare arrows and the traps. Trapping is something I will get Wiremu to teach me if I get back to them. He had some good potions for both health and energy. The alchemist who made the energy potion had a sense of humour as they had labelled them Monster Energy Drinks. I think they were overhyping them up, and I doubted they had ever met a Monster. I kept his spare uniform as it did not weigh much. He also had enough food. I will be fine for a long while. I had ranged a long way from the city. It would take me several days to carefully circle around to where we stored the spare gear. Time to get started. The aerial surveillance continued, both Esgyn and the hawk, which meant moving under cover or at night. I made the most progress at night, although a lot more predators were active at night. I usually tried to find a place to crash for a few hours in the late morning, getting back underway late afternoon. It took me three days to get back to the cache. I approached very carefully. My Olfaction hit apprentice level and was a very useful skill. I could smell Pybyr''s scent markings, which had been renewed recently, so he was still around. I couldn''t smell anyone else when I circled the area. Gwaed hadn''t been here. I approached carefully, and I could tell when Pybyr caught my scent as he became all excited. I bent down and gave him some attention. It wasn''t his fault he was bonded to a mass-murdering psycho. I could smell Esgyn had been at the camp as well. I stayed there for a few hours and had a rest. I then repacked the gear. I was going to try to take all mine as well as Gwaeds. We weren''t coming back. My monster core was still there. When I repacked Gwaed¡¯s gear, I was surprised to find she also had a core. I don''t know when she acquired that, and I had no idea what it was from. The tracker''s pack was the biggest I had, as I had lost my pack, and Gwaed had left only a shoulder bag. I left the junk that wouldn¡¯t fit in the bags and followed Pybyr out to the coast. It took us almost two days to get there as I was still moving cautiously. Esgyn joined us at night, so that slowed us down. The night was when I travelled most. Pybyr led us to a small fisher cabin that had a short jetty. The cabin was locked, but that was quickly remedied. There were a couple of bunks but nothing else there. It will be nice to sleep on something other than the ground, with a roof over my head, no less. There was a fireplace, but I was not going to advertise my position by lighting it. I was still three or more days ahead of when Gwaed was going to organise the smugglers to come. She was aware we were here, so she might send them early. I guess Pybyr will warn me, mean, while I need to make a fishing pole. It was almost dawn on the third day when a small daysailer rounded the rocks and entered the bay. I was still mostly active at night and hidden during the day. Dawn was a great fishing time. I made my way to the dock keeping out of sight, waiting to see who would get off. The daysailer had two people in it, both human males. The first person off the boat and tying it up was a wiry seaman. A large unkempt mountain of a man followed him, and they looked around. The mountain man stared at the bushed where I was hiding, so he had spotted something. I stepped out, and Pybyr followed me. We stopped at the land side off the dock. The mountain man spoke with a deep voice, ¡°We were told to meet a man with a coyote about a possible job. That will be you.¡± I nodded, ¡°It is. How should I address you?¡± ¡°Captain is fine, Coyoteman.¡± ¡°I want to ship some people out of Northport to Obalno in the next couple of weeks,¡± I said. ¡°How many people, and do they want to be shipped?¡± he questioned. ¡°At least one, but possibly up to twelve and some bonds,¡± I said, indicating Pybyr. ¡°If they are not slaves, they should be willing enough.¡± ¡°I am not taking slaves if their master is not on board. Too much trouble,¡± he replied. I nodded to acknowledge that. He continued, ¡°Leaving sooner rather than later is good too. The Navy is getting harder to avoid, and there is some sort of sickness in Northport. We want to leave before we catch it.¡± ¡°If you give me a lift back there, we might be able to cut the time down to a week,¡± I said. He nodded, and we got to haggling about the price. The price was steep. In the end, I had to offer him the monster core as part of the deal. I figured it would come down to including that. It was the most valuable thing I owned. I grabbed my gear and hopped aboard. Pybyr also jumped aboard, so I guess Gwaed wanted him in the city now. The Captian used some sort of Skill to hide and small boat and slip past the patrols, and we got back to Northport without incident. 145. Scouting: Ruku.

145. Scouting: Ruku.

Pybyr led me in a different direction than I expected. It looks like Gwaed has changed location. I still didn¡¯t want anything to do with her, but I had no choice at the moment. She had moved to a rundown apartment in the Fisherman''s Sector. It was quite the downgrade from the previous apartment. Pybyr was ecstatic to be back with the other bonds. I noticed Sugnwr was missing most of a wing. ¡°You have downgraded,¡± I said in greeting. Gwaed smiled, ¡°This is actually an upgrade from the last place, but certainly a downgrade from the other apartment. I have a gift for you,¡± she continued indicating the full backpack across the room, ¡°courtesy of the Lore Society.¡± I went to investigate it. It was full of books. ¡°Thanks,¡± I said, poking through the top few. ¡°I got as many Skill books as I could, and the vault next to the skill book one was interesting. It only had four books in it, all about Advanced Classes. I kept the one on alchemy, but there is one there on the Slave Class,¡± she seemed very pleased with herself. ¡°That¡¯s awesome. I will give it a read and pass it on to Wiremu.¡± I said. I am not a very good actor, and I think it was obvious I was wary of her. ¡°Your diversion,¡± she continued, ¡°helped me kill the assassin. The raid on the Lore Society was trickier as they were searching the city for me at that stage. I hired an adequate thief, but after the heist, he was overcome by Joy.¡± I was not sure why a joyful thief was important. Did she pay him a bonus even though she thought he was only adequate? ¡°The Captain you sent to me wants to sail in seven days. He can get us out of the city with 24 hours'' notice.¡± ¡°I have more information on the Enchanters. I pretended to be an Alchemist and chatted up the Military Doctors helping them combat the sickness going around. They are only fighting the symptoms, not the cause, at the moment, I am pleased to say. Abigail is there, and so are her parents. She is not a slave, but they are. There is a dwarven blacksmith, but the other dwarves are slaves, as are the remaining three humans,¡± she explained. ¡°So, eight slaves, two free, but working with the imperials. Who is the slave master, the dwarf?¡± I asked. ¡°No, it is the Patrol leader in charge. I don¡¯t know who they are, but they should be easy enough to find,¡± Gwaed said. ¡°Do you know what they are doing?¡± I asked. ¡°From what Esgyn can see, they are modifying the ship with a new propulsion system. The ship is the Seabreeze, and Abigail has been working with the Military Shipwrights to modify it.¡± ¡°So Abigail is modifying the ship, and the blacksmith is key to making the parts, and those three dwarfs are probably some of the enchanters from Obalno. How are we going to control the slaves?¡± I said thoughtfully. ¡°That is the easy part,¡± Gwaed stated. ¡°We kill the Patrol Leader, and either you or I take over the slave bond.¡± There was no way I trusted her with slaves. I certainly didn¡¯t want slaves. ¡°Can we do that?¡± I asked. ¡°How do you know we can become Slave owners?¡± ¡°Anyone can learn to be a slave owner, and basically, if you have a Class that requires organisation, you can own a slave. That is any of the crafting or farming classes. My Alchemy and Druid classes are sufficient. Your Leadership class is definitely sufficient,¡± she explained. ¡°We can¡¯t just break the bond?¡± I really didn¡¯t want slaves. ¡°According to that book in your pack, only a Slave Taskmaster can create the slave bond and assign the Slave Class. It takes A Journeyman Level Taskmaster and the owner performing a ritual to break the bond and remove the class permanently. The Taskmaster can also be the owner,¡± she replied. ¡°And how do you become a Slave Taskmaster?¡± ¡°It is a specialised Class that those with the basic class in Overseer or Administration can choose,¡± she explained, ¡°It is all in the book in your back.¡± ¡°Overseer, Administrator, or maybe Manager?¡± I said, thinking of Eluf¡¯s brother Sven. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Gwaed shrugged, ¡°Probably. But not us.¡± ¡°I want to scout the place. I can do that from offshore,¡± I said. ¡°The place is crawling with troopers, especially during the day. Even at night, there are a lot of guards, humans and animals. Wai getting in spooked them,¡± Gwaed said. I nodded, ¡°I will go late this afternoon and watch through the evening. We need a plan as soon as we can if we only have a week.¡± I went for a rest as it was going to be a long evening. In the early afternoon, I went shopping and purchased a Spear Fisherman''s diving suit. It was nothing like our Marine Comando suits, but it was better than nothing. It would smooth your movement in the water, help keep in your body heat and help with buoyancy. I also bought a weight belt, as I wanted to be buoyant neutral. I didn¡¯t want to float to the surface. It would also help me blend into the water. It was also porous, so would only hinder my Permeable Skin a little. I took Wai with me. He wouldn¡¯t enjoy it, but I didn¡¯t want him staying with Gwaed. It would help him level. We slipped into the water by the fishing boats and swum out to sea, keeping underwater. I didn¡¯t push it but swam at a steady pace. With the suit restricting my Permeable Skin, it wasn¡¯t quite keeping up with my oxygen usage. It still more than doubled my Oxygen Efficiency Skill time. Wai was doing OK. He was clinging to me, and his Permeable Skin and Oxygen Repository was keeping pace with his oxygen usage. He was using energy with the Purifying Water Skill to expel the salt. I used it too, and Permeable Skin definitely increases the contaminants in the body. Once I was well to sea, I angled toward the Navy base. I tasted the water. The Tasty Skill is like the Olfaction Skill on land. It is a sense of smell underwater. Closer to the shore, all I would have got was the waste and garbage from the town and ships. Out here, there was less than that. I wanted to get a taste of what might be out here to stop spying. My Sonar was finally getting the distance I was used to rather than being blocked by structures. The main way to detect intrusions was to patrol the waters with bonds and other trained creatures. Usually, there is a boat with a squad also patrolling. With both Wai and I using Purifying Water, we are leaving a trail of waste that could be picked up by a bond. The tide is on its way in, so I hope our waste will mix with the city waste. It is not something that had been of concern before now. The Empire is mainly made up of humans, so I hopefully won¡¯t have to deal with Mer. The object is to look and not be discovered. To that end, I stopped using Purifying Water and Permeable Skin, relying on my original Oxygen Efficiency. Wai left very little waste compared to me. The Enchanters were at the far end of the base. The cliff behind them curved around and met the sea, marking the base''s end. On top of the cliff was a fort and a watch tower. I sank back underwater as there were people around with high-powered perception skills. The best place to observe while remaining unobserved would be at the base of the cliff under the fort. I wouldn¡¯t see further than the starting edge of the blacksmith area, but it was enough for now. There were a lot of soldiers around. Most were directed to helping, but quite a few were guards. The ship was crawling with workers. The Seabreeze was smaller than the trader we came here in. There was a single main mast and a smaller forward mast. We call it a Schooner in Kirghiz, I assume it is similar here. They are not the fastest ships. I caught glimpses of Abigail working on the ship. They looked like they were preparing for a trip. Could I use the Schooner to get the enchanters away? A schooner of that size would have an optimal crew of twelve but could probably run with four or five crew if they knew what they were doing. I waited till darkness fell and the workers went in for the evening meal. Only the soldiers on guard duty were out. I swam underwater to the schooner Seabreeze. I could see where it had been repaired as I swam under the hull. Poking out from the back of the hull was a strong rod with a fan attached. Was this part of the new way of moving the ship? I tried moving the fan, and it rotated. I could see how it would cut the water and move the water back, or rather the ship forward. It was rather ingenious. I guessed the enchantment system would rotate the fan as it had to rotate continuously. I wondered if the smuggler Captian would loan us the crew to sail this ship. It is more likely he would slit out throats and steal the ship, especially if this enchanted fan system worked. Could we use it to get away from here and then scuttle it? That seemed a waste, but it would stop them from testing the system. We either need to take the ship or blow it up. Blowing it up would be easier by far. In fact, the easiest option was not to rescue anybody but to blow everything up and leave. I have an excellent chance of escaping by sea, meeting the smuggler Captain, and sailing for Obalno. We will call that Plan A. Every plan thereafter will be more difficult and complex. In order to get the enchanters out by sea, we have to kill the Patrol Captain and the guards and then escape by stealth with no alarm being raised. The likelihood of that happening is close to zero, although it would improve if we had a diversion. If an alarm is raised, we would need to move fast, ahead of any pursuit and get out from the range of the cannons in the fort. Then we need to avoid the Navy ships forming a cordon for the inspections. If we were still afloat at that point, we would be chased by the Navy, with bonds in the air and slave-powered oars. They have already caught this schooner once before, so we would need something faster or a Captain with Skills. Plan A has a lot of advantages Before I make a final decision, I would like to talk to the two non-slaves there, Abigail and the blacksmith. If they are working for the Imperials and will just yell for help, then we will go with Plan A. Abigail will probably insist on not leaving without her parents. How did she get taken in Obalno without anyone raising the alarm? Did she go willingly? I can see a situation where the assassin blackmailed her with her parent''s health and freedom. She is probably gullible enough to believe them. It is stupid but possible. I don¡¯t have any skills for reading people, but my Mental Perception is reasonable, and my Ocean Sense can sometimes help. I waited and watched. The guards changed at about 11 pm, and there seemed to be an increase in patrolling animals. I wasn''t getting in there unnoticed. I have up at 2 am. Plan A is looking better all the time. Time to see how much of that fire alchemy Gwaed has left. 146. Choices: Ruku.

146. Choices: Ruku.

It turns out Gwaed doesn''t have a lot of her Liquid Fire left. She apparently burned down the stone Inquisitor Building. I swung by for a look, and it was a gutted mess. The adjacent Patroller building also burnt down. I don''t know if that was deliberate or not. She has a small barrel along with several bottles of her Exploding Cocktail. She suggested Esgyn could fire bomb the fort on the cliff to provide a distraction, but it wouldn''t do much damage as he couldn''t carry much. She also said her disease would be spreading in the base, so the more time we left it, the more gaps in the patrols there would be. That raises the question of what happens if the enchanters get the disease. ¡°It is not going to be worth saving the enchanters if they just die of the disease,¡± I said to her. ¡°It will also be difficult if we have to run if they are suffering from it.¡± ¡°I suppose,¡± she said. ¡°The thing with the Slave class, though, is that they get a boost to the Physical and Spiritual Attributes. Only the Mental Attributes are reduced in compensation. The Physical boost will help the slaves resist the disease.¡± ¡°But not completely, and there are two who are not slaves,¡± I responded. ¡°You really want to save them?¡± ¡°If I can,¡± I said. ¡°You don¡¯t really have much chance of success,¡± Gwaed replied. ¡°I know. I was told at the start this was a suicide mission. Even if we all die trying, it will hinder the empire, and there is a chance.¡± I was becoming quite fatalistic about this mission. Gwaed¡¯s attitude has left me adrift and without backup that I can rely on. ¡°I am not going down with your ship,¡± Gwaed stated. That just proved my point. She wasn¡¯t with me and thought this was not survivable either. ¡°Some vaccines and a distraction at the fort will be enough.¡± ¡°Very well, I have four vaccines left, but the slaves probably only need a partial dose.¡± She handed me the vials. ¡°You will need to get the vaccine into them as soon as possible. When do you want the distraction?¡± ¡°If I go in tonight with the vaccines, then we will do it tomorrow night if I survive. I will let you know after tonight. I am going to need to make contact with the Captian and organise the boat.¡± With that, I left the apartment. I am going to need more distractions than just the fort. There was a tavern by the dock where I could leave word for the Captian, but the waitress contact was not there when I visited. I would come back. I would need some equipment. Waterproof bags, more weapons, food and supplies. As I wandered the Dock and Fisherman District shops, I saw first-hand the effect of Gwaed¡¯s disease. A lot of shops weren¡¯t open because of ¡°The Sickness.¡± Others were stopping you at the door, and you would tell them what you wanted and leave the coin, stepping back. They would replace the coin with the goods, and then you could step forward to pick it up. Some shops were operating normally. There were a lot of fishing boats docked instead of out fishing. That was the Sickness at work as well. In most places, there were signs up that they were short-staffed because of ¡°The Sickness.¡± If this were also happening at the navy base, then maybe there would be enough confusion to let me in. I packed everything into waterproof bags, including the books. I did give the slavery one a skim, and it seemed to be what Gwaed had said. To be a Slave Taskmaster, you had to be Journeyman level in your base class before you could specialise, like every other specialisation. The basic classes were Overseer, Administrator, Manager, Custodian and a few others of similar types. To specialise, you had to have owned and managed multiple slaves, and then, unusually, there was a ritual to perform. The ritual seemed to be because the Slave Taskmaster specialisation applied an advanced class to the potential slaves. To level Slave Taskmaster, you obviously had to use it, and it was only at Journeyman Level, if your Attributes were high enough, that you could get the Skill to perform the ritual to remove the Slave Class. The Taskmaster had the ability to make slaves from the start and to break a slave bond with their owner, but this didn¡¯t remove the Class. This breaking of the bond could be forced if the Taskmaster¡¯s attributes were high enough. This was all new to me. I had never known anyone with an advanced class. Obviously, none of this was possible in the Kingdom, where slavery was illegal. I would scan the other two books in advanced classes later. I was a bit concerned that Gwaed had the book on Alchemy Advanced Classes. I was taking everything with me because there was a high chance of something going wrong. If I had to run, I wanted to be able to take the supplies and equipment I would need. The books were a luxury, but I wanted to keep them if I could. I swam back out to sea and then into the end wharf with the Seabreeze tied to it. I had to swim to the sea floor once and hide in the rocks there while waiting for a patrol boat to pass. It is unlikely they had a person with Sonar, but they will have some sort of detection equipment. I secured all but one of the waterproof bags to the bottom of a wharf pile. They would be fine for a few days and in easy reach. I then swam to the cliffs under the fort. The tide was mostly out, so there were more rocks at the base of the cliff than before. There was a fence where the base started, and that was where the patrols went to. I was on the outside of the fence, submerged in water and thinking. I needed a skill to hide me while I changed into a uniform. Camouflage is Journeyman level, but the movement will break the skill. Stealth will help, but I could do with better movement as my Stealth was only just Journeyman as well. I tried activating both and my water affinity. I have a Refreshing Mist Skill, mists hide things, or they can. I tried using that. I got the impression I needed to boost my Spiritual Strenght and Agility, and I had enough points to get them to 45 each. After that, it didn¡¯t take that long before Concealing Mists clicked into place. The area I could affect was a function of my Spiritual Strength, and the effectiveness was a function of my Spiritual Agility. At level 1, with my Spiritual Strenght, I could cover just over four meters squared, which is a square 2m x 2m. At the Apprentice level, I could cover an area 4.6m on each side and Journeyman Level of 6.5m. I could alter the shape and the colours to blend in from the Apprentice Level. The higher the Spiritual Perception, the more likely it would be seen through. Combining it with Stealth and Camouflage for personal use shows a lot of synergies. I was never going to hide a whole ship, but if we were being chased, I might be able to hide the rear from being seen. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I swam around the fence carefully, looking for traps. Underwater traps are a bitch. I engaged Stealth and Concealing Mists and crept up against the cliff. I opened the one bag I had bought and changed into the Tracker¡¯s Squad Leaders Uniform. I pocketed the vaccines and crept closer to the blacksmith forge along the cliff. It was night and just after dinner time. Now was not the time for Stealth. Now was the time for boldness. I stopped all stealth Skills, straightened my shoulders and marched with a purposeful stride to the front door of the building. I saluted the soldier at the door. He saluted back, ¡°Sir! Patrol Leader Williams is in there setting out the next work schedule. He said not to be disturbed, Sir.¡± ¡°He¡¯s the one I must speak with,¡± I said while opening the door. The soldier didn''t stop me, although my Sonar picked up his head, looking at the strange direction I came from. I could hear an irate voice coming from the dining area. I marched down the hall and entered the room without hesitation. This was the moment of truth. Abigail would recognise me, or she should. If she were working with the Imperials, she would out me to the Patrol Leader. If she did, the plan was to fight and run, setting as much on fire on the way as I could. Plan A, in other words. As I swept into the room, my Sonar located everybody. The Patrol Leader was standing at the head of the room, and there was a soldier standing by the door I entered. I marched up to the front, and two heads turned to look at me, the two non-slaves. Abigail and the blacksmith. I was two strides in when Abigail recognised me, and her jaw opened in shock. I was four strides in, and the Patrol Leader was turning to me in irritation at the interruption. Abigail had not outed me, so either she was still in shock or was not here voluntarily. She could be dumb enough to think I now worked for the imperials. Maybe. There would be no doubt soon. ¡°Why the fuck are you interrupting me, and who the hell are you?¡± The Patrol Leader seemed to not worry about being polite to the people under him when he was annoyed. ¡°New Transfer because of the Sickness,¡± I said, giving me time to reach the front of the room. ¡°Message from the Base Commander, Sir!¡± I obviously said something wrong, as his expression started changing, but I was now within reach. I spun behind the Patrol Leader and threw my Poisoned Knife at the unsuspecting soldier by the door. My aim was a little low, and instead of his throat, it hit his upper chest just above his armour. I really didn¡¯t want any noise to alert the other guards, and my hands were now busy with the Patrol Leader. The soldier collapsed with his hands grabbing at the knife, but he wasn¡¯t done. I had grabbed the Patrol Leader from behind with one hand, and my other hand covered his mouth and nose. He was starting to struggle, so from my hand over his face, I pumped his lungs full of Poisoned Water. He can¡¯t speak if he has no air. I let him collapse to the ground pulling another knife for the soldier at the door, as he is the biggest threat of raising the alarm. I got a feeling from Wai that he would handle that, and I got a glimpse of his tail disappearing down the soldier''s throat with a poisoned Whirlpool Shield active. A wooden spike from the wooden floor then pierced through my foot. Was Abigail working for the Imperials after all? I changed the target for my knife. Just then, the Patrol Leader at my feet shuddered, and my Sonar picked up a wooden spike piercing through his temple. I saw Abigail¡¯s focus was on the Patrol Leader. ¡°Nobody move!¡± I said in my most commanding voice. I pulled my foot off the Spike, and blood started spreading. It had gone through some bones. My knife was still poised to throw at Abigail. ¡°He had a Wood Affinity,¡± she said nervously. That actually made sense. How else would they manage her wood affinity but with another affinity user? Checking she didn¡¯t sabotage something. ¡°You two,¡± I said, pointing to Abigail and the Dwarf, ¡°move over there.¡± I indicated an empty area at the front. They moved. They could both see my knife poised to throw. What they couldn¡¯t see was that my high-pressure Water Surge was also ready, which would strip paint off walls and eat into rock with enough time. The slaves just sat there. That was good. They didn¡¯t have any suicidal commands given to them. ¡°What¡¯s going ¡­¡± Abigail started to say. ¡°Quiet!¡± I commanded again. I had Enhanced my Physical Perception, and that and my Ocean Sense were trying to determine if there was any disturbance going on outside. I wish I had a Hearing Skill. All seemed quiet. I figured I had no real option but to trust Abigail. ¡°Is there a First aid Kit here?¡± I asked. She nodded and went behind the serving counter and pulled it out. While she did that, I looked at the dwarven blacksmith, ¡°Who are you, and what are you doing here?¡± ¡°Master Blacksmith Thorsson, also a Journeyman Engineer. Specialisations in Armour and Spiritual Blacksmithing,¡± Thorsson replied. ¡°Do you want to stay here, Thorsson?¡± I asked. ¡°Hell no.¡± ¡°Even though we don¡¯t have much chance of surviving?¡± Abigail had returned with the First Aid kit, and she glanced at me quite worried at that statement. ¡°I was supposed to be here on a one-year contract. That was five years ago, and I am basically a slave,¡± he replied. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you a slave?¡± I asked. ¡°Because slaves lose their Mental Attributes and there is no problem solving, creativity or inspiration. Just drones. They need my problem-solving, and it is the same with the lass,¡± he replied. The First Aid kit didn¡¯t have any healing potions, but it did have a herbal healing paste and some bandages. Abigail got to work on my foot without being asked. ¡°That Schooner out there able to sail?¡± I asked. ¡°Better than that. The fancy Locomotion Engine out there can be working in a couple of hours. Problem-solving also means the ability for problem-creating,¡± he winked at me. ¡°What about them?¡± I said, pointing to the slaves. ¡°My parents need to be free,¡± Abigail said. ¡°They all do, but we don¡¯t have the Class or Skills to do that,¡± I said. ¡°Those two,¡± Thorsson said, pointing at two of the dwarves, ¡°and that lass,¡± he pointed to a human female, ¡°are enchanters. It would be more efficient if I took over their bonds to get the engine working and to keep it powered.¡± ¡°Keep it powered?¡± ¡°It needs Spiritual Energy,¡± Thorsson replied. I looked at Abigail, ¡°And the other five?¡± ¡°My parents,¡± she pointed to two older people, ¡°and other crew that used to sail with them.¡± The question was, did I trust Thorsson, and not just with the slaves, but with our exit attempt? I probably didn¡¯t have a lot of choices. The ship will probably end up being sunk anyway. ¡°Ok, You that the enchanters, I will take the sailors,¡± I said. ¡°I need to bond my Mum and Dad,¡± Abigail said. ¡°Absolutely not,¡± I replied. ¡°Not only will it ruin any ongoing relationship, as slaves remember everything, but I need to be making decisions without going through a second person.¡± She started to argue, but I pushed on, ¡°Some of those decisions will be dangerous and may end up in death, which you will try to argue about. We will have no chance if I can¡¯t just act.¡± She wasn¡¯t happy, and she never would be. I pushed on and did it anyway. 147. Slaves: Ruku.

147. Slaves: Ruku.

I had never had a slave and never contemplated having one. I now had five. My status showed a bond for each of them, but nothing else other than a feeling or sensation identifying which one it was. I had to find out about their skills and classes by talking to them. I didn¡¯t have time for five in-depth discussions as I had a dead Patrol Leader and a dead soldier who would be missed very shortly. I set Abigail to strip the uniform of the Patrol Leader because I felt I deserved a promotion. Or rather, it had the potential to create more confusion. I questioned each of my slaves to find out their classes. Skills would come later. Anita was Abigail¡¯s mother, a Master Seaman, Journeyman Captain, and Apprentice Cannoneer and Archer. Robert was Abigail''s father, a Master Sailor, Journeyman Navigator and Merchant, and Apprentice Carpenter. I don¡¯t know the difference between a seaman and a sailor. I am a sailor myself. It is not important right now. Knut was the dwarf, a Journeyman Sailor and Axeman, and a Novice Carpenter. It was unusual to have a class focused on one weapon type. Usually, they come as specialisations. I would need to find him an axe. Suzy was a well-built human female who was a Journeyman Sailor, Apprentice Sailmaker, and Novice Oarsman. Tim was a skinny young human who was an Apprentice Sailor and Watchman. He confirmed he had Farsight and Darksight, even though they were not very high levelled. I looked to Thorsson, ¡°what do you need for this locomotion thing?¡± I asked. He had already been working with his enchanters, so he knew their skills better. ¡°Some parts and tools in the Smithy and then time on board,¡± he replied. ¡°How long before they are missed?¡± I said, pointing to the Patrol Leader. ¡°They would normally be finished about now,¡± Abigail said. So much for going tomorrow. We will be going now. There was always a chance that it would but my distraction and the backup ride will not be around until tomorrow. I called Thorsson and Abigail over, ¡°You need to each drink one of these,¡± I said, handing them a vaccine vial each. ¡°It will protect you from the sickness. There are side effects. Tiredness and fever mostly, but you will need to push through it because we can¡¯t stop, and I can¡¯t afford for you to get the sickness.¡± They each skulled the vials. ¡°I have two more we will share amongst the slaves. They should have higher resistances.¡± Thorsson and I gave each slave a quarter vial. I looked at Thorsson, ¡°Will anyone stop you if you take your group, grab what you need from the Smithy and go to the ship?¡± ¡°They shouldn¡¯t. Patrol leader Williams there was pushing us to get the ship operating.¡± he replied. ¡°Right, you get moving. I will deal with the door guard. Oh! Do you have any axes out there?¡± I remembered to ask. ¡°Only for chopping firewood.¡± Thorsson replied. ¡°Bring it too.¡± I said. Thorsson gathered his trio and headed to the side door to the Smithy. We could go that way too, but we still had to go past the door guard to get to the ship, so he needed to be dealt with. I spent a bit more time with the slaves, making sure they understood they could defend themselves if they were attacked. If I gave them instructions in line with their class and skills, I did not need to go into much detail. An Axeman knew how to defend using an axe, and they all should have at least basic Unarmed Combat. Instruction outside their skills would require much more detailed instructions. Hence I was hoping they would manage the ship with just basic instructions. While I was almost a Journeymen Sailor, I knew nothing about navigating at sea or repairing a sail, etc. They would do it without inspiration, but they would do it. I had Skinny Tim go and call the soldier at the door in to speak to the Patrol Leader. The good thing about using slaves is that truth skills won¡¯t detect a lie because they are not lying. They are just obeying instructions and won¡¯t be able to answer any questions. I ambushed him and drowned him in Poison Water like his leader. Robert, Abigail''s father, was about his size, so I had him put the uniform on. The Soldier that took the knife was a big fella, so cleaned most of the blood off, and Suzy wore that. A Patrol Leader and two soldiers escorting workers on the ship might pass at a distance. We grabbed things that might be useful, mostly crates of food, and marched out boldly to the ship. I hoped we survived long enough to get hungry. When we got to the ship, Torsson was arguing with the soldier on duty. There were four of them on deck. Two were guarding the wharf side, and two were patrolling. Together. Time to be an officer. ¡°What¡¯s the problem, soldier, and where is your Squad Leader?¡± I channelled my best hardass officer routine. ¡°Sir,¡± He saluted, as did his partner, ¡°Squad Leader Perich will come on duty in two hours, Sir. The problem, Sir, is that no work scheduled for tonight, Sir¡± ¡°Patrol Leader Williams is down with the sickness, and he is way behind schedule, so there will be work tonight,¡± I commanded while ushering everybody aboard. ¡°Yes, Sir. I need to report this to the Duty Officer, sir. Who shall I say ordered it?¡± He obviously wanted my name. Everybody was on deck now but had not moved further in, so there was some cover of the ten or so bodies standing around. I caught Thorsson¡¯s eye, and he moved behind the soldier¡¯s partner. ¡°It¡¯s Patrol Leader Gwaed,¡± and I grabbed him, clamped a hand over his mouth, and pumped his lungs full of poisoned water. I held him aloft, and his partner took a step toward me, then collapsed on the deck with a severed spinal cord from a piece of sharp metal Thorsson held. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. I called out to the two patrolling guards, ¡°These two have collapsed. It is probably the sickness. We need a med team.¡± I looked at Thorsson and quietly said, ¡°get it working fast,¡± and he went below with his three. One of the two soldiers came running, the other held back with suspicion on his face. Shit. I grabbed the one coming fast and shoved my hand over his face, and pumped him full of poison water. The other started blowing his alarm whistle. Double shit. I aimed my arm at him, blasted Water Surge, and sent him over the rail into the sea. I grabbed Anita and said, ¡°You are the Captain. Get this boat out to sea fast.¡± Her Captain Class got to work, and she started issuing orders to the others, and they started moving. I started continuously using the one Skill I had that I thought might help. I got Inspiring Aura when I got my Leadership Specialisation. It seems to enhance the Mental Agility of those around me, but it is different for each person. At least it might make the slaves more proactive. I hoped. I then followed the Soldier into the water. He had surfaced and was blowing his whistle again, but I used Water manipulation to drag him back under and crush his chest, getting the air out of his lungs, and then I filled them with water, drowning him. While I was in the water, I dove for the waterproof bags and tossed them onto the deck. I then climbed the hull using Suction Grip. By the time I got on the deck, Anita had got us untied from the wharf, and the first sail was being unfurled. At least there was a reasonable breeze, even if it was not directly blowing offshore. A squad of soldiers was coming our way at a run, and the alarm was spreading. At this rate, we are not even going to get out of the harbour before we are blown from the water. I grabbed Knut the Axeman and shoved the wood axe at him, and said, ¡°You are with me to stop anyone else boarding the ship.¡± I tossed all my bags below deck except the ones with the weapons. I grabbed a sword and a small shield, cursing that I didn¡¯t put a war axe in. We were separating from the dock but too slowly for people with a Physical build like these soldiers. They will jump the gap. I limped to the stern of the ship, which would be closest to the wharf the longest. My Patrol Leader¡¯s uniform is soaking wet and uncomfortable, and my foot is aching over top of my Pain Resistance. I think the sprint across the deck reopened the wound, and the salt water is making it worse. My foot will need to be re-cleaned and bandaged. I had Regeneration focussed on my foot, so the flesh wound will close in another hour or so. The bone will take longer. I was still channelling Inspiring Aura. I shouted instructions to Captain Anita, ¡°We need to avoid being boarded and avoid cannon fire. Make for the open ocean, but we will be chased and need to avoid being caught or sunk.¡± I really hoped she had the skills to enable those general instructions. I was pretty sure any Captain would have some skills there, especially one who did work for the Kirghiz Military Intelligence. ¡°And If you have some way to hide us once we are out from the harbour, that would be fantastic,¡± I added. My reasoning is Military Intelligence is a spy organisation, more covert than overt. I haven¡¯t had time to discover what skills she had, so I am hoping some will click with those instructions, and my Inspiring Aura will help. The first of the soldiers was jumping for the ship. They were trying to avoid Knut and me, so I had to move to intercept. I didn¡¯t try shield bashing as I wasn¡¯t sure their momentum wouldn¡¯t send me sprawling as my Shield Bash was only mid-apprentice. My Piecing Strike and Fast Strike were in the mid-journeyman levels. I got two body stabs in as they went flying past. One at least hit a lung. I moved as the next one was coming. My Sonar picked up Knut, almost cutting someone in half with the simple wood axe. That is a high-powered Class. An Imperial Squad is ten people, including the Squad leader, usually two ranged attackers and at least one Heavey front liner with the rest melee fighters. I dodged an arrow, which deflected off my Whirlpool Shield while Shield Bashing the next jumper from the side, making her miss the back of the ship and end up in the water. Knut was engaged with a soldier who made it on board, and there were two more incoming while two were shooting arrows. Knut took an arrow to the leg. He had no armour. I dropped to the deck under the jumper coming at me with a shield. He went right over me, which put him off balance as he was expecting to hit me. I helped him on his way with a Water Surge, and he went off the other side of the ship. I wondered what had happened to the arrows as I was expecting some. I looked, and they had changed targets to the Helm. That was smart of them. Then I realised my Inspiring Aura didn¡¯t distinguish between people but affected everybody in my radius. I withdrew my radius to just beyond the ship. Anita was down, but I don¡¯t know how bad. Abigail was there sheltering her with a large wooden shield. If Anita were killed, we wouldn¡¯t be getting out of the harbour. I had to roll quickly as the last jumper was stabbing down at me. I got my shield between us, but I was still lying on the ground. A small water Surge staggered him back, allowing me to get to my feet. He came at me hard, trying to keep the initiative, but I had decades of experience on the lad. I quickly disarmed him and bashed him overboard. Knut had dealt with his attacker and was dodging arrows. The two archers were the only ones left to fight, and we were now too far from the wharf to jump. I headed to the Knut and helped him bandage the wound in his leg. I set him to collect the attacker''s weapons and armour and throw the bodies overboard. I headed to the helm to check on Anita. As I limped up to the deck, I used my Master level Water Manipulation to try and speed the ship up. It had very little effect on a ship this size. I could make my canoe basically surf the waves, but the Seabreeze was too big for a noticeable difference. Every little bit helped. ¡°What the fuck, Ruku? Mum took an arrow to the chest, and she is breathing blood!¡± Abigail was rightly upset. ¡°Get the blue waterproof bag just inside the galley entrance,¡± I commanded, and she ran off. She came back quickly, and I grabbed one of Gwaed¡¯s healing potions. I pulled the arrow, tipped some of the liquid in, and made her drink the rest while I bound the wound. Knut and I would have to tough it out because I don''t have many potions. I looked at Abigail again, ¡°Do you have any skills to make us move faster?¡± She didn¡¯t want to leave her mother, but she nodded, ¡°I can smooth the hull and make sure it is clean.¡± ¡°Good,¡± I said. ¡°Start at the Bow and work your way back. We need everything we can get.¡± She hesitated to look at her mother. ¡°Go! Now!¡± I commanded, ¡°or we are all dead.¡± She dragged herself away and went below deck, hopefully, to get to work. I looked at Anita. Her breathing seems to have settled down. I am no healer, but I have seen more than my share of battle wounds. I also start to pulse Refreshing Aura. I needed to pace myself, or I would run out of energy. It is no good if I keel over from energy loss. Spiritual energy or Spiritual Consitution, as it is labelled in our status, could be used down to about 10% safely. Lower than 50%, you can feel lethargic. At 5%, you generally drop unconscious until the body recovers. If it gets to zero, you die. That is how Tabith¡¯s bond, Nyx, kills. My energy was dropping fast. Now that the fight was over, I was feeling a bit lethargic. I wonder if the Monster Energy potions would revive Spiritual Energy. I had one left, so I would keep it handy. I helped Anita to her feet. One good thing about a slave is they don¡¯t lie. If you ask them how they are, they will tell you. I stayed with her to relay her orders and be the steersman. She couldn¡¯t yell without reopening the wound in her lung. 148. Seabreeze: Ruku.

148. Seabreeze: Ruku.

I took a look around. We were well offshore now, and I could see two ships swarming with people. They will be after us soon. I kept looking around and saw two harbour patrol vessels on intercept. They are smaller, faster ships. They don¡¯t have cannons, but they do have grapple harpoons and boarding parties. ¡°What is the best way to deal with the patrol boats,¡± I asked Anita. ¡°Cannons,¡± was the curt reply. ¡°Hard port,¡± she said suddenly. I spun the wheel, and the ship slowly turned. ¡°Why are we turning?¡± I asked. ¡°Never sail in a straight line when the range of cannons, especially fix emplacements,¡± she said that like she was quoting a manual. She probably was. I looked back to the fort, and there was a lot of activity on the walls. ¡°What is the range of the fort¡¯s cannons?¡± I ask. ¡°Anywhere in the harbour,¡± she replied. I figured. There would be no point otherwise. ¡°There is a second fort across the harbour,¡± she pointed in the distance. It made sense. If I were defending the place, I would have backups as well. That is basic military practice anywhere. Anita had me shout orders to the crew. Knut arrived loaded with armour and some weapons. I had him look for anything he could use, and he found a jerkin that would fit, but there was nothing there sized for dwarves. I had him take over the wheel and Anita¡¯s mouthpiece and went to figure out what I could do about the patrol boats that were closing. When you are in a tight situation, you need to play to your strengths. I stripped out of the Patrol Leaders'' uniform. I was a Marine Commando specialising in Aquatic infiltration. I should be able to take out a couple of small boats, even without our normal set of equipment. Sione from MI outfitted us before we left, and I brought everything with me, so I do have some small explosives. The trouble is I only have four, and there are bigger boats out there that they would be useful for. I grab two anyway and some small jars of Gwaed¡¯s Liquid Fire. We have to make it to the ocean first. I suit up in the civilian divers gear and load some pouches with the jars. I grab my knives and a spear. There may be water bonds around. I go back on deck and lower myself into the water. The boats are coming from different directions, which is a blessing and a curse. They can¡¯t assist each other, but it will take me time to get from one to the other. I head for the closest first. When I say the patrol ships are small, they are smaller than the Schooner but large enough to comfortably carry two squads of soldiers plus crew. Twenty soldiers plus crew. I can¡¯t let them aboard the Seabreeze, and preferably not within the bow or harpoon range. I swam toward the first boat entirely underwater, and I remembered to stop using my Inspiring Aura. I need all the energy I had left for this. My sonar was not picking up anything in the water that might be a bond. Yet. As I neared the ship, it suddenly changed course, and I could see a lot of faces looking over the side. They do have an underwater detection ability on the boat, and I have been detected. They probably also have some underwater explosives to deal with threats like me. I sped up, using all my speed Skills while pulling out two items. I explode out of the water, leaping high into the air, much to their surprise. My practice with the dolphins on the way here is paying off. I throw one of the jars of Liquid Fire onto the deck and then follow with the explosive. I grab one of their sail lines on the way past, changing my trajectory, and even then, two arrows glance off my Whirlpool Shield. I crash back into the water feet first and immediately speed away. Even then, the explosive they throw after me shocks all the air out of my lungs but does no other damage. I switch from Tough Hide to Permeable Skin and start taking in oxygen again. A smaller explosion happens on the ship, and flaming planks land on the ocean. The ship is still afloat. I didn¡¯t think the explosive would penetrate through the decks to the hull, but hopefully, it would have damaged masts and sails and set the Liquid Fire burning. I see the reflection of the fire as I swim for the other Patrol boat. These explosives are supposed to be placed on the outside of the hull. When I think I am far enough away, I take a small low leap to see what is happening and to take a breath. The first patrol ship is dead in the water and well aflame. The first objective is complete. I make my way to the second ship at a moderate speed. I have to conserve energy. I pass by the stern of the Seabreeze on my way. Those fan things just seem to be adding to the drag on the ship rather than helping. As the Patrol ship comes into view, I see I am too late. It already has a harpoon piercing the side of the Seabreeze. It goes through the hull but is above the water line. Half the soldiers are working a winch and dragging themselves closer, and the harpooner is loading a second harpoon. Their archers are keeping our crew out of the rigging, and as I move toward the ship, one of my slave bonds disappears. Young Tim has been killed. This time I head the bow of their ship and cling to the hull, still underwater, with Suction Grip. I am hoping everyone is too busy to check their alarm system. I won¡¯t be long. I clamp the explosive to the hull, and then I swim off as fast as possible. The explosive rips a hole in their hull, and they winch themselves full of water. I get back to the Seabreeze and launch myself out of the water, and land on the deck. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. We need to get the harpoon out of our hull, or it will drag us to a halt, being tied to a sinking ship. I check on everybody, and Anita is no worse. Knut and Abigail are with her. Abigail has another shield, and there are two arrows stuck in it. Robert and Suzy had made it below deck, but Tim had been too high in the rigging. His body had fallen into the sea. He should have sheltered in the crow''s nest as that was protected against arrows, but Anita had ordered everyone below deck, and he didn¡¯t have the Mental Strenght or Agility to choose a better option. Useless Slave Class. ¡°Abigail, we need to get rid of this harpoon and at least do a temporary fix on the hull,¡± I yelled. I saw her nod, ¡°I¡¯ll sort it,¡± and she disappeared below deck. I was exhausted and rested for a few minutes. I disengaged all my Skills and reengaged Inspiring Aura. If I had been here with Inspiring Aura active, would Tim still be alive? We would be being boarded about now, so we would probably all be dead. I heard wood cracking, and then there was a splash. I guess we were free of the harpoon. I heard the sound of hammering as the ship picked up speed again. I limp my way slowly back to Anita and Knut at the helm. Anita just ordered another course change to Starboard. Just as I reach the helm deck, the ship is washed with water as an explosion erupts off the port side. That is a bloody big cannon they have in the fort. It is just possible my Inspiring Aura just saved us. I wonder what their rate of fire is. I figure the Forts held off firing while the Patrol boats were on approach, but one is now at the bottom of the ocean, and the other is a beacon of flame behind us. We are not far from the harbour entrance. I look back, and the first of the chase ships are leaving the dock. Another explosion happens off the bow, close enough to damage the forward spar. There are two forts, and how many guns per fort? Abigail heads forward without orders She takes Knut to help as he has an Apprentice Carpenter class. Using her initiative. I am missing people who have initiative, and I have only had the slaves for a few hours. I take over Knut¡¯s role as Anita¡¯s spokesperson, but I sense the potion has done good work. How do I sense that? I look at my Status, and her Slave bond has levelled to two, and I am getting a sense of her health. So that¡¯s how it works. The higher the slave bond grows, the more information I will get about her. I take the opportunity to use Interrogate Status on her; she is an open book to me. The Slave bond bypasses her defences. I see a Skill that might hide us once we get out of the harbour. In the meantime, she has all her necessary skills hard at work. I noticed her Spiritual Energy was dropping as she tried to boost the ship¡¯s speed. I glimpse a fireball bearing down on us from the other fort. They are using their catapults to send them. Cannons use expensive alchemy ingredients, so catapults are often cheaper and effective enough from land-based defences. They can also throw a wider variety of things. The fireball goes through the foresail and sets the rigging alight, damaging some of the crossbars. Fortunately, it missed the foremast and the ship itself. Our speed is slowed as we now only have the mainsail. Anita is fine enough now, and I move forward to put out the fire with my water. Anita changed course again. We were almost out of the harbour, and I wanted to put the land spit between us and the forts. Both chase ships had now left port and had sprouted oars. They wouldn¡¯t be far behind us. Another catapult load splashed next to us from one fort, and then suddenly, we were hit by a scattershot. Scattershot''s throw a lot of small projectiles, usually rocks. They are good at clearing decks of people, and I suddenly have high-speed rocks slamming into me. My Whirlpool Shield softens them, and my Tough Hide reduces the effect further, but I still feel two ribs crack. I turn to check on the crew. Abigail is fine with her wooden shield up in time, and she manages to shelter Knut. Suzy was lying on the deck, but she was still moving. Her leg was obviously broken. Robert was up the mast and was above the shot. Anita is down with her skull caved in. Her bond disappears from my status. I head to Suzy and grab a piece of the spar that was lying on the deck to straighten and bind her leg. I then head to the now unmanned helm. We can¡¯t sail this ship with three healthy people and two wounded. I will need to see if Thorsson has anyone with the Sailing Skill amongst the Enchanters. We have rounded the bend now, so we are out of sight of the forts, but the chase ships are coming fast. They are bigger than the Patrol boats, and my remaining explosives might slow them. They may not even penetrate their hulls. I am running out of options. I could use the explosives to scuttle the ship and swim for sure. We would then be evading the land search parties. I could do it, but not with the slaves, even without the broken leg. Then we pick up speed. What the¡­ Do my wishes come true now? Thorsson burst out of the cabin, ¡°We did it!¡± he exclaimed. ¡°We started the engine.¡± We were really starting to pick up speed now, faster than the Galleons chase boats. ¡°That is fantastic news!¡± I responded in relief. ¡°It takes Spiritual energy,¡± he explained. ¡°The enchanters will take turns feeding it with energy. They will last about a half hour each before they have to rest about four hours.¡± Three enchanters mean we have the engine for an hour and a half every four hours. It might be enough. ¡°It was awesome,¡± Thorsson said, ¡°We really felt inspired down there. I have never done such good work so fast before.¡± Of course, I knew my Inspiring Aura reached below decks. How could I forget that? Then Thorsson said something that changed everything. ¡°The enchanting down there is set up to be powered by a Monster Core. If we had one with a water or air affinity, it would last 16 - 24 hours, depending on the size.¡± I almost collapsed in relief. A flying fish Monster core has to be either Water or Air affinity. I fished it out of the waterproof bags and handed it to Thorsson. ¡°Alternate this with the enchanters, and we will see how much distance we can put between Northport and us.¡± He looked at the Moster Core like it was the most precious thing on earth, and right now, it was. We still had a long way to go and a navy to avoid, but our chances just massively increased. 149. Royal Kirghiz Navy: Ruku,

149. Royal Kirghiz Navy: Ruku,

We got a good head start, but those Galley ships were still chasing us. We couldn''t see them because they were over the horizon, but twice a day, the same bird would fly over and mark our position. They were following. Esgyn found us on the second day. I only saw him once, though. The Monster Core ran out of energy too fast, and we were reduced to an hour and a half of speed and then two and a half hours of limping along with only the main sail. Suzy was patching the mainsail, but we had given up trying to jury-rig a new foresail. Even with my Inspiring Aura, it was too much for her Slave reduced Mental Agility. Thorsson mostly took over the helm, while Abigail and I directed Robert, Suzy and Knut in keeping the ship going. Susy was stuck on the ground until her leg healed. My foot and ribs were the first to be healed, thanks to Wai for the boost in my Regeneration. It was a hard slog, day after day. Snatching sleep where we could and getting only one hour off in four, continuously. The enchanters were no better and were getting more and more worn down. Our time for the engine powering the ship was slowly getting shorter. On top of it all, I had to catch fish to supplement our food. We had two positive things. Firstly the weather didn¡¯t spring any nasty storms, and secondly, Robert had the Navigation Class, so he was able to keep us heading in the right direction. It was over three weeks before we were sighted by a task force of six ships from the Royal Kirghiz Navy. We were quickly boarded by Marine Commandos. Fortunately, I had trained some of them, so things went smoother than they could have. Within a day, we had the task forces carpenters, sailmakers fixing the ship, and a new Navy crew aboard with supplies. We then gained a two-ship escort back to Obalno, which still took another three and a half weeks. In Obalno, I was greeted by Sione. The first thing I did was release the slave bonds. As a slave owner, I could pick up a bond with an unbonded slave, and I could release my bond, leaving the slave open to be bonded to someone else. The Military had trained Psychologists to pick up slave bonds and help them live as normal a life as possible. Military Psychologists picked up Robert, Suzy and Knut from me and the three from Thorsson. Abigail went with them as she would need the training to help her understand and work with her father and grieve her mother''s death. Thorsson was whisked away and buried with the Navy think tanks as they drawled over the ship with an engine. Thorsson had made a lot of the mechanical parts for the engine, although he had no more than a general understanding of the enchanting. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I settled in for a multi-day debrief with the navy command. They were ecstatic about me bringing the Seabreeze in. A working engine and the Blacksmith that created most of it were a huge boon. The engine cost was high, both in construction and in running it, but they were hoping the Think Tanks would be able to improve the design and bring the cost down. Gwaed was a problem. They were pleased to hear about the plague in Northport and will take advantage of that. However, I think they would have preferred me to have killed her. They brought in a specialist and went over all my interactions with her with a fine tooth comb, to build a psychological profile of her. They are glad she is in the Empire, but there is the possibility the empire might recruit her, which would be a disaster. The conclusion was she was probably too independent to join the empire, but that did not preclude the possibility of them using her. Her four bonds were of particular interest, and, no, I didn¡¯t know how many she could have. I did know she had picked up the Multi-tasking Skill. That got people worried. A skill that requires over 60 in Mental Agility means she is a creative genius. Only Master Craftsmen would have that. The fact she is mostly bonded with scavengers is a big insight into her personality. Being a scavenger means she will feed where the opportunity arises, and the Empire is bound to make an opportunity available if they can. If they realise who they have. Naval Command really would have preferred me to have killed her. Naval Command was also very keen for me to reenlist with them. No, thank you. I am going south to rejoin my new clan. It was a week later when I finally emerged from the Naval base to spend a few days in Obalno to relax. As I left the base, the gate personnel were treating me with even greater respect. I was just a civilian now, but I was treated with unusual respect. Apparently, I was the Marine Commando who single handily stole a ship with secret technology right from under the Empire''s nose. My reputation had risen a few more notches. I am guessing in a few years, the story will grow, and I will have single handily destroyed their navy fleet while stealing their secret ship. Maybe I will have won the war for them if the bards get hold of it. I await to hear the story with bated breath. I booked into an Inn and visited a shipping agent, and booked passage on the fastest ship to Kirghiz I could. It would leave in a few days. I could have gotten Sione to get me there on a military courier ship, but I did want to break ties with the military and travel in comfort and preferably unrecognised. I booked as a passenger only. I treated Wai and myself to a number of luxuries in those few days. We deserved it. Sione met me as we were boarding the ship to Kirghiz. Sione made a half-hearted attempt to get me to re-enlist. He knew I wouldn¡¯t. With more interesting news, apparently, Wiremu and Tabitha had arrived in Kirghiz with quite a bang. The fascinating part was that the big stir was actually caused by Modrica. They have come to the attention of King Thorbj?rn himself. His news was a week old, but they should still be there by the time my ship arrived. I have a lot to look forward to. 150. Pride: Wiremu.

150. Pride: Wiremu.

Claws ripped right through my leather armour and my Snake Skin, piercing my back. This was no ordinary lion. I ducked my head as I knew his teeth would be coming for my neck and tucked into a roll to try to throw him off my back, seeing as I was going down under his weight anyway. The trouble was this enhanced beast had brought his ladies with him. I wasn¡¯t out here alone either. I had the Catkin father and son team, App¨¡ and Mutalil, with me. I had been training Mutalil¡¯s brother Ilaiya in the Hunter Class before he was killed protecting his sister. He was protecting his sister from trouble Tabitha, and I had brought to them. So when App¨¡ and Mutalil asked me to train them, I couldn¡¯t really say no. Catkin seemed to be naturally gifted hunters, and training people who already have a Class and specialisations with several crossover Skills is much easier than training a youngling from scratch. In return, App¨¡ and Mutalil are training me in the Warrior Class. The Warrior Class is the main basic class that the Kirghiz military trains their fighters to get. It is a good all-around class for close-in fighting. It will open up different specialisations. App¨¡ and Mutalil have specialised it to Sentry, and I know Ruku has Commando. I also met a Shield Bearer and two Spearmen when I met the Mothers Tusks. You can also get Monster Hunter from it, but I have that from the Hunter Class. The military will have other known specialisations, which is why they train their infantry in it. My roll did upset my attacker''s plans, and he rolled a couple of times before getting to his feet. I had a couple of seconds to look around. This lion had a pride of six females with him. They were trying to steal our kill. App¨¡, Mutalil, and I had run down a bison, and I was letting them skin it while giving advice. We were two months out from Obalno and only a week from the provincial capital on this central plateau. I hope the Duke here runs their city better than the one in Obalno because Tabitha wants to stop for a few weeks break. Two of the female lions had got my attention allowing me to be ambushed by the male. His skill in stealth, stalking, or whatever he has must be quite high to sneak up on me. I still have the spear in my hand from taking down the Bison, but the blade is broken. I used Granite Spike to form a new one and crouched ready. Two of the females were moving to flank me, and the other four were surrounding App¨¡ and Mutalil, who had wisely moved back to back. One of the females was dripping blood and limping already. They also had spears, but I could tell Mutalil was searching for his shield. I had made him leave it behind. A Hunter is very different from a Sentry. Part of being a Hunter is the mindset. You are not here to protect. You are here to kill. The main difference between the Hunter and Warrior Classes is that the Hunter Class is for hunting beasts, and the Warrior Class is for fighting other Sapients. Big boy is coming at me with a roar. That roar is developing a stunning effect. I don¡¯t think he quite has it yet, and my Hearing Aid Skill blunts it, so it doesn''t work, but I did feel it. Hearing Aid is closing in on the Master Level, and I discovered that since Journeyman Level, it increasingly blunts sound-based attacks. I rolled to the right, stabbing him with my spear. I didn¡¯t hit anything important, unfortunately. This put me closer to the lioness from the right, but it gave me space from the one from the left. I turned my back to the closer one. I put all my Hunters Marks on the left lioness and tugged hard, slowing her down while stepping into a Power Strike with my Spear. I pierced straight through into the heart. The lioness behind me had discovered they were not the only ones that could execute an ambush. T¨¡oke was a 9m monster whose Sudden Strike had knocked the lioness off her feet as he sunk his fangs into her neck. His jaw was big enough that his fangs could fit around her neck as he injected a fatal dose of poison. His body wrapped around her legs, immobilising her while the poison did its work. T¨¡oke now preferred his large form and would only shrink when we were around strangers, or he wanted to be carried. I wasn¡¯t lugging around a 9m snake if I didn¡¯t have to. Big Boy was coming back around to me, but I took the opportunity to check how the others were doing. Two lionesses were out of the fight, one was dead, and the other couldn¡¯t move its rear legs. Mutalil has a Crushing Blow Skill, and a spear butt can deliver it, even if it is not the best weapon for it. He usually uses it with his shield, so it is good to see him expanding its use. Both App¨¡ and Mutalil are bleeding, but it doesn¡¯t look serious. Big Boy is being wary. He is definitely more intelligent and stronger than a normal lion. I wonder if we can find out what he has been eating, as a Monster Core might be lying around somewhere. I really hope there isn¡¯t a goblin horde like in Jern. I put a Hunter''s Mark on each of the live lions in case they try to do a runner. The hunters have turned into the prey. I advance on Big Boy, who swipes at me while snarling. I start circling while keeping his attention by jabbing with the spear. T¨¡oke got behind him and tangled his rear legs, and as he moved to claw T¨¡oke, I sliced through his throat with the blade edge of the spearhead. That was a technique Ruku taught me. I then pinned him to the ground while he bled out. I looked around, and App¨¡ and Mutalil had finished. App¨¡ was moving toward the lioness with the broken back, and Mutalil was pulling bandages and an ointment from his backpack. If I had been wearing my backpack, it would have been shredded. I moved to help him. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Looks like we get some extra skinning practice, ah?¡± he smiled at me and dropped his trousers. I nodded, grabbed ?rt¡¯s ointment, and applied it to the claw marks down his leg. I then bandaged it tight. It didn¡¯t look like it would need stitches. ¡°Anywhere else?¡± I asked. ¡°That¡¯s it for me. Dad was hit in the arm and chest. What about your back? I was a bit worried when I saw that monster land on your back.¡± Mutalil said. ¡°The bleeding has already stopped, although I am going to need to spend quite a bit of time repairing the armour,¡± I replied. ¡°Bloody Regen Skill. I have got to get that.¡± He grabbed the ointment and bandages from me and went to see App¨¡. App¨¡ had lost an arm in the skirmish in Jern that cost Iliaya his life. We had paid for it the be regrown, but it was still a significant weakness. He was training hard to redevelop the muscles and muscle memory. He was beating his son in learning tracking and trapping, even if he couldn¡¯t keep up in fighting at the moment. I pulled out my skinning knife and went over to Big Boy. This is a great pelt; we didn¡¯t even put too many holes in it. The skinning and butchering took all afternoon. We cleaned up in a nearby stream and shared the pelts and meat between us. I spoke up just before we moved out. ¡°This is probably all the adults of the pride. Therefore, the den is nearby. I am interested if we can find it and see if we can find the monster they were eating. There might be a monster core lying around.¡± Mutalil groaned. He knew I would make them do the tracking; therefore, we wouldn¡¯t get back to the wagons till near dawn. He had a mate and three growing and boisterous kids who wouldn¡¯t let him rest the next day. I didn¡¯t smile. Outwardly. It took us two hours to find the den. They lost the trail once, and I had to show them where to pick it up. This was doing wonders for my Tutor Skill. The Den held a surprise. There were four cubs, one male and three female. They looked to be about six weeks old, so they were almost old enough to follow the pride. ¡°You guys have been doing your mental exercises for bonding, haven¡¯t you? Why don''t you see if you can match with the cubs?¡± I saw their eyes lit up as they put down their packs. ¡°Grab some meat. Make sure it is the bison, though.¡± Catkin have bonuses to bond with other cat breeds, as do other animal kin. So their chances were good. I moved out of the way so my scent didn¡¯t confuse things and went to poke around to see if I could find what they had been eating. T¨¡oke was circling the place further out. He can keep up with our running pace now, although he prefers to conserve his energy. He can¡¯t keep going as long as we can. My Hearing Aid eventually heard App¨¡ say, ¡°There''s a good girl. We will have to find you a name.¡± I hear some frustration from Mutalil until, ¡°Sweet, you are an active one.¡± I couldn¡¯t find a trail to and monster, so I headed back. Both App¨¡ and Mutalil had bonded with female cubs. ¡°Go well?¡± I asked. Mutalil said, ¡°I tried with the lad there several times, but he wouldn¡¯t bond.¡± ¡°That girl,¡± App¨¡ indicated the female cub in Mutalil¡¯s arms, ¡°had to scratch him to get his attention. He always was blind to females. Just ask Anni,¡± he teased, referring to Mutalil¡¯s mate and his daughter-in-law. ¡°You are better with the females anyway,¡± I said, ¡°The females do all the hunting. The males just lie around. I will grab the other two cubs, and we will see if they are open to bonding with some of the others.¡± I grabbed the cubs by the scruff of their necks, and they picked up their packs, and we set a steady pace back to ward the caravan. We were all pretty loaded down with pelts and meat. ¡°I couldn¡¯t find what they had been eating, so I figured it was a while ago. If Mum and Dad were Spiritually enhanced before conceiving the cubs, they would inherit those traits. You might have some special cubs there.¡± I commented. We got back to the caravan about an hour before dawn. I was pleased that the guards detected us a good way out. The caravan was stirring, and the breakfast fires were lit. The Caravan Master, Selma, was strict about getting on the road no later than an hour after dawn. We offloaded the pelts and distributed the meat amongst the cooking fires. We had several independent traders join our caravan, so there were quite a large number of wagons. To get to Kirghiz fast, you went by boat. Boats didn¡¯t stop at the towns and provincial cities these traders wanted to. Mayakku, our enchanter and Mutalil¡¯s sister stepped out of her wagon, and the male cub immediately took off toward her. They formed a bond very quickly. These cubs are definitely Spiritually enhanced because that was high intelligence at work. If the male lions like to laze around all day, he chose the one person who usually spends all day in her wagon enchanting. The other female cub actually chose to bond with Anni, Mutalil¡¯s partner. That was a surprise choice. When their kids got up and discovered the cubs, there were squeals of excitement. Those cubs are going to get a lot of attention over the next few days. The caravan got underway, and I settled down to clean the hides, repair my armour and draw a map of the area to raise that skill. I am going to need some new armour. My current two sets have been repaired too often. 151. Duhovno: Tabitha.

151. Duhovno: Tabitha.

Wiremu has spent the trip hunting with App¨¡ and Mutalil. He thinks they might even have the class before we get to Kirghiz. That means they are really talented at it. I have spent the trip working with the Comedic Rhythm, developing new skits and ideas around a longer production similar to the Barman and the Nobles Daughter. Zabavno and Manus are very talented in this area, and we have a raft of ideas. I liked the one about the hapless Intelligence agent being given the run around by the big bad imperials and being rescued by mercenaries. I thought it would make a great slapstick comedy. The great thing about the new Skill, Body Image that I learned in Obalno is it means I can take on more varied parts. This gives us greater freedom in the characters as I can appear as Mer, a dwarf or a gnome. Even animals that we used to only do with Shadow Puppetry and Nyx. I can¡¯t mimic people I haven¡¯t observed, so I can¡¯t mimic the Avions yet. One interesting thing is Nyx has also learned Body Image. She can take on more realistic people shapes with colour. Before, she only appeared in shades of grey, being a Shadow Elemental. The city we are approaching is called Duhovno, and an orc Duchess is in charge. There are a lot of orcs and dwarves in the city and very few humans. The rules seem quite relaxed. This city is a major supplier of Spiritual materials and Monster Cores for the Kingdom. The reason is the large geothermal area outside the walls. Many Spiritually enhanced minerals are coming to the surface from the geothermal vents. The bubbling mud pools are refined to extract the minerals. You have to be very careful that it is just mud, as many Mud Elementals are inhibiting the pools. The Mud is not the only Spiritually enhanced item. The water in the steaming, bubbling ponds and erupting out of the ground in geysers is also Spiritual Water. This is the same water, after it cools that feeds all the plant and animal life in the area. It is a very Spiritual area. That means Duhovno¡¯s biggest single export is Monster Cores. Creatures that are continually enhanced Spiritually form cores and become monsters. Many merchants are focused on supplying adventures, and the Mercenary Guild is very active with standing orders for materials and Monster cores. The Miltary have a strong base here as well, and they also have patrols for monster cores. These are not the recruits but the veterans. The weak quickly die when every beast is enhanced, and Monsters are continually evolving. On a personal note, there are hot pools to bathe and relax in, mud baths, etc. I had planned to stay here for a month, but I might need to extend that. Further from the walls, there are some dangerous creatures and elementals, but close to the city, it is safe enough. Then we booked into an Inn, and I discovered those clever dwarven engineers had piped the hot pools direct to the Inn. This is going to be my retirement city. Duhovno is not as large as Obalno, but there is a very good selection of merchants. There seem to be more Inns than normal for a town of this size, but I discovered they get a lot of visitors for the hot pools, particularly during winter. Duhovno is not on the coast, so there is a well-built road to the nearest port town, only four day''s ride away. Riding is still one of my passions. I spent a lot of time on my horse, Dusk, during the trip. I think we can do that four-day visitor ride in two days if we push it. That would be fun. The person I am most concerned about is my Krvne Sestre, Modrica. She spars in the morning with the caravan guards and then drives a wagon all day. She must be bored out of her brain. I know she is very strong, physically as well as Mentally. Her Mental Agility is not so high, so she is very loyal, steadfast and not easily moved from a course she has decided on. Stubborn is a word commonly applied to her. She does play with the Catkin kids, but they grow so fast. They are almost four years old, and Catkin are considered adults at seven years of age. She¡¯s enjoying the new lion cubs as well. Wiremu is looking for a bond for her, and he did hope one of the lion cubs might bond with her. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Duhovno has dedicated areas for caravans to lease, and the one we scored had an office and storefront attached. Several of the merchants are displaying some wares there. T¨¡tt¨¡, App¨¡''s father-in-law and Mutalil''s grandfather has taken charge of it for me. My job is to see what I can purchase that we can sell in the capital. I am also looking for a permanent agent here as this is a place I want to come back to. That''s all for tomorrow. Tonight I want to explore Duhovno''s nightlife. There are two main nightclubs with musicians rocking the crowd. I drag Modrica into one even though I know it is not her thing. I need to find someone to dance with. I grabbed Modrica and me a drink and found a seat. Drunken dwarves are interesting dancers. They certainly wouldn''t win any awards. On the other hand, Orcs are very rhythmic, but they are not graceful, having grown up on bass chants, stomping, and challenging movements. There is a scattering of humans, but my chances of finding a partner for the night are slim. The band started into a traditional orc stomp, and every orc went out on the dance floor. Modrica grabbed me and dragged me out there. I tried to match the movements, and I was mostly successful. We really, and literally, made that building rock. It was fun. It also gave me an insight into what Modrica might be missing. She is an outcast from her clan. She is separated from her people and has been for years. I am her only clan, and orc culture is new to me. Skavt, Najprej and Drugi? are the orcs in the Canine Queens, the mercenary team Wiremu''s a member of. They are accepting of Modrica and include her, but they are not clan. Modrica has never indicated she wants to join the team. Similarly, Skavt, the leader of the Canine Queens, has never asked Modrica if she wanted to join. Something from the orcish tradition is sitting between them, and I don''t know what it is. I don''t know how to help my Krvne Sestre, my Blood Sister. She walked with me through the month of the Black Butcher in Jern. She was my rock and sanity in that bloodbath. I would walk back into hell if she needed me to. Surely in this city, with over 60% of the population being orcs, there has to be something for Modrica. Wiremu, Skavt and I went to the Mercenary Guild. I went to see what materials other merchants were asking for, and Wiremu and Scavt went to see what jobs were on offer. The Canine Queen wanted to pick up some extra cash while they were here. Wiremu and Scavt came back to me with a notice. ¡°The Mercenary Guild highly recommends the first few trips into the Steam that we take a guide.¡± Skavt said, ¡°Even though Wiremu and I both have the Mapping Skills, we think it is a good idea. These are the requirements.¡± and she handed a notice to me. Hire Mercenary Guild Guides into the Steam Lands Minimum Team Requirements in addition to the guide. Five Team Members with a Base Combat class and at least one specialisation each, Plus one Guild Qualified Healer. 1 Gold per hour. Minimum tour length of 4 hours. A healer can be provided for an additional cost. ¡°You want ?rt to be the healer, so you are short one fighter?¡± I guessed. ¡°Yeah. Bonds don¡¯t count, apparently,¡± she replied. ¡°I want to see the Steam Lands. I will ask if Modrica wants to come as well. What about App¨¡ ad Mutalil? They are Warriors and Sentries.¡± ¡°We are thinking we would get a handle on the dangers first, then take them later,¡± Wiremu replied. I could understand that thinking. They had new bonds and, in Mutalil¡¯s case, a young family. ¡°I will book a guide for tomorrow, and we will plan to be all day,¡± Skavat said. 152. Steam Lands: Wiremu

152. Steam Lands: Wiremu

We gathered at dawn by what they call the Steam Gate. I was feeling quite shabby in my patched-together armour. Shopping is the next thing on my to-do list. Skavt was there with a small shield, spear and a quiver of javelins. Her Yak bond Okse was staying behind. Apparently, the Steam Lands were treacherous for heavy-hooved animals. Najprej and Drugi? wore their normal swords and heavy shields. ?rt was there with his massive two-handed axe. He also had a backpack of medical supplies, being our ¡®Guild Qualified Healer¡¯. Kryddor, his mountain dog bond, was sitting at his feet. I had my bow, my typical three spears, and the usual knives and darts. T¨¡oke was camouflaged on my shoulder. All our backpacks, except ?rt¡¯s, were empty, apart from some basic supplies. We were hoping we would be bringing them back full. I saw Tabitha and Modrica heading over. Tabitha had her twin swords on her but no other obvious weapons. Modrica had her mace, but I understand from Tabitha that she had two basic classes. Brawler and Blunt Weapons. She had a Pugilist Specialisation plus something else Tabatha wouldn¡¯t say. ¡°Morning,¡± I greeted them. ¡°There is no sign of our guide yet.¡± ¡°He is over there, watching us from the shadows,¡± Tabitha said with a raised voice. A shadow detached itself from the building and walked toward us. Our guide was a short dwarf dressed in leather with dual knives. Definitely a rogue type. ¡°Morning,¡± he said unapologetically. ¡°I am Daegal, your guide for today. I see most of you comply with the requirements. I can¡¯t see your classes, Lass,¡± he nodded to Tabitha, ¡°but the fact you spotted me indicates a high-level rogue or scout class.¡± I had ensured my Status showed my Hunter Class and Monster Hunter and Scout Specialisations, so he would not have probed any further. ¡°The first hour or so, we should not have any difficulty with monsters, although it is good we have some experienced Monster Hunters with us.¡± He nodded to Skavt and me. Skavt had picked up the class on the way to Obalno when we had a run-in with a pack of Bone Dogs. ¡°Don¡¯t stray too far from me. I will point out the common dangers as we go. The difference between a pool of boiling mud and a Mud Elemental can only be seen with Journeyman level Spiritual Senses. If you don¡¯t have that, stick with someone who does. There is so much spiritual energy everywhere in the Steam lands, and it can confuse experienced people.¡± ¡°Some dangers we just can''t stop or fight,¡± he continued. ¡°There is a lot of Steam in the area, obviously, and it can confuse the physical senses. Many a person without mapping skills has gotten lost. You may not realise that some of those clouds of steam may, in fact, be Steam Elementals. If I say run, you run. Follow me because I will be in the lead.¡± It didn¡¯t take my Truth Sensing to tell me he was deadly serious. ¡°Right, I will explain more as we go. Follow me.¡± Daegal led the way out the gate. That first hour went quickly with no major problems. Steam billowed from the various pools and blew across the landscape. The mud pools plopped mud and gasses out. The pools were separated by low scrub, and this went on as far as the steam allowed us to see. In the distance, a geyser erupted, sending boiling water into the atmosphere, adding to the steam and creating scorching rain. All the valuable material had been scavenged from this area, so we waited till we got further from the city. It was interesting how the Spiritual density affected even the plants and birds in the area. There was one very common scavenger bird. It was almost flightless. I only saw it fly about 50m maximum. It has blue feathers but a whitetail called a Pukeko. The unenhanced bird was larger than a chicken but smaller than a turkey. We saw enhanced versions almost the size of Kryddor, and he is a big dog. Kryddor had fun chasing them. Then there was the smell. The smell of sulfur was the strongest. There was a build-up of white material around some of the boiling ponds, and my Granite Affinity was sensitive to it. Daegal said it was Silica, a common mineral added to various crafting mixes. I got the feeling from my Affinity and Mineral Lore that it was a building block of Granite. I grabbed a sample even though Daegal thought I was wasting my time. Daegal was updating us on the area as well. Two monster cores a month is about the average extraction, although some may not declare or sell their cores. Monster cores can just be found lying around if you are lucky. These are usually a result of monsters fighting monsters. The ritual to find out the affinity of the Monster core is fairly straightforward and uses common spiritual materials, but you are recommended to have the Spiritual Sensitivity Skill or similar to sense the results. We will have to try to teach Mayakku. Her mother Am''m¨¡ may have the skill as well, I will ask. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. We carefully avoided the Mud Elemental pools. I could easily tell the difference between the mud pools and the elementals with my Sense Spiritual. We had a couple of small fights. Eventually, this area enhanced every creature, and a flock of enhanced Pukekos were dispatched fairly easily. Kryddor took down two alone. Their feathers, claws and beaks were valuable, although fairly common. The giant mud crab was a bit more difficult. However, once the legs were hacked off, we worked our spears in under the shell, and its demise was inevitable. The Shell can be worked into a shield or armour by the right craftsman and is highly heat resistant. The smaller shell pieces from the legs would make smaller sections of armour or sell well. Najprej and Drugi? were fighting over who would get the new shield. The shell may be big enough for two shields, but despite the size of the mud crab, it was not a monster. Daegal was of the opinion it was close to becoming a monster. Najprej and Drugi? were designated to carry the shell back. The herd of enhanced boars were not fun. We were in light scrub, Najprej and Drugi? took point with their shields, and Skavt and I were behind with our spears. ?rt and Modrica were behind us, and Tabitha and Daegal disappeared. Najprej and Drugi? took the initial charge on their shields and were pushed backwards. They stabbed forward with their sword as Skavt and I stabbed from behind with our longer spears. ?rt and Modrica then came out from the sides swinging their respective weapons. Kryddor hassled them from the rear. After the initial charge, it became a free for all, but the six of us stayed together. I caught glimpses of Tabitha slicing and wounding from the rear, and I did notice the area darken slightly. One boar slammed into Modrica, and she was pushed back. It was trying to gore her with its tusks, but she obviously had a Skill to harden her skin. It was more effective than my Snakeskin, as the boar''s tusks would have ripped through that. That was when T¨¡oke decided to make an appearance, launching himself off my shoulder and onto the Boar, trying to gore Modrica. He Grew mid-flight and landed on the boar, wrapping his body around it and sinking his teeth in. Modrica stunned it with a massive punch and then left T¨¡oke to finish it while moving on to the next one. After the first charge, it was fairly straightforward, and we only took surface injuries. The boars took a lot to put down, though. They had a tough hide to get through and soaked up a lot of damage before finally collapsing. It was a long tiring fight. We put down the last boar and were starting to relax. T¨¡oke was heading back to me when Daegal suddenly appeared above him with daggers drawn. Then he froze, caught in Tabitha''s Binding Shadows. T¨¡oke had curled into a ball, ready to strike, and I had moved my spear into a throwing grip. ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked in a menacing tone. ¡°It¡¯s a monster with a core!¡± he replied. I moved forward to stand by T¨¡oke. ¡°That is my bond, T¨¡oke.¡± ¡°You have a monster bond,¡± he said incredulously. The other Canine Queens came to stand with us, and I could sense Tabitha behind him. ¡°Do you know how much a core is worth?¡± he said. ¡°Yes,¡± I replied, ¡°and my bond is worth more.¡± He suddenly saw everybody arrayed against him and sheathed his knives. ¡°I am sorry I didn¡¯t realise we had more than one bond with us. You need to be careful. There are a lot of greedy people in Duhovno looking for cores.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± I said, ¡°are we going to have problems with this news spreading?¡± ¡°No, no. The Guild agreement includes confidentiality.¡± He knew this was a life-or-death answer. My Truth Sensing was telling me he did intend to keep it confidential, so I nodded to Tabitha, and the shadows retreated, and she stepped back. The intentions of a dwarf tend to be lowered after a few ales, but I wasn¡¯t going to kill him on a maybe. He didn¡¯t know about our second bond. I am not sure what he will do if he finds out about the third bond with us. I turned away and got out my skinning knife. ?rt and I had the two highest Skinning Skills, so we got to work. Kryydor and T¨¡oke feasted on boar guts while we worked at cleaning and stacking pelts. The scavengers started to gather, and Kryddor caught another Pukeko. Twenty-three spiritually enhanced Boar pelts will bring a good price in addition to the tusks and hooves. We kept moving. ?rt was collecting a lot of plant samples, including mosses and other plants he had never seen anywhere else. These were going to be for his own uses, to level his Herbalist Class and create some interesting potions. Much of the plant material was also highly heat resistant, and he hoped to create something to treat burns. It was ?rt that upset a monster. 153. Monster Thief: Tabitha.

153. Monster Thief: Tabitha.

I very nearly killed Daegal despite Wiremu letting him off. I still may need to. Nyx loves this highly Spiritual area. Her energy levels are way higher than I have seen them before. She alone held the Binding Shadows on Daegal, and someone that strong would normally be a struggle for her. Modrica loved the boar fight. She was punching, kicking and bashing with joy, finally able to let loose. At one point, she picked one up and threw it at another. I think I am the only one who saw that. I had seen her Armoured Skin Skill turn blades before, but resisting being gored by a massive boar is impressive. She hasn¡¯t been able to go all out for a long time. The closest I have seen her was sparring with Ruku. You have to have a strong physical build to go against her in a fight. Wiremu is the closest, but his Attributes are too spread out to last long against Modrica. Then ?rt had to upset the monster. ?rt had his harvesting knife out and was collecting samples of plants. He knelt down, cut a large area of moss from a rock, and then jumped backwards. A lot of that moss was around, and it withdrew from his cut, and the whole area started to move and gather itself together. The moss in the whole area gathered itself into a ball. An arrow flew into it from Wiremu, and then a Triple Shot. The moss browned slightly where the poison arrows entered but soon turned green again. Daegal yelled, ¡°It is a Plant Elemental. I¡¯ve got nothing to hurt it, but we can outrun it. Follow me.¡± and he took off into the steam. I glanced at Wiremu and Skavt. If we can outrun it, we can try a few things first. They seemed to agree. ¡°Monster formation 1,¡± Skavt ordered. That was the formation to take on a single large monster. The twins, Najprej and Drugi?, moved forward with their shields and moved forward to get its attention. The rest of us spread out to flank it. The twins started hacking at the mass of Moss that was now higher than they were and still growing. The problem was it did not have a front. It was a round green ball. ¡°I can get my Hunters Marks attached, but when I try to slow it with them, they just pull free,¡± Wiremu said. That started various people calling out various skills that partially worked. Cutting off pieces didn¡¯t work very well as they regrew, but only at a moderate speed. It will take a lot of hacking, and if the piece were on the ground, it would merge back with it. The separated piece wasn¡¯t killed. I tried the Binding Shadows, but it just rolled out of them. It was rolling toward the twins, and they were backing up while shield bashing it back to slow it down. ¡°It is too wet for fire to catch and burn,¡± that was ?rt, and I wasn¡¯t surprised with all the steam and pools around. ¡°Poison had limited effect,¡± that was Wiremu, but I had seen that already. ¡°Watch out, it is doing something,¡± shouted ?rt. The Plant Elemental had drunk briefly and then suddenly expanded, throwing out water everywhere. ¡°Shit, that''s not water!¡± I yelled as it burned through the leather of my armour and into my skin. A small drop had hit my face and was burning a hole in my skin. ¡°It¡¯s acid from the sulfur around us.¡± ?rt supplied. Modrica had her Armoured Skin and Wiremu and Taoke had Snakeskin. The twins hid behind their shields so Skavt, Kryddor, ?rt and I were the worst burned, and ?rt had an ointment to neutralise it. He worked his way around us. Skavt had Regeneration, so she was fine. ¡°It¡¯s doing it again,¡± Najprej noticed the contractions happening, so the vulnerable of us could take shelter. The frequency of the attack was a problem, and if the plant monster engulfed you, the acid would go to work. I worked together with Nyx to combine our Syphon Energy. This was possible now the Elemental Bond was in the Journeyman Level. We spread our shadows, and we both Syphoned. This had a greater effect than I expected. The Moss on the outer edges started to brown. I shouldn¡¯t have been so surprised as it was a Plant Elemental, and all Elementals used Spiritual energy as their prime source. Our flesh and blood had our Prime source as Physical Constitution, but elementals use the Spiritual. We had to focus our Syphon very closely on the Plant Elemental, or we would end up syphoning the Spiritual energy in the atmosphere. ¡°We are Syphoning energy, so cut the dead, brown moss,¡± I informed everyone. ¡°We are giving the thing a haircut,¡± quipped Wiremu. I noticed he had put away his spear and was using his knives. ¡°The gap between the acid pulses has also lengthened,¡± he observed. ¡°Let me try a new Skill.¡± I saw him lift his arm, and a small thin blast of Granite Sand cut into the Moss. He worked it so that it sliced a large chunk from the monster, and when it separated, it browned and died faster. ¡°That was good,¡± Skavt said. ¡°Yes, but it is low level, so I can¡¯t keep it up very long. Look at that. It just hit Apprentice level,¡± he said. Meanwhile, the elemental had pushed us back into the scrub, which was making it difficult for the twins, and it was benefitting from the extra vegetation. ¡°See if we can turn it back into an open area,¡± Skavt instructed the twins. We were whittling it down. ?rt¡¯s big two-handed axe was the best at giving the monster a haircut, second by the twin''s swords. Modrica didn¡¯t have anything to hurt the elemental with. It was our Syphon and haircutting versus its energy and growth. The acid was starting to have a longer-term effect on our equipment. This was most obvious in the corroding shields of Najprej and Drugi?. The steel weapons were also getting pitted. My Blacksteel knife and Wiremu¡¯s Granite were fine so far. The advantage of Spiritually enhanced weapons. The twins had manoeuvred around, so we were heading back to the open rock areas. We were wearing it down, and back on the rock, it would go faster. Najprej¡¯s shield was worn right through, so Wiremu moved behind her and handed her a Granite Shield, and then he did the same for Drugi?. They re-engaged with vigour. We had been fighting for almost two hours, regularly getting blasted with acid. ¡°It¡¯s contracting again.¡± the warning came, then, ¡°Something is different.¡± It contracted further than before and then threw itself into the air, coming down on Najprej and Drugi?. They were totally submerged in acid-dripping moss. We couldn¡¯t see them at all, and the plant monster stopped moving and planted itself. Wiremu threw a Granite shield at Skavt and created another for himself, and together they attacked the plant, trying to get it to move. It refused to budge. ?rt was trying to cut a channel in, but his axe was well-blunted by now and a lot less effective. Then Modrica was there. She had no weapons. She had discarded her mace. She tore into that Moss bare-handed, ripping it apart. Her armour was being burned from her body as she disappeared from sight. ?rt moved around to the hole she had made and tried to enlarge it. Nyx and I also focused the Syphon into this area, causing more of it to brown and die. The plant heaved a couple of times and then settled down again. I assume that was the internal fight going on. We kept at it again, and I intensified my knife work, pushing with Shadow Manipulation. The Moss bulged again, and Modrica broke through. Her eyes were closed, and all the clothing and hair had been burned off her body. The only thing keeping her going was her Armoured Skin, and that was showing areas the acid had worked through. She kept coming. She had a granite shield in one hand and a leg in the other as she dragged Najprej and Drugi? out from the Moss Monster. Wiremu let loose with another cutting sand strike, carving the moss away from them and it turning brown under our Syphon. Modrica kept coming. There was nothing stopping her now. This was her Unyielding Specialisation at work. The one that gave her the Armoured Skin Skill because she just doesn¡¯t know when to quit. Najprej and Drugi? had the sense to curl up under the Granite shields to protect themselves from a lot of the acid. Najprej had severe acid burns on her back and arms, and Drugi?¡¯s leg that Modrica was dragging her by was burned to the bone. Modrica didn¡¯t stop when she cleared the monster but kept dragging them to the nearest bubbling pond and waded them all in to wash the acid off. ?rt followed them with his medical supplies, and I could feel the pain ease as his Aura increased all our Pain Resistance. I went up beside Wiremu and Skavt in the opening that Modrica had made. Wiremu handed me another Granite Shield and the three of us wedged our way in. Wiremu was looking for the Monster Core, which could be the key to stopping this. Our Spiritual Senses were guiding us. I could feel the soles of my boots being eaten by acid, and my armour was increasingly ragged. Our senses told us we were there, but all we could see was moss. We enlarged the area, but the monster was moving away from us now. It was trying to drown us in acid. I finally wised up and leapt onto Wiremu¡¯s shoulders and cleared above our heads, finally finding a large, solid object, and I cut it loose from the moss. It was about the size of a large mango. Once it was loose from the moss, I slipped it into my Spatial Pocket. All the fight went out of the plant monster. The moss slumped, and the acid stopped flowing. We quickly moved out of the area and watched as it became a clump of vegetation on the ground. I had a notification of my first Monster kill, but we had more important things to worry about. We all moved to the pond and used the hot water to wash off acid, and then Skavt and Wiremu moved to help ?rt minister to the twins. I went to Modrica, who was still immersed up to the neck in the boiling water. She looked like she was lounging in a bathtub. She looked strange, with no hair or eyebrows. She grunted at me when I asked how she was. She was OK enough and was recovering. The water was too hot for me, so I moved to help the others. Skavt was applying ointment to Najprej¡¯s burns while ?rt and Wiremu were binding what was left of Drugi?¡¯s leg. There didn¡¯t seem to be much more than bone there. Drugi? was unconscious. We all took some space to rest. ?rt checked us all over and patched us up as best he could. He ran out of the ointment but pulled a fruit from his pack. I recognised it as a lime, and he mixed it with some water to make it go further and applied that to my burns. He had Wiremu produce some sand on a rock and spread that over the wounds removing the liquid. Wiremu always claimed he was the smartest person in this group. Wiremu and T¨¡oke were in the best condition. T¨¡oke had been reduced to spitting venom when his Granite Spikes had no effect. We all had Acid Resistance at various levels, and I think Najprej and Drugi? will have us all out levelled there. All our armour was in tatters, and the normal weapons were unusable. Probably half the money from this Monster Core will go to re-equipping us with Spiritually enhanced weapons. Modrica had lost everything. She was butt naked without a hair on her body. Wiremu retrieved our packs from where we had dropped them and then went to cut some poles to make a stretcher for Drugi?. Skavt went through the packs looking for something for Modrica to wear, but she was just too big for anything they had. You don¡¯t pack many spare clothes for a day trip. When Wiremu came back, he got several boar hides and scraped them cleaner, and made a simple vest and skirt for her. He then made a cover for the stretcher. That man is awesome. I am not sure where I will find an equally awesome partner for him, but I am going to try. In addition to Acid Resistance, I levelled Shadow Predator, and I have a new specialisation from the Monster Kill. I don¡¯t have a base class that will give me Monster Hunter. My Specialization comes from my Thief Class. It is called Life Thief. It gives four Attribute points, and three are assigned, one each to Physical Agility, Spiritual Strength and Spiritual Agility. It comes with a new Skill called Syphon Constitution which must be from the main way I fought. Instead of only my Syphon Energy Skill, which levelled twice, I can now Syphon from any of the Constitutions or multiple constitutions as it levels. Like my other Syphon skill, I can use it to heal myself. It looks like a very useful skill, although it is of no use to Nyx, who only lives on Spiritual Energy. My Syphon can be detected with Spiritual Perception and fought against with Spiritual Strength. Skavt and Wiremu discussed a route to return to the city and decided a more direct route was in order rather than backtrack. Wiremu and Kryddor scouted, and Skavt and ?rt carried the stretcher. T¨¡oke and Najprej flanked them. T¨¡oke in his large form. Modrica and I were rear guard. We only had trouble once on the way back, where a flock of enhanced Pukekos swarmed us. Their feet had nasty claws, and they pecked with their beak, but they were easy enough to kill. Wiremu was sometimes taking out three with one Triple Shot. Kryddor and Taoke were grabbing them out of the air, and the rest of us were playing defence. I tried my new skill, and it was a little underwhelming at the low levels, but it would improve. We paused to collect beaks, claws and feathers, stuffing out packs full. Wiremu collected a few complete carcasses, and we loaded Drugi?¡¯s stretcher with them, packing them around her. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! We made a sorry sight approaching the city gate. Armour hanging off us with both walking and non-walking wounded. The orc gate guard summoned the on-call Healer, who had a fresh supply of potions and better stabilised Drugi?. ¡°You¡¯re the Canine Queens?¡± the head guard queried us. At our affirmative, he said, ¡°You were reported lost in the Steam Lands by the Guild Guide.¡± Scavt said, ¡°You can report us un-lost. What else did Daegal say?¡± ¡°He said you disobeyed instructions and therefore nullified the Guild Contract,¡± he replied. I suppose he did instruct us to run. Skavt just gave one of those low Orc rumbles that only orcs could do. The guard replied with a low orc grunt.
Tabitha Carter Class Thief Merch SPred Rider Rack Enter Brglr Lthief Total
Type Attribute Level 13 11 11 7 4 6 2 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 2 3 2 7 2 5 30 126.0
Agility (PA) 12 3 13 11 7 2 1 49
Perception (PP) 11 5 13 11 7 47
Mental Strength (MS) 8 3 4 6 1 4 6 32 117.0
Agility (MA) 12 2 1 11 2 1 5 6 40
Perception (MP) 10 1 13 11 4 6 45
Spiritual Strength (SS) 9 1 6 3 11 6 2 2 1 41 124.0
Agility (SA) 10 1 5 3 11 10 1 41
Perception (SP) 10 4 7 8 9 4 42
Totals 91 22 65 55 51 24 20 28 8 3 367
Free Points 0 0 4 4 0 2 0 1
Resistances: Cold +20, Poison +3, Pain +4, Disease 1, Acid 2 Skills Novice: Sewing 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Elemental Senses 4, Syphon Consitution 1 Apprentice: Pickpocket 7, Trapping 5, Shadow Puppet 7, Blunt Weapon 9, Knockout Strike 9, Parry 7, Cooking 9, Animal Care 9, Hearing Aid 5 Sleight of Hand 9, Dual Wield 7, Rampage 7, Sapient Lore 7, Orcish 8, Performance 7, Adjuster 6 Binding Shadows 5, Spatial Pocket 7, Body Image 6 Syphon Energy 6 Journeyman: Riding 11, Bargain 11, Appraise 10, Lock Pick 10, Detect Traps 10, Detect Spiritual Traps 10, Disarm Spiritual Traps 10, Sense Spiritual 10, Confuse Status 10, Identify 11, Distract 13, Disarm Traps 10, Dwarvish 12, Lute 10, Coax 10, Mimic 10, Elemental Bond 10, Engulfing Shadows 13, Shadows Embrace 14, Intimidating Aura 11, Spatial Awareness 11, Small Blades 13, Unarmed Combat 10, Swords 10, Master: Stealth 16, Darksight 15, Shadow Manipulation 15, Affinity: Shadow Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Nyx, Shadow Elemental Skills: Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry, Coax, Engulfing Shadows, Sense Spiritual, Body Image, 154. Shopping List: Wiremu.

154. Shopping List: Wiremu.

At least Drugi? will keep her leg. It was touch and go there for a while, but ?rt¡¯s work stabilising her paid off. Modrica was amazing. That was a very powerful skill she had. I am going to guess she got it in the final days of the Black Butcher, or she wouldn¡¯t have so many scars. Armour shopping is the first on the agenda. The Mercenary Guild usually has the best selection of merchants or crafters. The armour I peeled off after the trip monster fight was not repairable. The majority of armour materials from the Steam Lands are heat resistant, including the Boar hides we collected. I decided to make my own hide jacket from the Boar. Hide, as I process it, has the fur still attached, whereas the leather process removes all the fur and can produce much smoother and more flexible material. For a jacket, the toughness and fur give strength of their own. I purchased leather trousers and a light shirt. I also found a Cobbler to turn the boar hide into a strong boot. Modrica also wanted me to make her a jacket. Tabitha had sourced some hair cream from an alchemist, so she now had eyebrows and short hair. It was the lack of eyebrows that was the most disconcerting. I decided to put together another group to head into the Steam Lands. We would do without the guide this time. Najprej and Drugi? were going to be out of action for a while, but Skavt, ?rt and Kryddor were keen. I was surprised when Modrica also wanted to go, although Tabitha had to sit it out and do Merchant stuff. App¨¡ and Mutalil were also coming, although I suggested they leave their lion cubs behind. We would find safer places to take them out hunting. I let Mutalil bring his shield this time. We exited the gate into the Steam Lands three days later. Modrica had a new one-handed mace and a large two-handed war hammer on her back. ?rt had replaced his axe with a new one. He said this one had a sulfur and hydrogen compound mixed in, giving it an acid effect. Skavt had new gear as well. Her shield and spear were enhanced, and she looked good in new armour. She had gone with a chainmail vest and leather trousers. I am sure that was crab chitin armouring her thighs and boots. She also had an enhanced open-faced helmet. Without a guide, I purchased a map of the pools and features, although there was no indication of what creatures were around. I also had a list of materials wanted from the Mercenary Guild with prices. We had also run out of Pukeko meat. That was surprisingly nice meat. We headed off in a new direction, so Skavt and my personal mapping skills would fill in more. As soon as we were out of sight of the walls, T¨¡oke slid off my shoulder and moved into his large form. Steam continued to billow across the landscape, and bubbling pools were interspersed in low scrub. The Pukekos were everywhere, although we held off hunting them until the return trip. Two hours later, we stopped for a rest by a hot pool. We had some of the more common materials on the Guild list, and I had two mid-sized crabs in hand. I scooped out the flesh from the crabs, and we cooked it in the hot pool. The fresh crab meat for a snack was fantastic. I cleaned the chitin and stored it in my pack. The Chitin armour on Skavts leggings has given me ideas to incorporate into my Hide Armouring. The Skill is hard to level now, and I need to keep trying new things with it. We were now at the bottom of a hill. The hill didn¡¯t have any pools, but there were still steam vents, and I knew from the map the Steam lands continued over several hills and valleys, and there was one active volcano further in. We had bought supplies for three days but expected that by the second day were would have a full load. ?rt had the idea of building some hand-drawn travois that we could cart things back on. They were essentially like stretchers, but one end dragged on the ground. We had the materials for two of them, and we could make more if we wanted. As we headed up the hill, the bush got thicker as the vents were further apart. The further we went from the main pools, the more animal life increased. I could hear more birds. There were more smaller creatures, squirrels, mice, snakes etc. I saw a deer trail, so I had App¨¡ and Mutalil track them. We followed for an hour before catching the herd drinking at a stream. App¨¡, Mutalil, and I Stealthed around them, and I walked them through setting some traps, then Scavt, Modrica and ?rt came at them, chasing them into the traps. App¨¡ and my traps caught a deer, but Mutalil will be doing our camp duties tonight. Venison is on the menu. For lack of a specific direction, we decided to keep tracking the herd. Monkeys, we got held up by monkeys. They were trying to steal our shinies. They threw a temper tantrum when we wouldn¡¯t let them take our weapons. We got all sorts of stuff thrown at us, so I started throwing things back. Poisoned Darts were enough to slow them down, and I think the poison would kill them eventually if we left them that long. That was a very annoying two hours until they eventually got bored with us, or maybe we left their territory. Monkey brains are definitely on the guild list of wanted items, but there is a time limit to get them handed in before they spoil. This is where I missed Ruku and his Refreshing Mists Skill. We caught up to the deer herd near dusk. They were grazing in a clearing. There was one large Stag overseeing the herd who was clearly enhanced. We backed off for now. The antlers and pelt would bring a good price, but we were not in a hurry. Following the herd will lead us to common animal areas, which is a good thing. We moved off, looking for a good place to camp. Everybody had Darksight or Nightsight, so moving through the dusk was no problem. We found a sheltered area, and while Skavt started cooking venison, I took App¨¡ and Mutalil to set some traps. Some of these were for protection around the camp, but others were for enhanced moles. The Moles were valued for their earth-aligned and heat-resistant pelts and their blood, as they had an enhanced affinity for processing oxygen. Moles were solitary creatures, and we set traps widely, especially where there was evidence of them. This was one of the key items on our list for this trip, and I had specifically prepared traps and bait for it. The food was cold by the time we returned. I was woken in the night by a massive roar and the sound of fighting nearby. We kitted up and went to investigate. It could be another team out hunting or two predators fighting over a kill. It was neither. There was a team of eight, which now only had three moving members. One was trying to drag a prone member away from the rampaging bear. The other two were fighting for their lives. The bear was not giving them a chance to run. It used to be a Cave bear, the largest type of bear. This one had been enhanced and now was a mad rampaging monster. I could feel the newly formed core, and strange spiritual energies were swirling in the monster that was driving it mad. On the ground near the bear were another dead adult bear and the body of a half-grown cub. The cause of death was the rampaging monster. Skavt immediately started issuing orders. "Mutalil with me. Shields up, and we will get its attention. The rest flank it and attack. We need to kill it, or it will continue to rampage.¡± My Triple Shot slammed into the side of the monster and barely broke through the hide from what I could tell, and that was enhanced with my Sudden Strike Skill. The Bear was now aware of us. I planted a second Triple strike in the same spot, and the arrow stuck. Skavt and Mutalil had got the bear''s attention, and their shields took a hammering from a claw strike. The two other fighters didn¡¯t stay to help but ran as soon as the bear was distracted. The one trying to save one of them dragged the body out of sight. T¨¡oke struck from a nearby tree, sank his fangs into the monster''s flank, and tried to wrap his body around the rear legs to hamper its movement. He wasn¡¯t quite successful, and the bear got the claws from one rear foot into him, and he was thrown away into the bush. I could tell from the bond the claws had ripped through his scales and only stopped at his Granite Bones. That was the first Skill we got from our affinity, and it was still one of the most useful. Modrica came in from the rear with her massive two-handed war hammer and slammed it against a rear leg. There was an audible crack as something broke. The bear started favouring the leg but was too enraged and mad for it to slow down. I kept putting arrows into the same place as my first, and there was an open wound there now. I could see the poison affecting the flesh around it. This bear was just too massive. On four legs, its shoulders were higher than I was. Then it raised itself up and crashed its front paws on the two shield holders. Skavt had to take several steps back, but Mutalil went sprawling. The bear immediately pounced toward him. Fortunately, Catkin have a natural high agility to make up for their lower-than-human strength, and he kept rolling, so he wasn¡¯t under those massive paws when they came down. Natural ability plus lots of training and Skill levelling. Modrica kept hammering at the same leg. ?rt and App¨¡ were taking turns at the opposite rear leg to Modrica. ?rt, with his two-handed axe, looked like he was trying to fell a tree, and App¨¡ was trying to cut a tendon with his sword. I thought he would be better with a spear, but this wasn¡¯t the time for commenting. Then T¨¡oke tried something new. The bear had moved forward away from the tree he had climbed, so he threw himself at it in his large form and then shrunk to his small form in mid-flight, landing on the bear¡¯s back. The bear didn¡¯t even notice. We couldn¡¯t see him as he was lost in the fur. He worked his way to the front of the bear and then enlarged himself again. This time he had his fangs in the bear''s throat and his body wrapped around its neck. I sensed him draw a Strenght Boost from me, and his body tightened around its throat. The bear didn¡¯t like that and turned from the shields to try and bite T¨¡oke, but couldn¡¯t get its mouth around enough. It raised a paw and raked T¨¡oke with its claws, and I saw scales stripped off him. T¨¡oke drew another Strenght Boost and tightened some more, and I sensed he locked his bones to keep on the pressure. The Bear went to raise itself onto its hind legs to bring both claws to bear on T¨¡oke, only to find its rear legs wouldn¡¯t hold its weight. Modrica had pulverised one leg, and the other no longer had tendons for the muscles to work from. The bear went back onto its butt and then toppled backwards. I put my bow down and went forward with my spear. I Granite Spiked its body on the ground, trying to make it difficult for it to roll back on its feet. Everybody moved in to try to keep it on its back. Skavt and Mutalil moved to either side of its head and took turns Shield Bashing the head to keep it disorientated and keep its attention on them rather than T¨¡oke. Then T¨¡oke did something even smarter. Through the bond, I sensed one ring of his body around the bear¡¯s neck, creating six Granite Spikes piercing from his body into the neck. Blood started flowing from between T¨¡oke¡¯s coiled body. It looks like he got the artery. Not only was T¨¡oke stopping the bear from breathing, but the blood that was meant for the brain was now spilling out on the ground. T¨¡oke took another strength Boost and tightened the choking coils further. It won¡¯t be much longer now. Nobody told the bear that he should stay still and die. There was a massive surge of strength, and he rolled, bashing Skavt back with his head and breaking my Granite Spikes. He tried to get back on all four legs, but his rear legs didn¡¯t work, so they just dragged on the ground. He got a front paw up and raked T¨¡oke again before I could pin it with a spear. T¨¡oke took revenge with another seven spikes into the neck. He must have levelled that Skill. Modrica was power hammering the front paw I had not pinned, and bones were cracking. Eventually, the bear stopped struggling and died. T¨¡oke unwound from the bear''s neck. He was the most wounded among us. There were nasty claw marks on several parts of his body. He got the Monster kill, so it was added to my total through our bond. He didn¡¯t really want a potion but to let his Regeneration do the healing work. He knew I would look after him while he was less mobile. ?rt would normally come and check up on him, so I looked up to see where he was. Skavt had not got up from where she had been thrown, so he was checking on her. She had hit a tree with her head and back and was winded and disorientated. She might not be alive if she hadn¡¯t had that helmet. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. We were all resting, but I wanted to find out what was wrong with the bear. Something was wrong to make it go mad like that. ¡°App¨¡, can you find out what happened to the fighter that dragged the body away? Somewhere over there, I think.¡± I indicated where I thought they went. ¡°I want to look at this strange monster core,¡± I said and pulled out a knife. T¨¡oke curled up in a circle near me. Kryddor came to lay beside him, but ?rt said, ¡°We need a scout Kryddor,¡± and he trotted off into the scrub.
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros MHunt Scout Assn Total
Type Attribute Level 12 11 8 3 6 7 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) 9 11 2 22 1 6 51 139.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 12 4 6 1 40
Perception (PP) 11 2 24 1 3 7 48
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 5 6 32 91.0
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 8 1 7 1 34
Perception (MP) 11 1 10 1 2 25
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 6 11 3 6 39 108.0
Agility (SA) 8 2 5 8 1 5 6 35
Perception (SP) 10 5 8 4 7 34
Totals 92 44 56 33 40 12 29 28 4 334
Free points 4 0 0 0 1 7
Resistances: Poison +19, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +29, Heat +22, Fire +13, Disease 1, Acid 1 Skills: Novice: Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Detect Traps 4, Spiritual Trapping 4, Petrification 4, Monster Lore 4, Sapient Lore 4 Roleplay 3, Sudden Strike 4, Apprentice: Fishing 8, Sewing 9, Cooking 8, Truth Sensing 9, Sense Treasure 6, Hunters Mark 5 Butchering 7, Weapon Repair 7, Repair Leather Armour 8 Plant Lore 8, Mineral Lore 6, Granite Quake 7, Granite Wall 5, Animal Care 7, Venom Arrow 8, Veneer 7, Map Making 9, Dwarvish 9, Triple Shot 7, Longbow 7, Granite Manipulation 6, Granite Sand 6 Journeyman: Hearing Aid 14, Hammer 13, Mapping 11, Tutor 10, Identify 12, Deceive 12, Manipulate Status 11, Granite Spike 13, Granite Sense 11, Granite Bones 12, Granite Shield 12, Trapping 10, Tracking 11, Skinning 10, Bow 12, Small Blades 13, Unarmed Combat 11, Throw Weapons 12, Spear 13, Quick Strike 11, Power Strike 11 Darksight 12, Far Sight 12, Bond Senses 11, Orcish 12, Camouflage 11, Animal Lore 10 Imbue Venom 11, Snakeskin 11, Regeneration 11 Hide Armourer 12, Riding 10, Sense Spiritual 11 Master: Stealth 16, Animal Bond 16 Affinity: Granite Monster Kills: 9 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +22, Cold +29, Heat +21, Fire +13, Pain +12, Acid 1 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 2, Sudden Strike 3, Hunters Mark 2 Apprentice: Granite Spike 7, Venom Spit 9, Granite Shield 7, Grow 9, Regeneration 9, Granite Sense 7, Granite Manipulation 8 Journeyman: Strength Boost 10, Camouflage 13, Power Strike 11, Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 17 Affinity: Granite 155. Care Bear: Wiremu.

155. Care Bear: Wiremu.

I started cutting into the bear. I would skin and butcher it later, but I was digging in for the core at the moment. It is a long way into the chest. App¨¡ came back with the fighter, and they were carrying a body. Mutalil went to help, and Modrica watched silently and menacingly from the side. They lay the body on the edge of the clearing. It was dead. The live fighter was a female dwarf with tears streaking down her face. I raised my voice, ¡°What¡¯s the story with this Monster and Core?¡± I asked. I know she was grieving, but the information was more important in case there was more danger. ¡°The bear was fed a monster core,¡± she replied. We all stopped and looked at her, ¡°What?¡± three of us said. ¡°One of the people who fled told us he was the son of the Duke of Kirghiz. He had visions of riding back to Kirghiz on a Dire Bear to prove his worth to his daddy or some other pathetic reason. If he couldn¡¯t bond with the bear after it turned into a Dire Bear, he would kill it and at least have a monster kill to his name. That¡¯s what he said anyway.¡± ¡°And you are¡­?¡± ?rt asked. ¡°Astrid, the last surviving member of Monsters-R-Us Mercenary team.¡± ¡°Monsters-R-Us?¡± I asked. ¡°We were drunk,¡± Astrid said in explanation. Dwarves were famous for their drunken antics. ¡°There were five of us. I was supposed to be the healer. Bloody useless healer, I was. I couldn¡¯t even save Anders. Forty years we have been together. Forty bloody wonderful years, and it ends like this. I am a bloody failure.¡± ¡°So the other three people here were?¡± ¡°The so-called Duke''s son and two minders. The minders were reasonable fighters.¡± ¡°I was hoping for names and classes if possible,¡± I said. ¡°The Duke''s son was George. He wouldn¡¯t tell us about his class. He fought with a two-handed sword, but not very well. I would guess his main class was not a combat one. Both minders were sword and shield fighters. I would say ex-army. James is lying over there. Wyatt escaped with George.¡± App¨¡ went over to James and started going through his gear. Mutalil started on the Monsters-R-Us bodies, although Astrid would have possession of that gear. She would have to do it if she wanted the bodies carted back. We would bury them here. ¡°What type of core was it, do you know?¡± ?rt asked. ¡°He bought it in Duhovno. It was supposed to be from a Mole Monster and earth affinity.¡± ¡°Rich nobles, more coin than sense,¡± ?rt mumbled. I kept working through the conversation and was nearing the core. It wasn¡¯t in the stomach, but it was close. The bear¡¯s attempt to assimilate it had driven it mad. I pulled it out, and several things happened at once. Firstly Kryddor started barking furiously. Then I was rushed by a dark shape, and the jaws of a teenage bear clamped over my hand with the core in it. My Granite Bones stopped the jaws, but then the bear was flung away from me, and his teeth scraped along my hand, ripping out the core and the middle finger on my main hand. Modrica had tossed the bear away and was following it. She tackled it to the ground and punched it in the head. ¡°Don¡¯t you fucking eat that,¡± she growled almost too low for human hearing. ¡°You fucking idiot.¡± and she punched the bear again. ?rt approached them with his axe ready, but I waved for him to stop. He and I watched Skavt bond with Oske in a most unconventional way, and I was pretty sure this was what Modrica was doing. ¡°If you are bonding with him, do it fast because you will need to use that bond to filter that foreign core.¡± When T¨¡oke ate a core, I am sure it was filtered through our bond. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. However, with a brand new bond at level 1? I am not sure it can be done. If it can, I will help her do it. ¡°Focus on the bond,¡± I instructed, ¡°The core is most probably Earth aligned, and you don¡¯t have an affinity, so you will need to try to filter what is coming from the core. If it doesn¡¯t feel right, then try to reject it.¡± I saw her nod. I stood up, and ?rt wrapped my finger stump in a bandage. My Regeneration won¡¯t be able to regrow the limb until it gets to master level, so I will need to pay a healer or wait. It is the middle finger on my right hand, which is my main hand. I will have to see how it goes. ¡°This will take a while,¡± I said to everyone, ¡°12-24 hours anyway. We had best make camp.¡± ¡°We will start skinning the beast,¡± App¨¡ said, volunteering his son. Mutalil rolled his eyes. Skavt was limping over. There were deep orc rumplings from Modrica and the occasional punch thrown. Skavt and I went to Astrid. ¡°If word of this gets out, we will kill you,¡± I said. Skavt grunted in agreement. Astrid put her hands up in surrender, ¡°Nobody is going to hear about it from me,¡± she claimed. This is the second dwarf to promise me that, and still, there is the problem of drunken dwarves. Seriously, Monsters-R-Us? What more proof do you need? Truth Sensing was telling me she was serious, but ¡­ I didn¡¯t know what to say to get across the seriousness of this. Stolen novel; please report. Fortunately, Skavt was here. ¡°Modrica,¡± she said, ¡°has a Krvne Sestre who rides with us. You mess this up; you mess with both of them.¡± Astrid paled and nodded. That was the right thing to say. We turned to help ?rt, who was starting to organise a camp. We would need to return to our old camp and gather the packs. Then Astrid spoke up, ¡°Do you need another team member? I am a shit healer, but I can heal.¡± We turned back. Skavt said, ¡°Why do you want to join us? We only just met.¡± ¡°Because you look out for each other and trust each person to do their part. I have been around, and you don¡¯t get that in many teams.¡± was her reply. ¡°Interesting,¡± Skavt said. ¡°You might be surprised to learn that only Sten, ?rt, and I are part of a registered team, the Canine Queens. Our other two members are injured. The Catkin and Modrica are not our team members but are here for the experience.¡± She remembered to use my current alias of Sten. That did surprise her. ¡°But you work so well together!¡± ¡°We have travelled together for a long time. You should also know that we already have a healer.¡± she indicated ?rt, who was starting a fire. Astrid¡¯s face dropped. ¡°I have no one now that my Anders is gone.¡± I was getting a good feeling from her through my Truth Sensing, so I threw her a lifeline, ¡°The Catkin and Modrica work for a small Trading house called the Elemental Traders. If you stick with us, I can introduce you to the owner. There might be a place for you there.¡± She nodded. I went to check on Modrica. She was definitely bonded. The main question now was whether they would survive the foreign core''s integration. If they both went mad, we would have a big problem. Modrica was strong. The bear might have an affinity to the core, which is why he grabbed it. He? I checked, and the bear was a male. I hope so because without that, they will both go mad, and we will have to kill them. I don¡¯t know whether we can. Dawn was just appearing. It had been a long night. ?rt and I went to the old camp and brought the gear over, as Skavt still needed to rest. Astrid wanted to bury her teammates alone, so she went off to do that. Breakfast was cooked when we returned, and we sat down to eat. It would take a while to skin and butcher the monster bear, so the catkin took a break. Skavt suddenly looked up at me. ¡°Tabitha is on her way. She is riding Dusk, and Oske is leading them here.¡± The Steam lands are dangerous to heavy-hooved animals, and you don¡¯t get much heavier than Oske, Skavts''s two-metre tall Yak bond. Tabitha must have felt something through her Krvne Sestre relationship with Modrica. I always wondered if that was merely a cultural partnership or something deeper. I think this proves there is a Spiritual connection. Then a Shadow rose from the ground and spread over Modrica and the bear. Nyx had arrived. That should help ease Tabitha. Even hard riding it will take Tabitha 5-6 hours to get there. Tabitha knows how to ride hard. I pity poor Oske. I am also pleased Astrid was not here to see Nyx arrive, as it would be tough to explain. The shadow faded as Nyx entered the Blacksteel pendant Modrica wears. Nyx was here to stay. As the morning wore on, I alternated between checking on Modrica and helping to clean the bear hide. Modrica often rumbled or grunted. The bear occasionally growled or sometimes howled. One time it was shut up by a punch from Modrica. I remember T¨¡oke changing size and shedding skin as he assimilated his core. The bear was different, but it was definitely growing. It was changing into a Dire Bear, similar to T¨¡oke changing from a Desert Viper into a Venom Serpent. I thought Cave Bears were big. Dire Bears are bigger. We cleaned up the bear¡¯s remains. T¨¡oke and Kryddor fed well. T¨¡oke was healing well, but it would take a few days. When Astrid returned, she saw our collected materials for the Guild and said she had a Preservation Skill and could stop the Monkey Brains from spoiling. That was helpful. That afternoon Skavt went with App¨¡ and Mutalil to clear our mole traps. We would probably be here another night, so I said they should shift them and reset them. This will be a test of how well they first listened to me. ?rt and I were the best ones to help guide Modrica, so I stayed for that. Modrica did have some serious struggles at times. There were several times I thought it was going bad. It is just as well she is so stubborn. Nyx would also come out during the bad times, and I am sure Astrid noticed. She didn¡¯t say anything. About an hour after lunch, the pounding of hooves preceded the arrival of Tabitha. She was jumping off Dusk before stopping and heading to Modrica. I grabbed Dusk¡¯s reigns, and Skavt went to Oske. We settled the animals while Tabitha sat with Modrica and had an arm over her shoulder. I noticed Astrid standing there with a weapon, staring. We forgot to tell her Tabitha was coming. Weapon in hand was how you met a stranger out here. ¡°Astrid, we will introduce you to Skygge later,¡± I said, remembering to use her current alias. ¡°She is Modrica¡¯s Krvne Sestre and owner of Elemental Traders.¡± That astonished Astrid further. An orc in such a relationship with a human was unheard of, ¡°She is also my sister.¡± I stated, making sure she was aware of the seriousness of what she was seeing. Skavt broke her out of shock by leading Oske over to her and introducing her to her bond. We led the animals to the side of the clearing, away from the blood-stained area that held the bear''s remains. They started grazing. Then Modrica and the bear started struggling again. I saw Modrica throw a couple of punches and hold the bear down on the ground. It was fighting her, and it was big now. Then the area was engulfed in Shadow, and it blocked our sight. That was impressive of Tabitha and Nyx in the middle of the afternoon. I turned to Astrid, ¡°That is also under our confidentiality agreement.¡± ¡°You are not going to explain?¡± ¡°No.¡± The trappers returned with five moles. There were two that were eaten by scavengers before they got there. That is not bad for fifteen traps. We will see how many we get tonight. The moles went under the same preservation skill as the monkey brains. Astrid helped ?rt with dinner. Do all healers have high cooking skills? Tabitha came and got some dinner for her and Modrica. She was briefly introduced to Astrid but soon disappeared with Modrica again. The night would be a problem as the blood would attract scavengers. We would not normally stay where we killed and skinned, but it was not wise to move Modrica and the bear yet. Tabitha told us Modrica named the bear, Te?ka. We didn¡¯t get more than a few broken snippets of sleep that night. Killing scavengers was actually quite profitable. We only really had trouble with a couple of big cats. One we scared off, and one leopard we killed. Even Astrid was killing hyenas and coyotes. She knew her way around an axe and shield combo. It was a long night. In the end, Te?ka ended the night with a massive roar. He came stalking out with Modrica riding on his back, and the scavengers just ran. Modrica was the largest orc I had ever seen, and she was riding comfortably on Te?ka, and Te?ka wasn¡¯t fully grown yet. He is about the same size as Oske already. 156. Troll Shit: Tabitha.

156. Troll Shit: Tabitha.

What a ride. It was a shame Oske slowed us down a few times, but it did get hairy for him a couple of times. Pun intended. My Intimidating Aura kept us out or several fights that would have slowed us down. What a bond. This is amazing for Modrica. Te?ka is more than suitable for my Krvne Sestre. They will be amazing together. It is just as well that Modrica is so stubborn, or this wouldn¡¯t have happened. It also wouldn¡¯t have happened without Wiremu being so quick to recognise the bonding. Forget that saying about blood relatives being better. You don''t get better than Wiremu. I have no words. That man is amazing, and I would give everything to him if he wanted. All he wants is a hunting ground and T¨¡oke. Actually, that is not true. He also has an issue with slavery in the empire. We are coming as soon as we find out how to break the slave class, which should be after Kirghiz. We are coming. Meanwhile, we have to deal with the fallout of Modrica¡¯s bond with Te?ka. According to Astrid, there is an entitled noble who will cause trouble if she were to ride into Duhovno on a Dire Bear. Not to mention all the greedy mercenaries wanting his core. That combination is a match made in hell. The noble is from Kirghiz, and Te?ka will be fully grown when we get there. There won¡¯t be any hiding him, then. The obvious solution is, can we assassinate the noble? He has only one minder, so it shouldn¡¯t be that hard. Take him out into the Steam Lands, and don¡¯t bring him back. For now, we need to establish a base camp out here in the wilds to hide Te?ka. The closer to the city it is, the more likely other mercenaries will spot them. We need to go further out than here, and this is a five-hour hard ride. Then there is Astrid. Wiremu thinks we can trust her, but the question is how far? She wants to go into Duhovno and report the loss of her team. I think it is better the whole team is missing in action, with the only report being whatever lies the noble has made up. That will be the first condition if she is serious about a job with me. What Modrica is hiding is that Te?ka has an Earth affinity, and Modrica has also awakened it. The first Skill they got was similar to Wiremu¡¯s first Skill, Granite Bones. Earthen Bones is not as strong as Granite Bones, but it does allow a bit more flex. Modrica is the toughest person I know, and she just got tougher. I also know the first Skill she plans to teach Te?ka is her Armoured Skin Skill. They are going to be very close to unkillable after a few levels. I am going to make sure they get those levels. The only person who will know about her affinity is Wiremu, and he is the perfect trainer for them. We moved out after breakfast. T¨¡oke is still healing, so he took his favourite position on Oske. With his size, Skavt had to shove him over to make room for her. I walked with Astrid leading Dusk, and Wiremu taught App¨¡ and Mutalil how to hide our tracks. Not an easy task with Oske, Te?ka and Dusk. Astrid is a trained Healer rather than a Herbalist like ?rt. Healers are very strong in Spiritual Attributes and then second in the Mental Attributes, with the Physical lagging behind. She is well over a century old and has specialised in combat healing, including Bone Setting, Wound Healing, Infection and Poison Cleansing and Revitalise. That is a lot for one person, but I guess she is over a century old. She can¡¯t regenerate limbs or do any flesh sculpting. She has some fighting skills and the Militia Class, an introductory class for general weapons. It is a bit like Wirimu¡¯s Quarry Worker Class or my Riding Class. I offered her a job, but with conditions that would never be in writing. I gave her till we found a new campsite to consider it. Four hours later, Kryddor found a suitable cave near a cool flowing stream. Modrica and Te?ka went in and lured its current occupant out into the open. It was a Forest Troll. Seriously another Monster now? Do we attract them or something? We have been here a week and hit three monsters, whereas the average for the entire city is two a month. Even though one of them was artificial, it is still the monthly average for a week. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. T¨¡oke was going to sit this one out and watched from his comfortable perch on Oske. Wiremu was firing Poison Arrows to eat away at the Troll¡¯s regeneration. Astrid activated her Revitalising Aura, which was better than Ruku¡¯s Refreshing Mist Skill. Modrica and Te?ka kept the Troll''s attention on them, and the rest of us laid into it. My new Syphon Constitution worked well on it and gained several levels. The Troll seemed to have a Plant or tree affinity as it could strengthen its limbs and use plants to attack. This made it tougher to whittle down. The Troll was on its last gasp of life in just over an hour, with only a few risky moments and light injuries. Astrid had a ranged heal from her basic Healer Class, so ?rt didn¡¯t have to run around with potions. Ideally, the kill should go to someone without a Monster kill, so we backed off at the end and let Modrica, Astrid, App¨¡ and Mutalil finish it. I think App¨¡ eased off as well to give his son a better chance. Mutalil was going all out with his strikes and was ecstatic to get the kill, which gave him the Monster Hunter Class and the Regeneration Skill. Astrid was very surprised when we gave her a chance at the kill. It cemented her decision to work for me. I thought it might. My Mental Perception is becoming useful especially combined with what Eluf taught me. We cleaned out the cave while Wiremu, App¨¡ and Mutalil carried the troll away to harvest it. This time they could take more than the skin and bones. They could harvest the blood and organs, and with Astrid¡¯s preservation skill, they would keep well enough to sell. We settled into the ex-troll cave. There was a lingering scent. ?rt was very interested in the Core. He had long thought he had a plant-type affinity ever since getting his Forester Class. He had never been able to awaken it, and he had tried a lot of things. The Core might awaken it for him. I offered to pay for the ritual to test compatibility, but even then, there is no guarantee. The core might be wasted, and ?rt will risk potentially being crippled or going mad or dying. The risks are lower with compatibility but never go away. Then there is his bond, Kryddor, to consider because what happens to ?rt happens to Kryddor. The bond can sometimes help filter the core, as we have just seen with Modrica. This is how the rich and kings try to get affinities for themselves and their heirs. It won¡¯t hurt to test. Astrid was staring at us again. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°You would consider not selling the core on the chance of trying for an affinity? Are you all some rich crazy nobles in disguise or something?¡± ¡°No, the closest thing we have to a noble would be Canwr from the Comedic Rhythm. No comment on the rich part, but we have enough for our needs.¡± I replied. ¡°Wait, you know the Comedic Rhythm? Rumours are flying about their amazing show from Obalno. You couldn¡¯t get me into the two shows they booked here, could you?¡± ¡°You are probably best to wait till we get to Kirghiz and see it there. They are trying out new stuff here, and it may not go so well,¡± I said. ¡°You can get me into the Royal Concert Hall shows in Kirghiz?¡± App¨¡ interrupted. ¡°She¡¯s trying to be humble, Astrid. Skygge can get you into any show because she is the lead actress, and Elemental Traders are major sponsors of the Comedic Rhythm. You will see them practising all the way to Kirghiz.¡± Astrid sat down on the cave floor with a thump, ¡°Holy stinking troll shit.¡± ¡°Did we miss some?¡± quipped Mutalil. There were several groans, and he got things thrown at him for that. ¡°Save the dad jokes for your kids,¡± I said. He just grinned at me. That broke the awkward reveal, and we settled into light banter as we prepped the camp. It was late in the day, and those of us heading to the city would leave at dawn. It would be a full day¡¯s travel. In the end, it was only Modrica and Te?ka, Wiremu and T¨¡oke, and Astrid staying. Skavt and ?rt wanted to, but they needed to get back to Najprej and Drugi?, and Astrid was a healer staying here. App¨¡ and Mutalil had family and new bonds to return to, and I had business and show practice. Astrid was a bit nervous about being just left with Wiremu and Modrica for protection, but I also reminded her she had a Dire Bear and Venom Serpent. She can find out about Wiremu¡¯s affinity later. She has had enough shocks for a while. I guess they have at least kept her mind off her losses. We loaded Oske and Dusk with all the materials to sell. Wiremu came back before dawn with four more moles. Astrid cast her skill one more time on the perishable things, and it was now a race to the city before they started to decay. The Canine Queens would be back in about a week. 157. Luxury: Tabitha.

157. Luxury: Tabitha.

It was only two days. How could that idiot noble have left to catch the boat for Kirghiz already? He must have just kept running. He had a two-day head start and will be aboard the boat before I get to the port. This is going to cause problems in Kirghiz. Theoretically, the few people with Monster bonds should not be hunted, and the cores should be left alone. Theory and greed do not go together. T¨¡oke and Nyx are not obvious. Te?ka will be obvious to everyone. They will be targeted in every city. I remember Koza and his Dire Wolf bond Velikan, and I now realize why Velikan never entered the city. The land around Jern was wild, with pockets of farming, but Kirgiz was too populated for Te?ka to hide outside the city. There are no wilds. Te?ka will be fully grown then as well. We are going to have to obey the law to register all monster bonds with the Guard. Wiremu and I usually ignore that, and we still may. I think we will have to go into Kirghiz loud and armed. That is going to cause some problems, especially with Modrica¡¯s tendency to hit first and never bother with questions. T¨¡tt¨¡ has been busy while I was gone. He was glad to see his Son-in-law, App¨¡, and grandson, Mutalil, back. Their bonds were excited as well. T¨¡tt¨¡ has been a real boon for the Elemental Traders. He has basically been keeping it trading while I have been split between all sorts of different things. Our contract is supposed to end when we get to Kirghiz, but I am going to have to find a way to get him on board permanently. We initially connected with the Catkin because his granddaughter Mayakku was an enchanter, but he was the real find. He initially had a Merchant Class with a specialization in Spiritual Materials as he used to buy supplies for Mayakku. He is now a Master Merchant with additional specialisations as a Weapon and Armour Vender, Spiritual Weapon Assessor, Spiritual Armour Assessor, Enchanted Goods Dealer and Real Estate Broker. He got that last one when he negotiated the fast purchase of the Quarry just outside Obalno. I will talk to Wiremu about offering them a part ownership deal. We could merge their enchanting business with our general trading business, and they might go for it as co-owners. I unloaded the nonperishable goods at the small office/warehouse we rented close to the caravan yard. Then went and sold the perishable goods with the Mercenary Guild traders. That brought in a tidy sum. I kept the Monster Core and found out who could perform the ritual for ?rt. Duhovno had two Ritualists in residence. Other people could do it, but these were the specialists. ?rt and Kryddor need the best. When I got back, T¨¡tt¨¡ was going through the pelts, feathers and associated material. ¡°There is some good stuff here,¡± he said. I nodded, ¡°Wiremu will be spending the week camping out there trapping and hunting, so expect a lot more soon.¡± ¡°I enquired, and this place could be for sale at the right price. All you would need is a Merchant to run it, and we could have a steady supply of goods.¡± ¡°Do you have anyone in mind?¡± I asked. ¡°Well, these hot pools are doing wonders for my old bones. Maybe I could settle down here.¡± I laughed, ¡°You would be bored in the first month.¡± ¡°It is rather exciting being around you,¡± he said. ¡°There are a couple of promising merchants we might be able to entice into our employ. I will set up a couple of interviews.¡± I nodded. T¨¡tt¨¡ had good judgement. ¡°When I was at the Real-estate Agent, there was another property that suddenly came up for sale,¡± he continued. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°The Razko?je,¡± he said. ¡°What? I thought you just said the Razko?je?¡± ¡°Indeed. The most luxurious and expensive Inn in Duhovno is suddenly up for sale.¡± I narrowed my eyes at him, ¡°That is suspicious.¡± ¡°I thought so too, so I made enquiries,¡± he said. ¡°The Duke of Kirghiz currently owns it. One of his sons was here and used it as collateral on a large purchase. One on which he was seriously ripped off in, as well. He has skipped town, and the Merchant wants his coins. The Duke''s agent here is tearing his hair out, as this will ruin him for life once the Duke hears about it.¡± ¡°There must be a lot of people wanting it,¡± I said. ¡°Not so much. Nobody with that much money wants to get on the wrong side of the Duke of Kirghiz. The Duke''s agent is playing that up and pushing the Merchant to wait till he can get the coin from the Duke.¡± ¡°There has got to be politics behind it,¡± I said. ¡°Absolutely. The Duchess of Duhovno, Duchess Mojca, is pushing for the sale behind the scenes. The rumour is she is sick of the Kirghiz Duke visiting and sticking his nose into her business.¡± ¡°So we would gain a friend here and an enemy in Kirghiz,¡± I mused. ¡°As you pointed out, this is a lovely spot, and the hot pools make your worries melt away.¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ grinned at me. ¡°We have probably already made an enemy of the Duke of Kirghiz. What is his name?¡± I asked. ¡°Terrance .¡° ¡°Terrance. Terry. Being the Duke of the capital city, he must get on well with the king.¡± ¡°Maybe, maybe not. King Thorbj?rn is a fairly blunt-talking old dwarf. When we passed through five years ago, there were rumours of dissension. With the king set to retire in the next few years, I am sure he is setting up his own candidate or going for the throne himself,¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ replied. ¡°What do you know about our potential ally/¡± ¡°Duchess Mojca is an ex-army Captain. She has ruled here for over sixty years. She is a typical taciturn orc but from a large, influential clan. With the Steam Lands here, she, and by extension, her clan, are very rich.¡± ¡°Why doesn¡¯t she want to buy the Razko?je?¡± I asked. ¡°Not sure. Probably doesn¡¯t want a direct conflict. You might have to ask her.¡± ¡°She might yet buy it. If we want it, we will have to move with purpose. Do you think it will be worth the trouble?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know. What I do know is it will be an excellent long-term investment, especially if we can keep most of the current staff.¡± ¡°We do have a lot of coin sitting around doing nothing. Why don¡¯t you set up a visit so we can inspect the place.¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ nodded, ¡°I will contact the agent.¡± The Razko?je wasn¡¯t just a luxurious Inn. There was a side business of a beauty Spa complete with specialised beauticians and masseuses. It had a top-quality restaurant with a high-level chef specialising in preparing spiritually enhanced food and wine. If I was to buy this, I seriously might just move in. Forget going to Kirghiz. The trouble is I am worse than T¨¡tt¨¡. I would be bored in days. Well, maybe weeks in this place. I did almost let out a giggle at the image of Modrica in the beautician¡¯s chair. I talked to the key staff. The Inn Manager, the Chef and the Spa Manager. The Inn Manager is definitely the Duke''s woman and would have to go. The others seemed fine. I went to the local branch of the Kirghiz Treasury and set the wheels in motion for the purchase. We were definitely going to be going into Kirghiz loud and proud. And well-armed. 158. Camping: Wiremu.

158. Camping: Wiremu.

I kept the bear hide but sent the troll hide back with Tabitha. The troll hide would need more processing than I could do here. Modrica wanted a bear hide cloak. She just grunted at me dismissively when I asked about Te?ka and the hide from one of his parents. The hide and Te?ka¡¯s coat were the same colour, so I think she wanted to blend in when riding him. ¡°Astrid,¡± I said when the others had left. ¡°Modrica and I are going out to set some traps, and I will teach her the Riding Skill. We will be back for a late lunch.¡± ¡°Ah, what if something happens here?¡± she asked. ¡°T¨¡oke is going to stay here, as he is still recovering. If something happens he can¡¯t handle, he will let me know, and we will come back. We won¡¯t be far.¡± She glanced at Taoke. I think she was nervous sharing a cave alone with a 9-metre-long Venom Serpent. She will have to get over it. I don¡¯t think it helped when I tossed him a hunk of meat to swallow before I left. Regeneration makes you hungry. Te?ka nudged me, asking where his meat was, so I also tossed him a hunk. I wouldn¡¯t want him to decide to take another finger or a hand. I am glad I am not responsible for feeding him. He is going to be worse than Oske. The first thing I had to teach Modrica was how to sit correctly. She was all stiff and awkward and holding on too tightly. She had never ridden in her life. She would be too big for most horses, I suppose. After we had some practice circuits, I sent them off to ride while I set some traps. I started setting some around the camp as an early warning system, then went to set some to capture animals for on the Mercenary Guild List. Hunting for fun and profit. Tabitha would be proud of me. That was a great week for me. Out hunting and trapping every day. A number of my traps got broken as the enhanced animals were stronger than normal, but I adapted and incorporated new materials into the traps. I finally levelled my Trapping Skill. That is getting harder to level. I also levelled Skinning, and the pelts were piling up along with various claws, teeth, feathers etc. We also had jars of blood and organs that Astrid kept fresh. When I first brought organs back to the camp, Astrid couldn¡¯t understand how I planned to store them, as we had sent all our containers back to the city with the troll blood. I just created stone jars with Granite Manipulation and closed the stone over the top, sealing it. I guess Tabitha hadn¡¯t told her about my affinity. Astrid got bored. She started coming out with me. Her stealth was pathetic. I helped her with some basic Skills and sparred with her. She is not a fighter. She only developed her skills to get her out of trouble. She is a talented healer. I encouraged her to practice the mental Skills to enable her to bond. Her Mental Attribute is only second to her Spiritual ones, and the right bond would help keep her safe. Modrica took most of the week to get the riding Skill. It is definitely not natural for her. I helped her with her affinity and to develop their bond. She was getting frustrated that she couldn¡¯t get Te?ka to learn her Armoured Skin Skill, but it was probably because her Animal Bond was too low a level. They brought some carcasses home with them too. I skinned them, and Te?ka shared them with T¨¡oke. They feasted well. The Canine Queens turned up. All of them. Skavt brought Oske through the mud pool area. Once he was on the hills, he was fine. Najprej and Drugi? seemed fine after their ordeal and were keen to hunt. I think they were keen to look for enhanced bonds, like the Catkin and Modrica. Possibly even a monster kill. ?rt and Kryddor had decided not to chance using the troll core. It was not a general plant affinity but a specific tree. The ritualist thought pine or spruce or something common in the area. ?rt was definitely a herb man, so they backed away. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Tabitha didn¡¯t come. Apparently, she was negotiating the purchase of an Inn. That will be a good use of our money and give me somewhere to stay when I return. I do plan to return. We all decided to go hunting in the morning. We would all go, including Astrid. The pelts would be fine for a couple of days, although some of the older perishables would probably need to be thrown out. We will see if we can reach the volcano. I haven¡¯t seen a live volcano before. The idea of being near lava might give me flashbacks to my fight with the lava dude near Jern. The wildlife was very varied, and I had been trapping hares, squirrels, moles, otters and the occasional beaver. I was hunting a whole variety of deer, goats and big-horned sheep. There were several packs of wolves and coyotes. I had seen various cat species, including lynx, bobcat and cougar, as well as various bear species, Elk and Bison. Then there were the birds. As we moved up into the mountains, I expected more variation again, including species that thrived in the warmer areas alongside the mountain animals that adapted to the volcano. Hunting for bonds is totally different to hunting to kill. Najprej and Drugi? thought they might like wolf pups. I am sure they were trying to follow in the footsteps of their uncle Koza and his Dire wolf bond. That may be entirely appropriate, but I told them they should be open to other options as well. Skavt and Oske were prime examples of that. Astrid had no idea what might interest her. All the animals stayed away from us, being such a large group and having some large intimidating bonds. ?rt and I, with our bonds, went scouting. Kryddor disturbed a family of wild pigs and herded them into the group. We will be eating pork rather than forming bonds. I found some Raven chicks, but nobody was keen. We need to hunt some wolves because until Najprej and Drugi? try to bond with them, they won¡¯t really try anything else. I found wolf tracks just before we camped for the night. ?rt and I went to scout them while the others set up camp. I figured we were about halfway to the volcano, so tomorrow evening. We should arrive. We will probably spend a day looking around before heading back. We found them just before midnight. I was a very large pack with close to thirty wolves. There was a huge male and two huge females that stood out and were at the top of their hierarchy. They may have even been monsters, but I couldn¡¯t tell from this distance. Taking on a pack of this size would be disastrous. We would definitely end with major injuries in the best-case scenarios. No, we will either divide and conquer a few, or better yet, use my speciality and trap some. I set about making traps that wouldn¡¯t kill while ?rt, Kryddor and T¨¡oke hunted the bait. I ended up making five before dawn as we baited them with a hare and cut a deer into quarters for the others. I used Granite Manipulation to make the traps, and that was hard. Carving out a small cave and making a gate that would drop was the easiest way, and my Garanite Manipulation was pushed through to Journeyman Level. Granite Wall went up a level as well to make the gates. We left the traps and headed back to the camp after a long night. The others were up and ready to go, so after breakfast, we got back on the trail to the Volcano. We would check the traps on the way back. I dosed sitting behind Modrica on Te?ka for most of the morning, and ?rt did the same on Oske. Skavt took over the scouting. We came to the base of the volcano late that afternoon and set up camp just before the vegetation ended and the burned rock started. 159. Lavaman: Wiremu.

159. Lavaman: Wiremu.

We left the bonds at the camp and hiked up the mountain. The stone was warm underfoot, and T¨¡oke had curled up on the first rock near the camp and soaked up the warmth. I left him there. There were steam vents in various places, and we discovered some of the gasses they were venting were poisonous. It was suddenly hard to breathe. Astrid was the one with the weakest Physical Constitution and took a while to recover. We came to our first lava flow mid-morning and followed it to where it disappeared underground. Lava is hot, very hot. Astrid had to stay well away. The rest of us all had strong Constitutions and/or heat resistances. I know my heat resistance levelled; mine would be the highest here after my fight with lavaman and training Kelda. I asked the others to give me some time, and I sat within the sensing range of the lava. Lava was essentially molten rock, and I had a rock affinity. My Granite Sense was feeling a connection. My Sense Spiritual was much higher levelled and could trace the spiritual flow over the lava, but my Granite Sense could feel it in the lava. I did what I did with the Sand Elemental and focussed on where the lava flowed against the rock. This was not a Lava Elemental, although I had no doubt there were one or more elementals in the mountain. This was very Spiritually enhanced molten rock flowing out and cooling as it flowed. My Heat Resistance went up a level. The point where the lava met the rock was the melting temperature of the rock. The rock wasn¡¯t Granite, but that didn¡¯t matter. There were lessons to be learned here that I couldn¡¯t get anywhere else. I created a Granite spike at the junction, which didn¡¯t melt. The spike had a higher melting point than the rock that made up this lava. I created a horizontal spike and extended it further into the flow. The further from the edge, the hotter it was. Eventually, my Granite Spike started to melt. I kept creating it and watching it melt. There was something for me to learn here. My Heat Resistance went up a level. With my Granite Sense, I could tell the temperature variation along my Spike up until it melted. This was hotter than most blacksmith forges. I concentrated on that temperature variation for a while. A new Skill seemed close. Identify told me I needed more attributes in Spiritual Perception and Spiritual Agility. I had plenty, but I kept adding them until they were both at 40, using all but 1 of my points. The new Skill that appeared was Thermal Sensing (Mineral). That was interesting. I would have to test out what that can do. It also indicated there were other types of Thermal Sensing. That is great, but that is not what I am here for, and I am not sure it was worth the points. My Heat Resistance went up a level. I concentrated on the melting point of the Granite. This is the point at which I am vulnerable. The point at which my bones would start melting. Lavaman wore down my Granite Shields, so he was generating close to this heat. It took him a while, which is the only reason I am still alive. Granite Sense levelled. My Heat Resistance went up a level. I tried my new Thermal Sensing (Mineral), and I could detect the temperature variation along the spike and then out into the existing rock. Lava was hot. Not a new revelation there, but the temperature difference was impressive. Thermal Sensing (Mineral) levelled. It expanded the area, no, the sphere I could sense. I could sense nothing outside the rock, but I could sense the temperature of the lava. I pushed the Skill for more sensitivity. Thermal Sensing (Mineral) levelled. I was in an extreme environment. I couldn¡¯t think of a use for this skill but kept pushing it until it reached Apprentice level. It would never be easier. My Heat Resistance went up a level. At the point at which the granite melted, the granite didn¡¯t just disappear. It flowed away and mixed with the other molten rock. I could sense it for a while. The Granite Spike was my creation, but the other lava was not. I tried manipulating it as it flowed passed and merged with my Granite. Granite Manipulation was at a point where I could use it on different rock types, so it worked on the lava. I pulled some out of the flow and watched it cool with my senses. It was much easier to manipulate as lava. If I had Granite Manipulation when fighting lavaman, I wouldn¡¯t have got so hurt. I am sure his control would have overpowered mine, but it would have helped. I played with the lava for a while, creating spouts, dams, and shapes. This wasn¡¯t getting me anywhere. Granite Manipulation Levelled. My Heat Resistance went up a level. My Pain Resistance went up a level. If Granite manipulation is easier with molten rock, can I change the temperature of the rock? Can I create my own lava? I created my Granite Spike again. Could I adjust the temperature to stop it from melting? No. Can I heat it to speed up the melting? It seemed not. I investigated with Identify and got the impression I would need a whole lot more Spiritual Strenght. Like well over 60 points, Way over. I invested my remaining point and brought it to 40. Lavaman must have maxed out Spiritual Strenght to the detriment of other areas. Assuming he had a rock affinity. Maybe he bonded with a Lava Elemental? Maybe he had a fire affinity, or maybe he had a straight lava affinity. The more I thought about it lavaman probably just had a straight Lava affinity. Could I bond with a Lava Elemental? I extended my senses, and I couldn¡¯t detect any. My Heat Resistance went up a level. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I looked around for the others. They had gone off exploring. I think I had been sitting there for hours. I also needed to do some exploring. First, I queried T¨¡oke through our bond. What would he think of trying to bond with a Lava Elemental? Adding another bond was tricky as they all had to get on together in a very unique way. Gwaed had three bonds at one point, but she had the Druid Class to help her. I still don¡¯t know how she did it. An Elemental like Nyx is fundamentally different to an animal, though. Bonding to an Elemental would mean creating the Elemental Bond rather than it sharing the Animal Bond with T¨¡oke. T¨¡oke was not against the idea. He decided to come to me as we explored. I had no idea how to bond with a Lava Elemental. I assume the first step would be finding one and then getting close to it. It was time to go exploring. I was at the place the lava emerged from the ground, so I extended my Granite Sense and tried to use it at the same time as my Thermal Sensing (Mineral) to follow the lava in the mountain. I lost it when it went deeper than I could sense. T¨¡oke caught up with me, so I decided to hike to the crater. It took me two hours and early afternoon when I got there. The crater was full of water. It was a lake: a boiling, steaming lake, but a lake nonetheless. I walked around the edge for a bit. I saw some of the others across the other side and waved. I spotted another lava flow coming from the side of the mountain and went down that side to explore. When I reached it, I extended my senses once more. This lava stream was closer to a larger pool in the mountain. I got the idea of pressure, and this stream of lava was like a release valve. My Granite Sense was doing the bulk of the work here, and it levelled along with Thermal Sensing (Mineral). This time I could sense something in the lava, and I called out to it, although called is the wrong word. It came closer, and I got the sense it didn¡¯t like the colder lava in the stream. My Heat Resistance went up a level. I pulled out one of my stone knives and touched it to the lava, inviting it to come. It didn¡¯t like the cold. The tip of the stone knife was melting. I assured it I had a high Cold Resistance, and we could explore the world. It was comfortable in the volcano. I let the melted knife sink into the lava and got another. Had it tasted this Granite before? I created it. It touched the knife and found it interesting. It knew all the rock around here, and this was different. Rich. My Heat Resistance went up a level. What about this sand that I learned from a Sand Elemental? I sprayed the sand over the lava. Similar but different. A tickly, fizzy sensation it had never felt before. There was more to explore than that. Then I grabbed one of my spear shafts off my back. This spear shaft was one I had used my Petrification Skill on to turn the core into rock. It was a Skill I had little use for as it was slow to do, and it was still in the Novice levels. I touched the shaft to the lava, and the wooden outer layers burned off, but the Petrified wood inside was a whole new flavour of rock. There is more where that comes from. I can petrify all sorts of organic material for you. My Heat Resistance went up a level. It wouldn¡¯t form a bond. It was too big and comfortable. It would create a small Elemental to bond with me, experience new things with me, and someday come back and share them. It was dividing itself and creating a baby elemental, sort of. It was hard to explain, but part of the elemental split off and entered the spear shaft. My Heat Resistance went up a level. It burned the fingers that were holding the shaft and found my Granite Bones. My Heat and Pain Resistance went up a level. I felt I was burning up as it moved through my bones, inhabiting me and forming a bond with me. My Heat and Pain Resistance went up a level. The Elemental discovered my bond with T¨¡oke and wanted to meet him. I touched him with my hand, and the Elemental split part of himself off and burned through T¨¡oke¡¯s flesh to his bones, and we truly formed a three-way bond. My Elemental Bond levelled, allowing it to have two parts and still be one elemental. This was fundamentally different to Nyx. It was lava, a molten mineral composition. Nyx was shadow and incorporeal. It had more similarities to the Rock Elemental we encountered before reaching Jern. But it was different there too. Might it have changed my Granite Bones? Maybe, maybe not. I feel like my body temperature has skyrocketed, and I am cooking from the inside out. My Heat Resistance went up a level. My temperature dropped as the Elemental adjusted to living in T¨¡oke and me. I felt that broken Granite Bones would no longer be a problem as the Elemental could just melt and reform them. Then it discovered I was missing the middle finger on my main hand, and lava flowed out, forming the finger, complete with flexible joints. I had no feeling from that finger as it was rock, but it was a functioning finger. The Elemental Bond Levelled again. It was adjusting very fast, and it needed a name. Puia meant volcano in my mother tongue. I checked my status, and T¨¡oke¡¯s Heat and Pain Resistances had jumped. Puia only had one Master Level Skill, Molten Rock and a Lava Affinity. I noticed he had already picked up my Cold Resistance. He was cold. As our bond grows, we will learn from each other, and I hope we will share affinities. I looked up, and it was fully dark. Finding the camp was no problem for me with my Mapping Skill and Darksight, so I picked up T¨¡oke, and we headed off 160. Bonds: Wiremu

160. Bonds: Wiremu

¡°You¡¯re hot.¡± was the first thing Astrid said to me when I got to camp. She must have some sort of skill to find problems in people. ?rt noticed my finger. You can¡¯t hide from the healers. My armour was all dried out from the heat, and this was my Boar hide with Heat resistance. Luckily I made a second set, but this was going to be a problem. Hopefully, Mayakku can enchant a minor self-repair, mitigating heat damage. I will need to ask her. My Regeneration levelled. Maybe I was being cooked from the inside. I looked at our Status. Puia already had a new Skill, and it was levelling fast toward Apprentice. Thermal Manipulation (Mineral), and I was feeling better all the time. The Elemental Bond also levelled. I checked T¨¡oke, and he was in heaven. He finally had an internal heat source. As a cold-blooded animal, he had to rely on me, the sun, or, more usually, Oske for heat. Now he had Puia. Soon he would probably have Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) for himself. ¡°I am fine,¡± I told everyone. Astrid blatantly didn¡¯t believe me. Maybe she¡¯d had some stubborn patients before. She was a dwarf from a dwarven team. Of course, she had. ¡°Obviously, there is something new I am settling in with. It will settle, and I will explain later.¡± I looked at Astrid, ¡°This is another of those ultimate confidentiality things.¡± ¡°Shit,¡± she huffed. ¡°I am never going to be able to get drunk again.¡± I lay down for a rest and to let Puia do his thing. Her thing? Its thing? I decided to designate it to be a him, I guess, much like Tabitha calls Nyx a her. Elementals don¡¯t have gender, and I probably just witnessed the birth of Puia. I concentrated on my new Elemental Bond, which was on the cusp of Apprentice level already. Apprentice level would help us learn from each other, but I just needed things to settle for a bit. I woke as the camp was stirring. ?rt was at the fire preparing breakfast. I went over to join him. I was starving. ¡°Elemental Bond?¡± he asked quietly. He was far too smart. I nodded. ¡°Maybe I should have gone with the Plant Elemental Core rather than the troll,¡± he said. ¡°I think that would mostly just be acid,¡± I replied. He nodded. I reached into the fire and grabbed the pan with my hand. I grabbed the sizzling steak from it, and I put the pan back before throwing another steak in it. The heat of a cooking fire was nothing to my new Heat Resistance, which was at lava level. I took a bite. ?rt just watched me. ¡°You are going to have to let me look at that finger of yours sometime,¡± he said. I nodded. ?rt was always fascinated with new things and figuring out how they worked. Kryddor came over, and ?rt gave him an affectionate rub and then tossed him a raw steak. I took another bite of my steak as I watched Kryddor rip into his. Puia asked if I wanted sharper teeth as I seemed to be struggling. Teeth are just bone. We sharpened the front teeth, but nothing obvious like Kryddor had. I bit through the steak easily. T¨¡oke thought I should have fangs like him as they were the best. I stuck to slightly sharper front teeth for now, and even then, I would have to be careful not to bite through my tongue. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. We got underway just after dawn. My temperature seemed to be back to normal. I was feeling out Puia as he was with me. My mind went back to teeth and Thermal Manipulation. I could probably cook my food as I chewed it. It would probably take too much energy. We got back close to the wolf traps near dusk. We made camp and decided to check the traps in the morning. I heard some wolf howls overnight my Hearing Aid indicated it was from the area of the traps, so I figured we had caught something. The first cage we checked was smashed open. I figured we had caught one of the alpha wolves, and they were too strong for the trap. There was a male wolf in the next trap, and both Najprej and Drugi? tried to bond with it, but it wouldn¡¯t bond. Astrid also tried but failed. I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to bond with a wolf just like my master. At least Najprej, Drugi? and Astrid all have significant Mental Attributes to back up their attempts, unlike my younger self. ?rt led them to the next trap while I stayed to skin this angry young wolf. I discovered my stone finger could turn into a very sharp stone knife. It was quite brittle, but that didn¡¯t matter so much when Puia could just rebuild it. I guess I now have a whole different meaning to giving somebody the finger. I think Puia¡¯s Molten Rock Skill is the equivalent of my Granite Manipulation for lava. My Hearing Aid picked up shouting from the next trap, and it sounded like Astrid. I finished up quickly and went to see what the problem was. When I got there, Astrid was still red with anger, and it was aimed at ?rt and Kryddor. Kryddor was hiding behind ?rt with her tail between her legs. I raised an eyebrow at ?rt. ¡°This trap didn¡¯t catch a wolf,¡± he said. ¡°It caught a Forest Stoat. Kryddor was about to kill it when Astrid stopped him.¡± Loudly and vigorously, I assumed. I looked at Astrid again and noticed she had a fury object inside her jacket. She had obviously bonded with it. I was surprised a stoat had triggered the trap. ¡°Have you given it a name?¡± I asked her. She nodded, so I said, ¡°Perhaps we can introduce it to Kryddor in a less violent manner.¡± ¡°She is called Trassig,¡± and she coaxed it out of hiding and approached Kryddor. They sniffed each other, and Trassig hissed at her. All is not yet forgiven. I then introduced her to T¨¡oke and Modrica, and Skavt introduced her to Te?ka and Oske. We moved on to the second to last trap. It was empty. Najprej and Drugi? were getting disheartened. ¡°We can reset the traps and come back before we leave the city,¡± I tried to reassure them. ¡°We can even set more traps.¡± I checked my Skill, and it had levelled. Yes! After Journeyman Level, Skills get really hard to increase. Trapping had been stagnant for a while. The last trap did hold a wolf. There was a second wolf outside the trap whining and scratching at it. I sent Najprej and Drugi? forward. When the wolf scented us, it turned toward us with its hair standing up, teeth bared and growled at us. Najprej and Drugi? moved slowly forward, their low voices speaking orcish in a soft manner. I wasn¡¯t aware of Orcish being spoken softly before. The female wolf settled down and stopped growling, Najprej feeding her and then bonding. Drugi? fed and then bonded with the one in the trap. They were both females. Najprej introduced us to her bond Borec and Drugi? to her bond Lepa. They were both pleased as anything. Skavt made some comments about the bonds being suitable as one is always trying to get the other out of trouble. She got stuff thrown at her for that. Everybody went quiet when Astrid said, ¡°Borec is pregnant.¡± 161. Part Puia: Wiremu.

161. Part Puia: Wiremu.

Cats and dogs generally don¡¯t get on. I wanted to be there when the wolves met the Catkin and lions. I also wanted to talk to Tabitha about Elemental bonds. All of that will have to wait, as I can¡¯t leave Modrica and Astrid out here on their own. I suppose I could, but it didn¡¯t seem right. I also wanted to work with Puia, and I am sure that whatever Inn Tabitha bought, she wouldn¡¯t appreciate me burning it to the ground. It will be a nice Inn. Tabitha doesn¡¯t buy rubbish. The Canine Queens took all the materials to sell. Their name is even more appropriate now, with three canines in the team. I think originally. The Canine was a play on words referring to their orc tusks as well as Kryddor. T¨¡oke and I are the odd ones out. We are full team members, but we are also more independent than the others. That is going to increase, I think. We planned to stay here for another three or four nights before moving and finding a new camp closer to the road South so we could join the caravan on the road. T¨¡oke and I went back to trapping. I was using more Granite in my traps now. With Granite Manipulation at the Journeyman Level, it was a lot easier. It was even easier as Puia could soften it for me. We also hunted. Puia super heating my knives and spears made some things really easy. We also started several small forest fires. Fortunately, Modrica was with us when we accidentally started the largest one. Her earth affinity was really good at smothering fires. This pushed our bond to the Apprentice level, and things became much clearer between us, especially the sharing of Skills and affinities. T¨¡oke and I picked up the Lava Affinity. This opened a whole new area for us, as Lava is not just molten Granite. Lava can be all sorts of mixtures of minerals, including metals. We also picked up Molten Rock at the Apprentice Level and Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) at Level 1. Puia gained the Granite Affinity, making Granite much easier for all of us. He also picked up T¨¡oke¡¯s Venom Spit, which became Lava Spit. He also got Granite Manipulation, allowing him to manipulate the rock without liquifying it first. We would continue to work on Skills. I levelled my Petrification Skill as I now made all my Spears this way. I wasn¡¯t limited to Granite any more and found a more robust combination of minerals. I lined up my shot. I needed to put more effort into the bow due to the stone arrow being heavy, even though it was thinner than a normal arrow. I aimed higher, anticipating more drop. I had tested it on targets at various distances, and I was reasonably confident. Instead of heating the arrow and burning through the bowstring, I only heated the stone arrowhead this time. I let the arrow fly and watched it. I had aimed for the body of the goat as I was still testing things. It pierced the shoulder close to where I was aiming. A little high. The goat went down and didn''t get back up. I jogged over to have a look, picking up the smell of burned meat before it came into view. Good, the arrowhead had melted through the bone and lodged deep in the goat. Last time I had over-heated the arrow, and it had splashed on impact. I harvested what I could, but there was a burnt hole in the hide, and the meat around it was burned. That was still an improvement. Time for a new experiment. Puia could split himself into parts, similar to what he did to inhabit both T¨¡oke and me. He could move through the ground, but it was slow. Walking pace only. I found another goat, and before I lined up a shot, I touched my stone finger to the arrowhead. Puia transferred part of himself to the arrowhead. The arrow was heating fast, so I took a quick shot and hit the goat in the hind legs. Puia went to work on the goat, and the rear legs collapsed. By the time I got there, the goat was nothing more than a charred corpse. There was nothing to harvest. I put my stone finger on the ground, and Puia, or Part Puia, returned and remerged. Lesson learned, only use Part Puia if I want nothing left. Puia used my stone finger to move in and out. He could use other ways, but that meant burning flesh and skin for me. Time to watch T¨¡oke at work. The Bighorn Sheep moved close to his hiding place, and he struck. He was so fast now I almost missed it, and I was looking for it. He was in his small form and sunk his fangs into the leg, but this time he didn¡¯t wait for the venom to inject. He wasn¡¯t injecting venom. He was injecting Part Puia. He dropped away quickly and slithered into the grass. The leg started smoking as the wool superheated, and then the sheep collapsed, and smoke rose from the area. The results were consistent with my experiment with part Puia. Total destruction. Puia only has one setting, which is good to know. T¨¡oke gently put his fangs around a rock, and I sensed Puia rejoining himself through a fang. Next experiment. My Granite Sand was very good at cutting through things, but then I superheated the sand it was amazing. It would also get everywhere and burn. Yes, we had to put out another fire. I could see it being devastating against troops. This is the reason no one must know of this. Everyone will want to use us or be scared we will be used against them. I want to keep the full information limited to Tabitha, Modrica and myself. The Canine Queens will know something, and I am not really worried about them knowing to be honest, but the fewer, the better. The longer it takes for the powerful people to find out, the more difficult I will be to kill. Hopefully, they will think I just have a lava affinity when they do find out, like lavaman. A Lava Elemental like Puia is much more versatile. I am also much more versatile, which is why I think he only ever had a lava affinity, not rock or fire and definitely not an elemental. Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) quickly went to Apprentice Level. I was interested in how we would go against Ruku and his Water Affinity. I know there are underwater volcanoes, so I am theorising it will come down to who has the largest capacity. If it were just T¨¡oke and me, then Ruku would win. With Puia added in, I think the scales will heavily tip in our direction. Modrica and Te?ka were doing well. She picked up Earth Manipulation in time to put out our fires. She copied my Granite Spike and Granite Wall to create Earth Spike and Earth Wall. They will take a while to level, but I wish I¡¯d had someone to learn from. My Tutor Skill levelled. She also managed to teach Te?ka her Armoured Skin, so they were on the path to being invincible. I don¡¯t think there is any such thing as invincible, but they were going to be very tough. They will need it as they will be targeted in Kirghiz. Astrid and Trassig were quiet. They would come out in the morning and help me clear the traps, but I was doing a lot of testing that I didn¡¯t want an audience for, so they were left alone a lot. Trassig was a good hunter, often catching rodents, rabbits and birds. He even brought back a Pukeko, and they can be large and vicious. Astrid had taught him some self-heal skills, I think. I don¡¯t know what went on the other way, but I am sure I saw Astrid with claws at one point. She seemed more agile than before, as well. That is how a bond should work. She was a smart dwarf, so I am sure she had things working. She didn¡¯t ask for help anyway. I am also sure Trassig comforted her at night when her memories got the best of her. We relocated after four days and found a spot where we could keep an eye on the road. Five days later, we spotted the caravan. We packed up the camp, loaded everything onto Te?ka, and moved to an intercept course. This will be their second day on the road. Modrica and Te?ka caused quite a stir when we joined them. That was going to happen everywhere she went. The problem is Modrica is a city girl like Tabitha. I think she is going to have to get used to being in the wild. T¨¡oke was watching the back of the caravan, and that night somebody did try to make a run back to Duhovno. We don¡¯t know who or why because Part Puia just left a burned husk. Maybe they were reporting to the Duchess. Maybe it was the Duke. Maybe they left their favourite toothbrush behind. That night Tabitha, Modrica and I commandeered Mayakku¡¯s enchanted wagon and had a frank discussion. I thought we would have trouble with the Duke of Kirghiz, otherwise known as Terry, because of Modrica. Then I find out Tabitha has purposefully antagonised him further by swiping his luxury Inn out from under him, not to mention that it earned him a significant amount of coin. And the premier luxury accommodation and Spa in the whole city. Here I was, camping rough, and Tabitha lived in the absolute lap of luxury. I felt like I was owed something here. Kirghiz was three to four months away, depending on how long we stopped in the other provincial centres. The word about Modrica and Te?ka will travel, even if she doesn¡¯t enter the other cities, so we might as well stay in some luxury. None of the other two main centres had anything like the Steam Lands, so I would prefer shorter rather than longer. The first provincial City had ties back to the Duchess, but the other was more dependent on the capital. We can expect trouble to start then. I was in favour of skipping it entirely, but that won¡¯t go down well with the other traders in the caravan. That is trouble for the future. For now, I have an open country and two aspiring hunters and their lion cubs to train. I also have a new class to try to achieve. My training for the Warrior Class has been delayed too long, and I think I will need it.
Wiremu Hunter Class Hunt QW Spy Pros MHunt Scout Assn Total
Type Attribute Level 12 11 8 3 6 7 1 Constitution
Physical Strength (PS) Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. 9 11 2 22 1 6 51 139.0
Agility (PA) 12 5 12 4 6 1 40
Perception (PP) 11 2 24 1 3 7 48
Mental Strength (MS) 9 12 5 6 32 91.0
Agility (MA) 12 3 2 8 1 7 1 34
Perception (MP) 11 1 10 1 2 25
Spiritual Strength (SS) 10 3 6 11 3 7 40 120.0
Agility (SA) 8 2 5 8 1 5 11 40
Perception (SP) 10 5 4 8 4 9 40
Totals 92 44 60 33 40 12 30 35 4 346
Free Points 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Resistances: Poison +19, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +32, Heat +34, Fire +13, Disease 1, Acid 1 Skills: Novice: Lock Pick 4, Disarm Traps 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap1, Detect Spiritual Trap 3, Detect Traps 4, Spiritual Trapping 4, Monster Lore 4, Sapient Lore 4 Roleplay 4, Apprentice: Fishing 8, Sewing 9, Cooking 8, Elemental Bond 5 Truth Sensing 9, Sense Treasure 6, Hunters Mark 5 Butchering 7, Weapon Repair 7, Repair Leather Armour 8 Plant Lore 8, Mineral Lore 6, Thermal Sensing (Mineral) 6 Granite Quake 7, Granite Wall 6, Petrification 6, Animal Care 7, Venom Arrow 8, Veneer 7, Map Making 9, Dwarvish 9, Triple Shot 7, Longbow 7, Granite Sand 6 Sudden Strike 6, Molten Rock 5, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 5 Journeyman: Hearing Aid 14, Hammer 13, Mapping 11, Tutor 11, Identify 14, Deceive 12, Manipulate Status 11, Granite Spike 13, Granite Sense 13, Granite Bones 12, Granite Shield 12, Granite Manipulation 11 Trapping 12, Tracking 11, Skinning 11, Bow 12, Small Blades 13, Unarmed Combat 11, Throw Weapons 12, Spear 13, Quick Strike 11, Power Strike 11 Darksight 12, Far Sight 12, Bond Senses 11, Orcish 12, Camouflage 11, Animal Lore 10 Imbue Venom 11, Snakeskin 11, Regeneration 12 Hide Armourer 12, Riding 10, Sense Spiritual 11 Master: Stealth 16, Animal Bond 16 Affinity: Granite, Lava Monster Kills: 9 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +22, Cold +29, Heat +34, Fire +13, Pain +20, Acid 1 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 2, Sudden Strike 3, Hunters Mark 2, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 1 Apprentice: Granite Spike 7, Venom Spit 9, Granite Shield 7, Grow 9, Regeneration 9, Granite Sense 7, Granite Manipulation 8, Molten Rock 5 Journeyman: Strength Boost 10, Camouflage 13, Power Strike 11, Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 17 Affinity: Granite, Lava Bond: Puia, Lava Elemental Resistances: Cold +29, Skills: Novice: Lava Spit 1, Granite Manipulation 1 Apprentice: Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 5 Journeyman: Master: Molten Rock 10 Affinity: Lava, Granite 162: Training: Tabitha If Wiremu wants to keep his lava a secret, he will have to stop using it. We passed through Jeklo fine. Modrica and Te?ka caused a stir, so the word is out, but there were no problems. There was an Orc Duke in charge, and I think there were Clan ties to the Duchess. Jeklo is a mining town, mostly iron and coal, but a smattering of others. They mostly export steel, which makes it a smelly place full of coal dust. After Jeklo, it is over the mountains and onto the rolling plains to Beitemark. It is the mountains where we got stuck. This huge out-of-season storm came through. The wind and hail were bad enough, but we were high enough in the mountains to get snow. The trail turned to mud and then ice. It didn¡¯t worry Oske or Te?ka, but the pack animals were suffering, and when the second wagon slid near the edge of the trail, our Caravan Master Selma called a halt in the nearest spot her scouts could find. We jammed the wagons in, making a corral for the animals in the middle, trying to keep the wind off them. The wind is the killer. Everybody huddled in or under their wagons. Fires wouldn¡¯t light, and the temperature plummeted as night fell. Wiremu was as wrapped up as the rest of us, but he didn¡¯t seem affected much. Snow just seemed to melt off him, and he was always standing confidently on the ground, not slipping on ice like the rest of us. This storm could last two or three days, and we could lose pack animals or some of the younger members of the caravan. There were a couple of older members as well who wanted to join us at Jeklo to get to Beitemark. The first night Wiremu wandered out just past the Catkin wagon. He acted like he was looking for something, although it wasn¡¯t with his eyes. He quickly was out of my sight in the sleet, but my Spatial Awareness tracked him. He didn¡¯t go far, but it was on the upwind side of the caravan. The wind eased a bit, and the stone moved, forming what looked like the mouth of a cave. It wasn¡¯t very deep a cave, but it didn¡¯t have to be. He went to Selma and mentioned finding the cave to her for the young and elderly. I followed, and my Hearing Aid Skill was on the increase, so I heard her mutter to her scout about it, and he shook his head. I investigated the cave; it was warmer than it should be, and it was like the heat was coming from the stone. It was big enough for 8-10 people if they squished in. They squished. It provided enough shelter to get a small fire going, and some of them had hot food. The Catkin were snuggled in their wagon with the lion cubs, although they had grown tremendously in the 4 weeks it took to get to Jeklo and the 2 weeks spent there. We were now a week on the road to Beitemark. It would be another five to six weeks before we got to Beitemark, and the cubs would be cubs no longer. They are almost full-sized now, although they still act like cubs. C¨­mp¨¥?i is starting to grow his mane. The pack animals and the draught animals for the wagons were going to be an issue. They were huddled together in the centre of the wagons. I saw Wiremu weaving among them, dropping small glowing stones. He did that three times during the night, and we didn¡¯t lose any. The storm was worse the second day, and we rotated people into the cave for a hot meal. Wiremu kept up the heated stones. I think he was levelling a skill. I saw him tuck one in with the sleeping children. The wind moved direction the second night. Somehow it never got far into the cave. The sleet eased to a cold biting rain. That kept up all the following day, easing in the evening. We were back on the road on the fourth day, having lost no one and no animals. There were several people who found that suspicious. Everybody was glad to be back on the road. Five days later, the mountains were behind us, and we were on the rolling hills all the way to Beitemark. There were a lot of open grasslands interspersed with rivers and forests. Beitemark was known for its ranchers. They mostly herded bison and deer, but there were also sheep, cows and horses, and some more unusual specialist species. We would come across more and more ranches the closer we got to Beitemark, but this was an ideal training area for the lions. Wiremu insisted all the Catkin with bonds come, so this forced Anni and Mayakku to go as well. They would be out every second day and sometimes would not return till late in the evening. Anni and Mayakku were exhausted, but their fitness improved, and they started to enjoy it more. C¨­mp¨¥?i is going to be a big boy. His shoulders already come up to Mayakku¡¯s chest. The catkin were shorter than humans and generally of lighter build, so I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Mayakku could ride him soon. That wouldn¡¯t be the case for the others because the female lions were smaller, and App¨¡, Mtualil and Anni were larger catkins. I occasionally went hunting as well. I went alone at night on Dusk, practising silent riding and refining my stealth skills. We were heading into hostile territory, and I hoped I wouldn¡¯t have to revive the Black Butcher, but I was going to be using the skills. Modrica was going to be a target, and we were not going to sit and take it. I expected blood to flow. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I literally sucked the life out of small animals to level my Syphon Consitution and Syphon Energy. They couldn¡¯t move, bound in shadows, my energy being replenished through the syphons. I was literally hunting how Nyx would. I sparred hard with Modrica, and we would go hunting together with Te?ka. Te?ka and Modrica weren¡¯t built for stealth, but we practised shrouding them in shadows and muffling their sound. Nyx practised mimicking Te?ka and Modrica. I couldn''t Mimic Te?ka, but I could mimic Modrica using my Body Image Skill. We fooled many around the campfire, and my Orcish finally got to Journeyman level, which meant I was fluent. When we went hunting, I noticed it wasn¡¯t just Te?ka ripping into the prey with Claws, but Modrica was as well. Te?ka was not the fastest, but with the Earth or Shadow Affinity, we could slow or corral the faster prey. We were training hard and becoming even more in sync. We were only about a week out of Beitemark and seeing more ranch buildings and some fenced areas. Traffic was picking up on the road as well. We had already passed one rural village. It was near dawn, and I was riding Dusk with Modrica riding Te?ka next to me. My Shadow''s embrace was shrouding us and muffling our sound as we were heading back to the caravan. We came over a rise, and I spotted the lions ripping into a deer for breakfast while the Catkin stood nearby. They were obviously heading out for a day of hunting and training. I couldn¡¯t see Wiremu, but T¨¡oke was hidden in the grass near the Catkin. I couldn¡¯t see T¨¡oke, he was fully camouflaged, but to Nyx and my Elemental Senses, Puia shone like a sun. Nyx reached out through the shadow, and they acknowledged each other. The Catkin were oblivious to all this. Nyx and Puia were basically opposites, but they coexisted peacefully enough. We had found no way to hide Puia from this sense, but it would be very rare for someone to have this. It was probably a small risk. Then my Hearing Aid picked up the sound of many galloping horses. The catkin and lions heard them at the same time, which gave me a measure of how my Hearing Aid was levelling. About fifteen horses crested a rise and veered toward the catkin. The lions got defensive of their meal. I noticed the riders were armed for hunting. They slowed as they neared and spread into a crescent facing the catkin. App¨¡ stepped forward to greet them. He was purposefully empty-handed. App¨¡ is easy to underestimate, but he is an experienced and seasoned Warrior with the Sentry Specialisation and, I think, very close to gaining the Hunter Class. He had a lot of high levelled fighting Skills. ¡°Good morning,¡± he greeted them. One of the lead riders spat on the ground, and I hear him curse quietly, ¡°Animals.¡± If it was loud enough for me to hear, it was loud enough for the Catkin to hear. None of them reacted, which shows me they were used to prejudice. App¨¡ cocked his head to the side as if puzzled why they had not greeted him back. The person next to the one who cursed eventually said, ¡°We got a report of lions hunting our herds, so we came to clear them out.¡± ¡°As you can see, the only lions here are our bonds. We haven¡¯t seen any other tracks.¡± ¡°That deer is part of my herd!¡± accused the one who cursed. ¡°You are poachers!¡± App¨¡ remained calm and said, ¡°There were no markings, no ear tags, no branding. It was a wild deer.¡± ¡°Are you calling me a liar, you animal?¡± he was raising his voice. It was partly an act to wind everyone up to attack. I am a professional actress. He is not. I was considering if we needed to show ourselves to back up the Catkin. I don¡¯t like to see them bullied, but I also know they are quite capable, and there are eight of them. With ourselves, T¨¡oke and I assume Wiremu in bow range, we could kill them all, but it is a lot of people to go missing from a ranch. There would be an investigation. They think they are in a position of power, but they are really not. How do we get them to back down without undermining the authority of the Catkin? ¡°Not at all,¡± App¨¡ said, ¡°but you are mistaken. You wouldn¡¯t be calling me a liar, would you now?¡± I hear someone in the crowd mutter, ¡°Never trust a cat!¡± App¨¡ didn¡¯t react to that but held the eyes of the one who accused him. I don¡¯t know how he did it, but he didn¡¯t move a muscle, and he suddenly gave the impression of a cat about to pounce on a mouse. He still steadily held the guy''s gaze. The guy broke eye contact and said, ¡°We will be watching. Nobody will steal from us!¡± he whirled his horse around, and the others followed his lead. They trotted back the way they came. With a line like that, I am very tempted to try to level my Burglary Class at his house. I won¡¯t, but it is tempting. He would just blame the Catkin. We backed off and went around the Catkin without them sensing us, I think. This is going to be a challenging city for the Catkin. Hopefully, it is just some backcountry yokels. After all, Kirghiz is the next city down the road, and that is a multi-species city. 163. Fishing: Tabitha.

163. Fishing: Tabitha.

The next evening, we camped near a river. I saw Wiremu and T¨¡oke leave well before dawn with their fishing rod. I decided an early morning ride would be nice to see the dawn in. That just shows how much I have changed since meeting Wiremu three, or is it four years ago? Back then, I would never have got up to see the dawn. I would barely be getting to bed. Dusk and I rode upriver. We passed Wiremu and T¨¡oke. Just as the dawn broke, I saw something really strange. It was a Griffon, but it wasn¡¯t a Griffon. A Griffon looks like a mixture of a lion and an eagle. It isn¡¯t that, as it is its own particular creature, but it looks like that. It has a lion''s body with eagle wings and beak. They are not monsters, but they prey on monsters, so often become monsters by eating monster flesh and sometimes monster cores. The first anomaly I noticed was the wings were crooked, and it couldn¡¯t fly straight. I assumed it had been in a fight and had a broken wing. I was immediately thinking this could make a fantastic bond. Then I noticed the body wasn¡¯t right either. There was no eagle-shaped beak, but a lion-shaped mouth, sort of. I regretted not having Farsight. Then I got a good view as it turned toward me and dived into the river. Dived might be a bit ambitious. Crashed might be a better word. What I saw was this was no lion, but a Lionkin. I rode to the bank near where she went into the water, and while I was at it, I sent Nyx to get Wiremu. I stopped Dusk and dismounted as she pulled herself out of the river, a fish caught in her claws. I stayed well back as she ripped into the fish raw. She was obviously starved, and he had been for some time, going from her malnourished body. She was naked, so I could see how bad she was. It looked like she also had a broken ankle now that she was in the range of my Spatial Awareness. She knew I was there, but she ripped into the fish like it was her first meal for months, and it may have been. That raised some questions, as there is a lot of plentiful game around here that is not hard to catch, like the fish. ¡°Hello, my name is Skygge,¡± I said when she had finished, ¡°you look like you need some help.¡± I reached into the saddle bag on Dusk and tossed her a small bag of trail rations I carried. She sniffed it and then started eating more slowly than she had the fish, watching me warily. ¡°We have two good healers not far from here. One can fix that ankle easily. No charge.¡± I said. ¡°Catkin?¡± she asked. ¡°We travel with some Catkin, but the healers are human and dwarf,¡± I said. Then I heard the sound of galloping horses. I almost sighed. What''s to bet that the cat haters from yesterday were also the ones responsible for the wretched state of the Lionkin. The lionkin heard them as well and got herself to her feet, looking around for somewhere to hide. Her one good wing was being used as an awkward crutch for her ankle. I moved so Dusk and I stood between the incoming horses and the lionkin. I knew this was going to go bad as soon as the poacher accuser cleared the rise and angled for us. There were only eight of them this time, and I decided not to give them time to monologue and accuse. Shadows rose from the ground tripping the horses and sending the riders crashing. Three of them had high agility, landed or rolled to their feet, and used the momentum to keep coming at me fast. A couple had broken limbs, while others were just winded. I did feel sorry for the horses, but you never let the enemy have the advantage if you can help it. Two coming at me had hunting knives, and the other a spear. I drew my dual swords and went to work. They were fast with high agility, but my swords had the reach over the knife wielders. I parried the first attacker while simultaneously stabbing the second. I had to back up from the spear jab but positioned myself to kill the stabbed one. I sliced the other knifer fighter but took a flesh wound from the spearman. That would be fixed soon as I had my Siphon Constitution running. The spear wielder used some Skill, and one of my swords went flying. I manoeuvred around the knife wielder using my Pickpocket and Sleight of Hand Skills to take his backup knife. That levelled both of them. I hadn¡¯t thought to use them in a fight before. Slight of Hand went to Journeyman level finally. The three without broken limbs were picking themselves up and drawing weapons. It wasn¡¯t time to draw Blacksteel yet. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Then an unexpected ally crashed into the spearman breaking his arm. It wasn¡¯t the Lionkin, Wiremu or T¨¡oke. It was Dusk, and as her hooves smashed down on the spearman, I felt a mental tug. She wanted to bond. Oh, hell yes! She had been with me since our escape from the empire, and some of my best times were riding her like the wind. Our bond snapped into place, and it felt familiar and comforting, as well as energetic with the desire to run. Fast. She was truly becoming my Shadow Mount. Our coordination improved, and with my cutting and her hooves, the final knife woman joined the spearman, unmoving on the ground. ¡°Stop, or she dies!¡± Poacher dude yelled. I knew without turning he had a knife at her throat, and she had a broken arm to add to her injuries. The other two were advancing on me, weapons drawn, and one of the ones with a broken leg had a bow aimed at me. Nyx had arrived back, and we just needed a little time. I warned Dusk to be ready, and I turned slowly as he expected. ¡°Drop your weapons. You Bitch! You killed my sister!¡± I slowly lowered my weapons but didn¡¯t let go of them. ¡°If the girl is your sister, she needs immediate attention, and she may yet live,¡± I lied, knowing full well she was dead. I am a professional actress, and I figured the possibility of saving his sister would make him concentrate on that. I had my shadows hide the worst wound and move slightly under her clothes to make it seem like she had taken a shallow breath. ¡°Move away from her bitch. Joe, help her!¡± I moved Dusk and myself to the side a bit, positioning us better. I still held the sword and knife. One of the guys rushed forward carelessly, and I gave Dusk the go-ahead. Her rear hooves slammed into Joe, cracking bones. At the same time, Nyx shadow spiked the archer''s eyes, and an arrow slammed into the poacher dude. This arrow burned him to a crisp before he knew what was happening. As soon as the knife dropped slightly, the Lionkin threw herself into the nearby river. She may have burns to add to her list of injuries. I disarmed the last healthy person and bound him in shadows for the moment. There was a blind broken leg guy, and one person who hadn¡¯t got up after the horses went down. Joe wouldn¡¯t be getting up again. Five of the horses were alright. The other three would have to be put down. I picked up my dropped sword and walked to the edge of the river. When Lionkin girl came to the surface, I said, ¡°It is safe to come out now unless you have burns that need longer.¡± She stood up and limped to the edge of the river. Her wings were more of a hindrance than a help. I reached an arm down to help her up the bank, and she was wary, but she took it. She sat on the edge of the bank, back to everything, and just burst into tears. She has been severely traumatised. I sat beside her and put my arm around her. Because I had my back to him, the guy bound in shadows tried to break out, and the guy who had laid still after the horses went down decided to try to make a run for it. I ignored them both. The guy bound in shadows would run out of energy before he broke out of the shadows as I was syphoning the energy from him to power it. It was very efficient. The guy who tried to make a run for it only got about three steps, and he had a 10m snake wrapped around him binding his arms to his body. When he struggled to escape, T¨¡oke tightened his coils, and my Hearing Aid heard more bones crack. T¨¡oke was now in his face, fangs ready to strike. I know I wouldn¡¯t be moving. The Lionkin pulled herself together when she heard footsteps. We looked up, and Wiremu was strolling along the bank. His bow was away, and he had a fishing pole in one hand and a string with four fish tied to it in the other. He looked just like a fisherman out to catch the early morning fish. The lionkin started to struggle to get up, but I said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, that is just my brother Sten.¡± She hadn¡¯t looked around and seen T¨¡oke yet, so let''s keep her calm for now. ¡°I am guessing these people are the cause of your troubles?¡± She nodded and pulled herself together even more and struggled to get up. I helped her but warned her, ¡°Everyone not restrained is on our team.¡± We turned, and she saw one guy bound in darkness, a guy bound with a snake and a guy who was blind, lying still in the mud with Dusk¡¯s foreleg resting on his back. ¡°Wow.¡± ¡°Yes, but in our defence, there were eight of them. Shall we restart the introductions? I am Skygge, and this is my brother Sten. That is my bond Dusk, and that is Sten¡¯s bond T¨¡oke.¡± ¡°And that dark stuff?¡± ¡°Pretend you didn¡¯t see the dark stuff.¡± ¡°Right. My name is Lyla.¡± 164. Lyla: Wiremu.

164. Lyla: Wiremu.

¡°Wait up. You bonded with Dusk?¡± I asked. Tabitha grinned, ¡°It just happened mid-fight.¡± ¡°That is awesome. Congratulations.¡± I turned to Lyla, ¡°Here,¡± I started to take off my jacket for her to wear and realised it wouldn¡¯t fit with her wings. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Lionkin often go nude,¡± Lyla said to cover my embarrassed indecision. ¡°What happened,¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Long story short, they captured and caged me. Trickery and deceit mainly. They wanted to test a monster core on me, but when I wouldn¡¯t cooperate, they starved me until I was too weak to resist them. The core did this,¡± she indicated her wings. ¡°Griffon?¡± I asked. She nodded, ¡°With a Wind affinity of some sort, but I was incompatible. They must have thought that a lionkin might be, but I wasn¡¯t. My Spiritual Attributes have been cut by over half leaving most of my better skills unusable. It started to transform me to be like a Griffon, but that is also incompatible. It shouldn¡¯t have transformed me, but it did. My bones are lighter but not stronger. I broke my ankle just by landing. I might have all my Physical Strength, but I can¡¯t use it because I just break my bones. The wings didn¡¯t form properly and couldn¡¯t be used even without the wind affinity. My Regeneration tries to fix me, but it is as confused as hell about all the changes. My mind is like having a roaring wind blowing through me all the time I have to fight in order just to think. I just want to die. I planned to escape to find somewhere to die where they couldn¡¯t harvest me, but then I heard about them finding catkin with lion bonds, and I needed to warn someone.¡± She just collapsed after that speech, and I figured it was the effort fighting the spiritual winds she was talking about. My Truth Sensing was telling me she was honest. I looked at Tabitha and nodded. ¡°Do you want us to help you get revenge before you die?¡± She asked. ¡°Yes, but there are too many, and they have a captured Griffon.¡± ¡°As for too many, the two of us took out eight, and Sten¡¯s mercenary team and the Catkin are probably both on board. As for the Griffon, it will be as much trouble for them as for us. If they release it at us, it will probably just fly away,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°They clipped its wings.¡± ¡°We have killed a lot of monsters, but not a Griffon yet,¡± I said. ¡°I am not going to be a lot of help,¡± Lyla said. ¡°Then come and bear witness,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°The coin we find there can be yours, and you might be surprised what the healers can do in Kirghiz.¡± She just shook her head. I headed over to the first prisoner. I didn¡¯t need Tabitha and her skills for this. If they were party to this, their sentence was death. T¨¡oke literally squeezed the truth out of him. He knew about it and the griffon. T¨¡oke squeezed the life out of him. The shadow guy added some details. The boss had an affinity that they were trying to replicate. He guessed it was an air affinity, and there were about forty ranch hands on the site. The blind guy didn¡¯t have anything extra to add. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Lyla didn¡¯t want to be seen by people in the caravan, so Tabitha stayed with her while I went to gather the troops. I took the spare horses we found, and Puia burned the corpses. The Caravan was underway but had not gone far. I gathered the Catkin, the Canine Queens and Modrica and discussed what we had discovered. They all wanted in. This was not going to be an easy fight, and death was a real possibility. We are going against forty experienced ranchers, plus an affinity user and potentially a monster. We should not discount that they have some control over the griffon. I persuaded Anni and Mayakku not to come as they were not warriors. ?rt thought we should include Astrid for the extra healing, and she is very interested in examining Lyla. Selma wouldn¡¯t allow any of the other caravan guards to go. The caravan would be one to two days ahead of us, but we should rejoin it before it enters Beitemark. If we were delayed, T¨¡tt¨¡ would make all the arrangements for the Caravan. We went through some of the biggest issues while Mayakku was there, as she may have some enchanting that might help. The biggest threat was the affinity user. Air was tricky. It could cut and overpower. It could throw you around if it were strong enough. The worst possibilities were if it was combined with poison or if he could take the air away. Not everybody had my poison resistance level. Mayakku had some enchantments for cleaning the air. It was popular with miners, and it stored about three-four breaths to enable them a chance to get out. That should help against airborne substances. She went to work. The Griffon was the next problem. Even if it couldn¡¯t fly, we had to assume it could at least glide short distances. We had no guarantee it couldn¡¯t fly. My bow was the main weapon against flying creatures, and Te?ka might be able to keep it on the ground. Skavt would take extra javelins. The team geared up and waited for the enchantments while Skavt and I headed out to scout the place. Lyla told us where it was and the layout, but we needed to see it to make a plan. Skavt was on Oske and T¨¡oke, and I borrowed one of the new horses. It took about two hours before we left the mounts and advanced on foot. The ranch looked deserted. ¡°Do you think it¡¯s a trap?¡± I asked Skavt. We circled the place and worked our way closer. Maybe they are all out looking for Lyla? It seemed suspicious. I peeked through the window of the bunkhouse, and it was empty. My Hearing Aid was not picking up anything. I moved to the main ranch house. I picked up some noise around the back. An older lady was working in the kitchen. I decided to approach and see if I could get some information. I used Venere to change a few of my features and then used Roleplay to take the role of a lost ranch hand. ¡°Hello, the house!¡± I yelled. The lady shuffled to the back door and poked her nose out. ¡°Hello there. My horse became lame a little way that way, and I was looking for some help,¡± I said. ¡°T¡¯ait no one here but me,¡± she said. ¡°Oh? I must be lost. Whose is this ranch?¡± ¡°His Lordship Otto Henderson.¡± Of course, he is a noble. Army trained and given a title and ranch to retire to. Sounds like a Kirghiz affinity user to me. ¡°Where did his lordship go? When will he be back?¡± I asked. ¡°His Lordship rode out with the full muster an hour ago. I don¡¯t know when he will be back.¡± That sounded ominous. ¡°Full muster. Was there an emergency?¡± I asked. ¡°His lordship¡¯s business is not your concern. He will be back soon enough.¡± ¡°Right, thanks for the info. I have to get back to my horse.¡± It was weak, and the cook looked suspicious, but Otto, whoever would not have mustered his ranch hands and ridden out without a target. I should be able to follow forty riders easily. I took off at a run. Skavt met me with my horse, and we left at a gallop. Otto, the lord, had followed the road. We had missed him because we had not followed the road. We had not wanted to be seen. Word had obviously reached him about our tangle this morning, and he had reacted. There hadn¡¯t been any more people by the river this morning, so I think there must have been a bond watching. 165. Lord Otto: Tabitha.

165. Lord Otto: Tabitha.

It was the sound of galloping horses that alerted me to danger. What is it with this place? The sound of galloping horses should be exciting, not a sign of danger. There were a lot of horses. Lyla and I looked at each other, jumped on Dusk and rode for the caravan. We arrived well ahead of the riders, and our Caravan Master, Selma, sounded the warning. I dropped Lyla off with the Catkin. The wagons closed the distance between them, and all the guards were alert and prepping weapons. About forty riders appeared in the grassland to the side of the road and angled ahead of the caravan, blocking the road and spreading out on each side of the road. A griffon half ran, and half flew with them and planted itself on the road. It did not attack the riders, and while its wings were clipped, it acted like it was a bond. Selma signalled, and the front two wagons veered, so they were side on to the road, and the front guards took cover behind them. These two wagons belonged to Selma and were more heavily fortified than usual, as this was one of their purposes. Selma was an experienced Caravan Master. The forward guards moved behind the wagons with their bows ready. Selma jumped up atop the wagon, ¡°Clear the road!¡± she yelled. A human nudged his horse before the others, and the griffon stepped forward. ¡°I am Lord Otto, under Duchess Isabella of Beitemark. We are hunting a fugitive who stole a Monster core from me.¡± ¡°Then you will have an official warrant from Beitemark to show me.¡± ¡°The theft happened two days ago. We have been tracking the thief,¡± he replied. ¡°We are a legitimate caravan from Obalno heading to Khirgiz, and I have the documents to prove it. No warrant, no searching the caravan.¡± Selma knew her rights, not that paper held much weight out here. I would give legitimacy to defending ourselves in any subsequent investigation. ¡°I am the Lord of this district!¡± he asserted. ¡°I have the right to search where ever I like. You would be unwise to hinder me.¡± He gestures with a hand, and a small whirlwind appears beside him, and he gestures with his other hand, and the griffon lets out a piercing screech and takes two steps forward. An angry roar answered the screech, and Te?ka moved around the wagon with Modrica riding him. He did not like the griffon and went up on two legs roaring again, and when he came down, the earth shook. It was more than just Te?ka landing. It was an Earthquake Skill. The only thing holding him back from charging the griffon was Modrica. I moved Dusk up beside my Krvne Sestre. The Lord was smart enough to realise he was in a bad tactical position. The caravan guards had bows and were sheltered among the wagons, and his men were exposed on the grasslands. Te?ka countered his griffon and, to some extent, his affinity. He didn¡¯t realise how badly countered he was as Shadows were similar to light and could not be blown away by the wind. Nyx and I could plunge him and the griffon into shadows so they couldn¡¯t see, even in the daylight, essentially neutralising them. We had been practising the synergy between Engulfing Shadows, Shadows Embrace and Shadow Manipulation. All this was unknown to him, but he wasn¡¯t dumb. He knew he would lose many of his people, although he was also eyeing Te?ka. ¡°This doesn¡¯t have to become a fight,¡± he yells loud enough for all to hear. ¡°I am offering a reward for the thief or even just the monster core. Not just gold but also a title through Beitemark. The Thief is a Lionkin, and the Monster core is from a griffon. If she were stupid enough to use the core, she would be changed, and it will be obvious. I will be at my ranch. Just follow the road back behind you, and the first road on the right leads to my ranch house. Just ask for Lord Otto.¡± He signalled, and they moved to the roadside, rode to the nearest rise''s crest and watched. Once Selma was convinced they would stay there, she started the Caravan moving again. Modrica and I also moved to the side and watched them as the Caravan moved past us. When the rear guard reached us, we joined them. We eventually went out of sight. ¡°They are definitely coming back tonight,¡± I said, half to Modrica and half to myself. Modrica just grunted. An hour later, Skavt and Oske thundered up to the caravan, and we had a meeting with the Canine Queens and App¨¡. ¡°How many people saw Lyla with the Catkin?¡± I asked. ¡°A few of the guards. The word would have spread. She is distinctive with those wings. She is also in agony in her mind. She truly does just want to end it all,¡± App¨¡ said. ¡°Wiremu and T¨¡oke are tracking them. We will get a warning,¡± Skavt said. ¡°Their scouts are not very subtle,¡± I said, nodding to a hill with a rider on it. I didn¡¯t even need farsight for that. ¡°Are we going to wait for them to attack?¡± Drugi? asked. ¡°Will someone from the caravan get greedy and try to grab Lyla?¡± I asked. ¡°She is with Mayakku in the enchanted wagon, and all the bonds are on alert. An approach will be noticed,¡± App¨¡ said. ¡°Here, Mayakku made these.¡± he handed out a piece of cloth that tied around the head and covered the mouth and nose. ¡°She enchanted them to filter the air and provide two or three breaths in case of no good air. It is a common mining enchantment.¡± I grabbed a second one for Wiremu. I wanted one for Dusk as well, but there weren¡¯t enough. ¡°Can Mayakku help her?¡± I asked. ¡°She is trying but strengthening attributes to help her combat the mental noise is an alchemist specialisation, not an enchanter.¡± I nodded and turned to the group, ¡°Our priority is to protect the caravan,¡± I said. ¡°He is also after Te?ka or his core, but I think he knows that will be extremely difficult. If we get the opportunity for a preemptive strike, we will take it, so be ready. Nyx is getting an update from Wiremu.¡± Nyx returned an hour later. I got out my symbol sheet, and Nyx spelt out. ¡°Otto. Home. Night raid. I will strike dusk +1. Might stop. Will weaken.¡± I called Skavt. ¡°Wiremu will strike an hour after dusk to discourage and weaken them. I can get there in time to help, and I expect I can do it without being seen. I doubt I could do it taking and covering for others.¡± She nodded, ¡°We will be ready here, and if you need us, then send Nyx.¡± The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I nodded. Dusk and I blended with the shadows at the next copse of trees and worked our way toward the ranch. It was very difficult with the open grasslands. I dashed into the valleys between copses of trees to hide. Otto¡¯s scouts patrolled the ridges giving them a good line of sight. I wasted two hours dodging patrols until I was spotted. I had to trip the horse and kill the scout before she could get a warning out. Awesome Dusk. She was fast enough to get me in range. I grabbed her outer clothes and used Body Image to look like her. I had never heard her speak, and the brief chase wasn¡¯t enough for me to Mimic her, but I was more comfortable riding in the open. The time I wasted meant it was well after dusk when I got to the ranch. Two of the outbuildings were already aflame. There was chaos in the courtyard and panicked horses everywhere. Some were stampeding away. The barn was one of the buildings on fire. It had a stone base until a meter off the ground and then a wooden structure on top. There were several people struggling to open the barn doors. Wiremu must have done something to jam them. An angry man burst out of the Ranch house at the same time that an angry griffon burst out of the barn sending those trying to open the door flying back. The griffon had some feathers on fire, but they were suddenly extinguished. I assume using the wind affinity to remove the air from the flames. I rode Dusk behind the main ranch, dismounted, and sent her to round up the horses who stampeded. She had her own Shadows Embrace to hide her now. If everybody is busy with the fires out front, it is a good time to raid the house. After all, somebody here had made a bold declaration about nobody stealing from them. That was just asking for it. My Elemental Senses were only just apprentice level, so I couldn¡¯t sense very far. I couldn¡¯t sense where Wiremu of Puia were. I hope he doesn¡¯t decide to burn the house while I am still in it. The back door was open, and nobody was in my Spatial sense range. I moved through and could easily sense the floors above and below me as I walked through. Above me were bedrooms. Below me were a storage area and two suspiciously large cages. Both empty. The main office and a safe were at the front of the house. The flames were still roaring from the barn, and the light from the fire came through the front window. They had a bucket line operating. I guess he couldn¡¯t remove air from such a large area. That was good to know. The safe was a standard combination safe and was no challenge to my Spatial Sense and Shadow Manipulation. I cleaned it out without looking at the documents or coins. I just shoved everything into my backpack and locked it back up as if nobody had been there. I could still hear the griffon screeching in panic and the ranch hands shouting outside. I moved downstairs as there was something there that was blocking my senses. A second office was partitioned off from the storage area, and a safe was under the floor. This one was made from stronger Spiritual material and was rune locked. I had some ideas about how to get through a rune lock, but I didn¡¯t have any acid on me strong enough, and I couldn¡¯t do it without it being obvious. Then Puia entered the range of my Elemental Senses. He was coming up from directly below the ranch house. I sent Nyx to let him know I was here and then to find Wiremu. I couldn¡¯t communicate with Puia. We had not worked out a system yet, as we had with Nyx. He would need a different system as he burned everything that he made contact with. I was not carrying around slabs of stone for him to write messages on. Nyx found Wiremu easily, and Puia came toward me. I tapped the rune lock with my knuckle and then stepped back. The heat started radiating from the area as Puia got closer. The spiritual metal the runes were engraved on started melting. When a hole was big enough for my hand, I knocked on the floor again, and he backed off underground. I wrapped my arm in leather and shoved it through the hole to grab what I could before it all caught fire. It smelled like a blacksmith shop, combined with burning leather. I had to put out some documents, which were scorched. The coins were fine. There were people upstairs now, coming and going. I went for the stairs and was halfway up when someone started coming down. I picked up the pace like I was in a hurray. ¡°Suzie?¡± he queried, puzzled. I still had the jacket and body image of the scout I had killed. ¡°I thought ¡­¡± he didn¡¯t get to finish as I hit him in the neck and threw him down the stairs. I don¡¯t think I managed to break his neck because he had a high physical build. He sprawled onto the basement floor, and my Binding Shadows kept him there long enough for Puia to arrive. Fire was about to break out in the basement in a big way. I went out the back door and entered my Shadows Embrace. Smoke was coming from the Ranch house now, and new shouting erupted from the area. I had Nyx lead me to Wiremu. He was squatting in the grass on a hill. It was too far away for me to see anything clearly, but he had farsight, so he had no problem. I squatted beside him. ¡°Where¡¯s T¨¡oke?¡± I asked. ¡°Down there setting fires with Puia.¡± ¡°Anything that would indicate it was sabotage?¡± ¡°Apart from the suspicious timing, probably not,¡± he said. ¡°I am the backup if they are discovered,¡± he added, patting his bow. He must have levelled his Longbow Skill to be confident of shooting that far. ¡°Dusk has rounded up seven of their horses. I have her herding them to the river to try and confuse the trail,¡± I said. He smiled, ¡°You have learned something from me.¡± I snorted, ¡°that¡¯s basic. Anyone should know that.¡± ¡°We will head back that way and confuse the trail further.¡± The ranch was well alight now. ¡°What do you think Otto¡¯s next move would be?¡± I asked. ¡°I thought you were the criminal mastermind? You tell me.¡± ¡°Anyone die in the fire?¡± I asked. ¡°Only three, including the one you struck.¡± ¡°So he is down eleven people. That is about a fifth of his workforce, and he has a ranch to run. He has seen Modrica and Te?ka, so he knows he can¡¯t intimidate us. ¡± I waved my hand at the burning ranch, ¡°this is a major setback, but it also means he won¡¯t let it rest. He knows it is us even if he can¡¯t prove it.¡± I thought for a bit. ¡°He might have some old war cronies around with affinities that he can enlist, but they are probably in Beitemark. My guess is that he ups the bribery offer, and we will meet his real attack in Beitemark.¡± ¡°He is not dumb,¡± Wiremu said regretfully. ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°If I managed to get proof of what he was doing, we can possibly get the Duchess to act.¡± ¡°What would the Kingdom do with an errant affinity user?¡± ¡°Probably strip his title and a compulsory re-enlistment. I can¡¯t think of much else. It would take a lot of evidence, and even then, it may go nowhere,¡± I said. ¡°Should we just kill him out here, away from everybody?¡± ¡°He is well alerted now. I doubt he will leave the griffon''s side. I doubt even I could get close. Could you snipe him with a one-hit kill?¡± ¡°Probably. I would need Puia¡¯s help. He almost certainly has a shield running now which would make things dicey. If this happened to me, I would protect myself against fire from now on. Poison is slower than fire, but we can stack the poison between T¨¡oke and myself,¡± Wiremu mused. ¡°He has seen me, but he hasn¡¯t seen you. Do you want to stay here and see if an opportunity opens up?¡± ¡°If we do kill him, the griffon will go mad. We will have to hunt it down. At least it can¡¯t fly. I am puzzled as to why he clipped its wings. Why would you do that?¡± ¡°It was captured by someone else and brought to him?¡± I guessed. ¡°It does seem to be the only thing I can think of. If he forced the bond, it would be a weak bond. He must be doing enough to make the griffon want to stay.¡± ¡°Can you handle Otto and the griffon alone?¡± ¡°With T¨¡oke and Puia, I think so. If we can¡¯t, I am confident we can get away.¡± We sat quietly for half an hour watching. ¡°Dusk has herded the horses well away in an unexpected direction. They will be difficult to find. We will now head back to the caravan. Only take the shot if you are sure.¡± Wiremu nodded, and I slipped away. 166. Griffon: Wiremu

166. Griffon: Wiremu

I think Otto needed to die, but I doubted the Kingdom''s reaction. We would be prime suspects even if there were no evidence. There were too many witnesses to the altercation at the caravan. They would not take kindly to their rare affinity users dying. I doubt we can successfully pin it on the empire. Could I blame it on the griffon? I don¡¯t know what it would take to turn bonds against each other. It has been a long time since the quarry where I was using Identify to examine the slave bond and T¨¡oke and my bond. My Spiritual perception is much higher now than it was. I examined my bond with T¨¡oke. It was very strong with a sense of flowing poisonous rock, not that that made any sense logically. My Elemental Bond with Puia was a lot weaker. That equates to the lower level that it is. It had a sense of flowing rock. Poison was foreign to an elemental. It wouldn¡¯t be affected by it and couldn¡¯t use it. Then I found the bond between T¨¡oke and Puia. It seemed to be a little stronger than the one between Puia and myself. Should I be embarrassed about that? Time to get closer and see what opportunities can be made. The ranch hands were setting up a camp beside the road to the ranch. It looked like they had given up on saving the buildings and were just trying to keep the fire from spreading to the grasslands. Otto seemed to be directing the wind, and a gentle breeze blew toward the fire from all directions keeping it contained. The smoke went straight up into the air. My Sense Spiritual caught the flow and flavour of the large area he was manipulating. It had a sense of strength and indifference to others. I chose not to enter the area in case he was like Tabitha and could sense what was there. It was a possibility. Otto was standing on the edge of his wind working. I swung wide from him. He was on alert and could probably sense changes in the air around him. I put on the mask that Tabitha gave me. It would help mask my breathing from his senses. When I was on the opposite side of the camp, I moved closer, so my Hearing Aid could pick up conversations. Most of the Ranch hands were setting out bedding under the stars, indicating they were not going anywhere tonight. Someone had saved a tent, which was set up in the centre of the camp. The griffon was lying beside it, and everybody gave it a wide berth. The conversations were mostly speculation on how the fires started and what Otto would do next. I wanted to get closer to the griffon to examine its bond. I had totally neglected my experiments with seeing the bonds back in the Quarry. This was possibly a way to help free slaves, and with so many bonds around me now, I could use it to help those around with bonds. I didn¡¯t have a Skill for this and could sense bonds back in the quarry when my attributes were low. Spiritual Perception enhances it, but how could I do it in the first place? Identify indicated I was sensitive to bonds from my Hunter Class, but only because I had a bond. There might be some personal tendencies there as well. If I worked at it, Skills would be available. I worked my way closer to the camp. There was a bedroll and pack abandoned near the edge, so I went through it. There was a slightly too-large jacket for me, so I slipped it on, used Veneer to change some of my features, hoping to look like the owner, and stood up and walked boldly further in. Several riders went out. I assume to look for the horses or the culprit. Most of the others were tending the horses that remained or watching the fire. A few were resting on their bedrolls. I approached the tent from the side away from the griffon and slipped inside. I sat in the corner shadows. The griffon bond was weak on the griffon side but very strong on Otto¡¯s end. I assume he had bonds before the griffon and levelled his skill, whereas the griffon was either a new bond or had been mistreated. Otto could have got a healer in to fix the griffon¡¯s wings. What hadn¡¯t he? The bond itself felt like a very strong current of air blowing from Otto to the griffon. It seemed very one-sided when I compared it to my bonds. I would almost call it forced. Not quite as the griffon had accepted it, what had it taken? Had he worn the griffon down like he wore down Lyla? Like an animal tamer, there was possible starvation and control until the griffon became compliant and accepted the bond. I had never seen such a bond. It wouldn¡¯t grow very far. There had to be trust for a bond to grow. This wasn¡¯t a healthy bond. What could he do about it? The griffon accepted because the alternatives were worse, and he couldn¡¯t fly away. If I could slow the power coming from Otto, would the griffon choose to break the bond? Could I break the bond? I examined my bonds closer. I am pretty sure I would feel it if something, or someone, tampered with my bonds. As soon as I started tampering, if I could, then both Otto and the griffon would know. What would they do? Otto was fairly predictable. He would come rushing back, ready for a fight. What would the griffon do? Would it attack me? Would it attack Otto? Would it go rampant in its rage? Would it try to escape? Would it do nothing? The last option was not likely, and it had been trained to stay as it couldn¡¯t fly. It was going to attack something. My coins were on it, attacking everything. Did I want to do this? As my old Hunt Master used to say, ¡°Traps are the great equaliser.¡± I wasn¡¯t interested in trapping the griffon. I was interested in trapping Otto, the air affinity user. I didn¡¯t have anything on me in the way of traps for this, so I had Granite, Lava, Poison and two bonds. Wind affinity users had wide area Skills, as Otto has shown, Shields and Movement Skills. If I couldn¡¯t restrict his movement, he could run, and I could not catch him. This means I have to bait him to be in a certain place to spring the trap. I started manipulating Granite and Petrifying wood. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. It took me two hours to create something that might work. It took me another half an hour to recover. The griffon was restless. It could probably sense the Spiritual energy I was using so close to it. Being in the tent was great cover for me. It would take all three of us to spring the trap, and T¨¡oke¡¯s job was also as a griffon distraction if required. This was quite dangerous for him as griffons were natural predators of snakes. My job was to be the bait and then survive to deal damage. My first job was to see if I could halve our opposition by disrupting or breaking the bond between Otto and the griffon. I sat against a tent pole and extended my Spiritual Perception. The bond felt the same, a strong, forceful wind flowing in one direction. Bonding with something is primarily a Mental exercise. It requires Mental Strenght and Agility, so I also extended my Mental Perception. It felt strange with my Mental Perception being carried, or empowered, by my Spiritual Perception. My Mental Perception was my weakest attribute. I had no free points to bolster it, so I pushed it as hard as possible. The bond took on a much more nuanced flavour. Otto¡¯s domineering nature shone, but the griffon was a hunter and fighter. I sensed he tolerated the bond while waiting to dive onto his prey. Maybe that was why Otto hadn¡¯t healed his wings. I learned a new Skill, Analysing Bonds. I got a sense that my Mental Perception was barely adequate. With the new Skill helping to interpret what I was sensing, I felt Otto and the griffon were mentally strong but perhaps not so Mentally Agile. The fires were dying down, so I was running out of time. Hopefully, Otto was also low on energy because this could come down to who had the most Spiritual Energy. The Wind takes much less energy to manipulate than Granite or Lava, and my mind was returning to my fight with Lavaman. The roles are now reversed. I overlaid my mental agility on my Spiritual strength and poked holes in the bond. At least, that is what I tried to do. I figured with their mental strength, I wouldn''t be able to break the bond, but what I was trying to do was disrupt it. The griffon let out a mighty screech which was a skill, and stunned everybody in the area, including me. My hearing aid did blunt the skill for me, so I was only momentarily stunned. I poked the bond again, and Otto was coming fast. I poked at a weak area, and the griffon ripped the bond apart and pounced on Otto. I ripped a hole in the canvas tent so I could see and readied my bow. The griffon''s beak penetrated Otto''s shield but didn''t get through his armour. Otto had a sword and moved away from the griffon''s claws slicing with the sword. Everybody else was scattering to the hills. Otto''s sword slid off the griffon''s feathered neck, and he punched with the air that, caused the griffon to lose a couple of feathers. I could only see Otto''s wind strikes with my Sense Spiritual Skill. Otto wasn''t the only one with wind skills, and the griffon shrieked again right in front of Otto and then swiped with its wing, which was sharpened in some way. Otto was stunned momentarily even though his wind armour blunted the skill. The wing didn''t cut through the armour, but the momentum threw him across the camp. He controlled his fall and rolled with it striking back with a wind blade. Otto had high agility. I definitely needed to lock him down. Time for the bait to wiggle on the hook. I heated my arrow so it looked like it was on fire, and as Otto circled the griffon, I fired at his back. It had no skills except Sudden Strike, which meant it went through his Windshield and lodged in his armour. He looked around, and the only cover was the tent. The griffon came at him, claws extended, and he rolled out of the way, putting the griffon between us. He ripped open a water skin at his waist, and the water spilt out, getting caught in his Windshield. This meant that it was partly a water shield, a good tactic against a fire affinity. I want to continue him thinking he was fighting a fire affinity user. He cast a huge wind blast that pushed the griffon back and ripped the canvas from the tent. I was still wearing the borrowed jacket and Veneer changes. I let loose another "fire" arrow at him. This one sizzled out against his water and Windshield. I was lying flat on the ground, minimising my profile to his wind attacks, and I had my foot braced against the tent frame, which was still standing. I had reinforced it to keep it standing. Otto had taken the wind blast to try and finish the griffon, but the griffon still had wings even though they were clipped. He managed to get a deep slice into the griffon''s leg, as the griffon flapped up and dove at him, beak first. Otto rolled out of the way straight at me, trying to surprise attack me with a wind-assisted sword strike. I rolled away, but he still sliced my arm to the bone. Granite Bones was the first affinity Skill I got, and they have saved me so many times. Unfortunately, he rolled right through my trap, and I didn¡¯t have time to trigger it. I let loose another heated arrow, but this time he deflected it with his wind, and the griffon was back on him, clawing at him with a Skill that ripped through his Windshield and drew blood. I slipped a Venom Arrow into him while the Skill was disrupted. I would conserve Triple shot for a while. I need to get him in the trap, or he is going to do a runner. I also hooked him with my Hunters Marks, but when the Windshield came back, it tore through them, and I lost them. I couldn¡¯t tell how badly Otto was hurt, but he was still moving fast, and without my Hunters Marks, I couldn¡¯t slow him down. The Venom Arrow will be having some effect, but he probably has Regeneration. We need to layer on the damage, but he is too fast. I start using my Triple Shot with my Quick Strike Skill to try to overwhelm his shield. The two skills are not completely compatible, but my rate of fire certainly improved. It was also sucking energy, but I needed to get his attention. I started to get a feel for his shield¡¯s reactions to my arrows and slipping arrows when it was weak. Between the griffon and I disrupting his Windshield, he had lost most of the water. The griffon was bleeding and slowing now. Come on Otto. I am just a ranged fighter with fire and venom. Come and get me. 167. Super Hot: Wiremu.

167. Super Hot: Wiremu.

I was being as annoying as possible with my arrows. Otto had a high Regeneration Skill and was willing to take damage to deal damage. Venom was stacking in him, reducing his Regeneration. He was very clever with the Regen and would target key wounds, especially those that limited his movement. I targeted his legs. He was wearing the griffon down and was still confident he could take us both. Otherwise, he would have run. He was very active and still going after twenty minutes. All I was doing was rolling around the ex-tent, firing my bow. He would target me before a major strike at the griffon. One of them had cracked one of the tent frames. That wasn¡¯t good, as they were part of the trap, and I had Petrified them so they would stay standing but still look like wood. I only had small injuries that my Regeneration had taken care of. The worst was the first cut on the arm. He saw the griffon as a bigger threat, and I would guess he had hunted griffon before. Time I upped the pressure. I switched back to Triple Shot and combined it with Power Strike. Again Power Strike was like Quick Strike and not really for the bow, but my Attributes were such that I could bend it to work. Triple Shot was a lot harder for him to evade, and I started heating the central arrow now his Windshield had dropped all its water. Otto was starting to get desperate. Either wind was light to through around, or he had maxed out his Spiritual Attributes or both. The more energy he uses now, the better, but I don¡¯t want him to run. Otto suddenly turned to me and let loose a wide arc wind blade of some sort, and I couldn¡¯t get out of its way. I protected my head and swung my back to it so it sliced my armour and back open. Once again, I was relying on my Granite Bones to stop the blade. The wind blade dug into the rib bones on my back. It was that strong. Granite Bones levelled. I tore off the now useless chest armour and saw that Otto had used my distraction to go all out on the griffon. One wing hung limp, and a foreleg was hanging uselessly. As I watched, he sliced the griffon''s face blinding one eye, before cutting the tendons on the other front leg with a wind blade. The griffon was finished, and he could kill it easily, but he turned his back on it and focused on me. I was suddenly gripped by strong winds and couldn¡¯t move. I was lifted off the ground, and the winds holding me ripped out the central pole of the tent, and the apex framing sagged and then broke. The end framing was still standing, and the apex frame angled from the top to the ground at each end. This was going to limit the integrity of the trap. What would limit it more was that I was not touching the ground, so I could not trigger my part. I couldn¡¯t breathe. I was wearing the enchanted cloth Mayakku had made, which stored a couple of breaths, so I took one and held it. Otto tried to squeeze the breath from my lungs, but I locked my rib Granite Bones, and they were not moving. The winds moved my arms apart, and I dropped my bow. Otto was furious, ¡°You did something to my bond. You will tell me what you did.¡± He knew I couldn¡¯t talk. He was keeping the pressure on until I was desperate, or maybe till I passed out. ¡°Something is wrong with the tent area. You¡¯ve done something to it,¡± he continued stopping in front of the tent. I estimated he was a Master Level at Manipulating Wind and at least Journeyman Level with his Sense Spiritual. This was the difference between hunting beasts and intelligent people. This is the different mentality I need to get my head around in order o get the Warrior Class. App¨¡ has been driving this into me, and it was on full display here. People are not dumb beasts. Well, most are not. I definitely need to up my Mental Perception to help understand them more. The winds pulled at my arms. I think he was trying to tear them off. I locked my arm and shoulder bones as well. I saw him pursing his lips, puzzling why I wasn¡¯t coming apart. He had obviously done this before. ¡°You are not what you seem,¡± he said. Then T¨¡oke struck from behind. It was a Power Strike with a Granite Shield, and I think he combined it with Sudden Strike. Otto¡¯s windshield cushioned the strike, but the momentum pushed him forward into the tent area. I launched a Granite Spike from the bottom of my foot into the ground and triggered my part of the trap, and T¨¡oke and Puia triggered theirs. Granite Spikes sprung out from all the tent framing, forming a cage. Because of the collapsed apex frame, it was noticeably weak to the top, but the collapsed frame also sprouted Granite Spikes, two of them piercing Otto. That was T¨¡oke and my part of the trap. Puia turned the floor into lava as his part. The Wind holding me up dropped away as Otto was speared with Granite Spikes. He smashed one with his sword hilt. I dropped to the floor, making myself a granite shelf to stand on. I noticed Otto was not standing on the floor but holding himself up with his wind. The temperature in the area shot upward, and I could see Otto starting to sweat profusely. Then his sweat just started evaporating, and he was turning red, and his skin was blistering. I speared him with another Granite Spike from a tent frame and then added to his heat by blasting his shield with super-heated sand. The sand was caught in the windshield like his water was and swirled around him, cooking him. He couldn¡¯t drop his shield as I was throwing lava darts at him. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. He swung his sword at the Granite cage and chipped both his sword and the spike. He could have broken out much easier if he had had a sledgehammer or a Warhammer, but a sword would not do it. I created a Granite Shield and knife and moved toward him. His regeneration was losing the battle against the heat and spikes, even as his resistance rose. He tried to make a break for the weak area of the cage and poured his wind into launching toward it. The Spikes in him gouged deep furrows in his flesh as he crashed against the weaker roof spikes. With a shield bash, I launched myself at him and smashed him into the lava. His Windshield kept most of his body out of the lava, but his legs dipped in. His boots melted, and he had steel in there as well that also melted. He screamed, and It was his pain and anger all worked into a sonic attack as I landed shield first on top of him. Even blunted by my Hearing Aid, my eardrums burst as his leather leggings caught fire and his steal chainmail turned read and melted into his flesh. I stabbed with my knife, but it was redundant as Puia finished him. I manipulated a hole in the cage and rolled out onto the nearby dirt. All the grass was gone in a wide area around my trap. My muscles ached at where he had tried to tear me apart, but I had my Regeneration concentrate on my eardrums. I was so used to my Hearing Aid Skill I was very disorientated without it. That was when an arrow struck me in the gut, and another one clipped my Granite skull. The ranch hands were back. The griffon screeched as some of them attacked it, and then the screech was cut off as someone gained a Monster Kill. I had left my shield in the lava, which was now hardening. I created another and deflected another arrow with it as I ripped out the arrow in my gut and staggered to my feet. I was low on energy but not critical as T¨¡oke had created half the spikes and Puia all the lava. The hearing came back in one ear, which would have to do as I focused Regeneration on my gut wound. Three swords and two spears were coming at me fast. The three front runners went down on a row of Granite Spikes. They weren¡¯t dead, just wounded. The remaining sword and spear clashed with my shield. I flicked a dart at the spearman, who was the greater danger due to his reach. It lodged in the flesh at the base of his neck, so the venom would start working at least. Fighting with a gut wound wasn¡¯t good. It sapped my core strength and pained me at every move. I created a stone girdle to support my waist. It limited my movement, but this was a hack-and-slash fight rather than anything fancy. I was naked from the waist up anyway, and my Snakeskin was my only protection. I bashed my shield at the swordswoman, but she twisted out of the way, and I was sliced on the arm for my trouble. These were ranch hands. Riding horses and herding animals, their agility was going to be high. A spear scraped across my ribs from the other side. I sprayed sand in the spearman''s face, and he backed off with sand in his eyes. I created a stone short-sword, or maybe it was a long spear point with a handle or a long knife. I don¡¯t know, and I don¡¯t care. While the spearman was distracted, I was pressuring the swordswoman, and I backed her up onto Granite spikes behind her. She tried to slip between them, but her leg got caught, and I stabbed her in the heart. I didn¡¯t have time to check she was dead as the spearman and two of the original three were up. The spearman tried to get my attention while the other two tried to flank me. There was fighting and yelling further back by the griffon as T¨¡oke kept them occupied. I could tell he had taken some light wounds and an arrow but kept them back with Venom Spit and Granite Spikes. There were spearmen there, too that were hassling him. Then he changed it up and spat lava. I also have lava. I keep forgetting that it is not just Puia now. I do need to be careful of my energy levels. T¨¡oke and I need to join forces. I sent that to him through the bond and started pushing my way to him. I couldn¡¯t roll or leap because of my stone girdle. Instead, I created spikes on my shield and bashed the spear before me. Once his spear was out of position, I threw my sword that he only partially dodged and created a lava dart for one of the ones trying to flank me. Venom might be more effective long-term, but a lava dart burning into your shoulder is immediate pain. I did the same to the spearmen with my sword lodged in his leg. The other one trying to flank me was backing off, so I left him and headed toward T¨¡oke. He was always on the move, but five ranchers had basically surrounded him and tried to keep him in their circle, whittling his health down. There were three dead bodies already, so he was holding his own. The problem was the two archers trying to pin him to the ground. To get some height, they stood on the dead griffon to shoot over their comrades. Two long throws with lava darts gave the archers something else to think about. Unfortunately, they warned the others I was coming, and the group decided to back off. They backed away as T¨¡oke and I joined up and advanced. Their horses were nowhere to be seen. They all had injuries, some venom and some smoking from lava. They grouped together as they backed away. One tried to talk me into letting them go. I didn¡¯t bother talking. When you attack me or my bonds, you should not expect mercy. I checked my energy levels, and they were too low for comfort, but I had Puia. I created the sand, Puia superheated it for me, and we sprayed all of them. The two at the back tried to run, but a quick Granite Quake and they fell. I got darts into them while T¨¡oke worked his way through the rest. We limped back, killing the wounded as we went. I didn¡¯t bother trying to get information from them. They would have killed me, and I have no use for prisoners. Only one escaped, as far as I could tell, the injured one who had been trying to flank me, then backed off as I went to help T¨¡oke. 168. Loss: Wiremu.

168. Loss: Wiremu.

The biggest thing I lost was my bow. It was custom-made for me in Jern and was the only thing that survived my fight with the Lavaman. I dropped it when Otto grabbed me, and then Puia turned the floor into lava, which it did not survive. I grabbed the bows from the archers but couldn¡¯t even pull it with my full strength without it breaking. Luckily there were two archers. I harvested the Monster Core from the griffon along with a few other parts, feathers, beak and claws. I wasn¡¯t in any state to carry a lot and found someone''s blanket to wrap it in and carry it over my shoulder. We needed to get away from here. The smoke from the smouldering grass will blend into the smoke from the smouldering ranch buildings, but we weren¡¯t in any shape to deal with more ranch hands. We walked for three hours till I found a sheltered spot by a creek and made a rough camp. My stomach was seriously paining me, and I knew T¨¡oke was hurting from the arrows. We settled down to rest and heal. I looked at my Status, and I had a new Class Specialisation. Bond Master, which was a specialisation of Hunter. It gave four attribute points. Three were assigned, one each to Mental Strength and Perception and one to Spiritual Strength. It came with a skill Bond Care, which worked with Anaylse Bonds to help people find the right bonds and to assist in bonding. It also helped to break incompatible bonds. I would need to work to see how it helped others, but we had plenty of people in the camp with bonds for me to work at. I used it on myself, and I could help the flow of energy between Puia, T¨¡oke and myself. With lots of energy, Puia could channel some to T¨¡oke and me to power our Regeneration Skill. Bond Care made it possible even though my elemental Bond with Puia was barely at the Apprentice level. My Assassin Class also levelled. It was a messy assassination, but I guess it worked. My Hunter Class had a lot of Specialisations. It was a very versatile class. I currently have Monster Hunter, Scout, Assassin and Bond Master, all from Hunter. Quarry Worker has Prospector, and Spy still needs to be at a higher level to specialise. I have been neglecting my Spy class. In summary, I have a lot of low levelled specialisations that need work. I had the points, so I added enough to get Mental Perception to 30. This low level was probably also hampering my Spy Class. The trap I created levelled my Trapping Skill, but I know I need to work on hiding the traps. Molten Rock and Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) levelled along with Deceive. The levelling of Granite Spike and Granite Sand was expected, as was Snakeskin and Regeneration. I also have a new Skill, Lava Dart. That was unexpected as I don¡¯t have an equivalent Granite Dart. I just made them with my Granite manipulation. Maybe that is why I have a new Lava Dart Skill because there is no near equivalent. I felt a significant jump toward my Warrior Class when I identified myself. I must talk to App¨¡ when I catch up to the caravan, but I think I am very close. Fighting Sapients is definitely different to fighting beasts. A beast would have run straight into the trap, but Otto didn¡¯t. He could sense something was wrong even though he didn''t know what it was. It is that intelligence I need to account for in my fighting and trapping. We stayed hidden the next day and left at Dusk to try and catch the caravan. My gut was healed enough for me to jog, and T¨¡oke kept up easily. I could tell he wanted to reduce size and be carried, but his wounds needed to heal some more first. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. We didn¡¯t catch up to the caravan that night, but Nyx found us near dawn, and the Canine Queens came and picked us up. T¨¡oke was coiled in his favourite spot on Oske while I rode a spare horse they brought for me. Skavt frowned at our still healing wounds, knowing the level of my Regeneration Skill. We caught the caravan when it stopped for the evening, and Astrid and ?rt checked our wounds, but there wasn¡¯t much left for them to do. ¡°Are you sure he¡¯s dead?¡± Lyla asked. Tabitha, Lyla and I were in Mayakku¡¯s enchanted wagon. ¡°I buried him in lava so absolutely,¡± I said. ¡°They won¡¯t even find a body.¡± ¡°Can you do the same for me?¡± Lyla asked. ¡°What?¡± ¡°The struggle is too much. The constant struggle just to think against the gale. I can¡¯t do it any more,¡± she replied. ¡°There are bound to be healers in Beitemark or Kirghiz that can help,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I don¡¯t want help. I want it to be over.¡± ¡°We are only three days out of Beitemark. Let''s see what is available there before we do anything that we can¡¯t reverse. I could get you there tomorrow,¡± Tabitha argued. ¡°No! I just can¡¯t think. My mind is a mess. My body is a mess,¡± she waved a hand at her misformed wings, ¡°The worst is that I am losing my mind. I can¡¯t think!¡± she yelled. Tabitha was barely holding it together here. I could tell she was having flashbacks to Jern and Eyslk, the abused elven slave she had to kill. I saw a tear slip down a cheek. ¡°I will do it myself, but I don¡¯t want to be found,¡± Lyla said. ¡°Will you help?¡± I nodded silently. I had no idea of her struggle. I am just glad I killed Otto, regardless of the struggle and the potential consequences to come. ¡°Tonight. I want to go tonight,¡± she continued. ¡°Now, if we can.¡± I just nodded again. ¡°Is there anyone you would like us to tell?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°The Sher Pride in Bilee.¡± ¡°We will get a message to them,¡± I assured her. ¡°Can we go now?¡± She emptied her pouch on the desk. ¡°I just need a knife.¡± ¡°I will go. You stay,¡± I said to Tabitha. I followed Lyla out into the night. We found a rocky area, and she asked for a knife. ¡°Thank you,¡± she said. I reached out and stroked her head. She leaned into it as a cat would. I had tears running down my face, and then I spiked her brain, as that was the most painless way I could think of. I don¡¯t know how she planned to do it with a knife, but this was faster and I hoped she was finally at peace. I laid her body out gently on the rock. I didn¡¯t burn her. I manipulated the rock, so she was lowered into it and then sealed it over the top to entomb her. I didn¡¯t mark it. I left no sign anything was there. I sat for hours contemplating this world and life and death. I had just killed twenty people two days ago and felt no remorse, not even for the wounded I killed. Yet Lyla was different. I would have saved her if I could. Instead, I killed her. I have no answers. Tabitha arrived after a couple of hours, and we sat together in silence until the sun rose. 169. Loud and Proud: Tabitha.

169. Loud and Proud: Tabitha.

¡°Where¡¯s Wiremu?¡± Skavt asked. ¡°He went on ahead into Beitemark. He wanted to level a class he has been neglecting, and if the news has reached them about Otto, they will be searching the caravan for a person with Lava and a snake bond.¡± I said. ¡°Didn¡¯t he put a tracker on the one who escaped?¡± ¡°Yes, but he went out of range.¡± We were pushing to get to Beitemark and should arrive late tomorrow afternoon. This is the city we are expecting opposition to. It was good Wiremu went ahead as we would have eyes on us, whereas he had more freedom to move around. I need to play my role as the Caravan organiser and Elemental Trader. The Elemental Traders were the ones who purchased the Duke of Kirghiz¡¯s luxury lodge out from under him, so I am expecting pushback, even if we are only in Beitemark. The Comedic Rhythm would also put on a couple of performances. We had been practising, and the new stuff was good. The Comedic Rhythm being under the protection of the Duke of Obalno with the Duke''s guards present with the caravan, will give them some protection. That night I went for a long ride on Dusk. It would be the last for a couple of weeks. We practised our Shadow Riding, which meant riding with Shadows Embrace active to hide us and muffle the sound. We were getting very good. I have sewn some Blacksteel into the saddle, so Nyx can come and go, but Dusk needs something more permanent. Blacksteel horseshoes are probably not doable, but maybe a thin layer under the shoe or maybe a Blacksteel tooth. Dusk could then breathe out Nyx as a cloud of shadows. That could be intimidating. As we ran, Nyx practised mimicking different forms. He started with Dusk and imitated a horse running. Then the giant cat was sprinting alongside. That took some correcting to get the stride right. Then Te?ka was bounding alongside, dwarfing us and a shadowy figure riding him. Then she mimicked the lions and wolves individually and as a group. They were all in sync as a group of lions, so it was not as convincing as a single lion or wolf. Poor T¨¡oke couldn¡¯t keep up with a galloping horse, but Nyx was quite convincing. The griffon needed work. Nyx could make the shape, but convincing movement and flight were not there yet. We would have to study more griffons. It was a fun night. The gates of Beitemark came in sight mid-afternoon, and I moved to the front of the wagons next to Selma, who would do most of the dealings with the city watch and customs. I had Modrica and Te?ka move up beside us. We go in loud and proud. The sight of Te?ka advancing on the gate had them calling for reinforcements before we even got close enough to talk. The Watch had us pull over to the side in a designated caravan space outside the gate while Selma and her second went in to arrange things. The Watch kept a nervous eye on us as Modrica, and I sat on our mounts. A farmer came out herding some pigs. I jumped off Dusk and approached her, and purchased a mid-sized one. I dragged it over to us, and it did not want to come. Modrica jumped off Te?ka, grabbed it, and carried it over, throwing it down in front of Te?ka. Te?ka slammed his paw onto it and bit its neck, killing it. He then settled down to eat his snack in front of everybody. Yes, we are making a statement. Loud and proud. The lions started circling, and Te?ka was not happy, growling at them. I raced after the farmer and bought a second one for them and the wolves. The guards were getting more nervous. Were they all city kids here? Hadn¡¯t any of them been out in the wilderness? The people going in and out of the gate were giving us a wide berth. Most kept staring as they moved around us. The noise of the lions snarling at each other and the wolves as they fed was noticeable. Te?ka would occasionally growl when one got too close to his meal. This news would spread. Loud and proud. A well-dressed man walked toward us with two guards following him. ¡°Please don¡¯t feed the animals here. Move them away from the city,¡± he said in a reasonable tone. ¡°We are away from the city. We are well outside the gates.¡± I replied. ¡°You are blocking the road,¡± he continued. ¡°They are fine, people are walking past and like watching,¡± Several had stopped to watch. ¡°They are blocking the road watching this scene.¡± ¡°Then why don¡¯t you tell them to move?¡± I queried. He was getting frustrated. ¡°I have asked nicely,¡± he said warningly. ¡°Indeed you have,¡± I said, ¡°and I have nicely declined as we are in our rights to eat here.¡± I looked at the bonds. They had bloody muzzles and paws. A wolf and lioness were playing tug of war with a leg bone. I turned back to the man and smiled, ¡°They are all bonds, and that is easily verified. Would you like something to eat?¡± He huffed, ¡°No, thank you.¡± He turned and walked grumpily back inside the wall, pausing to talk to a watchman on the way. Our presence continues its spread up the social ladder. A city watchwoman came out to collect Modrica. Apparently, the Guard Captain goes through the rules of having a Monster Bond in the city with all those who enter. I joined them. The woman looked at me but didn¡¯t protest. We left Te?ka where he was, happily crunching pig bones. Skavt rode Oske forward to make sure no one came too close. The City Watch had a station by the gate, and we were led into a meeting room. Modrica had to duck her head under the door frame. Her muscular frame towered over everybody. The Captain was there along with the well-dressed man that had approached me. A man in a Military uniform stood quietly at the back of the room. The Watchwoman stood by the door as the captain indicated for us to sit. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The captain looked at Modrica and said, ¡°I am Captain Francis. You are the one bonded with the Dire Bear?¡± Modrica grunted assent. ¡°And your name is?¡± she questioned. ¡°Modrica.¡± The captain looked at me, ¡°and who are you?¡± she asked me. ¡°Captain, my name is Skygge, and there are a few things we need to make clear as we enter the city.¡± The captain raised an eyebrow at me but didn¡¯t say anything, so I continued, ¡°The first thing we need to make clear is my relationship with Modrica. We are Krvne Sestre.¡± That got a lot of surprised looks, except notably on the military man at the back. ¡°An Orc is Blood Sisters with a human?¡± scoffed the well-dressed man. Modrica responded with a low, threatening growl that dropped below the human hearing range but sent internal alarm bells ringing for everyone present. I looked at the man, ¡°I will let you and Modrica have that discussion later if you wish.¡± It was clear he did not wish. ¡°That means,¡± I continued, ¡°anyone who attacks Modrica or her bond Te?ka will also be attacking me.¡± It was kingdom law that everyone had the right to defend themselves and stating that I was blood sisters with Modrica meant we were a singular entity in that regard. The Captian looked at me, ¡°No offence here, but Modrica and Te?ka seem a lot more imposing than you. Why is this important?¡± The captain was no fool. She knew there was more. I am pretty sure she wanted me to spell it out for the fool next to her. ¡°I am also the owner of the Elemental Traders.¡± This brought a slight frown to the Fool. He knew what we had done to the Duke of Kirghiz and had ¡°strong suggestions¡± passed through about us. I will find out what those suggestions were in due course. I continued, ¡°I am also the lead actress of the Comedic Rhythm.¡± That also brought another round of surprised looks. ¡°We have eagerly been waiting for the arrival of the Comedic Rhythm,¡± the Captain said. ¡°There have been a lot of excited rumours, especially amongst the nobility. I think even Duchess Isabella is keen to see the show.¡¯ The noble fool next to her was clearly conflicted. The Elemental Traders had upset powerful people, especially the Duke of Kirghiz, but the local nobility, including Duchess Isabella of Beitemark, was clearly excited about the Comedic Rhythm. The rumours had not connected the two. ¡°That¡¯s good. We are looking forward to putting on some shows. However, that is not the main point here. The main point is that any attack on Modrica or Te?ka will be considered an attack on me,¡± I decided to spell it out for the fool, ¡°and the reverse is also true.¡± Loud and proud. ¡°Duly noted,¡± the Captain said. ¡°We are here to make sure you are clear on the responsibilities of having a Monster Bond in the city. I want to make it clear that you are both now responsible for the behaviour of Te?ka in the city. You have the right to defend yourselves, but the City Watch will be investigating all deaths in the city or anything that results in serious injury. We will take action against all perpetrators.¡± ¡°We came through Obalno, Captain. In Obalno, we were attacked by low-level thugs. A street gang. We didn¡¯t just defend ourselves against the thugs, captain. We traced back who gave orders to the thugs. It was a high-level noble. We packaged him up and presented him to the Duke¡¯s Heir, who dealt with him. We will not stop at the low level.¡± That was a blatant warning to the noble fool in the room. ¡°That is not your job. That is my job,¡± said the Captain. ¡°Good. I hope it is not necessary, but we will both be working toward the same goal.¡± The Captain frowned. ¡°Speaking of investigations, we have had reports that Lord Otto was attacked and killed by someone with a snake bond and a Fire affinity. I have a team out investigating, but I believe your brother Sten is bonded with a snake. We would like to speak with him.¡± ¡°Sten doesn¡¯t have a fire affinity. I am worried for him, captain. He went hunting about a week ago and hasn¡¯t returned. We and his Mercenary Company, the Canine Queens, went looking for him, but there was no sign of him. We are very worried.¡± ¡°Did you see Lord Otto at all?¡± ¡°Yes, he and some of his ranch hands stopped our caravan. They were hunting a thief and offered a reward.¡± ¡°I heard there was an altercation,¡± the captain said. ¡°Our Caravan Master Selma handled it, you will need to talk to her. She objected strongly to being accused of harbouring a thief and refused anyone from coming near the caravan.¡± ¡°Were you involved?¡± ¡°Only as an observer.¡± ¡°Very well. I have no more questions for now. If you see your brother, please tell him to contact me,¡± she said. ¡°Absolutely,¡± I said. I would tell Wiremu, not that it would do her any good. ¡°Likewise, I am concerned for him if you see him first. He might have gotten caught up in something beyond him if he had been with Lord Otto. Lord Otto had a Wind affinity, and poor Sten wouldn''t have stood a chance if they were fighting someone with a fire affinity.¡± I was a professional actress. My poor brother Sten might need to die, and I might need a new identity for Wiremu. ¡°You think he might have been killed?¡± ¡°It is not like him to stay out of touch for so long.¡± It is actually very like him. ¡°I hope your investigators can find him.¡± The grieving sister was not a part I liked to play. I might go with the vengeful sister. ¡°If he has been killed, I will find out who killed him!¡± I vowed. ¡°They are a good team of Investigators. I am sure they will come back with some results.¡± ¡°I will also find results,¡± I declared, putting a touch of Intimidating Aura into it. Loud and proud. We stood up to leave, and we were interrupted by the military man, ¡°I have a question.¡± We stayed standing and looked at him. He stood up and stepped forward. ¡°Monster bonds almost always have an affinity.¡± He looked at Modrica, ¡°Do you have an affinity?¡± Neither Modrica nor I answered him. The silence stretched out. Finally, he said, ¡°You can not hide an affinity. It will come out. There is compulsory Military Service for those with affinities. The recruitment offices are easy to find. Consider this as your one month''s notice.¡± There are downsides to being loud and proud. Te?ka and Modrica stand out, so this will have to be addressed. 170. Illegal Entry: Wiremu.

170. Illegal Entry: Wiremu.

I entered Beitemark barefoot and in simple pants and a shirt. I was helping a small landholder herd some sheep to market. She was hoping to buy some pigs to diversify her small holding. T¨¡oke was already inside the city, having hidden in a hay cart. Barefoot was good for me. I now had a stone toe on each foot, and Puia could come and go quietly. The stone finger and stone toes were hidden using Veneer to make them look normal. Veneer needed to be refreshed several times a day as it was only mid-Apprentice Level. As we waited in the queue to enter, a group of City Watch left in a hurry. The gate watchmen just gave us a cursory look and waved us through. I left the farmer at the stockyards and wandered back through the merchant quarter. I bought a new backpack and some clothes I could switch around for various looks. They were all simple clothes for now. I would eventually need to infiltrate the higher society, but we would start small. I also got some basic weapons, as a low-end mercenary would have. I chose the name, Varme Ting. A lot of the humans had two names here rather than the dwarf and orc tradition of a single name. The majority of people were human, but when I sat at a tea shop, I saw all sorts of races wander past. Beitemark was not on the coast, so there was no Mer, but just about everything else, including Wolfkin and a Minotaur. Beitemark was a pastoral city with a lot of ranches, so some animal kin would suit the area. Beitemark was only three weeks caravan journey from the capital, Kirghiz, so we are definitely in a more multi-species society. I needed some ID and somewhere to stay with a couple of backup hideouts. The caravan was only planning to stay for three weeks. I had a to-do list. Firstly I had to track down and assess the consequences of killing Otto. Secondly, were others experimenting like that? Thirdly I wanted to find out what I could about the Duke of Kirghiz to see what awaited us when we arrived. Finally, I was back up and an unseen enforcer for Tabitha. I had my bank token, which let me access my accounts at the Kirghiz Treasury. The Spiritual signatures matched my signature, so no further identification was needed there. Unfortunately, if I used it at the Mercenary Guild, the signature would link to Sten in their records. It is beyond me to break in and change their records at the moment. A Spy is all about gathering information covertly. My Spy class is two levels away from specialising. It can specialise in forgery, sabotage, counter-espionage and assassin. There are others as well. I already have Assassin from the Hunter class. I have neglected the skills I need for Spying. My Lockpicking, Detect traps, Disarm Traps, and Sapient Lore are all still Novice Skills. I have been relying on Tabitha too much for those. My Roleplay is also languishing in the Novice levels. I have a lot of work to do. Firstly I need a place to stay where I can come and go without being seen. A couple of ales and a few questions from the bartenders led me to rent a room from a grumpy old lady. It was just a room, but it had its own door to a back alley. I discovered Beitemark was mostly built above ground, unlike Jern or Obalno. Most places had a basement, but only one level down. Then I learned the dwarves mostly lived together in the northeast part of the city. They built down. I also rented and small shop on the edge of the dwarven area, with basement storage. It is the basement I wanted it for. If I was close to somebody, I could also concentrate and sense whether they had a bond. Of the fifty or so in the bar, only two had bonds. I don¡¯t know if that is typical. I could get a sense of the bonds and a flavour of how they worked. The flavour was bland after the griffon. There were no affinities or monsters. The taverns had a lot of rumours floating around about Otto and his death. Rumours told of a Fire Affinity user fighting Otto and a monster snake fighting a griffon. It is exciting news for people, and there is a lot of speculation on how and why it happened. Otto was known mostly for his reputation as a soldier. As a local noble, he didn¡¯t come to the city often; when he did, he stuck to the noble social circles. He did have a townhouse. After leaving the Tavern, I looked at the townhouse, but the City Watch were there. I guess they were trying to piece together what happened and talking to the people staying there. I assume they are relatives. I followed the Watch to see who was in charge of the investigation. Captain Francis was her name; she had sent her lieutenant out with her best trackers to find out what happened. It would be over a week before they got back. She was notified by the gate when our caravan arrived and went and interviewed Selma, then Tabitha and Modrica. The noble who was sticking his nose into everything was more interesting to me, so I followed him. I caught his scent. He had a spicy cologne, but underneath was a layer of sweat and fear. He had just been in a room with Tabitha and Modrica. Fear was reasonable. He knocked and was let into a townhouse in a nice part of the city. I took the opportunity to change my jacket and hair colour. An hour later, he came out smelling of sex. He walked to another house two blocks away and entered. He didn¡¯t knock this time, so I figured he lived there. Time to find out who these people were. By roleplaying a messenger, I found out the first house belonged to Lady Samantha, who was married to Duchess Isabella¡¯s brother. It seems she is supplementing her marriage elsewhere. The man was Lord Gilbert, a minor noble with a small ranch well away from town. Tonight I will investigate deeper. I decided to start with Lord Gilbert as he is probably the easiest place to break into. If I had time, I would get myself in as a servant or cleaner or something. We are only here for three weeks. Breaking and entering is the fastest way in, except I was not planning to do any breaking. Lord Gilbert left for a night on the town, so I started early, figuring he would be gone for several hours. The alarm traps on his rear doors and windows were of good quality. Tabitha had a cheat in her Shadow Manipulation that allowed her to disable traps in ways that could not normally be accessed. I had Granite Manipulation, which wasn¡¯t much use on a wooden building. The floor was stone. The walls and doors were wood. I could use Granite Spike on any hard surface, but my Granite Sense only worked on stone. I couldn¡¯t sense where I needed to use the spike to disable the trap. I didn¡¯t want to leave any evidence I had been there. Any use of lava would create evidence. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. My Detect Traps and Disarm Traps skills worked in synergy with my Trapping Skill. I knew a lot about traps from my use of them. This trap had a Spiritual component, making it a hybrid Spiritual Trap. Spiritual Traps require Spiritual Materials. Mixing the physical and spiritual reduces the material needed. My Sense Spiritual was tracking the Spiritual flows. It was restricted to the keyhole. The key will have a matching Spiritual signature, and unlocking the door with the key disables the alarm. City traps are different from animal trapping. If I were a Thief, I would start collecting common keys with spiritual signatures as that is the easiest way through this trap. The lock itself was ordinary iron. Somewhere in the lock was the Spiritual material. I touched the lock. My Granite Sense only worked on rock. However, my new Lava Affinity wasn¡¯t so restricted. Rock was made up of multiple elements. Granite was largely Silica, with other elements in lesser amounts. Metals were a single element and were often included in lava. The Lava affinity enabled my Granite Sense to work in iron, whereas it wouldn¡¯t have before. I could sense the lock. This enabled me to make Granite Spike into the shape of a key that would unlock the door. This would save me from picking the lock, which is what I would normally have done and what a normal thief would do. Matching the Spiritual signature to disable the alarm was the tricky part. If a thief picked this lock, they would set off the alarm. This is why it is an expensive trap. I know the granite I create has a spiritual signature. It is my signature, the same one recorded on my bank token. I can¡¯t change my signature. Apparently, not even adding an affinity changed my signature. This is a problem. How would a normal thief get through here? Does it need a specialisation with a dedicated Skill? A thief is usually not worried about leaving damage. Break in, steal things and get out. Leaving a broken window or door is not the end of the world, as the owner would know they were robbed anyway. Getting in and out without leaving a trace is a whole different level. I went to look at the windows, it was a trap with no keyhole. There were tiny spiritual flows across the inside of the glass. The trap mechanism was inside the window at the top edge. The window frame was wood. However, glass is made of sand that is melted. Silica sand. I touched the glass at the top of the window in a gap between the spiritual flows, and I very carefully melted it enough to get a small spike through and trigger the switch that turned off the window alarm. I then created a thin spike to slip under the window and release the latch. The window opened. I jumped inside and closed the window. The hole in the glass would be noticed in due course. Could I close the hole? The first try made it bigger. I could close it and managed it on the third attempt. Delicate work is trickier than blasting heated sand at people. My Molten Rock and Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) Skills levelled, as did my Sense Spiritual. I left the alarm off in case I needed a fast exit. It was time to have a look around. I envied Tabitha¡¯s Skill which meant she could sense what was above and below without going there. I had to do it the old-fashioned way, room by room. I was not without my own Skills. Sense Treasure was only mid-apprentice, but it would pick up what I considered to be a treasure more now. It used to only sense what might be valuable. Three area¡¯s highlighted to me. One on this level, one above me and one below me. The one on this level turned out to be a locked drawer in a desk. A wooden drawer in a wooden desk. The lock was iron, and there was no spiritual trap this time. A Granite Spike in the shape of a key opened it fine. It was paperwork. I skimmed through the correspondence. Most were about his ranch and business dealings. There were invitations to social events from several women. Lord Gilbert was a ladies'' man, it seemed. The more I looked, the more he got around. I wonder how many he was sleeping with. Did they know about each other? I made a note of the names. There was also correspondence about a ranch purchase. Apparently, he was pressuring his neighbour to sell to him so he could expand his ranch. There was a series of letters from his neighbour complaining about stock thieves and his ranch hands causing damage to fences, a suspicious grass fire and diverting a stream. He had noted in the margin to give his manager a bonus. I noted some details down and then locked the drawer again. Upstairs was a hidden stash of coins. I left them alone. Downstairs was safe. It was a small, spiritually enhanced safe with a rune lock system. I could only get in by ruining the safe. That was obvious and would defeat the stealth so far. I left it and headed back to the window. I punched a small bit of stone through the wood above the window. The curtain would hide it, but it would enable me to manipulate the Granite from the outside the enable and disable the alarm. I slipped back out the window and let it latch. Then I manipulated the granite in the wood to switch the alarm on and then brought it back flat to the wood. It shouldn¡¯t be noticed, and I had an easy way in for the future. My, Detect and Disarm Traps Skills all went up a level. This would get easier. Lady Samatha had a similar setup. One person must be the key supplier to the nobility. That is convenient. The problem was Lady Samantha was at home with a maid. They didn¡¯t retire for the night until after midnight. I left it another hour and entered the same way I did at Gilbert''s. I left the spike above the window the same as well. Then I went exploring. My Hearing Aid was telling me Lady Samatha, and her maid were sleeping in the same room, probably in the same bed. These Nobles were a highly sexual lot. I wonder if that is normal. I also wonder if the maid is there of her own free choice. Where was her husband? Treasure Sense gave me two points of interest, one on this level and one in the basement. The one on this level was a courier bag with the Duke of Kirghiz''s coat of arms on it. Inside was a letter addressed to ¡°My dearest cousin Sam,¡± It was signed ¡°, With love always, T.¡± The tone of the letter strongly hinted that they had been more than the usual platonic cousins. What is it with these people? The letter was interesting. It outlined that the Elemental Traders had swindled him out of his resort, Razko?je in Dohovno, and they could not meet there for their annual retreat. He would be very grateful if she could help get the resort back while dealing with those vile swindlers. Duchess Mojca was being very obstinate in her rejection of his legal rights. He hoped she would be able to visit the capitol soon as the Royal Theatre would be hosting the Comedic Rhythm, and it was fast booking out. She was always welcome in his private booth, of course, etc. etc. There was a reply started on the desk. With the basics that the Elemental Traders had arrived and that they were linked to the Comedic Rhythm. The letter had barely started, so that was all. The downstairs point was another safe like Gilbert¡¯s. I think a visit to the maker of this model of the safe was called for. I left without disturbing anything else. Sense Treasure levelled, and so did my Spy Class. One more level to go to get to the Journeyman level. This was a difficult level to get past. 171. Safe: Wiremu.

171. Safe: Wiremu.

¡°Spiritual Safety Guaranteed!¡± The shop looked like a fortress. I splashed out on fancy clothes to visit here. Only rich people buy safes. The salesperson was a no-nonsense dwarf who took one look at me and steered me away from the high-end safes. The one I had seen was a mid-range safe with a moderate amount of Spiritual material included in its build. I asked about the guarantee, and it only extended to a replacement safe, not to the loss of contents. ¡°This safe has a Runelock, but this one doesn''t, What different types of locks are there?¡± I asked. ¡°The Runelock is quite popular, as it is very versatile. You have a master rune sequence and can then set up access for different people. These safes only record who last accessed it, up to five people. The larger safes there can open different compartments with different runes.¡± Larger being more expensive. ¡°What if I forget the master sequence?¡± I wanted to know if there was an ultimate sequence. ¡°If you forget the Master Sequence, you need to bring the safe back to us, and we will open it, but you will need to buy a new safe as the process destroys the safe.¡± Yep, that would have been too easy. ¡°Why does that model not have a Rune sequence?¡± ¡°Those are more expensive as they are keyed to your Spiritual Signature. Only you can open it. The more expensive types can have more people keyed in.¡± ¡°And if I die?¡± I asked. ¡°Then you heirs will need to bring the safe in, and we will open it like the rune locks. We will need proof of ownership.¡± ¡°How do you key a Spiritual Signature? I know the Treasury Houses do it.¡± I pulled out my Kirghiz Treasury Token and looked at it curiously. It also proved I was rich. ¡°That is a specialised skill that is closely controlled, both the skill and the class it comes from.¡± ¡°I would like to purchase one of those Runelock safes,¡± I said, pointing to the one I had seen last night. ¡°Very good, sir. I will need a deposit and an address. Our Installers will come and install it for you, we recommend installing it in solid material like stone. At that point, we will require the balance coins, and you''ll be able to enter the master sequence.¡± ¡°What if I wish to install it myself? I don¡¯t want anyone to know where it is.¡± ¡°That is not recommended, sir. Some have damaged their safe trying that and had to purchase another. Our staff are held in extreme confidence and have been with us for years.¡± ¡°Nonetheless, I will arrange a cart to collect it and will take responsibility for installing it myself. When can I pick it up?¡± The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I picked it up that afternoon and took it to my basement storage area. I was shown how to set the master sequence, which would be the first sequence I entered. I could then set two other sequences on this model. I wanted the safe to examine and possibly dismantled and see how it works. Could I get in and out without it being noticed? I knew I could get in, but it would ruin the safe and probably many of the contents like Puia did for Tabitha. The rune sequence mechanism was encased in pure Spiritual material. It wasn¡¯t Blacksteel, it was different, and I didn¡¯t know what it was. I was almost certain that if I opened it, I would ruin the mechanism. I entered a master sequence and closed the door. I could feel with my Granite Sense some bars extended to lock the door on all four sides, and these also made spiritual connections. This allowed me to trace the thin spiritual material around the safe. It was like the window and crisscrossed around the safes outside and would set off the alarm. If I were coming in from the side, I would need to avoid these spiritual traces. Avoiding the door completely did seem like my best option, and it was only an option because of my affinity. The walls of the safe were made from a Spiritual rock called Orichalcum. It had been mixed with something else, Cargonite, which made it very dense. I didn¡¯t know what the lines of Spiritual material were making the spiritual connections around it, but I did know they were very fragile. Disrupting them sets the alarm off, and I can see why people who don¡¯t know what they are doing would damage the safe. I couldn¡¯t see why they couldn''t be repaired. I assume the salesperson threatening that I would have to buy a new safe was just a tactic to sell me the installation. My Granite Sense could sense the entire safe, except the door sequence. It took an effort. The material resisted me, but I could do it. I chose a spot in a gap between the spiritual flows and tried to manipulate the rock. I avoided heating it as the heat was harder to contain and might break the connections and set off the alarm. That would be experiment two. Detect Spiritual Traps Levelled. I was not going to get a level in disarming traps here as I was not disarming them. I was trying to avoid the trap altogether. It took a while, but I made a hole through the side without setting off the alarm. I enlarged the hole as bid as I dared, but it was still too small to get a coin through. I assume that was a purposeful design. I put some papers in the safe. I could hook them with a small granite spike and drag them through. I had to be careful not to damage the paper. Getting it back in the same order was difficult. It was tricky, but I could make it work. Heat sped up the initial hole, but I had to be very careful. The next step was determining whether I could move the Spiritual flow lines to make a bigger hole. I tried moving the material around the flow lines carefully. It was working, but then it broke, and the alarm was loud. I switched off the alarm by using the master sequence but relocking the safe would restart the alarm as a line was broken. Let''s see if I can fix the broken line. I lined everything back up and had to squeeze the area to make the delicate material meet again, but it worked. I couldn¡¯t do it too many times in one spot, but it worked. I picked a different side of the safe and started again. I wasn¡¯t going to get it big enough for my hand, but I did get it big enough for small objects. I was going to have to manipulate a wall to get to the side of a safe, but walls were easy. Granite Sense and Manipulation both levelled. I could get into a safe and back out without being discovered. If I were robbing the place, I would just force my way in and leave the damage. Spying was getting secret information covertly. I sat back. This had taken me hours of work. I was still in the basement of the shop, and it was well into the evening now. I was hungry. All of a sudden, T¨¡oke popped out of the stone wall and dropped to the floor. He was getting very good at moving through the stone in his small form. He had found the guy that had run from the fight at Otto¡¯s ranch. He may have escaped our Hunters Marks, but we did have his scent. T¨¡oke must have had a lot of luck because it was a big city. T¨¡oke now had a new Hunters Mark on him. It was time to go and have a look. After dinner. I should also check in with Tabitha. 172. City Boy: Wiremu

172. City Boy: Wiremu

Tabitha thinks I should die. It does have its advantages. She will organise some new identities for the three of us. She doesn¡¯t like my current name, though. I can¡¯t see a new identity working for Modrica and Te?ka, and Tabitha¡¯s Skygge identity is tied to both the Elemental Traders and the Comedic Rhythm. It is best to be prepared. Modrica¡¯s enlistment is a problem. Tabitha will work on it. A lot can happen in a month. The Escapee dude was staying at Otto¡¯s townhouse. I will need to find out who Otto¡¯s heir is. I also now have a Hunter''s Mark on Escapee dude. I heard someone call him Todd. There are six people in the house. One is obviously a manservant. Two well-dressed people looked like a brother and sister. Possibly one of them is the heir. There were two experienced-looking guards and Todd. Otto¡¯s townhouse was larger than Samantha¡¯s and Gilbert''s. It had a stable with a barracks above it out the back. The house was also larger, with a third floor. I couldn¡¯t tell if it had extra basement levels. I will watch it for a while and explore it soon. We will leave it for tonight. On the way back, I swung past Samantha and Gilbert''s places. I caught Samantha¡¯s maid leaving. It was close to midnight, so I followed her. I also put a Hunter''s Mark on her. I had eight marks available. With their permission, I had one each on Tabitha and Te?ka, so I had four left. The maid went to a poorer part of town, entered a house, and seemed to settle down for the night. I guess it is only occasionally she is required to stay over. I went past the compound where the caravan was and did a circuit. I set a couple of extra traps in places where I would enter. These were standard poison traps, but I kept in mind they were for intelligent beings, not animals. I put extra care into concealing them. Then I went back to my room for some sleep. Big day tomorrow. Veneer was an interesting skill. It could only make surface changes, hair colour, skin colour, etc. At apprentice, it could add features like scars, moles, and beard, but only small things. It couldn¡¯t change my height or build. I got the impression larger changes were available at Journeyman Level, like orc tusks. The Skill was upper Apprentice now, and I found I could lengthen my hair. I normally had it cut short for convenience, but Veneer could make it appear shoulder-length. This meant I needed to go shopping. With the right clothes, I could Roleplay being female. Tabitha often said her mimicking a male often put people off her trail. The reverse is also true. I would be a tall beefy female, but there are plenty of those in the Mercenary Guild. First, I went and purchased a nice dress ¡°for my sister.¡± I then put it on and padded my chest. I watched the local woman in order to imitate them. When I tried it, Roleplay finally went up to Apprentice Level. I got more insight into the role. Women tend to walk and sit differently. I practised, and I was not getting so many funny looks before long. My voice was a problem. It took a bit of practice to get my voice right. Deceive and Roleplay worked together to help. When I successfully went into a shop and purchased female undergarments, Roleplay levelled again. This would help give me a better definition of the chest area. I also had to purchase a corset to reduce my waist and emphasise my hips more. I purchased several outfits, mostly to imitate the poorer and middle class. I never realised there were so many options for shoes. I also purchased some semi-armoured leathers, which would look feminine, but allow me to pass as a mercenary. I was wearing the leathers in a bar close to the Mercenary Guild when I was hit on twice. Admittedly the guys that wanted to buy me a drink were already drunk. I don¡¯t think I handled it very well, as I wasn¡¯t expecting it, but I didn¡¯t break character. Roleplay levelled again. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I switched back to male clothes. I had one more thing to do before the shops closed. I needed good quality armour. My Hide Armour was fine in the wilds, but I needed good armour that wouldn¡¯t stand out in town. We were only here for three weeks, but we would be three months or more in Kirghiz. I visited some high-end armour shops, but fashion is more important than function there. I wanted both function and fashion. Fashionable armour should be a thing. I will have to keep looking tomorrow. I got to the Otto place just before dinner, dressed in my female leathers. I caught a dwarf leaving with cleaning gear, and two people were working in the kitchen. It looked like they employed a number of day staff. I stayed watching to get an idea of their routine. All went quiet after midnight. I stayed for another hour and caught sight of a shadow moving in the windows. One of the guards was patrolling. That would make things more difficult. I stayed for another two hours but only saw him once. He probably didn¡¯t have a set routine. I headed home to sleep later than I anticipated. I am going to have to make adjustments to these leathers as, after a few hours, they are too uncomfortable in the crutch. I guess it is not a problem women have. When I changed in the basement of my shop, I looked at the piles of clothes. I am going to need to buy a trunk, or two, to store it all in. Armour. I want armour that protects but fits in with the fancy city people. I also want to find hides to make my own hunting armour for away from the city. We are moving away from the cold north. Beitemark and Kirghiz are in a much more temperate climate. After Kirghiz, we will keep heading south to the tropics before skirting up the edge of the Great Desert to enter the Empire from the south. It is going to get warm. My resistance is getting up there. Heat, cold, crushing and poison are all 20 plus. What do I need in armour? Otto¡¯s wind still cut, even though the Snakeskin. The Acid was bad. Armour is really only important for the really bad fights. The Death Shaman and Death Assassin were still killers for me. Hence I need a set of armour that will stand up to the really bad stuff, and some self-repair sounds good. The Troll armour was the best I ever owned, and it got burned by fire. Maybe all I need is cheap armour that can be easily replaced, and work on strengthening my Snakeskin and creating Rock or Lava armour. I don¡¯t want to rely on armour that needs my energy to make. That is how I killed the Lavaman. He didn¡¯t have the energy to create his armour. Hides are cheap here. This area is full of ranches, so deer, bison, and cattle are all plentiful. I am going to stock up on deer hides and reinforce key areas with Bison hide. I might also incorporate metal, as heating and shaping is no problem now. While we are in Kirghiz, I might look to get some Blacksmithing Skills. Having thought this through, my fancy armour does not need to be functional. I am not going to wear it to fight. It really is just for looks. It does need to be comfortable. That made buying easy. My Repair Leather Armour Skill can handle small adjustments. What I do need is a replacement Bow. Being in the open plains, archery is very common here, and there are a lot of good Bowyers. I got a strong Recurve Bow for my hunting to replace the one I lost. The Bowyer had a range I tested it on, and I was very happy. What I also discovered were shorter Horse Bows. They were designed to be shot while riding but were smaller and less conspicuous for carrying in town. The arrows were also shorter, but I got good power and accuracy, and all my skills worked. I got two of those. Two days of shopping and I am adequately supplied. There is definitely something to be said for larger cities. 173. Fancyman: Wiremu.

173. Fancyman: Wiremu.

Nyx suddenly arrived, flashing the emergency code. It was early evening, and I was preparing to head over to the Otto House. I checked the Hunters Marks, and Tabitha and Te?ka were together on the street between the gate and the Caravan compound. It would take me ten minutes to get there. I grabbed my weapons. T¨¡oke was with me as he was going to be my backup tonight. I took off at top speed. I didn¡¯t care what it looked like, I pelted down the streets as fast as I could go. I had no idea what could threaten Tabitha, Te?ka, and, I assume, Modrica inside the city. I came around a corner, and some people in uniform were turning people back from going down the street. I ducked into an alley and took to the roofs in stealth. It is just as well I did, as there were watchers on the roofs as well. I could avoid them, but hostile people behind me are a bad idea. I kept things ordinary for now and took one out with a knife to the throat and two with my new short bow. It took me three arrows, so I need to practice with it. The noise from below covered the falling bodies. There was a standoff. Tabitha looked relaxed, standing next to Dusk. Modrica and Te?ka were next to her. Modrica had her mace out. ¡°No more stalling. The Watch isn¡¯t coming.¡± This was spoken by one of three people in fancy armour. Two were at one end facing Tabitha, and the other was behind her. They were showing off their affinities, trying to intimidate Tabitha and Modrica. Twenty armed people backed them at each end of the road. I assume there were others on the roofs across the road. Fancy Talker had wind swirling around him like Otto. The Fancy Lady was tossing fire from hand to hand. The Fancy Dwarf at the back had created a row of spikes across the road. They were not just earth spikes, there was something different about them. I assume he was here to counter Modrica¡¯s Earth Affinity. This could really get messy, as in levelling several buildings messy. If this fight started, this whole block would become uninhabitable. T¨¡oke slid off my shoulder and made his way to the ground. ¡°Yeah, yeah, you said that. Just army buddies wanting the truth about Otto,¡± Tabitha sounded bored. ¡°Lord Otto, you disrespectful wench,¡± the Fancy lady was getting wound up. ¡°Yet here you are, abducting two ladies off the street like thugs. If you wanted the truth, the Watch would be here. If you wanted respect, you wouldn¡¯t act like street thugs.¡± ¡°If we do this by force, the bear won¡¯t live,¡± threatened Fancyman. ¡°I would put money on the bear living and you not living, but you won''t be here to collect from.¡± My hearing aid picked up, ¡°She¡¯s too confident. Something is not right.¡± ¡°The whore¡¯s an actress. She¡¯s bluffing.¡± Tabitha heard that as well. ¡°I hope you emptied these buildings because there is not going to be much left of them if you call my bluff. If you wanted the truth, the Watch Captian would be here. What do you really want?¡± ¡°We want the person who killed Otto, and you know who it is.¡± ¡°And you are willing to kill innocent people and level buildings for information on something I wasn¡¯t even there to see.¡± Tabitha turned to the woman, ¡°I assume you were one of his lovers.¡± ¡°Why you ¡­¡± she lost control and threw flames at Tabitha. An earth wall rose up, intercepted the flames, and then sank back into the ground. ¡°Fredrik, you were supposed to stop her using earth!¡± she complained to the dwarf. ¡°Stop her?¡± the dwarf said,¡° I created the wall. I will not let you burn someone because you lost your temper. That achieves nothing.¡± ¡°Why you¡­ Nobody cares what happened to Otto!¡± She turned and stormed off, taking a number of people with her. ¡°Thanks for coming,¡± Tabitha quietly said next to me, ¡°I might not need you now.¡± ¡°That''s fine. Nyx is getting good at looking like you.¡± I said as Tabitha appeared to be still standing next to Dusk. ¡°I needed a distraction to slip away, so I had to goad her into doing something. I didn¡¯t think she would actually try to burn me, though.¡± Modrica had stepped forward toward Fancyman, drawing everybody''s attention. She growled low and rumbled and took another step. The Fancyman looked like everybody had abandoned him. Tabitha whispered, ¡°I am going to have a chat with the dwarf, as he seems reasonable.¡± She disappeared into shadows. I repositioned myself to keep Fancyman in clear bow view as Te?ka stepped forward following Modrica. The Fancy man was not confident on his own. He tried reasoning with Modrica, ¡°Look, I am a Noble. If you mess with me, there will be trouble like you have never seen before.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I think Modrica has already seen every type of trouble, but he didn¡¯t know that. He didn¡¯t want to back down in front of his men. Modrica had never bothered talking before and didn¡¯t bother now. Te?ka gave a growl. Then the dwarf yelled, ¡°We are packing up, Hale. We are meeting with the Watch tomorrow.¡± That gave Fancyman Hale the excuse to get his men moving and try to disguise that he was fleeing. The Dwarf made the spikes disappear and backed off with his men. Nyx / Tabitha led Dusk up with Modrica, and Tabitha joined me on the roof again. She could move faster than I could in stealth. ¡°The Dwarf didn¡¯t know what the other two were planning. He was only asked to block the road. He knew what he was doing with earth. He felt that I wasn¡¯t beside Dusk anymore, even though it looked like I was,¡± she said. ¡°How are you going to explain the three bodies I left.¡± ¡°Affinity kills?¡± I shook my head, ¡°Knife and bow.¡± ¡°Then I am not going to explain it. That is their problem.¡± ¡°Then I will go and grab my arrows. Do you need me to follow you?¡± Tabitha shook her head, ¡°I will shadow them. I will let you know if there is more trouble, but I doubt it.¡± I did follow them and caught up with the Canine Queens and the Catkin at the caravan yard. I was especially interested in the bonds. All the lions were adults now, even though they sometimes acted like kittens still. The wolves were in good health, which was not unexpected as Skavt was an animal trainer. Borec would be giving birth anytime now. The bonds were also healthy. It was interesting to feel the flavour of each and compare it with the longer-term bonds Skavt and ?rt had. Astrid and her bond Trassig were not doing so well. It might be grief on Astrd¡¯s part interfering. I wasn¡¯t sure. I could analyse that something was not right, but helping fix it was another thing altogether. I would need some thought and longer-term observation. It was after midnight when I left the compound. I decided to forgo Otto¡¯s house and instead tracked down Fancyman Hale. I had not tried to tag him with a Hunter''s Mark as his Wind would probably break it as Otto¡¯s did. I tagged his key guard, the one he yelled at to get everyone moving. I found him still with his boss in a fancy house in the expensive part of town. It looked like he was doing his best to get his boss drunk. It was probably a good move on his part. I scouted the place, and there were three guards on duty. The head guard put his boss to bed about an hour later and then left. I followed him, but he went to his own house in a middle-class part of town and went to bed with his wife, who was already asleep. There were two children in the house as well. He was a family man. He won¡¯t realise how close his boss got him to being killed today. I killed a lot of people out at Otto¡¯s ranch. Yes, they attacked me, but I wonder how many of them were family people. Did I really have to kill all the wounded? Killing them didn¡¯t really accomplish anything. Word still got back to town. I went back to Fancyman¡¯s house. The guards only patrolled the ground floor, which was a huge weakness in security in a three-story house. I slipped into a top-floor window. This house was older, and the floor creaked. I was heavier than a normal person of my size because of my Granite Bones. It was a problem. The floor was less likely to creak if I walked near the walls. I was dreading trying the stairs. The top floor was empty except for the master bedroom, where Fancyman was snoring and drooling. He is lucky I am only here to spy, not assassinate. The Kingdom would be really riled up if they lost two of their rare affinity users in less than a month. They very nearly lost two today. Maybe three, but I think the dwarf wouldn¡¯t have pushed things. The desk in his room had a note from Lady Mary, wanting to meet to discuss Lord Otto¡¯s death. I am assuming Mary is the firey lady. and that meeting led to today''s events. There was a return address on the envelope. Lady Mary is next for me to visit. The desk only had personal correspondence, and I left everything how I found it. The secret to the stairs was weight distribution. I held my foot above the stair and created a thin rock plate to stand on, so the stronger edges of the stairs held me up. This was slowly putting my weight on that foot and then doing the same with the next stair down. I folded the plate up against my leg before carefully moving to the next step and folding it down again. It took me fifteen minutes to get down a flight of stairs, but I did it silently. There were people asleep on the middle floor, an older lady and three children. I assume the lady was a nanny or something. If she was a wife, the marriage was not in good health. That meant the office I needed to get to was on the ground floor. I should have trusted Treasure Sense and not wasted my time. There was no way I could spend fifteen minutes on the next stairs and not be seen by the guards at the bottom. I made an exit and new entry from a second-floor window, time to scout Lady Mary. Mary lived in a stone building, and all the furniture looked new. She probably lost her temper quite a lot. It was a squat two-story building with four chimneys on the roof. It was purpose-built for her and her fire affinity. There would be no problem with a creaky floor here. Everything was stone. My Granite Sense could tell me the layout, and I didn¡¯t bother with a window. I lay on the ground, made a hole in the wall with Granite Manipulation and crawled through. I then closed it up again. There were no Guards here. The ground floor had a kitchen, dining room, living room, and reception/office. The basement was storage and servant quarters. Two servants were asleep. Upstairs were bedrooms, with two people asleep in separate bedrooms. I concentrated on the office. Lady Mary didn¡¯t own a ranch. She owned a prominent Blacksmiths, two restaurants and a distillery. She was quite the business lady. I looked back at her correspondence and found a series of letters indicating she and Otto had been meeting up. She was a regular visitor to his ranch, often staying a week or so. She was trying to convince him to spend more time in town and less time on his projects. There was nothing written indicating what those projects were. She would know, though. I went through her accounts. One of her restaurants was not doing well. Looking back at the correspondence, it was because she had fired the head chef and couldn¡¯t get a replacement. She was quite the socialite. She had a connection with the Duchess and was strengthening those by helping with the Duchess''s social initiatives, including the Theatre. There was a half-written letter to the duchess wanting the Comedic Rhythm banned from using the city Theatre as they were too crass and only appealed to the common people. I couldn¡¯t figure out how she made the connection between Tabitha and the Comedic Rhythm, but I guess the gossip mill is still the fastest form of communication. Interesting, but I am not sure how it helps. It will help Tabitha with the watch tomorrow if she lays a complaint against her for attacking her with her affinity. I will pass it on. I left the same way I entered. 174. Intimidation: Tabitha.

174. Intimidation: Tabitha.

¡°I hear there was an altercation last night,¡± Captain Francis said. ¡°Yes, and I wish to lay a formal complaint against Lady Mary. She sprayed fire at me and I would have been burned if Lord Fredrik had not been there,¡± I said. ¡°Is that true?¡± the Captain asked Fredrik. He and Hale were there, but Mary was not. ¡°Tis a bit more complicated than that, and I would add there was provocation from the lass here. However, Mary did throw fire at her, and I did stop it. I doubt it would have hit the lass as she is quite quick on her feet,¡± Fredrik replied. ¡°You provoked her? Are you mad? Are you sure you wish to lay a formal complaint? It is not Mary¡¯s first, and all she will get is a slap on the wrist and fined a few coins.¡± The Captian was looking at me like she was trying to work me out. Good luck with that. ¡°It was very traumatic. I couldn¡¯t sleep last night, I kept seeing flames.¡± ¡°Too much, Lass. You were not even in the line of the fire by the time they were halfway to you,¡± Fredrik said. ¡°Yes, she was,¡± Hale butted in, ¡°I saw her just standing there watching the flames get closer and not even moving like she¡¯s an idiot.¡± ¡°The less said about idiotic behaviour from you, the better,¡± Fredrik said. ¡°What I am interested in are the three bodies the night watch found in the area.¡± Captian Francis said. ¡°Robbie and Jake are missing,¡± Hale said. ¡°Then you had best go to the morgue and see if they are there. Were they supposed to be with you last night?¡± ¡°Yes, they were on¡­ Yes, they were.¡± It was clear Hale did not want to incriminate himself. ¡°How were they killed?¡± Fredrik asked, looking at me suspiciously. ¡°One with a knife and two by arrows.¡± Fredrik was looking confused. He knew I had gone to that side but also knew I did not have a bow. ¡°I have a separate report from a Watch patrol of a man with a bow running full speed toward the area about the time of your altercation. All they saw was that he had long red hair. You wouldn¡¯t know any archers with long red hair?¡± the Captain continued. I shook my head, resisting a smile. ¡°Are you sure it was a male? It is females who generally have long hair.¡± ¡°The report was definite it was male.¡± ¡°Captain, we are actually here to ask if you have found Otto¡¯s killer yet?¡± Hale asked. ¡°You might be,¡± she said, ¡°but I have Nobles attacking people in the street, dead bodies and a weird archer. The thing is, it all seems to be connected to Lord Otto. How about you explain what you were actually doing last night, and maybe I might be more accommodating.¡± That shut Hale up. I could almost see his brain whirling, thinking of something to say that wouldn¡¯t get him into trouble. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°I would be happy, too,¡± I said. ¡°Modrica, Te?ka, my bond Dusk and I were coming back from a run outside the city when Lord Hale and Lady Mary accosted us, backed up by twenty or so fighters. They intimidated us by throwing around wind and fire and asking if we knew anything about Otto¡¯s death. I explained I didn¡¯t, but they didn¡¯t want to hear that and were getting quite aggressive. If Lord Fredrik hadn¡¯t stepped in when he did and calmed things down, I might have got burned.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t hear your provocation in that summary,¡± Francis said. ¡°I might have gotten frustrated at the repeated questions and suggested Lady Mary was Lord Otto¡¯s lover.¡± ¡°That is fairly common knowledge. She wouldn¡¯t have got upset at that,¡± Francis said. ¡°I believe the Lass actually said, ¡®one of his lovers.¡¯¡± Fredrik supplied. ¡°Ah yes, that would do it,¡± The captain said. Now it appeared that Fredrik was backing up my story, isolating Hale. ¡°Do you have anything to add?¡± the Captain asked Hale. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t have got out of hand if Mary hadn¡¯t been provoked,¡± he said. ¡°You think you can go around the streets intimidating people, and it is OK if it doesn¡¯t get out of hand? I don¡¯t think so. You and Lady Mary will be up on formal charges, which will go to the Duchess. There may be more if I find out you had anything to do with this red-haired archer.¡± She turned to the door and yelled, ¡°Sergeant!¡± ¡°Yes, ma''am.¡± was the reply. ¡°Please escort Lord Hale to the morgue to see if he can identify any of the bodies from last night.¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡± The Wolfkin indicated Hale to follow him, and they left. ¡°If there is nothing more from you two, I have work to do,¡± The Captian said, dismissing us. As we exited the building, Fredrik said, ¡°Wait a minute Lass. I would like a chat. Can I buy you a cup of tea?¡± He indicated a nearby tea shop. I nodded. As we sat down, I asked, ¡°How did you get caught up in this mess?¡± ¡°My own stupidity in listening to Hale. Thanks for the cover in there, Skygge, but I am fine taking responsibility for my own actions. Francis will probably work it out anyway. Hale asked for help if a monster bond went on a rampage. He didn¡¯t tell me he was planning to cause the rampage by killing its bond.¡± Fredrik was pretty grumpy with himself. ¡°It worked out fine, and that was only after you stepped up.¡± ¡°If I make a mistake, I will bloody fix it. And It wouldn¡¯t have been fine if I hadn¡¯t been there. I can¡¯t help but think Hale and Mary would be the ones not with us today. How did you move away while appearing to be standing still?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a professional secret. Can I ask how you sensed it?¡± ¡°What profession would that be then?¡± ¡°Actress. I will get you tickets to the show.¡± His eyebrows went up. He was obviously not part of the gossip crowd. ¡°My abilities are no secret. My eyes were saying you were there, but my Earth Sense was saying no one was standing on the ground there. I didn¡¯t see you move, just a shadow of where you had been, and my eyes are still good, lass, so don¡¯t go blaming them.¡± Fredrik must be older than he looks. Hard to tell with all the hair he had on his face. Dwarves and their beards! ¡°I want to ask you about the orc and the bear.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°I could sense them. They are strong with the earth but have little control.¡± ¡°It is a new bond, only a few months old.¡± ¡°That explains the lack of control. It means they have a natural strength that is surprising, though.¡± ¡°Modrica has always been strong physically and mentally. I am not surprised it is also spiritual.¡± ¡°I have a place not far out of town. I¡¯d be willing to give them some pointers. In compensation for the tickets to the show.¡± Dwarves, their compulsion to not owe anybody anything motivate this offer. His main reason will be to investigate us, though. ¡°Absolutely. That would be great.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to turn it down for Modrica¡¯s sake, and we can deal with the investigation. Probably. We settled on a date, and as we got up to leave, he said, ¡°The red-haired archer. Is he one of yours?¡± When I didn¡¯t reply, he said, ¡°Thought so. You claimed to be intimidated by Hale and Mary, but when you dig a bit, you are the intimidating one.¡± 175. Noted: Wiremu

175. Noted: Wiremu

There were seven people at Otto¡¯s house now. An older lady was in the guest room. The problem wasn¡¯t the lady it was her bond, a parrot. Her bedroom was on the second level. It took ages for it to settle for the night. The lady left the window open for it to come and go. It came and went several times before settling down for the night. I am curious as to where it went. I assume it delivered messages. The parrot will have keener senses than most, so this will be more difficult. Otto¡¯s house had a ground level of stone and then wood for the other two stories. It also went down two levels. My Granite Sense mapped out the basements, and Treasure Sense said one of my key targets was in the first basement. I went directly there through the stone. It was a safe. It was larger than I had practised on, but it had the same maker''s mark on it. It was easier to get in as the lines of Sprirtual flow were further apart. I sat there and read the documents Otto considered Important. There were title deeds to the house and Ranch. There was a will. Otto¡¯s heir was the first child who successfully awakened an affinity. If no child had awakened an affinity at the time of his death, the estate was to be managed by his sister until that happened. In this house, we have two rival siblings and an aunt who has arrived to take charge. What a fun house to live in. Then I found the good stuff. First was a monster core, probably a griffon. Then it was his notes on attempting to awaken affinities. They were last updated six months ago. He had mostly been experimenting on animals. There were long periods between experiments while he sourced Monster cores. He only bought a couple. Mostly, he hunted them, and they were mostly Griffons, as it was easier for him to work with Air affinity cores. Then I had to skim pages, and there were various rituals described and his results. It seems Otto became quite knowledgeable about rituals. The ritual for testing a core and a user¡¯s compatibility was there, and then the variations he had made to it. There were a couple of books mentioned that he got some rituals from and tried variations of. At one point, he even vented his frustration at the King not allowing him access to his Ritualist. The King having a Ritualist is definitely not common knowledge. Very little about rituals is common knowledge. I decided to keep the notes and the Monster Core that was in the safe. I put everything back and left it looking untouched. Tabitha had raided the safe at the ranch. She might have the more recent notes. They are best kept away from this family. Best, they think it all burned with the ranch. I would need to watch this family for a while and make sure no one abuses others, but letting the remaining family members squabble over the inheritance seemed like a good result to me. I didn¡¯t investigate any further and left the way I had come. Fire Lady was next on my list. Mary was a long-term lover. She would know if Otto had any close accomplices that might carry on the work. Or any backers who might be looking for his results. That might need a personal interview. How would you interrogate a fire affinity user? Could I use Hale against her? Hale and Mary were keys to investigating Otto. Samantha and Gilbert were leads in what the Duke of Khirgiz might be planning. Next stop, Samantha¡¯s safe. Gilbert was probably just a social climber and playboy, but I will also check him out, as maybe I can use him against Samantha. The first week is almost gone, and I only have two more before we leave. Samantha¡¯s safe showed she owned a lot more properties and businesses in Beitemark than she let on. The funding for this seemed to have come from Terry, Duke of Kirghiz. She is not a bad businesswoman, and they have been making her a tidy profit for a number of years now, allowing her to diversify. I couldn¡¯t figure out any pattern to the ownership. Making coin is reason enough. She did send some profits back to cousin Terry. Gilbert seemed simple to understand until I looked in his safe. Luckily I did. He reported to Duchess Isabella. He kept a close eye on Samatha and three other nobles whose loyalty was questionable. A letter in his safe from the Duchess asked him to find out about the Elemental Traders, as they were causing trouble for Duke Terrance. I had all but dismissed him as a simple man being manipulated by Samantha. This was someone who I could learn spycraft from, except he would not be open to teaching me. I was putting everything back into Gilberts safe when I stopped. An experienced spy will not just rely on a safe to keep his things safe. There will be extra triggers or warning if it was accessed. Possibly even tracking. I remember Tabitha and the thin spider threads she encountered. I haven¡¯t been close enough to Gilbert to see whether he has a bond. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. The most obvious thing was to examine my hands, especially the fingers that had been touching the documents. I should be wearing gloves, but since moving Puia through my stone finger, I don¡¯t anymore. I had my Snakeskin active on my hand as I used the oil glands to help slip it through the small hole. I have left oil residue in the safe. In all the safes. This is sloppy of me. This is the safe where someone might check. I think I need to stop and reassess what I am doing. I was slack because I didn¡¯t expect someone to know what I was doing and have counters in place. Potentially have counters in place. First things first hands. Yes, there is a light powder on my hands. I train my senses on it. It is not rock based. I can¡¯t tell if it is Spiritual. If it is, there is not enough to affect the Spiritual flows in the room. Even if it is just a powder, between that and the oil, he will know someone has been in his safe the next time he opens it. Does he have a way to tell that I have been in this room? I didn¡¯t come in by the basement door this time, but I did last time. This time I came through the stonewall. Did he know about my previous visit? If he did, he would know I didn¡¯t access his safe then. Am I getting too paranoid? The powder on my hands suggests not. Is there other evidence? I move to the door. I don¡¯t open it. Fortunately, the basement is stone, so I crawl through a hole in the wall next to the door. I examine the door. It looked the same as last time. Last time I was only looking for standard locks and alarms. This time I am looking for anything unusual. I spot it at the top of the door, jammed between the door and the frame. A hair. Just an ordinary hair, as far as I could tell, but definitely not a place it would get naturally, and anyone opening the door would disturb it. Gilbert knows he had a visitor who didn¡¯t steal anything and found his safe but didn¡¯t access it. Would he be expecting a second visit? The hair says yes, but it could just be part of his normal security. I followed him from the gate to Samantha¡¯s to here. I had no indication he saw me, but he might have. I had Veneer running and changed it while he was with Samantha. Did he see me? I didn¡¯t put a Hunter''s Mark on him but followed him by scent. I purchased that very same cologne for tonight, thinking it would not be an unusual scent at Samantha''s or here. The hair in the door will mean he won¡¯t know I have been back until he opens the safe. That could be tomorrow or next week. I exited the building the same way I entered it tonight. He has probably found my window catches. If somebody has been in his house, as evidenced by the disturbed hair, they must have gotten in somehow. That could clue him into my affinity, although a stone tool is possible. The next question is can I trust what was in the safe? Could he have planted the document that said he worked for the Duchess? He definitely works for somebody, but it may not be for the Duchess. Shit, I feel like an amateur being shown up by a trained professional. The information I found on the first night is probably more reliable. He owns a ranch and is undermining a next-door ranch. Finding out the owner of the next-door ranch might give me a clue as to who his enemies were. The fact he is the known owner of the aggressor ranch is suspicious. I am going to need to go and look for myself. First, I need to clean this powder off thoroughly and catch a few hours'' sleep. The first stop, though, was the Duchy Land Records. They have a copy of the deeds of ownership as the Duchess issues them. Better yet, they have a map where the owners and ranches are laid out in one document. It is not a very detailed map, and physical features are only noted where they are a property boundary. Lord Gilbert''s place bounds a river, a set of hills, and a road. He has two neighbours, and I note down the names. Neither are nobility, just ranchers, and they don¡¯t have residences in town. There is a lot of communal grazing land also shown, which makes for potential conflict between ranchers. What I discovered was my Map Skill was updated with this information. I queried who drew this map, and it was developed and added to over many years by many cartographers. That seems to be the key. The cartographer who trained me in the Map Making Skill said it was superior to the Drawing Skill, which will be one benefit. Skavt has a mapping Skill. I need to test whether her map updates from one of my maps. My Map Making Skill is at the top of the Apprentice levels. I used my Identify Skill on it, and it needed to be in the Journeyman levels to work on its own. I had the sense the Skill was incomplete on its own. Cartographers must have other skills that work with the Map Making Skill to do this. It was probably a full day¡¯s ride out there for me. I would need a horse, or I would stand out as unusual. Everybody rode around here. Did I borrow or hire a horse, or is it time to get a permanent horse, like I had Rocky, who the Lavaman killed? A horse is too fragile for the lava. T¨¡oke is not big enough to ride yet and would stand out even more. Then Puia made a suggestion, and shit, I need to try that, but I don¡¯t want to set the prairie on fire or be noteworthy. 176. Details: Wiremu

176. Details: Wiremu

I was going to borrow a horse from the Caravan, but Skavt warned me off. ¡°The Watch is all over us as there was an attempt on Te?ka¡¯s life last night. They came in with explosives trying to take him out in one hit and make off with the core. All they blew up was Nyx¡¯s shadow version. We got them all, but the explosion drew the Watch in before we could get rid of the bodies.¡± ¡°No injuries?¡± I asked. ¡°No, but the Watch wasn¡¯t happy that Te?ka munched on a few of them. The Watch is now accrediting half the kills to him. He wasn¡¯t even there for the fight.¡± ¡°I need a horse to visit some ranches for a few days.¡± ¡°I will slip away and help you buy one, The Stockyard near the North gate has the best stock.¡± ¡°I need one that won¡¯t spook at a snake or a bit of fire. I also need one that can carry my weight.¡± That is how I ended up with Mosey. He was the slowest horse there, but he was big and strong. He didn¡¯t spook at T¨¡oke, so that was a good start. I think he was more used to pulling carts. With a bit of effort, I got him moving faster than a walk. We will get used to each other. I arrived at one of Gilbert¡¯s neighbour''s late afternoon. They were a friendly bunch and let me camp nearby. They let me join them for the evening meal as long as I contributed something to the pot. I joined them, and we yakked into the night. These were not the neighbours that were at war with Gilbert. They warned me to avoid both Lord Gilbert¡¯s land and the adjoining ranch known as the Maribel Ranch. ¡°Tensions are high over there, son. They are arguing over the boundary position. There have been a few altercations. The Duchess sent an investigator over some stolen cattle, but nothing was found.¡± I didn¡¯t get much more than that, as their policy was to stay out of it and to stay away. However, that told me plenty. A land dispute meant there was something there worth disputing, and I doubt it was just a few acres of pasture. I skipped the Gilbert Ranch and went straight to the Maribel Ranch, playing a ranch hand, looking for a job. ¡°You¡¯re a liar!¡± the foreman shouted at me. ¡°Get your lying ass off this property before I give you a beating to go with it. No ranchhand callouses, not the proper gear. You are here to spy and steal. You work for that lying Gilbert. Git!¡± he turned to the other ranchhands in the area, ¡°We have got a spy!¡± he yelled. I git. I clearly need to pay much more attention to detail. Veneer can simulate callouses, but I also need the right gear for a disguise. I am a bloody idiot. I know these things. I also should have known Maribel would be on alert against strangers. I was told that last night. What is wrong with me? I found a secluded campsite and sat down for some serious self-reflection. I am acting as if I can swan in, and everything will go my way. I have already had a lesson in being the amateur Spy from Gilbert, no less. Why am I not taking that lesson to heart and being extra careful? God, I am an idiot. Was I drugged? It has been two days since the safe, and I think any drugs would have worn off. Why didn¡¯t I think about drugs at the time? A subtle drug can slip past my resistances like alcohol does for a while. No, it is not drugs. It is my arrogance. Just because I have two affinities does not make me good at everything. A spy can specialise as an assassin. Gilbert may have the assassin class, and If I don¡¯t up my game, I will end up dead despite my two affinities. Reflecting on the last few days, the key thing for a Spy was being careful of the details. The first time, blundering through Gilbert''s house alerted him to my actions and made things harder. Not paying attention to the details of a ranchhand meant my veneer and roleplay were weak and easily seen through. Attention to detail is the key. Keensight or similar is a key skill for a spy. One I don¡¯t have. I could possibly get it, but I am hesitant to have another sight skill, particularly one with such a low attribute requirement. My Physical and Spiritual Perception are in the 30 and 40 range. My Mental perception is lacking. I know there are other options. Sonar, Echolocation, Infrared Vision, Spatial Awareness, etc., and that is just from the people we have come across. Sonar is a slower pulse and for longer range underwater. Echolocation is a shorter range but a faster pulse in the air. Infrared Vision means you can see the change in the temperature of things. I know I now have a much higher temperature than most things. Spatial Awareness is short-range, but one can see through objects. There is probably a long-range version somewhere. I would have no idea how to trigger it. My Granite Sense allows me to sense through stone and possibly other elements like metals now i have Lava as an affinity. It works on my knife. I can sense the variation in the metals and potential weak points. I really need some blacksmithing skills. My Weapon Repair Skill is giving me some ideas, but this is much deeper than sharpening or removing knicks from the blade. I am getting off track. I need to pay attention to detail in everything, even when I think it is a walk in the park. I will never know when I will come across another Gilbert. I will not be able to get in with Maribel, and Gilberts will be harder. However, I am a Scout with the Map Skill. I can find my own way. Combining the knowledge that one of the complaints was about diverting a stream and part of their joint boundary was a stream, I figure that is a good place to start. We Mosey along the shared pasture to find the stream that becomes their boundary ad then follow it. The stream valley is a ribbon of trees and larger vegetation amongst the rolling grasslands. I set up a camp well outside the boundary and left Mosey there. T¨¡oke and I head in on foot with only the essentials. We soon find the wider swampy area that is not deep enough to be a lake but marks the start of the joint boundary. Not far past that, it is obvious where the stream was diverted. The lush green vegetation goes one way, and the stream goes another. A kilometre or so further down the stream joins the old path. Nobody seeing it now would think it was a natural stream movement, but it would only take a couple of seasons for nature to make it look like it had been there a while. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The question is, why are these few hills so valuable? There is nothing obvious on the surface, so it must be underground. What we need is a Prospector. It is time to use one of my most neglected classes. Mineral lore is giving me suggestions based on the contour and geography of the area, but this prospector also has Granite Sense and Treasure Sense. Treasure sense is telling me there is something large down there. Larger than these few hills, but this is where it comes closest to the surface. It is large and valuable. It is time to dig down to the rock layer. I make a large Granite Spike and then shape it into a shovel. I start digging. I chose to dig in the dry stream bed as several meters of topsoil were everywhere else. In the streambed, it is less digging and more moving or manipulating of the loose rock. Granite Sense spread out from my stone toe as I squatted there. There was a reasonably thick layer of bedrock and then nothing. By nothing, I don¡¯t mean it was air. I mean, there was no rock. There was something there that was putting pressure on the rock, but it wasn¡¯t rock. It got closer to the surface in a valley in the land that changed ownership. I walked that way to see what was there. Something had alerted Gilbert to this, and what it was didn¡¯t require Granite Sense. Not far up the valley, there was evidence of people and horses. It was obvious to me, but I have a high Tracking Skill. There were black or dark brown puddles of liquid. I touched it and smelled it. Mineral Lore was telling me it was a type of oil. I knew from some of the readings ?rt made me do it was used in alchemy, particularly explosive and alchemy for the fixed cannons. This was definitely worth fighting over. He probably didn¡¯t know it was here when he bought the ranch in his Gilbert identity. When Maribel wouldn¡¯t sell, he took other measures, not realising how much there is or how far it spreads. It still extends under the Maribel Ranch, but I don¡¯t know how far. I created a granite spike down to the rock and pushed my Granite Sense to go light and wide to see how far it extended, and something unexpected happened. Granite Sense went to the Master level. It beat out Farsight and Hearing Aid. Hearing Aid has been sitting on 14 for months, and I haven¡¯t figured out how to push it over to Master. I suddenly had a new range and sensitivity with Granite Sense. I could sense the pressure exerted against the rock much better. That was very interesting as I felt the pressure change and move along the rock adjacent to the vast pressurised chamber underground filled with oil. Something was moving in there, and it was big. I don¡¯t know if it was a monster or an elemental, but it was big. I wouldn¡¯t recommend digging too deep. My Prospecting Class Levelled. ¡°This is unfortunate for you,¡± the deep, gravelly voice said. They must have had reasonable stealth to get that close without me hearing them. They weren¡¯t very close but definitely in bow range, and two of the three had bows. Attention to detail. I knew there was evidence of people coming and going, but I lost myself in my other senses instead of keeping aware of my surrounding. I have just been trying to get this into my brain and messed up again. I really should be called Rock Brain, like Tabitha used to call me. ¡°Why is it unfortunate?¡± I asked. I might as well give them time to get closer. ¡°Because you look like you know what you have found,¡± he replied. They were not moving closer, and I had left my bow with Mosey. The speaker nodded, and the two other loosed their arrows at me. I dodged, but one had archery skills and had a Triple Shot spread. One of the arrows impaled my leg. It was poisoned as well, not that that would affect me much. The next arrows were already on their way. The archer was faster than the other. T¨¡oke was moving through the grass to them, but I needed some cover. The archer clipped my shoulder, and my cheap armour didn¡¯t do much to stop it. It skidded off my Snakeskin. I landed in one of the puddles. Under the puddle, I created a small Granite Shield, which I used to deflect the arrow that would have pierced my gut. If I wanted to cover, what I am lying in doesn¡¯t get any better. I took a deep breath and ignited the oil. I had to keep moving, but flames danced along the top of the oil, quickly spreading. Thick black smoke started to obscure the valley. This quickly alarmed the three, and one started running away fast. The archers still tried to kill me, one getting me in the chest and piercing a lung. It slipped between my ribs, or maybe he was using a piercing Skill. I needed that air as it was getting harder to breathe in the smoke. The arrows stopped, and I assumed it was thanks to T¨¡oke, but I was covered in oil, and my armour was ablaze. I ripped off what I could, and I decided now was a good time to see If I could create rock or lava armour. I was already on fire. I just limped upwind out of the smoke. This smoke was going to bring people running. A grass fire is a serious thing out here. I guess the new river protected the Maribel Ranch, so the one who would suffer was the Gilbert Ranch. I had thought about this a lot. Molten rock is flexible, but I don¡¯t want to set everything on fire, like Lavaman. I started with Granite Shields on my calves and thighs and a bendable knee from lava. Once I had that stable on one leg, I held it with Granite Manipulation and did the other leg. That was hard to hold, so I greeted a girdle and triangular groin plate and joined them all together with lava. Once it was all connected, it was easier to hold. My butt was mostly lava. I created a chest and backplate connected over the shoulder and a lava connection to the girdle. I decided to leave my arms free, but I made a helmet with an open face. I connect it to the chest with lava. I could feel the Skill starting to form, but I needed boots. Then the skill formed. Granite Armour. It was mostly Granite. The Skill would get more flexible as it levelled physically and could summon separate pieces after Apprentice level. I would need to add arms and gloves in due course, but my lung was causing me trouble. At least I would only burn stuff if I sat down. I would have to remember to make a rock plate to sit on. I will need to test it. I am sure Modrica and Te?ka will be willing to help. I limped up the hill to the two dead archers. One of them had a nice bow, which I will keep as a backup. I stripped them of anything valuable and rolled them down the hill into the fire, so they couldn¡¯t find out how they were killed. Their horses were grazing on the other side of the hill. I let them loose so they could escape the fire if necessary and then headed away while covering my tracks. Attention to detail. I was naked. No clothes were going to survive the lava in the Granite Armour. This is another reason I had been holding off creating the armour. I don¡¯t particularly like being naked, even though Snakeskin protected me from most things. I looked down. My one-eyed snake actually looked like a one-mouth snake. I can see jokes coming from that one. I don¡¯t like being naked, which will restrict my use of the skill. I looked back, and a pillar of black smoke rose high in the air. It would draw people for miles around to investigate. If they were trying to keep the oil a secret, it was a secret no more. 177. Performance: Tabitha

177. Performance: Tabitha

That was definitely a success. I have never had someone rolling in the aisle in hysterical laughter before. Zabavno and Manus are genius writers. From a performer''s point of view, we still have some polish to do to the Comedic Rhythm acts, but after that reception, we are all motivated and energised. The Duchess was there as well and wanted to meet us. She was a tall woman with a commanding presence. Her husband was with her. He was in civilian dress but still held a military bearing. I knew he was a fifty-year veteran of the army retiring with the rank of Cavalry Major. He and the Duchess had married quite late in life, and his love for horses was well known. I connected to him by asking about his horses and talking about Dusk. I got an invite for Dusk and me to visit his stables. A top performance, if I say so myself. First up though is Fredrik. Fredrik¡¯s place was two hours ride outside the walls. He had a place by the river, complete with a dock and a barge being loaded. When his buildings came into view, his ranch house and associated buildings were up teh hill from teh river, but close to teh Docks wa a huge warehouse and factory. Adjacent to the large building was a number of enclosed fires heating something. Fredrik greeted us as Modrica and I rode into the marshalling yard of the factory. There were a number of heavy duty wagons unloading coal for teh fires and other loading bricks and other boxes of unidentified goods. ¡°Welcome, welcome,¡± he shouted over the noise. ¡°The sign at the gate said Beitemark Ceramics?¡± I posed it as a question. ¡°Have you not heard of us? The finset ceramics in Khirghiz! That is not just pottery and dishes! No, no, no, we create the finest tiles and ornamental bricks. We have a whole team of artisans dedicated to top-end porcelain.¡± ¡°I guess that makes sense with your Clay affinity,¡± I stated. He just winked at me. ¡°I¡¯d have been disappointed if you hadn¡¯t done your homework, lass.¡± What is he, my school teacher? What that means is he has done his homework for us. He gave us a quick tour of the factory. It was kilns that were continually firing the clay and the different glazings and mixtures that went into it. I hope Modrica learned something because it went over my head. We then headed up to the ranch house. We walked past the house to a large flat area behind it. There was no grass on it. He spent some time talking to Modrica and Te?ka through various tasks, and exercises to practice and improve their control. I sat and watched from the shade of a tree. We retired to the ranch house for refreshments. ¡°I checked with some of my military contacts. Apparently, you and your brother Sten are ¡®valued allies¡¯ or some such shit,¡± Fredrik started the interrogation. ¡°Sten is missing, presumed dead in that Otto mess.¡± ¡°Have you seen the body?¡± I shook my head, ¡°then don¡¯t presume. It¡¯s only been a couple of weeks. I have had people return after longer than that.¡± I am unsure if that was to console me or tell me he won¡¯t be presuming anything. ¡°I am interested in why citizens are classed as allies,¡± Fredrik posed it as a question. ¡°I didn¡¯t realise we were classed as allies. You will have to ask the military. In my experience, they do strange things.¡± ¡°How much experience have you had with the military?¡± ¡°We helped them with a problem in Obalno.¡± ¡°Obalno is a major navy base with a Commando training centre. What problem could they not deal with?¡± ¡°Exactly! That''s the reason I don¡¯t have a high opinion of the military.¡± My voice sounded exasperated. Fredrik¡¯s eyes narrowed, ¡°You¡¯re not answering my questions. Perhaps we can exchange information.¡± It was my turn to raise my eyebrows. ¡°What information do you think I need?¡± Fredrik smiled, ¡°I think you need information on the Duke of Kirghiz, seeing as you have gone out of your way to annoy him.¡± ¡°That depends on what information you want.¡± ¡°I want to know the real reason why you had Otto killed. I would also like to know how. He was a veteran of the two-year war with the Empire and an experienced Monster Hunter with a monster bond. He would be very difficult to kill.¡± I thought for a bit. This was actually one of my goals in setting up this caravan. To become an information broker. I did need as much information as possible on the Duke. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°I can tell you why Otto died, but it is not my place to tell you how.¡± Fredrik nodded. It turns out he had a lot of information on the Duke, his family, advisors, allies and enemies. We were one enemy, but it was complicated because we were in business with the Duke of Obalno and allied with the Duchess of Dohovno. The Duke''s youngest son has been punished and is out for our blood as he blames us for his woes. The key thing I noted was the Duke''s known promiscuous relationships and parties that were basically orgies. There were several known bastard children around and rumours of his own children not actually being fathered by the Duke. He is on his fourth wife, and the wives participate in these parties. That is, current and ex-wives at the same parties. I guess you could also say there were future wives there as well. It must be one big mess of relationships and rivalry. I was looking forward to stirring that pot. When Fredrik heard what Otto was up to, I think he also wanted to kill him. When I said Sten had died from his wounds, he wasn¡¯t sure whether to believe me. Apparently, the only eyewitness said Otto was buried in lava, and Sten and a big ass snake were fighting the ranchhands. Sten had been wounded but was still fighting. Nobody else survived. Fredrik probed, but I only confirmed the same that the military knew, Sten had a Granite affinity. I had no idea where the lava came from. I suspect it was just fire, burning things, and the poor guy was traumatised. When Fredrik asked about us with his military buddies, I suspect he was instructed to gather information. I am not sure how convinced he was that Sten was dead. I made a mental note to catch up with the watch captain and see what she has figured out. The Major was totally different. I had learned my lesson from Eluf that all military officers from Captian up had received specialist training in the Mental area. I only had my Confuse Status running and was alert for attempts to breach it. Eluf had taught me a number of tricks. The Major, however, was not concerned about me. He was interested in Dusk. He had me walk Dusk around the yard, then mount and ride. Then he asked me some questions. ¡°Why did you bond with Dusk?¡± I thought about that. We bonded in the middle of a fight. Then I said, ¡°I have been riding her for three years. She is my escape in times of trouble and a way to clear my head. We bonded in a fight, and she gave me an advantage.¡± ¡°Why did she bond with you?¡± I queried our bond before replying, ¡°Because we both like riding with excessive speed.¡± The Major smiled, ¡°yes, she is built for speed. You have fought with her. Have you fought while riding her?¡± I shook my head. ¡°How do you think you would fight while riding her?¡± That required some thought. My usual duel-wield fighting style will not work on Dusk¡¯s back. I am too mobile. I took too long to answer, and the major said. ¡°There are several main ways of fighting with horses. First, use them to get you where you need to be and then fight dismounted. The Royal Dragoons do this. Then there is the Heavy Cavalry which charges enemy positions. Dusk is not built for that, although that is where they will want the Orc with the Direbear. Then there are the Skirmishers with hit-and-run tactics. They usually fight at range with a backup weapon for close encounters. The Royal Skirmishers use spears and short bows.¡± ¡°It will probably be a hybrid dragoon skirmisher. My only ranged skill is Throw Weapons, and then it is knives and swords. Stealth is big for us.¡± ¡°There are some tricks I can show you for muffling the hooves. For a hit-and-run skirmisher, you should be using a different saddle. Dusk is also a bond. You don¡¯t need reigns, except it is what you are used to. Dusk should not have a bit in her mouth. You work together through your bond.¡± ¡°It is actually the Orc and the Direbear I wanted to talk to you about. Modrica and Te?ka. They have been given notice of Military Service.¡± The Major just nodded. ¡° What you may not know yet is that Modrica and I are Krvne Sestres.¡± That was a surprise to him. Then his eyes narrowed, ¡°Are you trying to get her out of her military service? You could enlist as well. They would keep you together.¡± I had figured the Major would be pro-military after a fifty-year service. ¡°There are other complicating factors.¡± ¡°Such as?¡± ¡°I am listed as a valued ally of the military.¡± The Major narrowed his eyes again, ¡°What branch?¡± ¡°Military Intelligence.¡± ¡°Bloody interfering spooks. You will have to go and talk to them if you want an exemption.¡± ¡°I am not necessarily looking for an exemption. I am looking for information and advice. What happens when someone like Modrica is enlisted.¡± ¡°Everyone does a minimum of two months of basic training. You stay there for two months or until your Unarmed Combat, Sword, Shield, and Spear Skills are at least level 5, whichever takes longer. Then you go to Basic Class Training. You are assessed in Basic Training and assigned to a Class Training group. Warrior, Archer, Cavalry etc. You stay with that group until you have levelled the class enough to specialise. That usually doesn¡¯t happen in your first five-year term. Modrica would be assigned to Heavy Cavalry. Affinity users also get specialised training after Basic Training and are promoted to Special Lieutenants. They have no command power but get special training.¡± ¡°Modrica already has a high levelled fighting class and is a Master of Unarmed Combat.¡± ¡°Then she will be training others in that while she gets her other skills up to scratch. You wanted my advice?¡± he continued, ¡°Then my advice is you should both enlist in Basic Training and then get the Cavalry Class. This Class is the primary class for all our mounted troops.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t spend five years in the military.¡± ¡°Then you need to take that up with Military Intelligence. My advice is that you will get no better grounding than in the Royal Cavalry, and it is time well spent.¡± ¡°How long would it take to get the Cavalry Class?¡± ¡°Your Riding Class is Mid Apprentice?¡± he asked. I nodded, ¡°For you, 6-8 months.¡± ¡°And for someone without a riding Class and only just gained the Skill?¡± ¡°At least two years.¡± Shit, that was not going to happen. I steered the conversation back to Dusk and me. I purchased a new saddle from him, which made things a lot easier. He also got his leather worker to modify the bridle, and we removed the bit. Dusk would have a lot more freedom. I am going to need to talk to Military Intelligence. That means making a deal. 178. Persona: Wiremu

178. Persona: Wiremu

I entered the city as Dianne, the female mercenary. My Roleplay Skill is more challenging to use the longer I keep it up. Short periods of an hour or so are fine. I paid attention to detail and was wearing the chest piece. With leather armour, I didn¡¯t have to wear the corset, which was a relief. I waved my Mercenary badge at the gate guards, and they waved me through. It was a small risk they would check the badge as it actually belonged to Sten. Tabitha was organising a new ID for me, but it might be time I organised one myself. It took all evening, but eventually, I had a contact. A city official who would provide papers. It was more expensive than it was in Jern. Tabitha would be getting me an ID as a hunter and mercenary. I decided Dianne Prints would build a reputation as a spy and occasional assassin. She would be a wonder woman! But I was getting ahead of myself here. Reputations are built slowly. It would take two days for her ID to be ready to register with the Mercenary Guild. That would mean we only had a week left in this city. In the meantime, there were several things on my to-do list. Find out the fallout from Gilbert''s oil discovery. Interview fire lady Mary about Otto¡¯s experiments and try and find out more about the Duke of Kirghiz from Samatha. The first thing to do is catch the Comedic Rhythm show. It would be good to see it from start to end in a proper theatre. I caught up with everybody after the show. Everybody seemed in good spirits and refreshed. Tabitha handed me some ID papers. ¡°William Cody?¡± I asked. ¡°They are familiar names in the Empire,¡± she replied. ¡°William is often shortened to Bill.¡± That didn¡¯t make sense to me. I guess the empire has its own culture, and I am going to need to learn and refresh that culture. Tabitha continued, ¡°What I was thinking was creating a persona for entering the empire. Starting here with the bison ranches and your hunter and scout classes, you could create a loud, almost showman charactor. You could take the nickname ¡®Bison Bill¡¯. We could build it in Kirghiz, and you could wear your hides, proclaim monster kills to the city people, and build a loud reputation as we move toward the empire. It plays to your strengths and helps hide your other activities and identities.¡± ¡°So we are aiming for this loud, rough hunter to have a reputation that is known as we enter the Empire?¡± I asked. Tabitha nodded. ¡°It does mean you must operate separately from the rest of us, especially in Khirgiz. We can rejoin after our commitment to the Comedic Rhythm is over.¡± ¡°What about the Canine Queens?¡± I asked. ¡°I talked it over with them. We probably need to have a funeral for Sten.¡± She looked sharply at me, ¡°No, you cannot come.¡± I made a face at her. I knew it would be a beginner''s mistake to turn up at your own funeral. But seriously, they will be drinking in my honour, without me! Which is normal for a funeral, I guess. ¡°I am not sure I can pull off a brash, showman character,¡± I said, getting back to the topic. ¡°Isn¡¯t that what your Roleplay Skill is for?¡± ¡°It is mid-apprentice. It only lasts for an hour and a half.¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound right. What is your Mental Perception attribute?¡± I used Identity on the Skill, ¡°Mental Perception is how convincing it is, Mental Strenght is how long I can keep it going for. Mental Agility is how flexible I can be with the role.¡± ¡°Mental Perception is your lowest attribute, right?¡± I nodded. ¡°You definitely need to be more convincing and for a longer time. I would put any spare attributes into both those and ensure they are both over 30,¡± Tabitha instructed. I nodded I could do that. Mental Perception went to 30, and Mental Strength went to 35. ¡°That makes a difference. I can sense how I can be more convincing and keep it up for almost two hours now.¡± Tabitha nodded, ¡°That should be enough time to get somebody drunk.¡± ¡°Let me think about it. The name is fine. I am just unsure about the persona.¡± Tabitha shrugged, ¡°It is so different from your normal, which is why I suggest it. You don¡¯t want to be linked to Sten. What we can do is get you playing bar-type games. My Sleight of Hand Skill is Journeyman now, so I can teach it to you. Your Physical Agility should be well over the required amount.¡± ¡°It will be a good Skill to have anyway. I will get this registered with the Mercenary Guild and maybe try the character.¡± I put some thought into it before going to the guild. I would need a consistent look to keep this up. I purchased a wide-brim Ranch hat and decided on shoulder-length hair for both Bison Bill and Dianne Prints. Bill would have light brown hair, a bushy moustache and a small section of chin hair. That should break up the lines of my face, as Dianne won¡¯t be allowed to have facial hair. Dianne¡¯s hair would be darker, almost black. Bill would wear clothes with lots of loose decorative bits and brighter colours. Dianne would be all business in dark leather armour. Bill will have a Longbow and spears as befitting a monster hunter, and Dianne will have knives, darts, and a short bow. Wild Bison Bill will be rinding Mosey with a fancy new saddle. They are two very different people. I only have two hours at a time, but Dianne would work alone so I can ease up on the Roleplay for her a lot of the time. Bill is more of a people person, so he will push the skill harder. The next morning Bison Bill swaggered into the Mercenary Guild, ready to sign up for gold and glory. The smell of his cologne wafted after him. He has a griffon feather in his wide-brimmed hat, claiming to have taken it from the wing while the griffon slept. A guild administrator took his papers, and Wild Bison Bill loudly proclaimed his Hunter, Scout and Monster Hunter Classes. I don¡¯t think many believed the last claim and someone from the bar muttered there was no hunting around here. It is all settled ranches. After registering, Bill went into the bar, buying a round of drinks in celebration. He regaled them with a tale of troll hunting with his valiant comrades, who he saved repeatedly. Some of the younger apprentices believed him. Bill took a tracking job from the guild and left under two hours after he arrived. It was quite a successful test run. The shadows were lengthening that afternoon when a quiet girl in dark leather armour and a face mask slipped up to the counter to register for work in the black books. She was tested in espionage and assassin and took a test job to plant documents in a merchant''s office. She was registered by the same administrator that had registered Bill. She left less than half an hour after she arrived. She returned with evidence of a completed job before sunrise, cementing her place on the black books register. That afternoon Wild Bison Bill swaggered back in with a completed tracking job, proclaiming he had found the poor lost sheep and caught some rabbits to boot. He had added a Rabbits tall on the opposite side of his hat to the griffon feather and a rabbit skin draped over his shoulders. He had an ale at the bar before leaving again. There was only a very small chance the spiritual signatures on Bill and Dianne''s membership would be compared. Registering at two different cities would have been better, but I figured it was a small risk. Arriving in Kirghiz with membership was preferable for Bills¡¯ bragging. Dianne could have waited, but Bietemark was always going to be easier than Kirghiz. Tabitha does not know about Dianne yet. Tabitha seems to have sorted information on the Duke of Kirghiz. I just want to find any ties Otto might have left, which meant interviewing Mary. I also wanted to see how the oil discovery affected Gilbert. Hopefully, Gilbert will be suitably distracted. I don¡¯t really care who he is reporting to locally. I do care about the information he might send to the capital. 179. Sensitive: Wiremu

179. Sensitive: Wiremu

How do I get information from a lady with a fire affinity and a bad temper? I can withstand her fire, but not without revealing a rock affinity and therefore revealing Sten is alive. I don¡¯t think she deserves to die. Maybe she does, but I don¡¯t want to kill another affinity user here, as I think it will bring in too much attention. The guard captain is already suspicious and not convinced Sten is dead. Could I get the guard captain to interrogate her? I could plant some evidence. The trouble is I want to be there with my Truth Sensing Skill to ensure she wasn¡¯t involved and see if anyone else was involved, especially people with power. I could only Roleplay for two hours. Then there was a two-hour reset period, so I stopped at my shop with the basement and changed into ordinary armour. I am probably going to need an ID for just me if William Cody is going to be Wild Bison Bill. Maybe I will get some ID for Varme Ting. That will have to wait until Kirghiz. Running three identities is going to require concentration. When I get to Kirghiz, Wild Bill will be my primary identity. I headed back to my rented room to rest. I opened the door to the room and paused. Something is not right. Suddenly my head was slammed into the door frame, and I think Granite Bones just saved my life again. The world was fuzzy, probably concussion. Concentrating Regeneration on my head was automatic, but I still couldn¡¯t think clearly. I heard footsteps and a voice, ¡°Shit, did you kill him?¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t have. Boss is pretty sure he has Regeneration, and I used a blunted arrow.¡± I Rolplayed being unconscious. It wasn¡¯t difficult. It sounded like they didn¡¯t want to kill me, so it was a calculated risk while my head cleared. An arrow to the head could have killed me. I was roughly dragged away from the door, and a hand checked the pulse on my neck. I sent a pulse through my bond to T¨¡oke to follow and be ready to rescue me if I needed it. T¨¡oke was back in the basement of the shop, but he was on his way. ¡°If you cracked his skull, he wouldn¡¯t be regenerating from that.¡± the first voice said. ¡°Just get the bindings on him, and I will check.¡± A hand moved over my skull where the arrow had hit, ¡°He is fine.¡± Then a bag was placed over my head. It must have been made from spiritually enhanced materials as it blocked much of my hearing and sight. Then I smelled something, and I felt very sleepy. They had a drug to stop me from smelling and to put me to sleep. I fought the sleep part, and my Poison Resistance helped a lot. It has been a long time since that levelled. My arms were pulled behind me and locked together in some sort of cuffs. They were a metal alloy but with a strong spiritual component. I couldn¡¯t break out of it physically, and the spiritual component resisted my affinities. My head was starting to clear when the drug hit, which slowed my progress. I would wait until my head cleared, and concentrating was easier. Similar cuffs were placed on my legs, and I was hoisted up. ¡°Shit, he is heavy.¡± I was placed in a cart or carriage. It was disconcerting with my senses so hindered. I was used to knowing what was going on around me. The ride was about half an hour, and my head cleared, and Poison Resistance levelled. I started investigating the cuffs. Just as I was concentrating, the carriage stopped, and I was hauled out and down some stairs. It is a real hindrance in having my senses blocked. Puia is poised to protect sensitive areas of my body, as is my Snakeskin ready to go. I didn¡¯t want to show anything at this point. I was dumped on the floor and heard a steel door slam shut. They are probably waiting until the estimate I wake up and to let me stew for a while. I went back to working on the cuffs. They were very resistant to my Granite manipulation, but I could do it if I needed. I could also melt them off with lava. I found a keyhole. I extended a Granite Spike and manipulated the shape until I had a key to open the locks. These cuffs could come in very handy. I moved around a bit to let them know I was awake and made a key for my leg cuffs. Now was the waiting period. I shuffled my body to lean against the stone wall. They must not know about my affinity, or they would not have put me here. Therefore they don''t think I am Sten. My Granite Senses extended out, and I was on the first basement level of a large building. There was an additional level below me, but I couldn¡¯t sense what was above. It must be wood. The bag over my head didn¡¯t hinder my Granite Sense, which was operating from my body. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. T¨¡oke was getting close and would be here soon. Them making me wait was to my advantage. I wasn¡¯t nervous as I had three ways to escape, and T¨¡oke was incoming. The trick here was to see what I could learn without giving away my secrets and without killing everyone. I settled in and started playing with my senses. I have always had more sensing skills than most, so this is my advantage. My Sense Spiritual worked fine like my Granite Senses. Sensing the spiritual flow in the air wasn¡¯t much help to me at the moment. Thermal Sensing (Mineral) worked fine, and there were slight differences in the temperature of the stone. The lingering heat from the day when the sun set. That would be west. My Mapping Skill orientated the room when I figured that out. All it showed at the moment was the room I was in and what my Granite Sense could figure out. I didn¡¯t know where in the city I was. I concentrated Thermal Sensing (Mineral) on my cuffs. That pushed it to another level, and I got a thermal map of them. They were warmer closer to my skin and cooling as they got further away. I created a Thermal map of the building. Two people were heating the room next door. I assume they were my abductors. They had been in there a while, which had raised the temperature. Tabitha said the dwarf with the earth affinity sensed when she moved. Can I sense the vibrations of someone moving on stone? Stone is harder than earth. I didn¡¯t want to kick the floor to test this. The two people did not seem to be moving. With my map of the building, I could sense where I came in, and so I knew where the road was. It was getting late by now, and there didn¡¯t seem to be any traffic I could sense. One thing has been bugging me since I bonded with Puia. Thermal Sensing (Mineral) and Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) implies there are other types of Thermal Sensing and Thermal Manipulation. I could adjust the temperature of my body by manipulating the temperature of my bones, which were mineral. Could I just change the temperature of my skin without changing my bones? It seems not, but what about Snakeskin? Snakeskin is very weak in temperature resistances. I created Snakeskin on my wrists and watched the thermal map of the cuffs change. It was definitely hotter. The Snakeskin itself didn¡¯t change temperature much it transmitted the heat. I focussed my Thermal Sensing on what was happening, and the heat going through the scales to the cuffs triggered Thermal Sensing (Organic). I am not sure what use that is going to be to me. Then I went back to my thermal map of the building, and I could now map the two people in the other room, at least while they were touching the stone. When one put his feet up off the floor, I lost him. No, that doesn''t make sense. If he is sitting on a wooden chair, that is organic. It took a fair bit of work and two levels in Thermal Sensing (Organic), and I also had all the furniture on my map. The range of the organic sensing was less than the mineral sensing, which also went up a level. My Mapping Skill also went up. I could now sense some of the wooden structures above me, just not very far up due to my low Skill level. If there is Mineral and Organic, there must also be Gas and Liquid. I couldn¡¯t see anything as I still had the bag over my head, but I could feel the air against my skin. Several hours passed, but I really enjoyed this experiment. I hoped they were not coming until morning. My thermal map was updated with T¨¡oke napping in the wall next to me. He had left a small air hole. I know Gwaed had Infrared Vision which allowed her to see heat. My sight was still blocked, but I could sense heat in objects, which was superior to just seeing them, which would be blocked by a wall. She wouldn¡¯t be able to see the heat of the two men next door, whereas I could track them if they didn¡¯t get too far away. I knew you could transfer heat to the air. That is half the reason for having a fire. I looked at my foot and covered it in Snakeskin. I then turned my stone toe into lava and watched the heat rise, trying to sense the warm air through my Shakeskin. The temperature of the room started to rise, and it was a normal feeling. I was used to feeling a warm room. I stopped generating heat and let the room cool, trying to sense it. The mineral sense was my highest skill, and I could sense the heat from the air warming the stone. I tried to extend my senses into the air. It took four heating and cooling cycles before I got Thermal Sensing (Gas). This extended my thermal sensing so much that it was overwhelming. I had to learn control and sensitivity. That took an hour, and I was only trying in the room I was in. Thermal currents swirled, and I tried to make sense of them. This was better without my sight, hearing and smell. This was probably similar to Tabitha¡¯s Spatial Awareness Skill, except I sensed thermal variations. I would never be able to read a letter in an unopened envelope as she can, but this is better for me. I worked at it, and all my thermal sensing skills levelled as well as mapping. Thermal Sensing (Mineral) was almost at Journeyman level, and getting two mapping levels in one night was unheard of. Identify was telling me something was missing. Thermal Sensing (Liquid) would round out the skills. Where do I get Liquid to experiment? I got up and hobbled to a corner shuffled my pants down and pissed in it. After all the others, the liquid was the easiest. It was surrounded by stone and air. When the skill came, all the Thermal Sensing Skills consolidated into just Thermal Sensing 5. I was a bit peeved at a loss on the mineral, which was 9, and some of the building was now out of my range. However, all the others went up, and the Skill was awesome. I had a sphere of awareness around me which was almost unblockable. It only sensed temperature differentials, but I could sense the people and food next door, and I just sat back and watched the temperature variations in wonder. 180. Deal: Wiremu

180. Deal: Wiremu

The two men next door were up and moving around, and I tracked them. The wooden wall on the east side of the building started getting warm, so I knew the sun was rising. They had me in a windowless room below ground to mess with my sense of time. That isn¡¯t going to work any more. I still had the sensory deprivation hood on with the cuffs restricting my movement. I suspect I wouldn¡¯t have long to wait now. I sensed the two men talking to each other by the hot air coming out of their mouths, but I couldn¡¯t hear them. If I removed the hood, my Hearing Aid would hear them easily, but not yet. Sure enough, two more people arrived, and a further discussion. Then they came into my room carrying two bright heat sources, which I assumed were lanterns. I figured they would rip the hood off and blind me with light. I was dragged to a seat they brought with them, and the hood was ripped off. I kept my eyes closed, and yes, there was bright light through my eyelids. I forgot that the hood was masking the smell as well, and I could smell the puddle of piss in the corner. I had been in goblin caves and dealing with blood and guts my whole hunting career, so it was nothing to me. ¡°You pissed in the corner? You disgusting slime!¡± one of them yelled at me. I had been expecting a lot of noise, so I had reduced the Hearing Aid sensitivity. He didn¡¯t get the reaction he wanted, so he raised his hand to strike me across the jaw. I pretended I couldn¡¯t see him and rolled with the strike right off the chair and knocked over one of the lamps. Oops. ¡°Enough!¡± commanded a voice I recognised and Gilberts. ¡°He is playing with us.¡± He looked at me, ¡°That roll was way overdone. Are you really such an amateur?¡± This guy was no amateur. Maybe I should have left in the night. The lights were off me now, and I looked at them. They all had plain clothes and face coverings. I could identify them by sound and the way they move. Their body temperature was the same as far as I could tell, except one with was higher. Did they have a fever? No, I think they were an elf. The heat showed the shape of their ears. If they were disguising themselves, it wasn¡¯t a foregone conclusion to kill me. I could reciprocate that. They picked me up and put me back on the chair. They then picked up the lamp, but I had smashed it. ¡°What is it you want?¡± I asked, using Deceive to lower my voice a touch. ¡°Someone in your position should be more respectful,¡± growled the first speaker. I saw Gilbert''s eyes narrow. ¡°You are either bluffing or really think you could take us.¡± He couldn¡¯t see T¨¡oke in the stone ceiling above his head. ¡°It is a bluff. Let me rough him up a bit, and he will be more compliant tonight,¡± Gruff voice said. Gilbert ignored him, ¡°Why did you break into my house?¡± He is acknowledging I know who he is. I decided on partial truth. ¡°To find out what you have against the Elemental Traders.¡± ¡°Do you work for them?¡± ¡°Probably as much as you work for the Duchess.¡± Let him stew on that. It is admitting getting into his safe but is the Duchess another layer of cover? ¡°Getting into the safe was clever, but you should have burned the clothes.¡± He is telling me how he tracked me. Why is he doing that? If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Is that when you found out about the ranch?¡± he continued. I saw no point in denying it, ¡°It was all over your desk.¡± ¡°I am tempted to kill you for that. You cost me a lot of coin.¡± ¡°Not that much coin. The field is large; if you dig down enough, you will find it on your land.¡± ¡°How do you know that?¡± he queried. ¡°The Prospector I hired is not due for another month.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll just have to trust me.¡± I thought about this briefly, then said, ¡°You didn¡¯t have me killed because you are considering hiring me.¡± ¡°You have some serious gaps in your training, but you are smart and learn fast. Maybe too fast.¡± ¡°Do you think you could kill me?¡± I asked. ¡°Probably.¡± That told me he had hidden talents and probably an affinity. Or he was bluffing and had a Skill that got around my Truth Sensing. What I lacked was a way to try and pierce through his Status blocking or manipulation. From this conversation, I don¡¯t think he has got very far into my defences. Those attributes Tabitha had me put into Mental Strength are not wasted. I figured I might as well ask my questions while I am here. ¡°Do you know what Otto was up to?¡± ¡°So the Elemental Traders did kill him. Or did you?¡± I didn¡¯t react to that. ¡°I was employed to find out if he had any backers with his project.¡± ¡°The only person left to ask would be Lady Mary. I am curious as to how you would do that.¡± I was curious about that myself. I had no idea. Actually, I did have an idea from my recent experience, but I would need to find the right alchemist. I doubted she had a very high poison resistance. Gilbert continued, ¡°What would that information be worth to you?¡± ¡°The life of Lady Mary¡± ¡°It is not worth very much to you then, is it?¡± ¡°Not to me, but it is to this kingdom.¡± ¡°And so you are trying to find out if I work for the king. Not very subtle.¡± Gilbert continued, ¡°You have cost me a lot of coin and some reputation. I¡¯ll tell you what, here is a deal for you. You get to live, and I will tell you the information about Otto¡¯s backers for the small price of a mid-sized Monster core.¡± ¡°How verifiable is this information?¡± ¡°You will have to trust me.¡± I guess I deserved that one. ¡°I will need to think about it.¡± I had a core I got from Otto¡¯s safe, but getting my own information might be more reliable. ¡°You don¡¯t value your life very highly, do you? You can stay here to think about it, and maybe the boys will come and encourage your thinking or kill you so you know your time is up.¡± He signalled, and they picked up the lantern and left me sitting there in the dark. My Darksight meant I could see fine. It was time for me to depart as well. I picked the locks on the cuffs and picked up the mask they had left lying on the floor. On second thoughts, I left the mask. It was valuable. They didn¡¯t leave it there by accident. He tracked me by residue on my clothes once before. I did pocket the cuffs and climbed out through the stone ceiling. T¨¡oke took his perch on my shoulder, and We only had to walk a short way for Mapping to position us, and I went to the Shop first. In the basement, I stripped and bundled the clothes in a rag and thoroughly washed myself and the cuffs. I dressed as Wild Bill and packed everything, except the clothes, into saddle bags I would not be returning here. I left by the front door whistling. My new Thermal Sense filtered for large objects like people. I would also need to get used to sensing heat currents, as that would warn me about incoming arrows. It would need a lot of practice. I dropped the bundle of clothes off to some local street kids. They were excited. Wild Bill booked into a mid-sized Inn That night, Dianne broke into Gilberts'' house, picked up a sheet of paper from his desk, and left a mid-sized monster core in exchange. A different bunch of street kids were donated clothes. According to Gilbert, Hale was trying to benefit from Otto¡¯s research but did not know much. Otto was shielded and helped by Lord Patrick Onlso from Kirghiz. There was a suggested contact in Kirghiz by the name of Alfred at a tailor''s shop in the capital. I wonder if this is Gilbert''s boss. I am almost certain he is working for the King. I will need to verify this information. 181. Modrica: Tabitha

181. Modrica: Tabitha

The Catkin signed on as Co-owners of Elemental Traders. This is the best news yet, as T¨¡tt¨¡ is basically doing all the legitimate trading anyway. He is training one of his great-granddaughters as a Merchant. Catkin cubs grow up so fast. She is a bit young for formal training but is tagging along and being useful. We will be back on the road to Kirghiz next week. The Caravan will take three weeks to get there. A lone rider could do it in a week. The Coach service is twelve days. Wiremu wants to go on ahead, and I want T¨¡tt¨¡ to go, as well as the Elemental Traders need a permanent base in Kirghiz. We need a large warehouse for a business centre and a large residential compound near the edge of the city. The residential compound needs a large yard for the bonds. Ideally, we also could do with a small farm outside the city for the bonds to run and less legal business. That will all cost, and T¨¡tt¨¡ has the Real Estate Specialisation. There are no wild lands from here to Kirghiz. It is all farms and towns. I like Beitemark. I can tell I am going to love Kirghiz. I am a city girl. I will finally be able to put some effort into my Racketeering, Thief and Burglar Classes. We are contracted for three months of performances then the contract ends with the Comedic Rhythm. I am pretty sure they will not stay together after that. We make a good team, but their reputations are now made, and I will be changing focus and prepping for heading back to the empire. Longstrider, my old master, won¡¯t recognise me. He arranged for my initial training as a thief, but I don¡¯t owe him shit now. I am looking forward to meeting him again. Maybe I will take over his business. I sat with Wiremu and discussed Kirghiz. I put an escort contract to the Mercenary Guild and employed Willian Cody to escort T¨¡tt¨¡ and his son App¨¡ with App¨¡¡¯s bond ?ir¨¡kkar and Mutalil with his bond ¨¡??al to Kirghiz. That way, App¨¡ can hopefully complete Wiremu¡¯s training as a Warrior, and Wiremu can finish App¨¡ and Mutalil¡¯s training as Hunters. Wiremu and I spent a concentrated day where I taught him Slight of Hand and several card games. Wild Bison Bill would be a bit of a gambler, so we spent half the day at the casino. What a burden. Wiremu lost coin. I came away with a tidy profit. After seeing the three on the road, I only had one pressing issue. Modrica and the military Enlistment. The Military is not bloody Intelligent. Modrica and I waited three hours in a waiting room. I almost asked Modrica to bring Te?ka in to join us. That would have rearranged this whole space. We were eventually seen by a Lieutenant who did not have the authority to take a shit on his own. ¡°Yes, Miss Skygge, you are a valued ally.¡± ¡°No, Miss Skygge, I am not authorised to issue enlistment exemptions.¡± ¡°No, Miss Skygge, the Captain is not available.¡± ¡°I am Sorry, Miss Skygge, I am unaware of the circumstances where Major Sione might have issued an Exemption.¡± ¡°No, Miss Skygge, the Major is not available.¡± ¡°They are only for extenuating circumstances, Miss Skygge.¡± This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°The Kingdom needs all its affinity users, Miss Skygge. We have just lost a powerful user in Lord Otto.¡± ¡°Please provide the orders you were operating under Miss Skygge.¡± ¡°Yes, Miss Skygge, you are a valued ally.¡± ¡°No, Miss Skygge, they are not extenuating circumstances.¡± ¡°I am sure military training will provide many benefits, Miss Skygge.¡± ¡°No, Miss Skygge, it would be the full five years.¡± And finally, ¡°Yes, Miss Skygge, I can defer enlistment until you reach Kirghiz. Miss Modrica must report within two weeks of arriving in the city.¡± ¡°Thank you, Miss Skygge. You are a valued ally.¡± Modrica and I needed a drink after that. Several drinks. Valued ally, my arse. At least it was deferred, and I can talk to the higher-ups in Kirghiz. Or maybe Modrica will never arrive there. We are picking up the paperwork tomorrow, and I am sure that the obvious loophole will be closed. Unfortunately, I can¡¯t just skip Kirghiz and move straight toward the empire. Modrica and I made a plan. She is a Master of Unarmed Combat and Blunt Weapons, But she does not have sword, spear or shield Skills. She is a journeyman with an Axe, but Axe and Blunt Weapons are not on the army¡¯s list of basic skills. If we can get those three skills to level 5, we can argue better against basic training. We went to the Mercenary Guild and paid for trainers for our remaining time here to at least get her the skills. I can then practice with the sword with her, Skavt can train her with the Spear and riding, and Najprej and Drugi? can practice the shield with her. It will be good for her to learn new skills; she also recognises that. After her morning and afternoon lessons, we hired a training ring and advertised to pay for sword, spear and shield opponents. It was difficult for her initially. She treated the sword and spear like they were blunt weapons. The Shield was a blunt weapon, and she loved that. She picked up Shield Bash at almost the same time as the Shield Skill. She immediately started working on creating an Earth Shield. It wasn¡¯t as easy as it looked. Modrica had lots of power in the Physical, Mental and Spiritual, and good Physical Agility, but her Spiritual and Mental Agility was lacking. The low Mental Agility hindered her learning, and the Low Spiritual Agility hindered her precision in her affinity. She was stubborn and kept at it. When we sparred alone, she showed me what she had learned from Te?ka. She practised with Claws and the Skills Rend and Crushing Bite. Her Orc tusks seemed to be sharpened and stronger. The more we practised, the less I felt she would fit into the army pattern. Modrica really struggled with the Sword and Spear, even when Skavt showed her how the spear could be used mounted. What she did pick up from Skavt was the javelin. She already had the Apprentice level Throw Weapons Skill, and Javelins seemed to fit her. Her strength outthrew Skavt, although Skavt was more accurate. Modrica started to try to make earth javelins as well, but they were harder than an earth shield. We stocked up on a lot of Javelins, and the good thing with Te?ka was that he could carry a lot, and I mean A LOT. We had special saddlebags made for him. When it came time to leave Beitemark, Modrica still hadn¡¯t learned the Sword Skill. Through dogged perseverance, she had picked up the Spear Skill, although she was not comfortable with it yet. She was more likely to get frustrated and throw it like a javelin. That was effective as well, but not what the army would require. I would have to be more forceful in Kirghiz when we have more time because, skills aside, Modrica was not a team player, and she did not take well to people telling her what to do. I was almost curious as to who would break first, Modrica or the army. However, I would not do that to her, and Kirghiz needed its army. 182. Bond Skills: Wiremu.

182. Bond Skills: Wiremu.

The Warrior Class is a very good basic Class. It gives me five attribute points. Two are assigned to Physical Strength, one to Mental Strength, and two are free. No additional Skills are given with basic classes. The Mental Strength is needed for my Roleplay Skill and to bolster my Status Manipulation so that no one can see the truth in my status. What I need is a Skill to pierce other people¡¯s statuses. I now have four Basic classes, which is unusual. Hunter, Quarry Worker, Spy and Warrior. Hunter has Specialised in Monster Hunter, Scout and Assassin. Quarry Worker has specialised in Prospector. Spy only needs one more level for me to be able to specialise in it, and a Status piercing Skill is possible through this. I also need to boost my Mental Perception as this is the key attribute to a Status piercing Skill. All my Attributes are now in their 30¡¯s except my two highest. Physical Perception is 45, and Physical Strength is 52. Attributes enable and empower Skills. Levelling Skills are what multiplies your effectiveness. I have been especially concentrating on my new Thermal Sensing and using it in Combat. Sensing the disruptions in the thermal currents in the air can alert me to a sneak attack, but it is bloody hard. Thermal Sensing started in the Apprentice levels, which allowed me to sense air currents properly, but when you are fighting or even just sparring, there are a lot of disturbed air currents. You must also concentrate on other things, or you will get your ass handed to you. Thermal Sensing must be automatic. I am making progress. It is now Level 7, and my range and sensitivity have improved. We were three days out of Kirghiz when App¨¡ beat Mutalil to get the Hunter Class. Age and wisdom still outdid youth and energy. On the trip, I was also helping them with their bonds, using my new skills Analyse Bonds and Bond Care. Those are difficult Skills to level. A bond is a partnership. I have discovered not all partnerships are equal partners, but there is always give and take. When T¨¡oke and I first bonded, it was not an equal partnership. He was a baby viper; I carried and protected him a lot. Koza and Velikan helped me realise I was sheltering him too much and that he was also a hunter. Then he became a Venom Serpent, and the bond went to a whole new level. It is that sort of growth I want to encourage through my Bond Care Skill. The Skill has not levelled, as I have only used it to break one unsuitable bond. I have not worked out how to use it to encourage and nurture growth. Analyse Bond is different. That is at Level 5 now. I used it to examine bonds and the strength and flow of energy through the bond. T¨¡oke is primarily a physical being, so the energy flowing through our bond is primarily physical. That is why T¨¡oke can pull on me to get Strength Boost, and I had venom skills from him. Puia is an Elemental, and they are primarily Spiritual Beings The flow of energy through our bond is primarily Spiritual. I say primarily because, in all cases, we are made up of all three attributes. This raises the question of whether there are Mental bonds as well. Puia being mainly Spiritual, only had the Skill Molten Rock when we bonded. He was Molten Rock. That was his identity. He was also a newly formed Elemental. He has learned from me Thermal Manipulation and Granite Manipulation, both strongly Spiritual Skills. I learned Molten Rock from him, which I turned into Lava Dart. Molten Rock has also influenced a lot of other skills, Granite Sensing, Thermal Sensing, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral), and of course, my Granite Armour. I looked at Tabitha and Nyx¡¯s bond before I left. Nyx seems to be a Spiritual being but also has a larger Mental part. The energy flowing through the bond is a mix. That is where the Mimic part comes from. I don¡¯t know whether this is normal for Shadow Elementals or if it is something unique to Nyx. I assume there will be variations in elementals like there are in people. Puia is Spiritual first and then Physical, being molten rock. Seeing the physical component of the bond had me rethinking that Puia could, in fact, learn Venom. One of the most dangerous things about a volcanic eruption is the release of poisonous gasses. That is something we will work on. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Analyse Bond broke through to apprentice level when I looked at the flavour of the bonds. The Griffon and Otto bond was flavoured as a strong, forceful wind. It is affected by affinity. Tabitha and Nyx were light wispy shadows. Tabitha and Dusk were fast shadows. T¨¡oke and I were of poisonous rock, and Puia and I were creeping rock. The bond between Puia and T¨¡oke was poisonous creeping rock. I really wish I had thought to analyse Dusk and Nyx¡¯s bond. Not everybody has affinities, so what is the flavour of App¨¡ and ?ir¨¡kkar¡¯s bond? I got the impression of the watchful guardian. Mutalil and ¨¡??al gave more along the lines of fierce fighting. So these bonds give me an insight into their personality type and relationship. Otto had forced a bond and had a domineering wind. For a healthy bond, there needs to be a connection in personalities. This gives me a clue that the first level of Bond Care is only to encourage bonds between similar personality types. I remember ?rt trying to find a bond for Skavt, and a bond she could ride was right, but several horses wouldn¡¯t bond. Animals seem to have an instinct about this. It would have been unhealthy if a horse had been forced to bond. Skavt needed something wilder. Elementals are obviously different. They don¡¯t have emotions as such. They have benefits, and I basically had to talk Puia into a bond. I am not sure if Tabitha and Nyx were the same. Elementals have a much longer life span, giving a different perspective. I keep thinking about the Rock Elemental we killed before we got to Jern. Could I have bonded with that? I will never know. I will have a chance to test this theory out soon as Najprej¡¯s bond Borec gave birth to four wolf cubs just before I left. Our Caravan Master, Selma and her two scouts want to try bonding with them. The cubs will probably be old enough when they get to Kirghiz. All these thoughts of bonds and Skills obviously encouraged experimentation. The trouble was Puia, T¨¡oke, and I could only experiment where we wouldn¡¯t start a ground fire. Stream beds were good, or where there were particular rocky areas. I would start by getting naked so I didn¡¯t burn my clothes. I would start with the Granite Armour and try varying things, like the thickness and different sections. I would use Thermal Sensing to get a feel of what this did to the currents. I would get App¨¡ and Mutalil to attack me, and I created Granite Shields while keeping an eye on my energy levels. Thinner armour required less energy and was much easier to use. I got Granite Armour to Apprentice level, which reduced the cost. Then I would get Puia to take form. He was Master Level in Molten Rock, so he could create a lot. I had him take the form of a horse, and we would go riding. He was only about as fast as Mosey, but that was pretty good. We tried other forms as well. The six-legged beetle was good over rough terrain and of moderate speed. The Eight-legged spider was slower but could go anywhere. Staying on was easy as I merged my Granite Armour with it. The legs of the spider were a weakness as they were thin. But Puia could rebuild them quickly. T¨¡oke learned Granite Armour from me, but his was segmented like his scales. It slowed him down because he didn¡¯t have the oil glands he did in his skin. He could thicken the armour enough, so I could ride him, but it wasn¡¯t practical compared to Puia¡¯s forms. It was better that he and I both rode Puia. He had Lava Spit, and I had Lava Dart. His large form could strike a long way from on top of Puia. Puia then learned Granite Spike and could spike from his riding forms. Granite Armour and Lava mounts played havoc with Thermal Senses inside a 10m radius. Then there was the vaporised Venom. We almost killed Mutalil¡¯s bond ¨¡??al by accident. After that, we were much more careful in our practice. Thermal Sensing told me exactly where the wind was blowing, and heating the venom to create a vapour killed plants and animals. It dispersed fast, so it would be better in enclosed spaces. We practised until all three of us gained the Skill Venom Vapour. I thought about it and realised that all my skills were lethal. What if I wanted to capture someone? I could make Granite cages. I examined the cuffs I had appropriated. They were a mixture of materials, and I couldn¡¯t work out what. I would need to take them to an appropriately specialised Blacksmith. I couldn¡¯t replicate them, but I could make my own. My Granite and lava were highly Spiritual, and the best thing was I didn¡¯t need to make a key, eliminating a weakness. Granite manipulation will open and close them without burning their wrist to the bone. 183. Careful Choices: Wiremu.

183. Careful Choices: Wiremu.

We were now only two days out of Kirghiz and came up behind a long caravan. The roads were definitely getting busier. I kept my Wild Bison Bill look but didn¡¯t start roleplaying the character yet. Most of the wagoneers gave us a friendly wave as we passed. Some took a double take at the lionesses, but they were obviously with the Catkin. A town was coming up, and the caravan would probably stop there for the night. We decided to as well. Wild Bill might dice with the wagon drivers for practice and to build some rumours. We had taken rooms and the Inn, and T¨¡tt¨¡ and I went out to watch the caravan roll in. App¨¡ and Mutalil had taken their bonds out to a local farmer for some pest control hunting. Rabbits and foxes mainly. The caravan didn¡¯t take long to settle in. A number of merchants opened stalls for a night market for the locals, so we browsed the goods. T¨¡tt¨¡ was the merchant and saw a couple of possible deals but didn¡¯t yet know the local market, so refrained from buying anything. I had wandered over to a fur dealer as I was interested, and Wild Bill would also be interested. I was learning to lightly channel the Rolplay skill, which extended the time I could have it up. Then I heard T¨¡tt¨¡ say, ¡±Bill, I would like your opinion on these.¡± I wandered over, and he was looking at an animal tamer¡¯s selection. There were a lot of animals in cages, and some were just tied up. There were a lot of birds, most of them exotic to this region. Most of the animals were house pets, and the larger ones were guard animals. They looked well cared for and were in various training stages. ¡°A fine-looking bunch of animals,¡± I declared, ¡°Are you looking for a pet?¡± I knew we didn¡¯t need guard animals. ¡°Or more,¡± he said quietly. He was looking for a bond, interesting. ¡°What sort of pet are you looking for?¡± You don¡¯t advertise that you are looking for a bond, or the price will go up. ¡°Something that might be helpful in my line of work.What about one of those?¡± he pointed to a cage of Black handed spider monkeys. I tried Bond Care and was getting a strong no. ¡°Their hands might help, but I don¡¯t think one is good on their own and large cats are one of their major predators.¡± ¡°You seem to know your animals, young man,¡± I heard as a large human came out to try to make a sale. ¡°They call me Bison Bill, Monster Hunter Extraordinaire.¡± I introduced myself to him with a vigorous handshake, full Roleplay activating. ¡°Trevor of the Premier Kirghiz Animal Traders. Can I help you find something? If I can¡¯t help here, our Compound in Kirghiz has a much greater range, and we can provide specialist training.¡± ¡°We are just browsing. T¨¡tt¨¡ here is looking for a companion and perhaps a helper.¡± Trevor looked at T¨¡tt¨¡, ¡°What is it you do that you need help with?¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ replied, ¡°I am a merchant. It is more of a companion I am looking for.¡± ¡°Merchant. I see. Moving around a lot. You need something small that won¡¯t disturb clients. Being Catkin only limits animals that haven¡¯t been trained properly. We at PKAT pride ourselves on proper training. With a few months of training, we can have a Geoffroys'' Spider Monkey trained for you.¡± My Skill was still saying no, so I said, ¡°Let''s look at what else is here. Small, you say?¡± ¡°Indeed, Come around this side.¡± We follow Trevor around the huge wagon. ¡°Have you considered a bird? These parrots draw attention and can be trained to carry messages. Pigeons or ravens are better and more discrete if you are looking for long-distance messages. I don¡¯t have any ravens here, but our compound always has plenty in the aviary.¡± The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. My Skill was neutral on the Parrots but negative on the pigeons. I looked at the parrots and T¨¡tt¨¡. What is the connection, or rather why were the pigeons negative and not the parrots? ¡°I don¡¯t think a bird is for me,¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ said. ¡°I assume aquatic or semi-aquatic are also not suitable?¡± ¡°No, thanks¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Trevor. ¡°This wagon over here has our nocturnal animals, and they should be coming awake. Do you want something that is active at night?¡± ¡°Let''s have a look.¡± ¡°OK, we will skip the bats, although if you want some night-time recognisances, they are very useful. Popular with some of our clients. I only have one Owl here,¡± he looked at T¨¡tt¨¡, ¡°but you are not interested in birds.¡± Let me see, ¡°That''s a Lemur. It is similar to a monkey but has noticeable differences.¡± his voice trailed off as I shook my head. I guess T¨¡tt¨¡ had expressed an interest in monkeys, so he was trying. ¡°This is a rare species. We call him a Tas Devil. This one is a male. If you are looking for night protection, they have the strongest bite for their size. They don¡¯t grow much larger than the size of a small dog, but they are very aggressive. They are marsupials.¡± ¡°I think we are good for protection,¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ said. I hadn¡¯t heard of marsupials, and by the time I got an explanation of mammals that carry their young in pouches, Animal Lore went up a level. That rarely happens now it is Journeyman level. I was fascinated by the angry little devil, and I almost bought him as a pet. It wouldn¡¯t work, and I knew that, so we moved on. ¡°These next three are squirrels but are not your usual ground squirrel from around here. These are Flying Squirrels from the Southern Forests. They don¡¯t actually fly but can glide from tree to tree.¡± Bond Care was giving me positive vibes. One of the squirrels was a stronger positive than the others. I looked to T¨¡tt¨¡ to see if he was interested. I needed to figure out why these were positive. I looked at T¨¡tt¨¡, ¡°Are you interested?¡± He nodded. ¡°Any particular one?¡± He pointed to the one that was the most positive in the Skill. ¡°That one is a Western Woolly Flying Squirrel. They grow quite large. This is a young male.¡± Trevor was sensing a sale. ¡°I know,¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ said, ¡°we have them where I grew up.¡± ¡°Can I understand your reasoning why?¡± I asked him. ¡°When I was a young kitten, I tried to befriend one. Got a long way, too, until it followed me home, and one of my siblings chased it off. The way this one is working, the nut is quite dexterous, and I think they are quite intelligent.¡± ¡°Indeed they are,¡± said salesman Trevor. ¡°It will only take a month for us to train it for all sorts of skills. The extra cost is worth it, and we have highly Skilled trainers with multiple specialities.¡± I looked at T¨¡tt¨¡, ¡°I am good if you are good.¡± T¨¡tt¨¡ looked at Trevor and said, ¡°I will take that one.¡± ¡°Excellent,¡± Trevor said. ¡°Let me note down what skills you want him trained in, and I can estimate when you can pick him up at our Kirghiz compound.¡± ¡°I will take him now. I have a trainer friend who will help me train him.¡± Trevor lost a little enthusiasm at the potential loss of the add-on sales. He and T¨¡tt¨¡ started negotiating the price. The company would not guarantee that the squirrel wouldn¡¯t run away if they didn¡¯t train him first in at least basic house training. Trevor was trying hard to upsell. Ultimately, T¨¡tt¨¡ got the squirrel at a reasonable price, and the only extra he bought was the cage. I carried the cage back to the Inn and went to our shared room. T¨¡tt¨¡ enticed the squirrel out of the cage with some fruit. I watched the bond form with my Analyse Bond. It seemed to come in layers, from the initial reaching out from T¨¡tt¨¡ to the response from the squirrel and a bit of back-and-forth strengthening it. I got the feeling each bond would be unique to the participants. T¨¡tt¨¡ and A?il had a smooth, layered bond. I felt from T¨¡tt¨¡¡¯s side of the bond that it was based a lot on companionship. There is definitely an emotional component to it. I got a level in Bond Care and Analyse Bonds. I wish I¡¯d had these skills when Modrica bonded with Te?ka, as that would have been very different. I also got to thinking about the slave bond. It is not exactly a forced bond, but I wonder how close it was to the bond Otto and the Griffon had. I really want to test these skills on the slave bond, but the best I can do for now is to level them as much as possible in preparation. I wonder if I can set up a business in Kirghiz assisting people with bonds. Maybe I could contract with PKAT. I am sure they at least offer bonding advice. 184. Kirghiz: Wiremu.

184. Kirghiz: Wiremu.

Kirghiz is big, and I mean huge. It seems to sprawl forever. There doesn¡¯t seem to be a wall. All the main businesses and industries seem to be down by the Kirghiz River. The river bank has stone piers stretching up and down it for kilometres. The river is so wide I can barely make out the other side. Then I do spot a walled part. That is the Naval base and forts on the seaward side of the city. There are several tall towers over ten stories high. I am only used to buildings around three to four stories. Then Farsight spots winged creatures landing on the tower¡¯s various platforms. I suddenly realise these are Avions. Kirghiz is a large multicultural, and multi-species city. The Kings Castle stands out on a hill behind the naval base; the hill opposite it has a palace. I am assuming this is for the Duke of Kirghiz. The valley between them will be the most expensive area in the city. Finding an Inn with space for the two lionesses was a problem. If town folk had bonds, they were generally of the small kind that shares a room, like T¨¡tt¨¡ and A?il and me and the small version of T¨¡oke. T¨¡tt¨¡ would be visiting some real-estate merchants first thing in the morning. I would leave App¨¡ and Mutalil and their bonds to escort T¨¡tt¨¡, while Wild Bill would hit the taverns and pick up the gossip. I must also visit the Mercenary Guild and collect on my escort job. We didn¡¯t need to do it through the Mercenary Guild, but this is a way to build my reputation. Dianne will also get on the books here. I found out there are four Mercenary Guild offices in the city. One in the expensive retail and financial district between the hills. It was called The Central Queens District after some historic battle between two Queens. There is even a statue of an angry warrior Queen in the central plaza. The main Mercenary Guild Office is by the civilian shipping area south of the Duke''s Palace adjacent to the international markets. This area was called the Dostava Docks. I have no idea why. The northern branch was in an area called the Upper Forstad. Then there was the western office in an area called the Western Marshlands. This was a poorer area, as you might expect. I took time and went to the main office to sign off my contract. There is always a tavern as part of the compound, and I figured it would be a good place for gossip. I browsed the job boards, looking mainly for jobs related to the duke or his many, many offspring. I didn¡¯t really know who was connected to whom at this stage, let alone their allies. With the sheer number of people, I had to reduce the size of my Thermal Sensing. I kept pushing it out as I wanted it to level. I could easily sense people in the floors above and below me, but the street was too busy at this time of day. Dianne registered later that evening with the Western Marshlands Office. It would take a day for her name to be spread to the other Kirghiz offices. While I was there, I took an assassination contract on a minor crime lord in the Swamp. That wasn¡¯t the official name for the area, which was Lower Mo?virje. It was a swamp. The narrow muddy tracks wound through wooden shacks, and in deeper water areas, the shacks were suspended on poles, as were the walkways. My heavy body sunk deeper into the mud, and the insects were fierce. Now I knew what the contract had sat for a long time uncompleted. I had Snakeskin active to keep the insects off. My Thermal Sensing allowed me to avoid people easily, and combined with my master-level stealth, I ghosted through the area. OK, I waded through the area, my Hearing Aid listening for word of my quarry. Eventually, I found some thugs that I thought might be connected and followed them. They eventually led me to a seemingly random shack on stilts, where they reported to my quarry. I stayed quiet and observed and listened. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. It is just as well I did because I discovered the second reason this contract had not been fulfilled. Mr Crime Lord had a bond. I might have missed it without my ability to sense bonds, and he would have had a warning. The bond was a big ugly cane toad. I would have dismissed the toad as a normal swamp inhabitant. It blended perfectly with the swampy area and was extremely poisonous. The bond itself was quite healthy and felt like a sluggish poisonous gas. If I killed the toad, the target would have a warning and could slip away. T¨¡oke was moving easier than I was through the swamp. He was also heavier than a normal snake, but it didn¡¯t seem to worry him. I worked my way around the toad and left it for T¨¡oke to deal with. My target would have a high Poison Resistance. According to my Thermal Senses, the soon-to-be ex-crimelord was now above me and settling down for the morning as dawn was only an hour away. I was crouched below him as this house was only a meter and a bit above the water. The floor didn¡¯t look that solid, so I formed a Granite Spike into a short spear. Dianne doesn¡¯t carry spears, but we will make up a story if necessary. I thought about burning the hut down, but I need evidence for the contract. Crime lord lay down on a sleeping mat, and I concentrated my Thermal Senses, locating his heart. I concentrated some more and identified some key arteries, which would put his brain right about there. I decided to go for his heart first. I lined up the spear and superheated the tip with Thermal Manipulation (Mineral). I ensured Sudden Strike was active and then performed a Power Strike straight through the wooden floor, his ribs, and into his heart. The heated tip of the spear cooked his heart. At the same time, T¨¡oke struck the toad. The toad didn¡¯t stand a chance. I think he killed it a normal way, as it would have a high Poison Resistance as well. He then ate it. Eew, that sounds horrible. I queried T¨¡oke why and it was a way for him to raise his Poison Resistance and Potency. That was interesting. I didn''t know that was possible. I wonder if it is because he is a monster. Look at that. My Monster Lore just went to the Apprentice level. Should I be feeding him all sorts of poisons? T¨¡oke feeds himself and will let me know if he needs anything in particular. I cut a hole in the hut floor, crawled in, and looted the place. A reasonable bit of coin for my trouble, and I took the ex-crime lord¡¯s head as the easiest proof. Assassin levelled. The low levels are easiest to level in the classes as well as the skills. The Mercenary Guild offices are always open. There is less staff in the early morning. I cleaned up and redressed as Dianne and handed in my contract. The attendant I saw was impressed as this crime lord had evaded the people sent against him for over six months. Two never reported back and were assumed killed. I assume the bond warned him, but I didn¡¯t say that despite the hints at wanting to know. You don¡¯t give anyone an advantage, as you will likely not return next time. I got an effectiveness mark added to my record. More difficult jobs would open to me. I spent the crime lord''s money on a small stone one-room house on the edge of the slum area. It was in a row of similar dwellings and quite run down. I created a hidden store in the floor for some of Dianne¡¯s gear and a spare set of Wild Bills gear. I popped back and gave the Mercenary Guild the address so they could leave a message there if a likely contract came up. I changed into Wild Bill and went back to the Inn for a late breakfast and a sleep. After lunch, I caught up with T¨¡tt¨¡. He had put an option on a warehouse and yard near the Dostava Docks and was doing his due diligence. The place was also close to the Trgu Bazaar, a famous international market. He had employed a Structural Engineer to inspect it. It was different when you were buying a place than when you just leased something for a few months. T¨¡tt¨¡ was about to go and inspect a residential compound in the Upper Forstad that might be suitable. Upper Forstad was basically on the other side of the city from the Dostava Docks, but it was not far from the edge of the city to take the bonds for a run, and there was a Mercenary Guild Hall there. The prices were also lower than somewhere closer. 185. Lore Abiding: Wiremu

185. Lore Abiding: Wiremu

It took me a week and a half to find one of the Duke¡¯s bastards who was a hanger-on to the Duke''s son George, who had made such a mess in Duhovno. It took several contracts during that time. One sounded interesting. It was for an Avion Nest, and they wanted an Archer with Farsight and Longshot to guard the top of one of their towers against a rival nest. It sounded interesting, but it was three days of boring. I didn¡¯t renew the contract when they asked. Besides, I had completed Dianne''s contract by then, acquiring documents from this nest for the rival one. We both got paid, and my Sleight of Hand Skill levelled into Apprentice. My Roleplay and Veneer Skills were on the cusp of Journeyman Level and just needed a push to get over the line. My bastard¡¯s name was Adam. I gathered his mother used to be a highly-paid escort back in the day. He didn¡¯t put it like that, but I distilled it into that. He was in his twenties and was a similar age to George, and I figured he was like his mother and trying to work his way up the social ladder. Unfortunately, poor George had stuffed up big. Adam was trying to assemble a group to ride out in three days'' time, meet a caravan, and force them to sign over some property. Elemental Traders is due in about three days. I thought it would be hilarious to go and meet Tabitha like that, but there was no way I could see it ending in any way but violence, and the Caravan would have the law on their side. He was an idiot who didn¡¯t think through his actions or even research his targets. I didn¡¯t want to lose my connection with George this quickly, so I steered him toward the Mercenary Guild Contracts to steal what he wanted. Unfortunately, it would cost a lot of coins, and he would have to consult with George. It will be an effort just to keep this guy alive long enough for me to meet George. T¨¡tt¨¡ had secured the warehouse in the Dostava Docks and was finalising a residential compound in Upper Forstad. It was the thirteenth compound he looked at. It had the largest yard yet, and the main dwelling had three stories above ground and two below. It included stables with upper barracks and a separate caretaker''s cottage. I had my eye on the caretaker''s cottage as it would make coming and going easy. It was a bit pricy, but I think T¨¡tt¨¡ was keen. The Premier Kirghiz Animal Traders had a shop in the Bazaar, but their main compound was in the Natursk?n Hills, which was the next suburb over from Upper Forstad. I would have to reveal that I had a bond to get a job advising on bonds. Wild Bill did not have a snake bond to separate him from Otto¡¯s killer Sten. There were several in the city with snake bonds, including a Lizardkin. None of them were monster bonds. It wasn¡¯t so unusual here, but it is still an identifying feature. If I meet someone with similar skills to mine, they will sense I also have Puia. This will definitely stand out. Maybe I should stay far away from such people. This will need to be thought about before I approach them. Wait up. I am going about this all wrong. William Cody, aka Wild Bill, is a persona to enter the empire. My purpose in Kirghiz is to learn what I need to break or reverse the Slave Class, not get caught up in Tabitha¡¯s fight against the Duke. My Bond Skills are helpful, maybe, but what I need is knowledge. I need to join the Lore Society. ?rt told me the minimum requirement was four Lore Skills over Apprentice and at least one at Journeyman Level. I have Mineral, Monster and Plant Lore at Apprentice level and Animal Lore at Journeyman. Joining the Lore Society is more important than helping people with bonds. It is the whole reason we were coming to Kirghiz. I need a new identity to join the Lore Society. The only one I have that I have not used is the one the Army gave me when they took over my Warren Carter Identity in Hrothgar. Three years of Lieutenants'' wages should also be available on that Identity. If I use it, they will know where I am, but they follow Tabitha on her Skygge Identity anyway. Giving them the slip after we leave Kirghiz shouldn''t be hard. Finding my Identity token from the Kirghiz Treasury took me a while, and I don¡¯t have that much luggage. I went to the Treasury and withdrew my identity and some coins. I couldn¡¯t even remember the name. Thankfully, the token was enough. Quinn Fletcher of Hrothgar. This could get confusing, but I don¡¯t have to act in order to be Quinn. I can just be a Hunter and Prospector wanting to explore bonds and classes. The main Lore Society building was huge. It was located just off Central Queens Drive on the King''s side. It was five stories high and at least three stories down. I have the absolute minimum to enrol, and my subject matter identifies me as a country bumkin. It turns out I am not limited in the subjects I can study but limited to the ground floor. The ground floor is still huge. I can apply to the desk if I want Journeyman-level help on a topic. The Masters are not to be disturbed. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Technically I could be paid for Journeyman level tutoring in Animal Lore, but ¡°There is not much demand for such a basic and generalised topic. Sometimes a Noble might want their child tutored in it.¡± I asked where information on animal bonds was, and I was given directions to the aisle number. ¡°Remember, lad, if you wish to bring an animal bond into the Lore Society, you must get a special dispensation.¡± The idiot couldn¡¯t even see T¨¡oke curled up on my shoulder in camouflage. ¡°Is there anything on Elemental Bonds?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, but they are on the floor above. When you have Elemental Lore at Apprentice, you can gain access.¡± ¡°If I knew someone with an Elemental Bond, would they be allowed access?¡± ¡°There is only one person in the city with an Elemental Bond, and they are the ambassador from the Elven Forests. If you knew of another, I know several Masters that would be interested in talking to them.¡± I took from that they would be examined and bisected. I changed the topic. ¡°What about classes and their requirements?¡± ¡°Aisle 24, for basic classes and their requirements. Specialisations are on the third floor for those with the basic class.¡± ¡°So I can get access to Specialisations of my Basic Classes?¡± He nodded. That will be useful. I have four basic Classes and can appear to have others with my Status Manipulation. I will have to get access through different people, or it will be obvious that I am cheating the system. ¡°I heard about Advance Classes. Where would I find information on those?¡± I got a careful look at that question. ¡°That is restricted information. You can apply for access to one of the Masters, depending on the Class.¡± That is enough questions for a start. I will find someone else to quiz later. For my first visit, I decided to look around and see what was available. The Bond books were nothing much new, although there was a refined Mental Technique to prepare for bonding which would be better than the one I am teaching now. Monster Lore was a varied subject. I did reserve a book on Basic Elementals. I figured it would help both Tabitha and me. We have fought two elementals and left another digging a hole in a cave, so I hope it will help with that as well. If I had known more, I keep thinking I could have learned more from the Sand Elemental, perhaps even bonded with it or part of it. My Sapient Lore needs to be raised as that will help with my Roleplay and Decieve Skills. I added a book on Animalkin to the list as we are headed to the Barbarian City States, which are mostly Animalkin-run. Classes. There are so many classes, and these are just the basic ones. If I want to dabble in Blacksmithing, I will need Metal Lore. Quarry Worker can advance to Stone Shaper with my current Mineral Lore and some training. Stone Shaper can then advance to Stone Mason. All these are Basic Classes. Some basic classes can advance, and the higher ones give more attributes per level, easier, and more specialisations. I went back and looked at Blacksmith again. The simplest class is Metal Worker, which shouldn¡¯t take much effort and will enhance my Weapon Repair Skills. I am essentially a walking forge now, so I should put in some effort. I reserved two books, Basic Metallurgy and Introductory Smelting. I understand from the book Human and Sapient Resources, Classes like Overseer and Administrator can specialise in Slave Taskmaster. This is my first lead, and I need to find some of these people to talk to. They are definitely not the regular crowd of people I socialise with. I could spend months in here, just on this floor alone. I am going to need to organise my time. If I plan to be in here three days a week, then I have four days to build the reputation of Wild Bill and Dianne, help Tabitha, and find someone who might need a Metal Worker to get practical experience. I am not sure when I am going to sleep. My biggest challenge will be figuring out how to get access to information on the Slave Class. I will start by being a regular here and getting to know people. I settled down with a book. 186. Introductions: Tabitha

186. Introductions: Tabitha

T¨¡tt¨¡, App¨¡, Mutalil and the bonds met us outside the city. They would guide us to our new warehouse, but apparently, we have to take the western road. They don¡¯t want caravans going through their posh ¡°Central Queens¡± area. I was surprised to meet A?il and hear the story of Wiremu advising on bonds. I will try to have him present when Selma and her friends try to bond with the wolf cubs. This is the end destination for the caravan, and the contract with Selma ends. The contract with the Comedic Rhythm and the Canine Queens ends in three months. I suspect some sort of confrontation to happen on our way through the city. The caravan route is well-known, and our timing is not a secret. What manner of confrontation will be interesting? If it is just to rant and rave, we will ignore it. If it is an attack, bodies will be left on the ground. If it is a set-up to have us arrested by the Watch, that will make it more interesting. I am a bit surprised we were not attacked before now. We reordered the front of the Caravan before entering the city. There is one way for us also to make a statement and be confrontational. Modrica and I would lead the caravan riding our bonds. Modrica and Te?ka totally dwarfed me. We then had four lions and two wolves arrayed around us. Behind us, Skavt led the Canine Queens riding Oske. Between Te?ka and Oske, I truly felt small. Don¡¯t worry, Dusk, we are faster. This arrangement also had the advantage of clearing the roads. We weren¡¯t far into the city when two patrol officers met us. I found out here they are called the Kirghiz Constables. They were all very friendly and reminded us we had twenty-four hours to register our bonds, and the bonds must carry a bond symbol that we would be given identifying them as bonds and not as wild animals. I invited them to join us on the road to the warehouse, but they had a patrol route they were to follow. I gave them the warehouse address for a Constable or other official to come and register our bonds. There was a fee for this. It was all very friendly. Caravans are a regular occurrence, and bonds are part of the big city. It was a big city too. It was very multi-species. I had a feeling I was going to love it here. We came to a large open intersection with a fountain in the centre. There were a lot of suspiciously armed warrior types standing around, not exactly blocking the street, but close. I could see many of them were taken aback at our display of power. I spied Wild Bill standing by a warrior wannabe. That moustache is ridiculous. I ignored Wiremu and everybody else, and we kept moving as if we were not going to stop, which we wouldn¡¯t unless forced to. A tall thin man stepped out into the road in our path and started yelling, ¡°You stole my Monster Core! That Dire ¡­¡± He stopped when all the bonds focussed on him, and they all gave a low, menacing growl. His legs nearly gave out, and somebody grabbed him out of our path before Te?ka walked over him. Well, that was pathetic. We just kept going past and left him behind. Najprej, Drugi?, ?rt and their bonds dropped back in case of trouble as the wagons kept rolling, but the caravan guards were on full alert, and we didn¡¯t expect any. If that was supposed to be a threatening display of warriors, it didn¡¯t even raise the hair on the neck of our bonds, let alone threaten us. I don¡¯t know why the Duke hasn¡¯t disowned him. He has plenty of other bastards he could recognise. The Duke probably wants us to remove him and keep his hands clean and /or have an excuse to come down hard on us. That might be a good reason to keep him alive. This would make it very frustrating for the Duke and could be quite amusing. However, based on his recent behaviour, it could be quite difficult to keep the idiot alive. Wiremu will update me in due course. He did well to infiltrate that group this quickly. We arrived at our new warehouse without further incident. Various of the other merchant groups started separating to their own warehouses after Selma and her crew signed them off as contract complete. The city official came to register the bonds. We affixed an Elemental Traders Symbol to an earring for all the bonds. The lions already had earrings Mayakku had enchanted for them to enhance their hearing. Her bond C¨­mp¨¥?i, the largest and only male lion, also had bracelets around his front paws with Sharpen Enchantments. Nobody could mistake them for wild animals. The Catkin would stay at the warehouse for a week or so, living out of their wagons. Mayakku will enchant the main walls of the warehouse and yard against common things like fire and sound. This will be the main base of the Elemental Traders for the foreseeable future. We might as well get it set up right from the start. Once she has finished there, they will relocate to the main residence and enchant that. We waited until early evening, and then I rode out at Dusk with T¨¡tt¨¡ and the Canine Queens, with Nyx impersonating Modrica and Te?ka. We rode to the new residence right through Central Queens, making it obvious where Te?ka would be. We stopped at the fancy Inn the Comedic Rhythm were staying at, cutesy of the agreement with Eluf in Obalno, so we were well remarked on. T¨¡tt¨¡ got us a good place. We will need a few alterations, but not many. Funny that these townhouses don¡¯t have a den for lions or Dire Bears. T¨¡tt¨¡ had got some furniture delivered, but we will need more. That can come. T¨¡tt¨¡ is going to be busy setting up a permanent centre for the Elemental Traders here. He needs to make contacts, sell our goods and hire other staff. The Catkin have a history here. They were pushed out by some of the larger trading houses, which is why they ended up in Jern. He doubts they will remember him, although they might remember Mayakku when she sets up an enchanting workshop. I am going to be busy with the Comedic Rhythm, as shows start in two weeks'' time. In those two weeks, Modrica and I need to sort out something with the army, so I need higher-up contacts with Military Intelligence. I also want to make some contact with the criminal elements in Kirghiz. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Tonight though, I am going to register with the Mercenary Guild and get on their Black books. Wiremeu is unaware I created a new identity in Obalno. Black is back. I only have two Effectiveness Marks at the moment, but my time is limited and it should be enough to get me notified of important contracts. I took a lease on a two-room apartment in Upper Forstad, not far from our main residence, to use as an address for the mercenary guild and registered at the local Upper Forstad office. The lady registering me took a look at my ID token for Black and said in a bored tone, ¡°Please be aware the Mercenary Guild is not responsible for any illegal activities you may get involved in.¡± Then she added, ¡°We get a Black Butcher Wannabe registering every so often. Please note the last one is now serving ten years of hard labour at the Coastal Penal Mine. Do you understand?¡± I nodded. That was hilarious. People try to copy the Black Butcher. The original Black Butcher was never registered with the Mercenary Guild. She was a straight-up Crime Lord. Her villainous month of butchery ended in a tragic death so I am not sure why people want to imitate her. I think when I created this Black Identity, I was infected by Gwaed. I registered for Item and information acquisition and assassination. It is going to be fun, though, getting back to my Thief and Burglary Classes. I am going to need a fence for the goods, but that will not be from Mercenary Guild Jobs. I browsed their jobs while I was there. I knew the Trading Houses that had driven the Catikin out, and I had good information on the Duke''s Business holdings, thanks to Fredrik. Those jobs will get priority. For now, I need contacts in the criminal world. I went out to the Western Marshlands and met Modrica in a bar. She had left Te?ka at the warehouse. My Krvne Sestre would be my obvious bodyguard. Modriac the Merciless had been an enforcer in the criminal world for over three decades. She knew all the tricks. We learned there was a recent assassination of one of the crime bosses in the slums, and there is fighting over the territory. Becoming a Slum Lord didn¡¯t sound very appealing, but it could be a way to find out who the big players were. We got directions to a fence who was also an information broker. ¡°Come in,¡± The hulk who answered the door opened it wide. We went into the normal-looking house, and the lounge was set up with a table serving as a counter. There was another Hulk in the corner. Modrica was still larger. My Spatial sense picked up a third presence in the ceiling. The broker was a Mer, And her smile revealed rows of very sharp teeth. I pulled out a fancy dagger with several jewels embedded in the hilt and laid it on the counter. I can¡¯t remember which city I picked it up in, so selling it here was very low risk, but it was a very recognisable dagger. Modrica and I were shrouded, so we were not recognisable, although I suspect this Mer had Sonar, and it gave me a clue that the small person in the ceiling was also Mer and probably the most dangerous one in the building, apart from us of course. ¡°Interesting,¡± she said, examining the dagger, ¡°very distinctive. Where did it come from?¡± ¡°Outside the city.¡± Her eyes flashed with some sort of milky lid, which I took as interest. ¡°Can you get more things outside the city?¡± ¡°I have contacts.¡± It is what I have been doing since Jern. ¡°How much?¡± I nodded to the dagger. The Mer, I''a was the name we were given, was smart. I am sure she understood this was a test. She looked at me a little longer, then examined the knife. ¡°Quality work, Sharpening and Durability enchantments, partly Spiritual, but I will need to test what type. The gems aren¡¯t just decoration,¡± then her eyes widened, ¡°They give a bonus to Small Blades. Here in Kirghiz, I will need to alter the look. I will offer you 50.¡± That wasn¡¯t a bad price; she identified all the relevant attributes. ¡°I want information as well.¡± I¡¯a nodded, ¡°Do you have more out-of-town goods?¡± I nodded, ¡°I can also ship goods out.¡± ¡°Are you with the Fiske?¡± I shook my head, ¡°I am new in town. Who are the major players?¡± ¡°The Fiske control most of the Import / Export business. They don¡¯t like competitors.¡± ¡°Where will I find them.¡± She looked at me as if I was dumb, ¡°The Fiske Wharves, of course.¡± ¡°Who else?¡± ¡°Janez is the orc that runs the Hazardirati. Mostly gambling and coin cleaning. The Claws are run by Volk, a wolfkin. They are the muscle for hire, protection rackets and cage fighting. The Kings think they run the rich parts of town. The King is the only name for the human in charge. The Krypta and the Mongrels dispute that claim. The Krypta is run by D?d who is a sneaky dwarven lass. They have some good assassins. The Mongrels are run by Connor, and they make the biggest noise.¡± ¡°Who was killed in the Swamp the other week?¡± ¡°Toady, was his nickname, he was a low-level Mongrel.¡± ¡°Was it a gang hit?¡± I asked. ¡°Nah, Mercenary, we think. He killed a couple of Constables a few months back, but they couldn¡¯t find him. Word is they put a contract out on him.¡± ¡°Are you with any of the gangs?¡± ¡°I buy and sell, no questions. My biggest dealings, though, are with the Fiske.¡± ¡°How much for the knife?¡± ¡°40¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t much info for that cost.¡± ¡°It includes the cost of me not telling the Fiske you are in town.¡± ¡°It had better include a contact for the Fiske so I can come to an agreement with them.¡± I¡¯a snorted in disbelief, ¡°Ask for Toby at the Laughing Eel.¡± She handed over the coin. We left at that. It wasn¡¯t a bad introduction to the city. 187. Casting: Wiremu

187. Casting: Wiremu

Metal Lore 2. The Introduction to Smelting was pretty interesting. The melting points of different metals and the different additives that could enhance or weaken the metals. It didn¡¯t even start on Spiritual Enhancements yet. That will start in Intermediate Smelting. Advanced Smelting is working with actual Spiritual metals like Blacksteel. Smelting is just extracting the metal, not yet creating anything. What I need now is someone to walk me through the actual practice. That was easier said than done. ¡°No, lad. If you want to learn to smelt, you will need to go out to the mines. They do all the smelting there. No point in shipping all the rubbish into town. We just get the ingots. No, I am not going to hire someone who doesn¡¯t even know something so basic.¡± Part of the trouble was I wasn¡¯t available to work twelve hours a day, six days a week. So here I was, Quinn Fletcher, in front of a shabby-looking Blacksmith Shop on the edge of the Marshlands, looking to buy. The property is for sale. I look at the signs in the windows advertising cheap horseshoes and equipment sharpening. Various tools were on display, from hammers, saws and nails, to household utensils. Not a weapon in sight. I guess you could whack someone with that frying pan. A bell rang as I entered. ¡°Can I help you sir?¡± said an elderly dwarf. She had an apron on but not a blacksmith''s apron. ¡°I heard the smithy here is for sale?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t look like a blacksmith.¡± She eyed the fancy clothes I usually wore to the Lore Society, ¡°You look more like a scholar. Why would you want to buy a smithy?¡± ¡°There are several reasons, but I am also interested in hiring a Blacksmith.¡± Her eyes narrowed, but I continued, ¡°Would you have somewhere we could discuss it? Perhaps with the Blacksmith?¡± ¡°You best come in,¡± she reached behind me and locked the front door, putting an ¡°Out to Lunch¡± sign on the door even though it was only ten in the morning. I followed her through to the back, where a tidy lunch room doubled as the office. ¡°I will fetch me husband.¡± She went out, and Hearing Aid and Thermal Senses tracked her upstairs to the apartment above. A few minutes later, two sets of footsteps came down the stairs. It was very obvious both the forges were cold, and no one was working. They came back in, and Nissa introduced me to her husband, Bodin. Bodin had lost his right arm. Nissa put the kettle on and made us a cup of tea. Bodin had lost his arm in an accident twelve months ago, and the pair of them had been trying to keep things running since. Nissa was trying to be his hands. It was too much for them, and they couldn¡¯t afford the Healer fees to get a new arm. They were selling the Smithy to pay for a new arm and then get a job as a blacksmith working for someone else. ¡°One of the things I want as part of this deal is enough training to become a Metal Worker.¡± ¡°A Metal Worker!¡± exclaimed Bodin, ¡°You have the brains you could be a full Blacksmith in two years as long as you have some skill.¡± ¡°And that is the point I don¡¯t have two years. I have three months, maybe as long as six months, and that is only two days a week, maybe a bit more.¡± ¡°And you have never worked in a forge before?¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°I have the Repair Weapon Skill at Mid Apprentice, so I have used some of the tools.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have any fancy Specialisations, lad. I am just a basic Blacksmith. No Weapon Smith, Armour Smith, or Spiritual Metals, nothing like that. I do have a Toolmakers Specialisation, but that is it. Horseshoes, tools and pots. That is me.¡± ¡°That is all I need. There is no way I can learn more in the time I have.¡± It wasn¡¯t hard to come to an agreement, especially when I said I don¡¯t want the apartment upstairs. There was a shed out the back I would use as personal storage and a cot if I needed to bunk down for the night. I would be Bodin¡¯s hands for two days a week, and I would get access to the Forges whenever I wanted. I warned them I might be in late some nights experimenting. I had ideas I wanted to try out with Puia. It would take Bodin six months to regrow the arm and build some reasonable strength and coordination back into it. I know App¨¡ has had his new arm for over a year and a half, and it is only just getting back to what he was. After I left the city, they would continue to run the smithy, and while this was a personal purchase, I told them I had ties with Elemental Traders, and they would provide oversight when I was not here. They might also be able to buy it back in due course. That afternoon we went to the city offices and registered the change of ownership. Quinn Fletcher is the new owner of Western Tools and Metals. I said to Nissa and Bodin that I would not take a lead role in the business as I didn¡¯t have the time, so they could tell people I was an absent landlord. My first day at work was basically a Health and Safety day, along with lighting the forge and generating a consistent temperature. My Thermal Sensing made it a breeze to keep a constant temperature. My Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) was some help, but the coal wasn¡¯t easy to manipulate. The thick protective gear stopped holes from being burned in my clothes, even if It wasn¡¯t really necessary. I didn¡¯t tell Bodin that yet. Two days a week wasn¡¯t really enough to turn a profit, but it was a start, and I was paying the wages. I can afford to take a loss for a while, especially as it was going to take me a while just to become helpful in the smithy. When Bodin eventually got me hammering out some nails, it was a strange feeling. I had initially learned the Hammer Skill in the Quarry almost three years ago, and here I was using it again. Bodin was surprised my Hammer Skill was so high, but it helped with efficiency. Life was busy. I spent three days at the Lore Society, but I varied the days, so I met different people. Wild Bill had to make appearances with his new friends, even though I said to Tabitha she would have to handle most of the Duke issue. Her most recent plan was to keep the idiot alive, and if she could get him to be the heir, that would really stuff the Duke. She is not sure about killing his two older siblings, but she is working on the options. I made sure Dianne did one job a week to keep her in good with the Mercenary Guild. I still haven''t told Tabitha about her. In week two with Bodin, I helped him make some Cast Iron Pots to order for a large tavern. The Cast was made from sand, which has a higher melting point than metal. The Metal was mostly Iron and a bit of steel melted together and poured into the mould or cast. This opened up a lot of possibilities for me. I could create my own sand moulds and as long as I had the right metal, I could cast all sorts of things. I wanted him to teach me more right away, but I needed to be patient. It would come. At the end of the second week, I arrived, and Nissa took me to the office. She looked worried. Apparently, the Army was looking for me. A Lieutenant and two soldiers came looking for Quinn Fletcher. Nissa had insisted I was just an absent landlord, but they had described me quite well, except for the part about me having a snake bond. I hadn¡¯t told them about T¨¡oke. I also haven¡¯t told Tabitha about this ID. She is going to curse me. That was a worry. Maybe I shouldn''t have used the ID they gave me. I don¡¯t want to get involved with the army again. Tabitha and Modrica are having enough trouble with them. Now I have to think about how to throw them off the trail. Somehow they have picked up that I am in Kirghiz, and it must have been the registration of the property. I should have just put it under the Elemental Traders'' name. It was quick of them to locate me. The name must be on some sort of watch list. I wonder if they have found my Lore Society membership. Will the army be waiting for me when I go in next? This could stuff up everything. 188. Recruited: Tabitha.

188. Recruited: Tabitha.

The fucking army. You can¡¯t go anywhere without tripping over Lieutenants. Junior Lieutenants mostly but some Senior. Captains seem to be as scarce as hen''s teeth, and Majors are worse. In Obalno, the Major came and saw us. Here I can¡¯t get higher than a Senior Lieutenant. I have spent almost two weeks being given the run around by the Fiske. I assume they are trying to find out about me and get some leverage before we meet. So that frustrates me as I need a decent Fence or more. Now the army is giving me the runaround. It is not unexpected, but I am starting to want to hit something. That is usually Modrica¡¯s role. Modrica and I are sitting in a room with a Senior Lieutenant and a Coproral, who say they are from Military Intelligence. I have no proof of that. It took me a week to get this meeting set up. Modrica¡¯s two-week period ends in two days, although I am interested in what they might do If she ignores it. If I can¡¯t get success playing by their rules, then we will start playing by our own. ¡°Are you aware of our work for Major Sione in Obalno?¡± ¡°I have read his report. It does not mention Modrica.¡± the senior Lieutenant replied. ¡°Modrica was fully involved as she is my Krvne Sestre.¡± ¡°How long have you been in this relationship?¡± ¡°Two and a half years since Jern.¡± ¡°Do you have proof of this relationship? After all, it is highly unusual for an Orc and a Human to be in such a relationship.¡± ¡°Proof? What sort of proof?¡± ¡°Miss Skygge, we have many people who come here with lots of reasons to avoid military service. A human and an orc in Krvne Sestre is probably a new one. If you are in this relationship, what proof do you have?¡± Modrica let out a frustrated rumble. ¡°Please describe the circumstances that created this relationship,¡± he continued. Well, goblin shit. I can¡¯t tell him I am the Black Butcher, and Modrica was my head enforcer, and we earned in it the gang war. ¡°That is confidential.¡± ¡°Then I am not sure I can help you. Is there anything you would like to add, Modrica?¡± I could tell Modrica was ready to hit something or someone. I doubted the Lieutenant or the corporal would be able to tell. It looks like we might be switching to our rules now. ¡°If there is nothing to add,¡± the Lieutenant went on, ¡°then it is probably best to complete Modrica¡¯s enlistment now. I know you wouldn¡¯t think of it, but we have had people try to disappear, and that gets messy for everyone.¡± He pulled out a piece of paper, ¡°Now you will have a full assessment with the trainers, but I need your Classes and all skills over Apprentice level, please.¡± Modrica stared at him. I was thinking furiously about how to get out of there without violence. They will have to get Te?ka at some point. If I incapacitate these two, Nyx and I could Mimic them and Modrica, and I could walk out. It was the middle of the day, which was not ideal. However, that should work and limit the violence to these two. Suddenly the was a sharp knock on the door. The knocker didn¡¯t wait for a response and just opened the door and walked in. Another bloody lieutenant, this one was female. ¡°Yes?¡± said the one with the form. ¡°Orders from Captain Blythe, sir. Are these Skygge and Modrica?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then I have some questions, sir.¡± The male Lieutenant sighed, ¡°Very well.¡± The female looked at me, ¡°I believe you know Quinn Fletcher?¡± Who the hell is Quinn Fletcher? The name Fletcher rings a bell, but I can¡¯t place it. ¡°I am sor¡­¡± ¡°Quinn Fletcher from Hrothgar,¡± she interrupted, ¡°1.8m tall, dark skin, has a snake bond. He has a sister Audrey Fletcher.¡± Fletcher and Hrothgar together make the connection. They were the IDs the army gave us in exchange for Tabitha and Warren Carter. If Wiremu is using that fucking ID, I will kill him. ¡°I might be able to contact him,¡± I said slowly. My mind was spinning with what was going on. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°Indeed, but if my information is correct, you are Audrey Fletcher, are you not?¡± Who the hell is this woman? I was about to deny it when the man dude spoke up, ¡°She had Spiritually verified ID to being Skygge. Is there some fraud going on here?¡± ¡°No, Lieutenant, this lady and her brother assisted the Kingdom at least twice before the incident, I see in your folder. They both have the rank of Special Lieutenant in the army.¡± ¡°Special Lieutenant as in affinities?¡± The male Lieutenant and the Corporal were wide awake now. ¡°This is the most common use of the rank in the army, but there are others given the rank for other purposes, like this lady and her brother. Unfortunately, there have been strong rumours of her brother''s recent demise. However, this is beyond your security clearance, and I must ask you to leave these two to me.¡± ¡°We were enlisting Modrica here as a Special Lieutenant. However, this lady,¡± he pointed to me, ¡°insists she is in a Krvne Sestre relationship with Modrica,¡± Modrica growled. ¡°Sorry, they both are acknowledging the relationship.¡± ¡°Really?¡± she said, surprised. ¡°Given what I know of Miss Fletcher¡¯s history, I would say that is entirely possible. I will take responsibility for this from here.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± The male lieutenant and the Corporal stood to leave, ¡°I will report this up my chain of command.¡± The female Lieutenant nodded, and we all waited for them to leave before the Lieutenant closed the door and moved to sit in the vacated seat. I waited until she was seated and said, ¡°Who the hell are you?¡± ¡°I am Senior Lieutenant Kelda.¡± I must have looked like I didn¡¯t know who she was, and that was because I didn¡¯t. She continued, ¡°We never actually met, but Warren, Sten, or Quinn, whatever his name actually is, trained me during the goblin horde near Jern.¡± Then it clicked, ¡°Oh, I remember Drugi? going on about a love-struck Sten. You¡¯re that lieutenant.¡± She frowned at that description, ¡°Well, if I remember, Drugi? was one of the orc sisters, and there was the other one with the yak bond. And the big human with the dog.¡± ¡°So you remember the Canine Queens. It doesn¡¯t explain what you are doing here.¡± ¡°Sten was extremely helpful to me back then. I worked my way up to Senior Lieutenant and transferred to Military Intelligence, as they seemed to be involved with Sten. Is Warren his real name? He was Warren when I first met him and then Sten after visiting Hrothgar, but I discovered that MI gave him an ID for Quinn Fletcher.¡± ¡°No, Warren is not his birth name.¡± ¡°We were getting ready for your arrival here when we had reports of Sten¡¯s death in Beitemark. But then the Kirghiz Treasury notified us the Quinn identity had been activated, and a Quinn Fletcher bought a Blacksmiths here in Kirghiz about two weeks ago. A blacksmith shop didn¡¯t seem to fit his affinity, and the tenants didn¡¯t recognise him, so we weren¡¯t sure.¡± ¡°My biggest concern is the statement, ¡°We were getting ready for your arrival,¡± do you plan to clarify that?¡± I asked. ¡°There is a lot we need to discuss, but I would rather do it with Quinn there too. What should I call him?¡± ¡°Quinn is fine.¡± ¡°What should I call you, Tabitha, Skygge, Audrey?¡± ¡°Definitely not Audrey. Call me Tabitha.¡± ¡°So Quinn is not dead, and he did buy a blacksmith?¡± ¡°He is not dead, but that may change when I see him next. I have no idea about the blacksmiths. We have been doing our separate things since arriving.¡± ¡°You are upset with him?¡± ¡°He should never have used the Quinn ID.¡± ¡°I think that is going to be to our advantage here because I can get Modrica sorted. You are actually Krvne Sestre? It wasn¡¯t just for the recruitment?¡± I nodded, and Modrica grunted her affirmation. ¡°Fascinating. I can get her assigned to our unit. You will need to go through the basic assessments but not the full Basic Training. Let''s fill in this form, and I can tell you when to report to the base. Classes?¡± Modrica answered, ¡°Brawler, Pulgist, Blunt Weapon Master, Armoured.¡± ¡°Ok, I haven''t heard of the Armoured Class, but the Trainers will know. Skills? Let''s Start with Apprentice Skills. We are not worried about Novice Skills. By the way, there is no point in fudging them, as the trainers will find out.¡± ¡°Shield, Shield Bash, Throw Weapons, Riding, Earth Spike, Earth Wall, Earth Bones,¡± Modrica paused and looked at me. I nodded, and she said, ¡°Claws, Rend, Crushing Bite.¡± ¡°Right, Journeyman?¡± ¡°Small Blades, Axe, Sense Spiritual, Hide Status, Identify, Boost Constitution, Power Fist, Armour Smash, Fast Strike, Armoured Skin, Wagoneer, Dwarvish and Common.¡± ¡°Master?¡± ¡°Darksight, Unarmed Combat, Blunt Weapons.¡± ¡°Affinity is straight Earth?¡± Modrica nodded, ¡°Bond?¡± ¡°Te?ka, Dire Bear.¡± ¡°Any Monster kills?¡± Modrica shook her head. ¡°Right, I see they already have you down as a cavalry recruit. I will change that to Special Forces, which basically means Military Intelligence which will keep us all together. Your Class and Skills in Blunt Weapons differ greatly from what the cavalry will require anyway.¡± I spoke up, ¡°We are not interested in being a MI unit. We will not be dancing to anyone''s tune here.¡± ¡°We can discuss what that means when we are all together. Let¡¯s just say MI has much more freedom than other military units. The trainers will want you and Te?ka for two weeks, Modrica. It will be scheduled in a week or so.¡± ¡°She is likely to bash anyone who yells at her,¡± I said, and I saw Modrica smile. ¡°Well, this is the army. If they can¡¯t handle that, they shouldn¡¯t be here. Do you have somewhere we could meet in a couple of days?¡± I gave her the address of our residential compound, and we walked out without hitting anyone. 189. Information: Wiremu

189. Information: Wiremu

Wow, Tabitha was upset. She must have known they were following her as Skygge, so the Quinn Fletcher ID wasn¡¯t so bad. I didn¡¯t realise how close they were watching it, though. Kelda is now a Senior Lieutenant in MI. Good on her. I am a bit nervous about meeting her again, though. I have changed a lot in the two and a half years, and so has she. She used to be a timid junior, partially scared of her fire affinity. She was only a Special Lieutenant, which is the rank they give those with affinities but no command responsibilities. In fact, they coddle and protect them. Now she is a Senior Lieutenant with quite a commanding presence, according to Tabitha. I have settled into the Caretakers Cottage at the residence. Modrica and I built a new tunnel from the cottage to the basement of the main dwelling, stables, and a small shop across the road we bought. Mayakku would use it for her enchanting storefront even if she didn¡¯t work there. We also built a den for Te?ka and a separate den for the lions. These were kept well away from the stables. Mosey still has some trouble with the smell of lions and wolves everywhere. I hate to think what a visiting horse would be like. We matched three of Borec¡¯s wolf cubs with Selma and two of her five people. I let the others try but could tell they were incompatible and ensured nothing was forced. Bond Care went to 3. We didn¡¯t have a suitable bond for Borec¡¯s last cub, and I wondered if Kelda might be compatible. I could tell my increase in Sapient Lore was helping me understand the people side of the bond, and Animal Lore helped the other side. Sapient Lore was also helping my Spy Skills. Tutor and Identify were telling me I was about halfway to the Metal Worker Class. It would just take time working with Bodin and getting experience. I was increasing my Metal Lore even though it wasn¡¯t necessary for the class. I wanted to be competent in mixing metals and strengthening ingredients. Casting iron, steel, and bronze was my minimum. If I could get Metal Lore to Apprentice, that would make upgrading the class easier in the future. ?rt caught me at the Lore Society the other day. I had seen him making the most of his membership but had ducked out of sight. He saw me this time, and I had to settle him down. I had to introduce him to Quinn. Quinn had no disguise, so he was easily recognisable. ?rt was very helpful after that and helped me find out a lot. I discovered who the Masters are at the Lore Society, and they can all grant access to Advance Class information, but only in their area of speciality. I never realised there were so many Advanced Classes. General information on Advanced Classes was available, and all Advanced Classes had big advantages in one area but penalised another. The most common example given was a Weaponsmith Advanced Class, which boosted the Specialisation to make unheard-of weapons, but blocked all other specialisations from the basic Blacksmith Class. They could only make weapons. Well, I guess they could use the basic blacksmith class to make cast iron pots, but no decent armoursmith skills, no siege weapons or structural Skills, just personal weapons. A second example was an Advanced Class as a Mentalist, which boosted your Mental Attributes and penalised the Physical Attributes, almost the reverse of the Slave Class. It got me thinking about whether someone could have two Advance Classes as the Mentalist would go a long way to reversing the Slave Class. The Slave Class penalised the Mental and enhanced the Physical and Spiritual. I didn¡¯t know if that was possible or what the requirements were for the class. It is a possible solution worth exploring, but I need access to the information. I have looked at the specialisations for the Administrator Class, and Slave Taskmaster is there, but the book on it has been replaced by a note saying it is illegal in the Kingdom and a Royal Decree is required to grant access. Only a Lore Master may request Royal Decrees. I am wondering if Kelda could help with this, or maybe her boss. If I can¡¯t make progress, then I figure the information is probably in one of the five vaults on the lower floors, and illegal entry is the next step. I am sure it will be significantly harder than a domestic safe. Tabitha thought Drugi? should meet Kelda at the gate. I am not sure why. Najprej went with her with their two bonds. Te?ka and all four lions were in their dens, out of sight. From a Tracker''s point of view, it was obvious what animals were around, not to mention the Smell of them, but you never know what might be an advantage. I caught glimpses of a strange bond this afternoon, but it disappeared too fast to pin down. Someone was checking us out, probably MI. Tabitha, Modrica and I waited in the front receiving room. When the visitors came within my Thermal Sensing Range, I saw there were three of them. Kelda, a Human Male and a male Wolfkin. Najprej and Drugi?¡¯s bonds had taken a liking to him, which was a good sign. When they came into the room, the first thing I thought was that Kelda looked good. They were all in uniform, but her bearing and confidence were a good fit. The second thing I noticed was that she had a bond. Her bond wasn¡¯t here, but it was close. It was probably the one checking us out. The Bond felt like an intricate fire. It was very unique. I look forward to meeting it. When we shook hands, her hand lingered a moment. I would like to say it was personal feelings, but she was more likely sensing my new affinity. Hers had grown. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The human male was introduced as Captain Blythe. I assume he was Kelda¡¯s boss. The Wolfkin was a Sergeant Rodion. He is Kelda¡¯s, right-hand man. We sat down, and Tabitha kicked it off with, ¡°I was not happy to discover MI had plans for us. Despite your ¡°Special Lieutenant¡± goblin shit, we are not part of your army.¡± Captain Blythe responded, ¡°Then we are all not happy because I was not happy to hear about the death of Lord Otto.¡± ¡°Then you should keep your nobles within the law or at least make them respect their fellow beings enough not to experiment on them,¡± I said. ¡°There are processes in place for bringing proof before the local Duke or Duchess,¡± Blythe responded. ¡°Tell that to the mutilated Lionkin I buried,¡± I said. Tabitha spoke up, ¡°As I clearly stated to Major Sione in Obalno, we will consider any individual contracts put before us like any other Mercenary. We will choose whether we accept them or not.¡± ¡°If you want special treatment for Modrica, we expect something in return, and you are members of this kingdom.¡± Blythe continued. ¡°No, Captain, we are not members of this Kingdom. We have been here less than three years. We will be gone in less than another year,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°You think you can just walk out on the Royal Army?¡± he responded. ¡°Yes, Captain,¡± I said, ¡°I do think that. Otto wasn¡¯t some coddled ¡°Special Lieutenant.¡± He was a fifteen-year veteran of your Royal Army, and after that, he was an experienced Monster Hunter with a team behind him. I killed him and his team all by myself!¡± Sorry, T¨¡oke and Puia, but when we measure dicks we all exaggerate. ¡°The thing is, Captain, I am not here by myself. If you try and force us to do something, the ¡°Month of the Black Butcher¡± will look like a playground scuffle, and it will happen in your capital city.¡± The Captian turned to Kelda, ¡°And you really think you can work with these people?¡± She nodded. He stood up, ¡°Then it is your head that will roll. I will not be involved.¡± He turned and walked out. We heard the door slam and footsteps down the drive. Tabitha started to speak, but Kelda held up a finger telling her to wait. When we heard the gate shut, she turned back to us, ¡°Sorry about that, but it needed to happen.¡± ¡°He wanted deniability if he is pulled to testify before a Truth Senser?¡± Tabitha queried. ¡°Yes, essentially. It is part internal politics and partly Kingdom deniability if the Empire makes a fuss.¡± ¡°They sacrifice their lowly lieutenant?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Not so lowly. I do have an affinity, but essentially yes.¡± ¡°So what is actually going on?¡± I asked. ¡°One of the last things you said to me after our training in Jern was that I needed to watch my back because they shouldn¡¯t have messed up my training so much. That was a wake-up call for me, and I started carefully watching what was happening. I watched so well that I got a Class for it, Observer. That helped me transfer to MI. What I want to know before we go further is, are you still serious about combatting Slavery in the Empire?¡± I could tell she was watching me closely. It must be some skill she got with the class. ¡°Yes, I am. That is where we will be in less than a year.¡± I could sense her bond was watching me from the window. My eyes flicked to the window, and she saw that. ¡°Good,¡± she said. ¡°There are very few who notice my bond, Liten.¡± She put up her arm, and an ordinary Sparrow landed on it. ¡°This is Liten, and she is very good at not being seen and helping me see things. Don¡¯t be fooled, though. She has a stronger affinity for fire than I do, as a number of predators and people have found out. She is one of my secret weapons, so I am interested in how you knew she was there.¡± ¡°I have a Skill that helps with bonds and forming them. I can sense the bond link itself. It is new, so it is still low level.¡± I replied. I wasn¡¯t going to mention the Bond Master Class. I was barely figuring out how to level the Skills, let alone the Class. ¡°Why did you want to know about my attitude to slavery?¡± ¡°Because I and Rodion,¡± she indicated the Wolfkin Sergeant, ¡±are here to help.¡± 190. Help: Wiremu

190. Help: Wiremu

¡°Help? How?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°No,¡± I interrupted, ¡° the more important question is why?¡± I would push my Truth Sensing on this one as much as possible. This was important to get right. ¡°After Jern, we go two weeks'' leave in Hrothgar, and I spent it at home. I wasn¡¯t truthful about my past when we talked in Jern. My father is the Duke of Hrothgar. Due to events around awakening my affinity as a child, I am now also the Heir. My older brother and two servants were killed in the fire. I was seven years old at the time. This caused tension between my father, in particular, and me. The main support in my teenage years was actually our cook. When I returned with fresh eyes, I saw much more than I did as a spoilt child.¡± Kelda paused for a breath. Truth Sensing was not only confirming her words but giving me an idea of how difficult this was for her. ¡°Cook wasn¡¯t just our cook. She was our internal security and managed the kitchen staff. I didn¡¯t realise this until I was in my mid-teens. We had two kitchen staff that I considered to be simple, mentally. One basically stirred pots all day while another swept and mopped the floors. Yet one time, Cook asked Ricky, the floor sweeper, to break into a rune-locked desk and steal something, and he did. He had Skills but no initiative. When I went back with fresh eyes, I realised both those servants had the Slave Class that was limiting them. I made inquiries, and they were the only two surviving members of Cook¡¯s Mercenary Team, and they had been rescued from slavery but could not remove the Class.¡± ¡°Who was their owner? Cook?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°No, The Military has trained and supervised people who take over ownership to enable ex-slaves to live as normal a life as possible. They still need help in their everyday lives. I could see the pain in Cook as she helped them every day. She had lived, fought, and adventured beside these people for decades, and now she has to manage them as they stir pots and sweep floors. It is not right! So I figured if you find a way to fix it, then I am with you.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t actually found a way to fix it yet, but I am getting closer,¡± I said. ¡°What are you willing to do to fix it?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Kelda was puzzled. ¡°What you see here.¡± Tabitha said, ¡°Fancy house, successful Trading company, warehouse, employees. All this was built in three years, but most of the funding is from illegal activities. What will you do if we have to break into a vault in the king''s palace? Or assassinate a noble, maybe even the local Duke? How far are you willing to go?¡± Kelda was quiet at that. I am pretty sure she had visions of us breaking into the empire vaults, and it may come to that, be there are vaults here with information as well. While Kelda was pondering that, I turned to Rodion, ¡°What about you, Rodion? Why would you want to join us?¡± ¡°Because I am bored.¡± I raised my eyebrows at that. I wasn¡¯t expecting that. ¡°Care to explain?¡± ¡°When I was a cub, I was pretty wild and stupid. I joined a gang, got a bit violent, and killed a man. The Constables caught me and gave me a choice. Ten years in the mines or ten years in the military. I re-upped for another five after my ten was done because it was good. Taught me to fight. Taught me to control my fighting. But now I am done. My enlistment ends next month, and I need something new. Kelda is good, she has passion and drive, but she is young. She doesn¡¯t realise what it takes. She is also crap at fighting, even though she gets called the Goblin Killer. Goblins must be pathetic fighters. She needs backup and someone to do what it takes. That¡¯s me.¡± ¡°And are you leaving the army as well, Kelda?¡± I asked. ¡°My compulsory five years ends in about six months. They think I am going to reenlist, and I may have hinted at that, but it will depend. Another five years in the army doesn¡¯t really appeal.¡± ¡°What does Blythe think you are getting us to agree to?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°To become a Special Forces Unit under MI with me in charge. It will make my career and pave the way to becoming a Captain.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s never going to happen,¡± Tabitha stated. ¡°What about Modrica and her enlistment?¡± I asked. ¡°We can keep that going, and she can be my first recruit. If I don¡¯t reenlist, she must be gone by then. I am unsure how that can work with a Dire Bear, though. It is hard to miss.¡± I looked at Tabitha, and she nodded. I looked back to Kelda, ¡°It is not that difficult making a Dire Bear disappear.¡± You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°We have some time,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I am committed to three months of performances with the Comedic Rhythm starting this weekend. That can be your excuse for us holding off signing up for now. You need to decide how far you are willing to go. We are in conflict with the Duke of Kirghiz¡¯s son, and he may need to die.¡± ¡°Which son?¡± ¡°George,¡± Kelda made a distasteful face. Tabitha continued, ¡°Personally, I would rather promote him to Heir, but I doubt that will happen.¡± ¡°I might be able to help there. I do know the Duke¡¯s family socially.¡± Kelda said. ¡°Would you kill him?¡± ¡°George? Possibly, but if you give me the details of the issue, there is probably a more embarrassing way to get him off your back.¡± ¡°The girl has potential,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°As for Rodion, is your joining conditional on Kelda joining or not?¡± ¡°Who am I joining?¡± Rodion asked. ¡°Yes, that is a good question,¡± Kelda added, ¡°I don¡¯t even know your real names.¡± ¡°We three are the key to this outfit,¡± I replied. ¡°There is no higher authority. We don¡¯t have a group name, but we operate under the Elemental Traders at the present time. If I tell you more, it will be a risk for us. Will it go any further? And that holds whether or not you join us.¡± ¡°And just to be clear,¡± Tabitha said, ¡°If it does go any further, we would consider it a fatal offence.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t breathe a word,¡± Kelda said. ¡°Nor will I,¡± Rodion said. Truth Sensing told me they were sincere, and it finally levelled into journeyman, giving me more confidence. I continued, ¡°Very well, Tabitha is, in fact, Tabitha Carter from Yelets in the Empire. Modrica is Modrica the Merciless from the fighting pits in Jern. Modrica and Tabitha are Krvne Sestre, which was earned gang fighting during the month of the Black Butcher in Jern.¡± ¡°You fought the Black Butcher?¡± said Kelda impressed. This was going to make or break it. ¡°No, Kelda,¡± I said, ¡°She is the Black Butcher.¡± To make the point, Tabitha pulled out the Blacksteel knife and stabbed it into the table between us. Kelda was stunned, speechless. I was warier about the excited grin on Rodion¡¯s face. ¡°The question about how far you would go was not meant lightly,¡± Tabitha said into the silence. ¡°Rodion said he was young and stupid in the gangs once. Well, so was I. It just got out of control.¡± ¡°Out of control¡­¡± Kelda was having trouble processing that information. ¡°Yes, out of control, and without Modrica, I would not have survived, and without Wiremu, I would not be sane,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Wiremu?¡± Rodion asked. ¡°That is my real name,¡± I said, ¡°I am Wiremu Hunter, and I grew up in a small village on the edge of the Free Republic.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not brother and sister?¡± Kelda asked. ¡°We are Brother and Sister in every way except blood. In Orcish terms, we are Clan. We have another clan member, and we hope he will join us before we leave Kirghiz. I was taken by Empire slavers and spent three years in a quarry while they tried to make me accept the slave class. That is where I got my Granite Affinity and my bond, T¨¡oke. I eventually escaped and joined Tabitha and her brother Warren in escaping the empire. Warren didn¡¯t make it.¡± ¡°Your affinity has changed,¡± said Kelda. ¡°Yes, and that is another story for later. This is what you need to know about who you are joining.¡± I saw Kelda¡¯s eyes flick to the Blacksteel knife in the table. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen T¨¡oke. He didn¡¯t die against Otto, did he?¡± ¡°No, he didn¡¯t. In fact, he is here. You have the Observer Class. You tell me where he is.¡± Her eyes roamed around the room. She looked at me, ¡°You''re hotter than you should be.¡± ¡°Thank you, I think.¡± ¡°You know what I meant.¡± Then she pointed to a patch of floor. ¡°That floor is hotter than the rest. Is he under it?¡± ¡°Close. He is in it.¡± T¨¡oke used his Granite Manipulation and slid out of the floor and up my leg. We will have to learn to control our temperature better, or we will give ourselves away. Something for us to work on. ¡°Awesome,¡± said Rodion. ¡°Affinities are so cool, and for the record, I am in regardless of Kelda.¡± ¡°Bloody traitor,¡± said Kelda half-jokingly. ¡°You can¡¯t tell me that we won¡¯t take a serious bite out of the Empire''s arse by joining with these people. This is exciting.¡± Tabitha looked at the Wolfkin thoughtfully and said, ¡°I think you will make a good companion for Wild Bill.¡± ¡°I like the name. Who is he?¡± ¡°I will introduce you later,¡± I said, ¡°Do you have any last questions?¡± ¡°Just one,¡± said Rodion, ¡°Who is the other Clan Member?¡± ¡°Ruku,¡± I said, ¡°He has a Water Affinity, and until a few years ago, he was a Major in the Marine Commandos out of Obalno.¡± Rodion¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°You have the Mad Major on your team? Seriously Kelda, you have to join. This is so badass. I remember the story of the Mad Major and this Octopod... ¡° ¡°Not now, Rodion,¡± Kelda interrupted him. ¡°Ruku knows all this?¡± her hand indicated the Blacksteel Knife showing which part of ¡°this¡± she was really meaning. Tabitha chuckled, ¡°The very night I told Ruku, he accompanied me dressed as the Black Butcher to intimidate a local gang in Obalno.¡± ¡°I think you are all mad.¡± She paused, ¡°Yes, I am in.¡± ¡°At least you are joining with the right expectations,¡± I said. ¡°What the hell have I done.¡± 191. Sneaky: Wiremu

191. Sneaky: Wiremu

Kelda went back to work. She would resign with a minimum of one month''s notice in five months'' time. That is when things will get interesting. Rodion handed his notice in that day and is required to work out his month, so he could only help me during his off hours, with Kelda as his commanding officer, which was quite frequent. I introduced him to Wild Bill, and he thought it was hilarious. He was also a bit envious, ¡°They don¡¯t teach us disguises in the Army, not even in MI.¡± Wild Bill took him out drinking and meeting people. ¡°Come meet my new partner. Once he is done with the army, we are going Monster Hunting!¡± We even formed a Mercenary Team together and took some small jobs. The Wild Wolves had arrived. Rodion¡¯s first class was Pack when he ran with the gangs, but it worked well for him in the army as well. He had the Warrior Class and had specialised it into Skirmisher, which had given him a Skill called Triple Slash. It could be used with a weapon or claws. When he was promoted to Corporal, his Pack Class specialised into Pack Leader, with the Skill Howling Stun. It was a sonic attack which deafened with a fear component. Rodian loved to spar, and that was very good for my Level 1 Warrior Class. Rodion was fast and specialised in quick strikes before backing off to repeat. The secret was not to let him back off. He loved to spar with Modrica as well, and he was a bit faster than her, but he couldn¡¯t do much damage. Rodion really wanted to bond with the last wolf cub, but my skills said they were incompatible. I think it would have worked OK because he was Wolfkin, but it would never be great. I advised against it, and he backed off. I promised I would look for a more compatible bond. Rodion has not been introduced to Puia, and I hope that will wait until we leave Kirghiz. Tabitha has introduced Nyx and given them each a small piece of Blacksteel. I have been expecting a visit from Kelda and being grilled over the changes to my affinity, but she has been very restrained so far. I think she is aware the less she knows, the less she can reveal. I spent my time at the Lore Society, working at the smithy, drinking with Rodion as Wild Bill, and doing the occasional job as Dianne. I had left the Duke to Tabitha and Kelda. Tabitha was performing thrice a week, and she had to attend other promotions and socialising events. I figured she would tell me if she needed help. Modrica went for her two weeks of training assessments. Kelda, or more specifically Liten, would keep an eye on her. We set up a message system anyway, in case she needed extracting. Modrica was working on the Skill Earthquake, but she finds it very difficult to learn new skills due to her low Mental Agility. She is strong, not agile. Kelda and I did meet for lunch occasionally. She could put it down to ongoing negotiations, but really they were dates. We stayed away from sensitive topics, but it was nice to catch up. We talked a lot about her and only general stuff about me. She was smart to have bonded with Liten and to steer away from the fighting. Liten was very sneaky, had learned her Blend Skill, and blended into the background very well. They had something I hadn¡¯t heard of called Share Senses, where they could do just that. When I first met Kelda, she had Darksight, and I encouraged her to pick up Farsight, which she did. Since then, she has also picked up Keensight. She and Liten are really the Observers at almost any distance. She also had Thermal Sensing (Air). She always had Tasty from her Chef¡¯s class. And she promised to be the party chef when we left the city. When she could get another Physical Sense, she was planning on getting Hearing Aid. Kelda was going to try to get a Royal Decree through the Military channels, but she didn¡¯t thing the chances were very high. My mind was mulling over what else I could encourage her to learn. I will look up Fire Affinity in the Lore Society and see what classes and skills might be compatible, especially non-combat and observation focussed. It was the evening after Modrica returned from the army that George made his move. I am sure he timed it for then. The trouble is I am probably to blame. I was dressed in stolen clothes and returning from a particularly frustrating kill as Dianne. I had been at it every night this week, and even then, I had to kill three of her bodyguards to get to her, and I had to do it in such a way I didn¡¯t leave evidence of a snake or an affinity. Stone buildings don¡¯t usually burn, so I couldn¡¯t just turn them into molten rock. It turned into a bloodbath. The guards were highly trained, and I was limping. It is my body temperature that gave them warning. I must work on that more, but I couldn¡¯t let that clue get out. I bound my arm and leg and washed in the river, leaving my clothes tied to a rock underwater. I stole some temporary clothes as I couldn¡¯t be Dianne naked. I went through two smell-diffusing areas before returning to Dianne¡¯s place to redress in her clothes and complete the contract at the Mercenary Guild. At least my Assassin Class had levelled again. I checked my signs before entering. I had learned from Gilbert. When I went in, there was a note that had been slipped under the door. It was from the Mercenary Guild letting me know there was an open double assassination contract I was eligible for if I was interested. Only those with at least one Efficiency Mark were eligible, and the Guild did not recommend one of the targets suitable for solo assassins. This had an ominous feel about it. I dressed as Dianne and went to the Guild before dawn. I handed in my contract and got the details of the other one. Ominous was right. It was an open contract on Skygge of the Elemental Traders and Modrica of the Elemental Traders. The pay was enough to tempt me, so Dianne signed on. The reward for Modrica was three times that for Tabitha because Modrica had a known affinity and a Dire Bear Bond. It was a double contract because they were known to be Krvne Sestre, but you could be rewarded for just one kill. Known addresses were given as our residential compound and warehouse. They didn¡¯t know about our new farm, and of course, by now we had a couple of off-the-books safe houses. Tabitha was listed as potentially having some illusionist skills and was a known actress and Merchant. Modrica was listed as having an Earth Affinity, and was a high-level close combat fighter. Tabitha is therefore the easy target. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. This has to be George. I told the bastard Adam to try the Mercenary Guild for theft, and that must have given them the idea. Assassination is a whole different level than theft, and the pay is at a whole different level. That is the key mystery here, Where is the money coming from? After the fiasco in Dohovno, nobody would trust George with that amount of money. Maybe it isn¡¯t George. The Empire placed a bounty on me for capture or kill back in Jern, It maybe still active, but they do have our recorded deaths in Hrothgar. The advice I received at the time from Koza was that I could either pay the bounty, avoid it or kill the one who issued it. You can¡¯t really buy your way out of an assassination contract, so we must avoid it or kill the one who issued it. To kill the one who issued it, you must find out who that was first. In the meantime, we have to avoid being killed or stage a killing with enough evidence so that Dianne can get paid. I got back to the residential compound well after dawn, and I immediately sensed it was too quiet. I was dressed as Quinn, so I started stealthing my way through the property, hoping I was not too late. No lions on patrol. Hearing Aid did pick up Te?ka¡¯s breathing. He was asleep, so that was a good sign. When I got to the house, I heard Tabitha¡¯s voice, speaking normally. I dropped out of stealth and entered. Tabitha, Modrica, and the Canine Queens were in the rear living room. When I entered, I saw a familiar piece of paper on the table in front of Tabitha. ¡°So you know,¡± I said. She handed me the paper. The contract was issued to Black. ¡°You took out a contract to assassinate yourself? Isn¡¯t Black too obvious an Identity?¡± I asked. ¡°Of course I did, and yes, it is a bit too obvious. I blame Gwaed¡¯s influence. How do you know?¡± I handed her my paper. ¡°Dianne Prints?¡± I could see her trying not to smile. ¡°Careful,¡± I said, ¡°I would get paid if I killed you.¡± We both smiled. This also broke some tension in the room. ¡°So what is going on, and what is the plan?¡± I asked. ¡°I sent the Catkin out to the farm before dawn. I am just discussing it with the Canine Queens and giving them a choice to sign on as personal protection or to walk away because now is the only chance of avoiding being in the crossfire,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°She is right,¡± I said to Skavt and Co. ¡°I finished the Lady Loreta contract this morning, and I had to kill three of her personal protection people to get to her. Death is a real possibility.¡± ¡°Death is a real possibility in any contract,¡± Skavt said. ¡°Let¡¯s skip the rest of the ¡®you might die¡¯ speech and start talking tactics.¡± ¡°Ok, then. I am listed as the soft target here, so they will come for me first, with the added bonus of enraging Modrica.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Nobody can get close to me without me knowing, so ranged attacks are the weak area.¡± ¡°Or large-area attacks,¡± I added. ¡°Yes,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Blowing up a building or a block is also a tactic I have used.¡± ¡°It is also the best tactic against Modrica. It was tried in Beitemark,¡± Skavt said. I looked around the room, ¡°Damn, I quite like this house.¡± ¡°It would be hard to plant explosives here without our bonds sniffing them out,¡± Najprej said. ¡°Which makes them the first target. What is their Poison resistance like?¡± I asked. ¡°We might be better to abandon this place in the short term. But back to Tabitha for now, She has Social engagements and performances she has to be at.¡± ¡°Nyx can muddy the waters about where I am at any given time. The performances are difficult though I can¡¯t do it during them.¡± ¡°At least there won¡¯t be an explosion in the performance, too many important people. Just a thousand strangers with a clear line of sight to you,¡± Skavt said. ¡°Yes, but my chances of avoiding a shot or two are quite good as long as someone takes care of the shooter quite quickly,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I imagine there will be several normal tries before someone attempts the theatre.¡± I said, ¡°But we won¡¯t count on that. Being on alert all the time is going to be very tiring. You will need to limit your time out.¡± ¡°Modrica and Te?ka are a different thing altogether.¡± Skavt said, ¡°Hard to kill, but hard to hide.¡± ¡°If Black and Dianne formed a Mercenary Team together, would it be believable for them to take out Modrica and Te?ka?¡± I asked. ¡°We could make it believable,¡± Tabitha said, ¡°After all, it would be a shame not to take the coins on offer, and it would solve the army problem.¡± ¡°I can register the Mercenary Team tonight,¡± I said, ¡°It will take a bit of set-up, but we can plan for their deaths after the weekend performances.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± said Tabitha, ¡°I can then go into mourning and restrict my social appearances.¡± ¡°We will need to assume we are being watched from now on. I won¡¯t be here again,¡± I said. I looked at Modrica, ¡°That sound alright with you.¡± Modrica grunted. 192. Black Arts: Tabitha Bloody, stupid, idiotic army. They should have just kept their noses out. May they be shit on by a thousand griffons with diarrhoea. Wiremu and I had Modrica¡¯s death all planned. It would be dramatic and explosive but not too over the top. We would also only lose the stables and caretakers'' hut. Plus, the windows on that side of the house. But all the planning and prep Wiremu put in place is now wasted. The army has some way of finding out when one of its soldiers is targeted for assassination. Some counter-terrorism thing. So they turn up and insist Modrica and Te?ka move into the army base for the duration. Kelda is her commander, so she turns up with her boss Captain Blythe to enforce the policy. It would look too suspicious to refuse, and then she dies. Kelda has organised some mounted training for her as it wouldn¡¯t be good for discipline to put her with the other recruits. Well done, Modrica. Our job has suddenly got a lot more difficult. Not only do we have to believably kill someone who is known to be very difficult to kill, and the army knows her skills, but we have to do it in a guarded and alert army base while smuggling a massive orc and even more massive Dire Bear out of said army base. On top of all that, we have to leave enough evidence to claim the bounty. We definitely want to claim the bounty, as that is the first strike against the person who issued the contract. I only hope I can be there to see their face when Modrica and Te?ka tear them apart. This will also make the reputation of the Black Arts, the newly formed team of stealth operatives, Black and Dianne Prints. At least Wiremu picked a decent team name. Dianne Prints is a pathetic name. She should be in the paper business or a scholar, not a black books mercenary. I suppose he tried to combine our names into the team name, so I should be glad he didn¡¯t choose Black Print. Now that I officially know there is a contract out against me, I need a full-time bodyguard. I looked forward to surprising the first couple of attempts and taking out my competitors for these jobs. I may still get to do that. With Modrica being watched by Kelda, this has freed up the Canine Queens to focus on me. I currently have Drugi? playing bodyguard. The wolves and Kryddor are a block out, ready to track any attempt and make sure they don¡¯t get away. I don¡¯t know where Wiremu is. His main job is tracking down the person who issued the contract, but he also hangs around Modrica and me just to check up. Modrica is separate from us, and he can get into the army base more easily than anyone else. Except for me, and I am stalked. We are not so arrogant to think we will spot everyone stalking us. The army base may add a layer of protection for Modrica, but if we can get in and out, so can others. The assassins I worry about are the ones I don¡¯t see. Not this idiot walking up to me in the crowd trying to act so innocently. He offends my acting skills. My Spatial Awareness sees the knife up his sleeve, and even Drugi? has noticed him. He is just an amateur wanting to make a name and a lot of money. If this kid has an efficiency mark, he doesn¡¯t deserve it. The real question is whether he is a distraction for the real assassin to strike. Sacrifice is a better word than distraction. As he comes into striking range, he starts his move. I step sideways out of Drugi?¡¯s way and let her deal with him while I concentrate on the surroundings. Sure enough, a small slim girl tries to slip a stiletto into my back. I brush it to the side, pickpocket her backup knife and thrust it through her ribs into her heart. She collapses as Drugi? withdraws her blade from her partner. There doesn¡¯t seem to be a third attacker, so I step back with a horrified look on my face and let loose a terrified scream. Those closest to us in the crowd already sensed something wrong, and I drew the attention of everybody and the two constables down the road. Drugi? gives me a cross look as she quickly scans the surroundings and hurriedly goes through the pockets of the two. The constables are now pushing their way through the crowd to us. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Girls¡¯ left pocket,¡± I whisper to her. I am pretty sure the crowd will have blocked the view of any watchers, but both Wiremu and I have ways of sensing that don¡¯t rely on sight, so there is no guarantee. I should add Kelda, Ruku and Gwaed to that list. Ruku and Gwaed¡¯s abilities came through their bonds, not affinities. I checked the skies, but I didn¡¯t have Farsight. I let Drugi? talk to the constables while I played the traumatised victim. She was incredible taking out both by herself. One of the constables returned to her the knife she killed the female attacker with. I smiled when Drugi? didn¡¯t have a spare scabbard, so she had to hide it in her armour. She is on official contract, and the knives and other evidence from the girl''s left pocket made it clear they were out to get me. I wasn¡¯t paranoid. They took our details, but I am pretty famous now from our shows. We were spoon on our way, only half an hour late. Engulfing Shadows is on the verge of Master Level. I am trying to use it in different ways to push it over. I can sense everything in the Engulfing Shadow, which is bigger than my Spatial Awareness Skill. It does not see through things, though. I am always trying to use it and make it so lightly that you can¡¯t sense it. This will extend my range considerably, especially after it hits the Masters Level. It is most difficult during the day, like now. We will get there. It is very useful when I am performing in the theatre as I can sense what is going on in the whole auditorium as it is already dark in there, and it doesn¡¯t take much energy. The middle of the day, social engagements were where I was left to rely on my relatively short ranged Spatial Awareness. The other Skill that was on the cusp of Master Level was Shadows Embrace. If I could get it to Masters, Dusk and I could gallop silently and unseen at night and make the most of daytime shadows. We can already do the unseen part at night. It is the silently that needs to wait for the Master level. I am pretty anxious to get my Riding Skill to Masters as well. If I could ride more, it would be there already. I have taken to riding Dusk to and from the evening performances, and we practice. This also makes it safer for me as I can¡¯t be killed if they can¡¯t see me or keep up. Responding to the assassination contract has meant I have had to drop my infiltration of the gangs for now. I would much rather be working on the gangsters than socialising with the useless nobles. I find the social gatherings tedious. I have met the Duke and his current wife. His three recognised children all have different mothers, and none is his current wife. I am aiming to get an invite to his mansion, preferably not to one of his orgies, but I will take whatever I am offered. Duke Terry¡¯s current wife, Sarah, doesn¡¯t like me. I think she sees me as her replacement. It was only a bit of light flirting, so I stuck in his memory. Plus, a little bit of boob and butt enhancement. She is the seventh wife in as many decades. Terry is pushing 150 years old, so probably only has time for another two or three wives. Terry, who hates that shortened name, is keeping in good health. He is not too overweight and handsome enough. He seems intelligent enough. He certainly has the arrogant nobility attitude well practised. His eyes kept track of what was going on around him, especially the ladies. Assassination would be easy. A cute girl in front, the male assassin from the back. He is always with two bodyguards, and they do seem competent, so it wouldn¡¯t be quite that easy. I invited Terry, his wife, and all three of his children to the after-party, which we will have after the last performance on the weekend. It will conclude our first month of performances. Complementary tickets to the performance, of course. Wiremu is making inroads through the youngest son George. I want to meet him in a posh social setting and also assess his siblings. The hair is Michael, and the backup heir is Harriot, Harry for short. The rumour mill has Michael as a bit of a womaniser after his father. Harry is in a relationship with a local actress, but the betting is heating up about how long that will last. Apparently, the Duke is not happy about the two girls being together. I made sure partners were invited to the performance and after-party. George is a bit of an enigma relationship-wise. Wiremu says he talks big but never seems to take anyone home for the night or even out for a quickie. He has plenty of offers, and opportunities abound. Wiremu suspects he might swing toward men but be too afraid to admit it. He is not known for his bravery. I am more flexible and can think of all sorts of perversions he might be afraid to admit. We will find this weakness and weaponise it. If he didn¡¯t instigate this assassination contract and is just an idiot, then I would still like to promote him, especially if I have good blackmail material. If I find the Duke is behind the contract, then everybody is getting a promotion. 193. After Party: Tabitha

193. After Party: Tabitha

Hello, sweetie! Harry is one very fine-looking woman. The actress hanging off her arm pales in comparison. I have just been introduced to her and can¡¯t remember her name. Starts with M, I think. Harry stands out of the crowd. She is tall and blonde and would rival an elf in looks. In fact, I can compare her to Canwr, our soprano in the Comedic Rhythm, and she still stands out. She moves down the greeting line, saying polite things to all of the Comedic Rhythm team. I drag my eyes back and greet Michael, who seems to be looking at me like I looked at Harry. This is despite having a gorgeous lady on each arm. George didn¡¯t come, which is a disappointment. He would know who I am, Krvne Sestre to Modrica, who has ¡°his¡± Dire Bear and that I am the new owner of the Razko?je luxury spa that he used as collateral on the loan. I was looking forward to meeting him and seeing how he would react to me. I am pretty sure I could have got him blabbing in public. I suspect somebody made him stay away. The next in line was Duke Terry. His attitude to me had severely cooled from that last meeting. I guess he found out I was the new owner of Razko?je. I barely held back my smirk. I greeted him warmly and enthusiastically and even wiggled my boobs for him to carry on our flirting. It fell flat. I know I am quite flat, but this just fell flat. I grinned wider as if I didn¡¯t realise. He had a different lady on his arm today. Maybe this is hopeful number eight. Hopeful Eight was enthusiastic about the show, so I engaged the airhead in a conversation, and we both ignored the hints from the Duke to move on. I ignored him on purpose. Airhead just never realised. ¡°It was lovely to meet such a fan,¡± I said as the Duke practically dragged her away. Her chances of being wife number eight were not great. At least now, I am less likely to be invited to the mansion for an orgy and more likely to be made an offer ¡°I can¡¯t refuse.¡± You just watch me. George is not the only one I am getting blackmail material for. The line came to an end. There were about a hundred and fifty people here, which was the limit of the reception area. I looked around for Harry. She was across the room. The actress, Megan, that¡¯s the name, was still hanging on her arm. I started to move toward her when ?rt put a hand on my shoulder. That annoyed me, but I schooled my irritation and stopped. He leaned in and said, ¡°There is something not right about that blonde woman, Harry.¡± I had Najprej and ?rt in the room with me. I specifically brought ?rt because I wanted his insight on the people here. I made myself wait, as it would be silly to reject the reason I wanted him here. Wiremu is probably right that he is the smartest one in our group. I took stock. Why was I going over there? Because I liked her looks? That¡¯s not good enough. I distracted myself by stopping a waiter and grabbing a drink off his tray. I am not one to get caught up in a sexy body, I am one to use a sexy body to distract others. Have I just been outplayed at my own game? I let my Spatial Awareness Skill examine her without looking at her. She is nice enough to look at but not as outstanding as I thought. Her Status was locked up tight, so I started working at it with my Spatial Awareness. She used a Skill on me, the bitch! It is the only reasonable explanation. How? I checked very carefully with my Sense Spiritual to see if she had a spiritual link to me as Wiremu does with his Hunters Marks. I couldn¡¯t sense anything. Was it pheromones? A mental Skill? If it were a mental Skill, I would counteract it with Mental Strength. That has never been my strongest attribute, but I put energy through it to resist any influence. I had two spare attribute points from my Rider Class, so I put them into Mental Strength to help. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. The Bitch!. The longing to go to her stopped, and I gained Mental Resistance 1. She is definitely the most dangerous person in this room. Apart from me, of course. Some random couple approached me and started chatting about useless stuff, but it gave me time to assess who this Harry was. My Spatial Awareness was all over her, even as I had my back to her and was apparently engaged in conversation. I sensed her looking my way with a slightly puzzled look. She had been expecting me to come over. It was a skill she used on individuals, but could she use it on a group? She could use it on more than one individual at a time, as I was pretty sure Megan was under her influence. Is she scheming, or does she just have a thing for actresses? It could be both. I need a lot more information, but I must warn Wiremu of this Skill. I broke it quite easily, with my low Mental Strength. Wiremu has a higher Mental Strenght than I do. I think the key is to be aware of it and resist it. She used it for physical attraction. Sexual Attraction, to be specific. The key question is, can it be used for anything else? Harry obviously has high Mental Attributes. She is going to be a hard one to fool. She was still puzzled as to why I had not gone over. Am I the first to break her Skill? Maybe her senses are not that great. Information. The person I am most likely to get information from is Michael, the heir. The Duke is grumpy with me, Harry is on alert, and Megan is under her Skill. Michael, the womaniser, seems like an easy target. He is over at the buffet table. I excuse myself and take a step toward the buffet table and stop. Pain comes through the link. Modrica has been hurt badly. I reach out for Dusk, already gathering Shadows. Najprej and ?rt go immediately on alert, Najprej coming to me. Dusk screams just outside the door as she breaks free of the temporary stables. ¡°Modrica, hurt,¡± I tell Najprej. Then I said, ¡°Go,¡± but I was talking to Nyx. The door to the reception room breaks and smashes open as Dusk crashes through, wreathed in shadows. Just outside, a wolf howled, sounding the alarm and calling the pack. A second wolf howled on the opposite side of the building. All the guests were crowding away from Dusk in fear. The Duke''s guards were drawing blades, but I was already on Dusk, deep in Shadows Embrace, and I thrust them back with a spike of Intimidating Aura. Dusk screamed again and did a half rear, and he spun toward the broken door, and we were off. Najprej and ?rt were running out of the building right behind us. Skavt and Oske were our heavy backup, and I could hear Oske thundering in, but we would quickly outdistance them. The quickest gate into the base was the naval entrance. Modrica would be on the other side of the base, which was the army side, but it was still quicker through the naval entrance. Of course, the bloody gate was closed. I directed Dusk to the side. I would go over the wall, and she would wait for Skavt. Then I stumbled off Dusk as the pain hit harder. This time it was Nyx. She had been hit hard by something strongly spiritual and was critically injured. I stumbled to my feet. The Spiritual pain was intense, I wasn¡¯t sure Nyx would survive. She retreated into the Blacksteel pendant that Modrica was wearing, but Modrica was also in the line of that attack. I struggled to my feet while throwing as much Spiritual Energy to Nyx through our bond as possible. She was still fading as the attack had some ongoing effect. Not happening! I threw myself at the wall and went up so fast I didn¡¯t realise I had finally learned Shadow Step, which I had been trying to get for months. If my shadows can be made solid, why can¡¯t I step on them? From the top of the wall, my Darksight could make out a lot of aerial activity and green fire, but I didn¡¯t have Farsight, and I was not stopping now. I jumped down, crashed onto a roof, rolled off and landed on the ground running. The base alarm bells finally started ringing, announcing that they were under attack. Bloody useless army. 194. Useless Army: Wiremu

194. Useless Army: Wiremu

I was Wild Bill, and I was sitting with Rodion and George¡¯s crowd in a bar. We were trying to figure out why George was here and not at the show and after-party. George was getting drunker and loader, so our time for questions was almost here. Then I jerked up as a massive wave of pain hit me from T¨¡oke. T¨¡oke was the obvious backup for Modrica and Te?ka as he could hide in Te?ka¡¯s fur and basically sleep. Te?ka was starting to rival Oske as T¨¡oke¡¯s favourite. ¡°Modrica is under attack,¡± I said to Rodion, ¡°Follow as fast as you can,¡± Then I threw myself head first out the nearest window, shattering the glass and landing in the alley two floors below. Puia was already forming a mount as my clothes burned off me, replaced by Granite and Lava Armour. ¡°Bloody hell,¡± I heard from Rodion at the window, and then he followed me out of it. I ignored him and jumped on Puia¡¯s horse form, as it was his fastest, and we galloped off, leaving molten depressions in the stone road. We were close to the army base''s main gate. The gate was closed, but I was betting it was only locked and didn¡¯t have the steel beams in place to blockade it. As we got closer, this was confirmed by my Thermal Sensing. We entered the straight before the gates and picked up speed. Puia created a Granite Spike from his forehead, and we aimed for the middle join between the two gates. We hit it with the momentum and weight of a small mountain of rock. The steel gates burst open with a bang and a spray of lava as Puia¡¯s head exploded on impact. We didn¡¯t even slow as Puia reformed the head, and we came into view as to what was happening below us. It was an aerial attack. There were a lot of Avion firing arrows and spears as they dove in attack runs. The air was filled with birds, at least two griffons, and something larger and darker. There were green flames on the ground from an attack run, and Modrica was rolling on the ground, trying to put out the flames on her back. Modrica had a shield in her left hand, but her right hand was limp, and there was a bend in the arm where there shouldn¡¯t have been. Te?ka was roaring in pain and rage as the fire remnants were smothered out on him by T¨¡oke. T¨¡oke was in his large form and stretched the length of Te?ka¡¯s back, and as I watched, a Granite Shield formed to cover his back, protecting him from above. The rest of T¨¡oke uncurled over Te?ka¡¯s head, and he started spitting lava at anything that got too close. Then two dive-assisted, power-thrown spears slammed into T¨¡oke¡¯s shield, and I saw cracks form and part of it fall off. The dark shape was a Wyvern, and it was starting another strafing fire run when the scene below me seemed to flicker. Te?ka and T¨¡oke suddenly seemed to be to the left of where they were, and everything else was in darkness. The Wyvern spewed fire all over them, and then the image flickered again, and a massive spiritual scream filled our minds. When I looked again, the Wyvern had missed, and there was a line of fire beside an unharmed Te?ka and T¨¡oke. I realised Nyx had formed the image and taken the full brunt of the Wyvern attack and was seriously injured. That was a lingering spiritual flame from the wyvern. Puia and I were almost in range, and I was seriously pissed at my lack of range options. I didn¡¯t have a bow that wouldn¡¯t be destroyed by lava, or I would have been shooting the moment I came into view. I was limited to throwing options. I formed a Granite Spear in my hand. The was an Avion circling the fight looking for a bow shot. He was flying low, concentrating on the fight, and didn¡¯t sense the thundering mountain of lava charging down the hill at him. I threw my spear and took him right threw the chest, and he crumbled to the ground dead. Several birds in the fight suddenly went crazy; I assume they were his bonds. This alerted the other attackers to my arrival. At the same time, alarm bells started ringing throughout the base. About time you useless army. The attackers were quite coordinated. As the wyvern would circle around for another attack run, they would launch arrows, spears, and the birds and griffons would dive attack, and then they would get out of the wyvern''s way. A number swung off to attack me, and I had arrow pelter my Granite armour. If they weren¡¯t Skill empowered attacks, I could just ignore them. I started throwing darts from my left hand. I mixed them up between poison and lava. I formed another spear in my right hand. I stood on Puia, but I was going to be too late. The griffon raked its claws over Te?ka¡¯s face ripping out an eye and making deep gouges, its back claws raking T¨¡oke, peeling scales off and leaving gouge marks. I launched myself off Puia anyway because I could probably bring it down. Puia melted into the ground after I left his back. I got my spear in where the wing met the body and dragged it to the ground. I yelled, ¡°Modrica, monster kill!¡± Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. She understood I wanted her to kill it and was there in a flash. She wouldn¡¯t get the Monster Hunter Class because she didn¡¯t have a base class that specialised that way. But she would get something, and more often than not, that something gives a skill that helps with self-healing. She Shield Bashed the griffon''s head, pinning it to the ground. Her other arm wasn¡¯t working, so she opened her jaw and bit the back of the griffon''s neck with her tusks and Crushing Bite. She ripped the spine of the griffon out with her tusks, killing it. Then she raised herself up, her face dripping in blood. A Skill-powered arrow slammed into her back, going through her armour and her Armoured Skin, but stopped by her Earth Bones. She ignored it. At the same time, Te?ka went up on his hind legs, and together they let out a massive roar that shook the building around them. Everything seemed to pause for a second. There was no way that was not a Sonic attack. Then everything resumed, and I caught the next arrow aimed for Modrica¡¯s back on a shield I created. Then Modrica did something I did not expect, and she bent down to the carcass of the griffon, bit into the neck again and started drinking. The minor wounds on her back started healing. Trust her to get a skill that heals her when she drinks the blood of her enemies. Skills do come in a similar way that you fight, as when Tabitha got her Syphon Constitution. The Wyvern was back, and I created a large stone cover for us, and the green fire burned, eating through the Granite. Some of the fire got onto my skin, and my fire resistance did nothing. It wasn¡¯t normal fire, but I already knew that because of what it had done to Nyx. The fire did show on my Thermal Sensing, but it was difficult to tell in the mixed-up thermal currents above us. The attacks resumed, and we moved closer to Te?ka and T¨¡oke to have a better defence. I was seriously frustrated at the lack of a bow. I could be doing so much more damage. I kept my shield but resumed throwing darts. All of a sudden, a fireball exploded, engulfing two birds and clipping a griffon. Then fire arrows started lighting up the sky. Kelda had arrived. To my mind, her rate of fire was too slow, and it was only a single arrow at a time. The stupid army that trained her in the wrong class is to blame. If she had been trained as an archer, she would have a lot more Skills by now. Even though she was slow, she was devastatingly accurate. Every arrow hit that I could tell, and more than half downed what they hit. That is the Observer Class in play. I saw Rodion leap from the top of a building and claw down an enhanced hawk. A second hawk was coming behind him, and I didn¡¯t have a dart. The second hawk suddenly burst into flame, and I couldn¡¯t figure out how. Then I caught a glimpse of a small sparrow darting away. Kelda had arrived with Liten. That small sparrow was easy to forget. The Wyvern was coming around again, and I was worried about my energy levels. Then everything seemed to dim, and the fear hit. The Shadow Predator had arrived, and Tabitha wasn¡¯t holding back. All the birds flew up or away from the fear, including the Wyvern. The Avion in charge must have signalled retreat, having taken a lot of losses and didn¡¯t seem to be making progress. Army archer squads were arriving on the walls, so their surprise was gone. The remnants of the attackers flew over the river to escape, and then the army finally did something right. The catapults on the walls fired. They were loaded with anti-personnel shots. They had one chance, and whoever was in charge should get promoted because they took down several birds and at least two Avions. They didn¡¯t get the Wyvern, unfortunately. ¡°We are out of here,¡± I yelled. ¡°Eastern wharf gate is the closest. Follow me.¡± I had Puia form a mount, but this time I had her copy Te?ka. My parting gift was a lava Dire Bear permanently leaving footprints in their stone road. Te?ka was limping and chewing on a dead falcon. T¨¡oke stayed where he was on Te?ka¡¯s back, but he was in his large form, and his head was watching for danger, swaying in the mesmerising way snakes do. He was especially keeping watch on Te?ka¡¯s blind side. Rodion joined us, and then the shadow that was Tabitha helped Modrica, who was limping and holding her still broken arm. Kelda stayed away, which was wise of her, although Liten tagged along. When we came to the closed gate, I didn¡¯t bother asking. I had Puia rear up on his hind legs and come crashing down against the gate. They creaked open in protest, but they opened enough. Then I realised they were not designed to open out like that. Too bad. I knew we were being watched. We filed through, and I continued to leave Dire Bear footprints along the stone wharf in the public area. I was also tempted to leave a stone Dire Bear shit in the gate, but I refrained. When we reached the wharf area''s end, Tabitha engulfed us in shadows, and I dismissed Puia and my armour. Rodion tossed me his shirt, which should cover my privates. We then veered off into the suburb of East Marin, and I dropped back to clean our trail. Several of us were still dripping blood, although we were binding wounds as we could. When I was sure we had confused our trail enough, we went to the nearest safe house. Dawn was still a few hours away. As soon as people get out on the streets, our trail will really be untrackable. The first thing I did after I got dressed was to go out rat hunting. Rodion helped, and we got five large live rats in a stone cage I created. This was Nyx¡¯s equivalent of a light soup for sick people. Nyx came very, very close to death. I think it really scared Tabitha. Rodion was literally bouncing with excitement and adrenalin. I wasn¡¯t sure when it would wear off. Once we had done all the immediate first aid, we all nominated Rodion for the first watch. Either Tabitha or I will go out later and see if we can smuggle ?rt in here for some proper healing, but he will probably be too closely watched. Astrid might be easier. My last thought before dropping off to sleep was that we would now have to revise all our plans. 195. Legend: Tabitha

195. Legend: Tabitha

Poor Modrica died of her wounds. Nobody is going to believe it, but I don¡¯t fucking give a shit. I will ram it down their throats, and if they push, it will be their cold dead throats. All Comedic Rhythm performances are cancelled for a month while I mourn my Krvne Sestre. We can¡¯t perform without Nyx anyway, and she will take two to three weeks to recover. We will push the performances out a month to fulfil our contract. I dressed as a teen messenger boy and went and saw T¨¡tt¨¡. He is tasked with spreading the news. I told him to make it really sad so I get public sympathy for my loss, and the army is to blame for not protecting her when they said they would. T¨¡tt¨¡ was fantastic. He said to really sell this, we need to have a touching memorial service and set up a shrine down by the footprints in the wharves, in sight of the broken gate. We set a public memorial service date two weeks away, and the shrine went up immediately. People would go there and inspect the footprints and lay flowers in Modrica¡¯s memory, even though they never knew her. I am the public figure, and I went down there in tears, and the rumours spread. Boy, did the rumours spread. Te?ka''s footprints are her tears as she walked to the end of the wharf, carrying her dying bond away. Some say she took Modrica¡¯s body into the river and drowned herself in sorrow. Others say she buried Modrica in the stone with her affinity and went hunting for revenge on her killers. The Legend of Modrica and Te?ka is growing. Some say they have seen her ghost haunting the farms around Kirghiz. May the great snake spirit accompanying Te?ka on that last fateful walk give them good hunting in the afterlife. A second shrine spontaneously appeared outside the concert hall. T¨¡tt¨¡ is a genius. It doesn¡¯t matter how much the army officers know she is alive, the general populace only has sympathy for us, and they know the army failed us. Several soldiers claimed to have been there and that the army didn¡¯t protect her. They say a tremendous fear gripped everybody when the great snake spirit arrived to drive off the attackers and walk with Te?ka on that last fateful walk. It had become common knowledge there was an assassination contract out on both Modrica and me. There was so much sympathy that the public protested outside the Mercenary Guild office, demanding that is withdrawn and the coward that issued it must be revealed and face justice. On the third day of the protest, the head of the Guild came out and announced the contract had been withdrawn. Two days later, Black and Dianne received notice it had actually been withdrawn. The power of public opinion. No one mentioned who issued it. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Modrica and Te?ka are recovering with Nyx in a cave at the back of a farm we leased that is not associated with the Elemental Traders. T¨¡oke is also there, but his regeneration meant he healed the quickest. Modrica has a new class, and she and Te?ka have two additional new skills. The first new Skill is called Enraged Roar, and it gives them and their close allies a boost to their constitution, reducing the damage they take. It also gives Modrica and Te?ka a boost to their Physical Strenght and Agility Attributes, empowering their fighting. The skill is only boosting a small amount in the low levels, but it will grow. Modrica¡¯s new class specialisation comes from her Brawler Class. It is called Monster. Just that. It is not Monster Hunter or Killer or anything. It is just Monster. It gives five attributes per level, and four are assigned, one to each of the three strengths and one to Physical Agility. It came with the Skill of Blood Restoration, and by absorbing the blood of someone they have injured or recently killed, it will help restore them to health. The person or animal does not have to be dead, although it does have to have blood, so elementals won¡¯t work. The blood does not have to be drunk just in physical contact, although drinking or eating raw flesh are the easiest methods. She can literally heal by bathing in the blood of her enemies. Monster blood is more potent than normal blood. A bloody fight is the best kind of fight for Modrica. From Wiremu¡¯s reading in the Lore Society, he thinks Skills adapt themselves to the user. There is apparently a whole floor of books on the status and skills and how they work. There is also a whole religion around it, ¡°The Church in Status.¡± I hadn¡¯t heard of them. ?rt has set Modrica¡¯s arm, and it turns out her ankle was also broken. They are going to take weeks to heal, depending on how their new skill levels. We bring live animals from the farm, and they both injure it before killing it and then feed and drink from it. It is speeding things up, and the skill is levelling. Te?ka¡¯s eye is a problem. Regrowing body parts is a Master Level ability from Wiremu¡¯s Regeneration Skill, and even he is not at that level yet. It looks like it is the same for Blood Restoration. We will need a Healer with the right specialisation as eyes are much more difficult than arms. This can¡¯t happen in Kirghiz. After we finish here, we will ride for the Barbarian City States, and we won¡¯t have a caravan slowing us down. In the meantime, Te?ka has learned Earth''s Senses, so he has some sensing ability. Modrica has learned it from him, as I don¡¯t think she would have learned it any other way. Modrica¡¯s Mental Agility and Spiritual Perception are just too low. Modrica will never be good at it until she raises her Spiritual Perception. Back in Kirghiz, I am now back living in the residential compound. As far as everybody is aware, Skygge is staying in seclusion. This was a bit embarrassing when I received a Summons to appear before the King, and I wasn¡¯t even home. Rodion had to make up something about me not being up to seeing visitors. He is not very good at lying. We will need to work on that with him. Fortunately, the appointment was in two days. 196. Royalty: Tabitha

196. Royalty: Tabitha

The King''s castle is big and old. It overlooks the military base and the long-range Trebuchet on the walls looks like they will have the range to strike out into the river. Inside the castle is surprisingly nice. Thick carpets and soft wall coverings. You don¡¯t get any higher up the chain than the king. King Thorbj?rn has a reputation as a grumpy, no-nonsense dwarf. Let''s test that, shall we? There is a subtle smell. It is not overpowering, but it is there. I looked at Wiremu, and he was affected by it. I assume it is there to mask and interfere with the senses of smell. When I told Wiremu I wanted Dianne to accompany me, he was hesitant that the disguise would hold up to such a close inspection. I argued that his Veneer and Roleplay Skills are on the cusp of becoming Journeyman Level, and this sort of test will probably push them over the line. Probably only three or four people there might see through it, and I am not sure it matters. It probably wouldn¡¯t go beyond a select group. This whole thing is fiction. If the King is going to acknowledge Modrica¡¯s death, then this will just get combined with that secret. However, and this was the argument that persuaded him, that I would need his skills if things went bad in the worst possible way. At least Wiremu has got his body temperature down to normal. Skavt is also with us as she is the head of my security team. It could almost be a girl''s shopping trip. Must remember not to let that slip to Wiremu. I was dressed in a black pantsuit that allowed free movement. They can stuff their stupid dresses where the sun doesn¡¯t shine. Skavt and Dianne were in leather armour, as normal security would be. We were disarmed at the gate, not that it meant anything to Wiremu and myself, and I had a spare something for Skavt in my newly expanded Spatial Pocket. So here I was, walking to the doors of the throne room flanked by Skavt and Dianne. The Royal protocol officer was yabbering at us about where to stop and bow and how to address the different people there. To be quite frank, I tuned him out near the start. I was done playing their game. The doors opened, and I was announced in a loud voice. They only announced me. Skavt and Dianne were ignored as simple bodyguards. I wasn¡¯t about to correct their mistake, and we would use the advantage they just handed us. King Thorbj?rn was on his throne, and he looked as old as the castle. The throne was raised above the floor by four steps. A Royal Guard flanked each side of the throne. Two more guards were at the base of the steps, and then three pairs of guards stood on each side of the path to the throne, and another pair were by the entrance door. The king''s advisors were on one side of the hall near the throne, including a scribe taking notes. Some were in uniform. They were obviously the military advisors. The protocol officer joined this group. On the other side of the hall were some chairs, and there were about a half dozen well-dressed nobles. Duke Terry was there, and I recognised several others from being introduced after the shows. Next to the Guards at the base of the steps to the throne were two obvious affinity users. One of them was Kelda. The other was an older orc. Both were in military uniform. They announced their affinities with elements beside them. Kelda had an open flame, and the orc had a gourd of water. It baffled me why you would announce to potential enemies what affinities you had. You are giving away free information that could be used against you. What a bunch of idiots. I walked up to the clearly marked place where we were to stop and then stood there, hands behind my back, looking the King in the eye. As we stood there, I saw Kelda¡¯s eye move over us, then suddenly flick back to Dianne. Her eyes narrowed. She knew something was not right. Then her eyes suddenly widened in surprise as she figured it out. Wiremu didn¡¯t move, but I could still feel the amusement rolling off him. His Roleplay Skill should level just from that effort alone. ¡°You bow to respect the King!¡± an angry voice from the noble side said. I ensured my voice was loud and clear, ¡°This Kingdom has lost all respect I had for it.¡± I didn¡¯t lose eye contact with the King. That set the nobles aghast. The same voice said, ¡°Who are you to challenge the King?¡± My tone was rather scathing this time, ¡°I am Skygge of the Elemental Traders. I was just announced at the door. You really are a bunch of idiots, aren¡¯t you?¡± I sensed Kelda¡¯s lips twitch up. ¡°How dare you. I chal¡­¡± ¡°Silence!¡± came the stern command from the throne. There was definitely Skill usage there. The King continued, ¡°This time, I actually agree with the woman.¡± ¡°Your majesty,¡± said the voice, ¡°May I challenge this person to a duel for my house''s honour and the honour of the Kingdom?¡± ¡°No, you may not.¡± King Thorbj?rn pointed to one of his military advisors, ¡°You, tell the idiot why.¡± ¡°Yes, your Majesty. Skygge is the, sorry, was the Krvne Sestre of the orc Modrica. Modrica was not a trained warrior but had two Journeyman-level fighting classes. One of them was nearly at Master Level. She had one fighting Specialisation at Journeyman and one in high apprentice. She had two master-level fighting Skills. It would be sheer folly to assume Modrica¡¯s Krvne Sestre was any less skilled.¡± Shit, that sounded impressive. I was definitely less skilled. The speaker had paled, suddenly aware of the shit he was in. I could see the other nobles reassessing me. I looked like a thin, mostly harmless girl. I liked people underestimating me like that. ¡°Unfortunately,¡± The King continued, ¡°It is the King''s job to protect his weaker and more idiotic subjects.¡± I could just hear the King storing this up to be used later and the idiot realising he owed the King. The King got up and came down the steps stopping on the second from the bottom. That meant he was about eye height with me, as he wasn¡¯t a tall dwarf. He was definitely a wide dwarf and had thick muscular arms, but he didn¡¯t appear to be overweight. He was definitely elderly, although his beard hid most of that. ¡°We have done you wrong, lass.¡± King Thorbj?rn continued. ¡°Regardless of what happened that night, we did you wrong. We agreed to protect Modrica, and we failed.¡± That is a good start. I could see some nobles were uncomfortable with the King admitting a debt like that. There were mixed reactions on the administrator side as well. ¡°What¡¯s being done to track down the assassins?¡± ¡°Captian?¡± questioned the King, Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Yes, your Majesty. The Wyvern is with a known outlaw group that has been seen in the southern provinces before. The group has various names, including The Flying Bandit, Sky Death, and Dragons Breath. They have not been known to attack an established military base before. The Wyvern is thought to be bonded to an Avion called K¨¯uch¨°u. The Wyvern has a lot of stories circulating, but we are not sure of their reliability. No one has caught them, although they have been on the military outlaw list for fifteen years.¡± ¡°That is what you know about them. What I asked is what is being done to track them down.¡± The captain continued, ¡°We have notified our southern bases that they are on the move toward their last known direction. We had two scouts with bird bonds tracking them, but they lost them in cloud cover a day south of here.¡± ¡°The bounty on Modrica and I would not have been enough to make the risk of attacking a military base viable. There had to be an additional incentive or reason.¡± ¡°You know how¡­ That was a lot of coin, Ma¡¯am,¡± the Captian said. ¡°I would not have done it for that. I know how mercenaries and outlaws think. I am a Two Mark Registered Mercenary and half of a very successful team. I have carried out my share of registered assassinations. That was not enough coin for the risk.¡± Let the nobles take that as the warning it is. Then I remembered there were idiots there, so I added, ¡°And I will avenge Modrica.¡± ¡°I was not informed you were a mercenary, lady Skygge?¡± The King said. His guard was decidedly uneasy with how close the King was to a self-confessed assassin. ¡°I suspect there is a lot you are not told, your Majesty.¡± ¡°You think there was inside help,¡± the King said. ¡°Let me put it this way. The Wyvern had time to make three attack runs, spewing bright green fire and burning people and buildings before your alarm bells even started ringing. Three runs of bright green fire in the sky and not a single alarm bell. My associate was riding to the rescue and broke straight through the Northern gates, and still not an alarm bell sounded. Of course, it was an inside job!¡± ¡°You are very well informed of the events, Lady Skygge. I didn¡¯t think you were there,¡± the King said. ¡°As I said, there is a lot you are not told. You will have to decide if it is incompetence or traitorous. Either way, you need different advisors.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± Thorbj?rn replied. I could see many uncomfortable people on both sides of the room. ¡°The only two competent people I saw there were Lieutenant Kelda, here, who was the first army person to actually do something and Lieutenant Williams, who was in charge of the catapults on the wall. The two most competent people in the army are mere lieutenants. It surprises me that you still have a kingdom.¡± ¡°Humph,¡± he grunted, ¡°I haven¡¯t been spoken to like that for decades. Do you want a job, lass?¡± ¡°No. I won¡¯t work for you.¡± then I dropped my voice to a menacing tone, ¡°This is personal.¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± the king replied. ¡°You know our military would like to meet this associate who can smash through steel gates.¡± ¡°Well, your military is shit out of luck.¡± The King just stared at me for several long seconds. Then he burst into laughter. ¡°You have no fear, do you, lass? Most people are too scared to say no to the King. I have metered out severe punishments to those who have, but that doesn¡¯t worry you does it? And they told me you were just an actress and a comedian who dabbled as a merchant.¡± ¡°Never underestimate the power of a comedian.¡± ¡°Huh,¡± and he burst into a full belly laugh for several minutes. I am an amazing comedian. When he gathered himself, he said, ¡°You are definitely a unique comedian.¡± He gathered himself together and then went back up the stairs and sat on the throne. ¡°Right,¡± he said, ¡°Let''s get this back on track. I, King Thorbj?rn, formally apologise for the way we failed your Krvne Sestre, Lady Skygge. You are hereby given the noble title of Countess for services rendered to the Kingdom, both here and in Obalno and Hrothgar.¡± That was a surprise to everybody in the room except one unremarkable lady sitting at the back of the administrator section. ¡°This title doesn¡¯t come with lands, unfortunately, but I am given to believe you have no need of lands. You will be Countess at large, officially called Countess Auditor. You will report to only the King of Kirghiz.¡± This put me about the middle of the pack in the ranks of nobility, except for the part about reporting directly to the King. That was a Duke level of privilege. I nodded my head at the king. I guess I should show some respect. Maybe my nobility was going to my head. ¡°Your first task Countess Skygge is to route out the treason that led to this failure. You will have a military liaison. As one of the only two competent people in our military, I hereby assign Lieutenant Kelda as your liaison.¡± This was a surprise to Kelda. ¡°The Lieutenant has the advantage of also knowing the way of the noble houses. Lieutenant, you are relieved of all other duties at this time.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Majesty,¡± Kelda replied and snapped a crisp salute. ¡°The army wanted me to bring up the cost of repairs to two of their gates.¡± ¡°Well, I would like to bring the army¡¯s attention to the fact that we left at least one Monster core sitting in the middle of their base. I also know for a fact that it was Modrica that killed the Griffon, so that core belongs to me. Where is it?¡± King Thorbj?rn looked over to the military Captian. The Captain picked up a piece of paper, ¡°There is a griffon listed among the carcasses,¡± he paused, ¡°The head is listed separately. There is no Monster core listed, Your Majesty.¡± ¡°Your Majesty,¡± Lieutenant Kelda spoke up, ¡°I was there toward the end of the fight. I did not see the Monster Kill, but I did see the carcass when the defenders retreated through the wharf gate. The carcass was unbutchered. They did not take the core. Lieutenants Perrich, Tremaine and Rickard were the first on the scene with their squads.¡± ¡°There you go, Captain. You will investigate.¡± Thorbj?rn said. ¡°If you investigate well, Captian, the odds are good that we will end up in the same place,¡± I added. Several nobles seemed uncomfortable. It wasn¡¯t particularly hot in here. I did feel the urge to pay them a visit, for the sake of their health, of course. ¡°Very well,¡± said the king, ¡°Do you have any other matters to bring up, Countess?¡± ¡°Yes, your Majesty. I would like a Royal Decree.¡± His eyebrows shot up in surprise. ¡°A Royal Decree for what, Countess Skygge.¡± ¡°I would like a Royal Decree for Dianne Prints to have full access to the Lore Society records, including all restricted material.¡± ¡°There are some dangerous scrolls there. Who is Dianne Prints?¡± ¡°I am, your Majesty,¡± Wiremu replied, to everybody''s surprise. ¡°And why do you want this access?¡± ¡°I like reading, your Majesty.¡± What a liar. The King''s eyes narrowed, but he was wise enough not to push in this public arena. ¡°Very well, I will arrange it, but I want something in return Countess.¡± I just raise my eyebrows in a question. My nobility doesn¡¯t have me fawning at his feet yet. ¡°I want tickets for me and the wife to come to the first show when the Comedic Rhythm starts up performances again.¡± ¡°Very well, your Majesty, I will arrange it.¡± That is probably the best publicity the Comedic Rhythm will ever get. We were then dismissed, and the King retired to his chambers. I don¡¯t know why they don¡¯t just say it plainly. What is so hard about saying the King went to take a shit? I am sure the reports of this meeting are going to become a legend. I am sure the King knows I am a citizen of the Empire if he knows about Hrothgar. One day I might tell him that he had just made the Black Butcher a Countess. Maybe. One thing for sure is everybody will be scrambling to find out who Dianne Prints is. I hope Wiremu¡¯s Roleplay Skill Levelled. He is going to need it. 197. Taking Aim: Wiremu

197. Taking Aim: Wiremu

¡°So, are you the Royal Commedian or the Royal Assassin?¡± I asked. ¡°Bloody sly King!¡± Tabitha replied, ¡°I said I didn¡¯t want a job, and what the fuck do I get? He knew I couldn¡¯t turn him down and make the nobles sweat. I should have just told them the Black Butcher was coming for them.¡± ¡°The King must have some powerful Skills. I didn¡¯t even hear you ask about your pay,¡± I said, living dangerously. Tabitha growled. It didn¡¯t have anywhere near the same effect as Modrica¡¯s growl. We congregated in the main lounge at the compound. Skavt had a big grin. Kelda wasn¡¯t sure how she should be reacting. Liten was watching the perimeter. Actually, Liten could be anywhere. That was a sneaky bird. My Spy Class finally went to Journeyman level. It is strongly perception-based class, I wonder if Kelda wants to learn it. ¡°When are Dianne and Kelda going on a date next?¡± said Tabitha going on the attack. ¡°How long have you been Dianne?¡± Kelda asked hesitantly. I had removed the Veneer on the head that Dianne had, but I was still dressed as Dianne with the chest piece and corset. I probably looked strange. ¡°I established Dianne back in Beitemark. I have been doing a few Black Books only contracts to build her reputation. It was mostly to level my Spy and Assassin Classes.¡± ¡°I thought you were a Hunter and Monster hunter?¡± said Kelda, slightly put out and not knowing I had other classes. ¡°When we first met, I was, although I also had the Spy Class. I got the Assassin Class in Obalno.¡¯ I was hedging what I told her, not because I didn¡¯t trust her, but because it felt like bragging. I rushed on, ¡°My Spy class just levelled to Journeyman, so I can train you in it, as it does seem like a good fit.¡± ¡°Possibly,¡± she said hesitantly, ¡°but I have no skills for breaking into buildings or safes.¡± ¡°I can train you,¡± I said, ¡°but I don¡¯t think it is strictly necessary for the Class to have to break in skills. The Spy class is all about gathering information covertly. When I got it, I was sneaking around and breaking into Imperial offices to get information, but now I look back, I was training the class months before as I used my Hearing Aid Skill to listen in to conversations and poke at people''s statuses without being caught. Your Observer Class is gathering information covertly. You already have Stealth and Blend and a bond you use to get information. We could try. If your Observer Class levels instead, we know it is too close to Spy, and we concentrate on getting it to Journeyman Level so you can specialise.¡± ¡°You two can discuss it on your next date,¡± Tabitha butted in. ¡°I have to figure out where I fit in the stupid noble system and how to use it to get the information I need, so we can get out of this place.¡± ¡°I can help with that,¡± Kelda said. ¡°You are a Countess, so below you are the Viscounts and the Barons. Above your rank are the Marquess and the Duke. Duke Terrance has two Marquess, neither of whom is in the city. There are two Counts and a Countess, not including yourself, who report to the two Marquess. Each Count has two Barons under them, and the Countess has a Viscount and three Barons, as she has a larger area to manage. In the throne room today, there was Duke Terrance and his key advisor, Count Tharn and his advisor, Baron Anders and Baronesses Welby and Lamont. They were seated in order, the most important nearest the throne. The advisors were in the row behind.¡± ¡°So, in addition to Terry,¡± Kelda winced at Tabitha, shortening his name and ignoring his title, ¡°I need to look at Anders and Lamont. Tharn is on the list because his advisor looked suspicious. Anders is the idiot hothead.¡± ¡°Shall I take a couple of those to look at?¡± I offered. ¡°No, I don¡¯t think so yet. Kelda can give me the details to get me started. I know how much you love reading, so I won¡¯t stop you from heading to the Lore Society. You are going to have to read widely, or people will catch on to what you are looking for.¡± ¡°There is a private room for restricted reading, but word will get out, and I am sure they will report back to the King. I am unsure how much it matters, but I will diversify the reading. It is going to take me weeks as it is. This will stretch things out.¡± ¡°Dianne is going to be followed,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Yes, and I will need to find out who these followers belong to. At least Dianne can be a rough Mercenary guard type rather than a proper fancy noble,¡± I responded. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I got a ¡°Humph¡± noise in response to that. I took my leave. The Decree should be at the Lore Society in the morning, so now I am getting into basic random armour, and I am going to look for a bow that will stand up to the heat of the lava. It will probably have to be specially made, so I need the right Bower. My reading so far has increased my Monster lore to Mid Apprentice, which has given me some ideas about which monsters might have tendons that could work for the string and resist the heat and flames. For the bow itself, my Metal Lore has an idea about a metal alloy mixture that might be flexible enough to work and resistant enough to last. But these are guesses, I need an expert. ¡°You¡¯re a dreamer. No bow can survive volcanic temperatures, and that¡¯s final. If you want a metal bow, you best consult a blacksmith with specialities in Spiritual Metals and Flexible Alloys, but there is nothing you can make the bowstring out of that will survive the heat.¡± This was the most helpful bower yet. The rest just told me to go away, some of them not very nicely. ¡°I saw the army had a fire affinity user firing flame arrows. What is that bow made of?¡± ¡°What colour was the flame?¡± ¡°Mostly red, touching into orange.¡± ¡°Right, that sounds like Lieutenant Kelda, she is quite powerful, but that is still only about half the temperature you are asking for. Red to orange fires burn at around 1000¡ãC. I made that bow, and it cost a fortune. The army wouldn¡¯t pay for it. She is nobility or something. The bow is made from Ironwood and coated in specialised formulae, which is my secret. The String is from the tendons of a Fire Elk, interwoven with Field Troll''s tendon, all treated in a special mixture of my design to add to the resistance and self-repair. Without the assisted self-repair, you wouldn¡¯t get 20 shots from it.¡± ¡°Do you have some of the string I could buy and test?¡± ¡°I keep a couple of spares for her, but the material is hard to get for more. The Fire Elk was imported from the Elven Forests. If you want to test it, you can do it here. I am not letting you take it to an alchemist to work out my secrets.¡± ¡°What happens if I break it?¡± ¡°If you break it, you pay for it. Normal wear and tear will self-repair over time.¡± He took me out back, and I tracked him with Thermal Sensing as he opened a safe and retrieved the bowstring. He got a standard bow and strung it, and brought it out. I insisted on testing it in private, and he let me. What I wanted to know was the temperature of my Granite Armour. The lava is used at the joints, but most of the armour is Granite. If I can get the Granite cool enough on my fingers to pull the string, I won¡¯t need to get somebody to invent something new. This would also need to be the granite near my face for aiming. I created armour on my hand and touched the end of the string to it. It melted straight away. I kept trying to localise my use of Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) to cool only enough area to use the string. When I finally got it cool enough to be able to fire an arrow, my Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) levelled to Journeyman. I could fire an arrow wearing my Granite armour. The wooden bow would be too fragile, but I could make the bowstring work if I kept it away from the lava. Lava arrows will never work, but with the right bow, I could have lava arrowheads, probably. I called the Bower back in. ¡°I will take the string. Do you have a recommendation for a suitable blacksmith?¡± He looked at me funny, ¡°You must be a noble too.¡± He named an eye-watering price. ¡°Actually,¡± I said, ¡°I am a noble, but please keep this quiet. I am a bit sweet on Lady Kelda and want to surprise her with a better bow. Please?¡± I Roleplayed a lovesick rich noble. Actually, I hoped I did, as I had never met a lovesick rich noble. I could almost see the Bowers'' eyes roll, but he would not turn down a noble¡¯s coin, even if he thought I would never get a bow made. Now what will I tell Kelda if she hears a noble is making a bow for her¡­ maybe I could make two? The blacksmith was intrigued by the challenge of a flexible metal bow. High-level classes need new challenges to level, so he was looking for a level or two. He was less enthused when I asked to help him. I was a Level 1 Metal Worker, but my Metal Lore was in early apprentice, so I knew some stuff. Metal Worker was like Quarry Worker and only gave three Attribute Points per level. One was assigned to Physical Strength and one to Mental Agility. Surprisingly the third one was free for me to allocate. Quarry Worker had no free points. I negotiated the price, and we agreed to work in the evenings when I was free. I am sure the price was higher because I was helping, but what I wanted was to know the mix of metals in the bow, as I was going to have to repair it. Assuming we could even make it. It was going to take a while to make, and the first thing was to get the right metal. Steel was flexible enough, but its melting point was too low. Tungsten was the only metal with a melting point high enough, but it was brittle. It was also hard to work with because of that high melting point. Then there were the Spiritual additives to increase the properties. This was going to take a while. I set a plan for reading in the Lore Society that would get me what I needed. I would spend most of each day there. The topics I would start with are Classes and Specialties in general. This would naturally lead to Advanced Classes. Metal Lore, particularly regarding smelting, alloys and additives, Spiritual and otherwise. This should help with the bow and be able to be used on the road. Then there will be Monster Lore, Elemental Lore, and Mineral Lore. I want to also look at Bonds, normal animal bonds, Elemental Bonds and eventually, the Slave Bond. When I get to Advanced Classes, I will read about classes around Bonds, Metal Work, and the Slave Class. I am sure the King will be getting a list of everything I read. I am unsure what this would tell him as I think about the list. I am sure as I get into it, there will be other areas that come up that I have no clue about. I don¡¯t have years here. I only have months, so I do need to focus my aim. 198. Noble Shit: Tabitha

198. Noble Shit: Tabitha,

Even though the King instructed the Captain to investigate the Monster Core''s disappearance, I did not trust them. It was probably a crime of opportunity, but I asked Kelda to observe. The other thing I needed from the army was the names of the people in charge of the alarm bells that night. Kelda had already obtained a list of the Duty Officer, the Watch Commander, and the Watch Squad for me, but I put in an official request as ¡°Countess Auditor.¡± We will see if the names match. They didn¡¯t tell me that I would get swamped with invites to events from the nobles and the suck-ups. Kelda advised me to get a secretary. What a lot of troll shit. I should have assassinated the King. Maybe I will. They all got a flat no. I am still mourning for my Krvne Sestre and always will be if necessary. This will be harder to sell once the Comedic Rhythm starts the performances again. I escaped by riding out to the cave with Modrica, Te?ka and Nyx so that I could commune with the dead. Modrica¡¯s grunts were so much more intelligent than all that noble shit. I sat out in the cave and watched Nyx suck dry a deer. If I started playing this shit noble game, I would end up like that deer. I didn¡¯t ask for this title, I don¡¯t want it. Therefore they can take this game they play and stuff it up where the shit came from. I am going to give the Canine Queens permission to bash heads in the name of the Countess Auditor. I need a dedicated secretary to bash heads. I wonder if I can bring Modrica back from the dead to be my secretary, she would be ideal. After a pleasant afternoon at the cave, I rode Dusk to the official farm where the Catkin lived. They were keen to get back into town, and Mayakku wanted to start establishing her enchanting business. I figured it was safe enough for them to move back to the residential compound. Having the lions around would help keep the riff-raff out. When Mutalil¡¯s partner Anni found out about my problems, she offered to be my secretary. ¡°But what about the cubs?¡± I asked. ¡°The cubs are five now, so we consider them to be teenagers.¡± Catkin are considered to be adults at 7 years old, so I guess that made sense. They grow up so fast. ¡°Onru will be spending time with her Great-grandfather, and T¨¡tt¨¡ will train her in the Merchant Class. Irantu thinks he would like to try to learn enchanting, so Mayakku and Am''m¨¡ will test him to see if he has the Spiritual Sensitivity. Munru is going to train to be a Warrior under her Grandfather App¨¡. Therefore I shall have nothing to do, and it sounds like Nobles are very similar to disobedient cubs. I have plenty of experience with disobedient cubs.¡± ¡°I guess. We will be leaving in five or six months, so it is a short-term gig. Some of these nobles can get pushy.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, my bond K¨¡valar will back me up.¡± K¨¡valar raised her head from where she was sleeping, lifted her lip to show some fang and gave a menacing growl. Those lions are one of the best things that happened recently. ¡°You¡¯re hired.¡± Anni will be based at the residential compound and can say no without offending too many people. The Canine Queens are my official security and are authorised to bash heads if necessary. They can all come to me if they want any throats slit. The fact that I turned down all the invites to the social events didn¡¯t mean I didn¡¯t attend any. I got attached to the temporary wait staff and listened to the gossip. Count Tharn¡¯s was the most productive as the lesser nobles felt obliged to attend. Anders was a particular idiot all on his own. I found out he was a recent Baron due to his father''s death. He was spending coins like he had a never-ending supply. I think he was trying to buy favours. I was particularly amused when I was standing behind him as he ran his mouth off about me. I obviously wasn¡¯t a very good assassin. He had seen our show and didn¡¯t think I was a very good actress, but it was obviously the best I could do. I was tempted to put something in the drink I handed him, but I picked his pocket instead. A monogrammed kerchief and letter opener with his barony crest for wax-sealing letters. That would be useful. Before he went home, he discovered the missing items and had all the servants search the grounds for where they might have been. The servants also got searched, but they couldn¡¯t search a Spatial Pocket. I went through the Count¡¯s mansion while I was here, especially the advisor and staff areas. I found nothing. I suspect that since the King announced I was searching for traitors, everybody had cleaned up their act. This did appear to be the case when I went to Baroness Lamont¡¯s afternoon garden party and also found nothing. Lamont came across as a very clever woman. She was about a century old, so she was middle-aged. Her children were all grown and all successful in their endeavours. She had arranged her son¡¯s marriage to Count Tharns heir, strengthening her ties there. Her elder daughter was a successful Merchant, and her younger daughter was a navy Lieutenant. I would have found that very suspicious if she hadn¡¯t been out at sea for the last two months. My main conclusion was that the nobles had cleaned up their shit and kept their noses clean for a while. My main lead was the officer on Watch duty the night of the attack. He was my main lead right up until he died peacefully in his bed. It wasn''t a Mercenary contract, as I was watching those, so it was a private hit. I got hold of the body and had a healer and alchemist look at it; it was poison. Nobody knew I had stolen the body. They had a very nice funeral and buried a pig. The poison was imported, or at least the ingredients were not local. I tasked T¨¡tt¨¡ with tracking down the importer. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Duke Terry was the shittiest noble of them all and still my prime suspect. I bet he was also the shittiest at cleaning up his shit, as he never had to in the past. His mansion was also the most difficult to get into. He cancelled his parties. Somebody must be advising him on security. My new Shadow Step got me up over his wall. I had to step lightly and quickly, or the shadow would break. It wasn¡¯t until Journeyman Level that I could make a step that would last. There was an ongoing energy cost to that, but it would also be useful for others to use if I ever worked with a partner. Technically I have a partner in our Mercenary Team, the Black Arts, but I am working alone here. Almost alone. I waited to do this so Nyx could join me, as she could go where I could not. The wall had advanced traps on it, but I avoided them all with Shadow Step. All except the ones on top. The ones on top were set to detect low-flying Spiritual objects, like Avions. Avions could fly over them beyond their range, so most anti-intrusion traps were on the building, but these took me by surprise. I sensed them with my Spatial Awareness as I got near the top and worked out what they did. I had to step back down the wall as I couldn¡¯t stop with my current level of Shadow step. I prepared my defence. I just needed a moment to get past the traps. Shadow Embrace stops things escaping, like noise and heat, that might allow me to be detected. The Skill was almost at master Level and did mask some Spiritual energy, but I wasn¡¯t confident it would be enough to make me look like a bird. I wasn¡¯t going to take a risk yet. I wasn¡¯t even at the building. I withdrew some Cargonite dust. Cargonite is a very dense spiritual metal that is used for the coin above platinum. It is also very expensive. It also resists the spiritual flows, so if I scatter a small amount to get past this trap, it will remain until the next rain. Hence it will give me an exit point as well. Between the cargonite dust and my Shadows Embrace, I should be fine. I ran lightly up the Shadow Steps again, sprinkled the dust and then ran down the other side. Nyx and I then lightly spread our Engulfing Shadows over the flat, immaculately groomed lawn and mapped out the traps. I then picked my way across, only having to Shadow Step once. I waited tucked into a dark corner while a patrol passed and then looked at the building. The windows were only designed to open about 10cm. I know I was skinny, but I was not that skinny. I could get around the traps but would have to break the window framing, leaving evidence. Store that for Plan B. I moved to the doors. The doors were locked, barred and trapped. The lock I could pick with the application of a little oil. The Trap I could disengage with Shadow Manipulation. The steel bar was a problem. It was too heavy for Shadow Manipulation to lift and then quietly move out of the way. It was a horizontal bar slotting into steel plates on either side of the door. The door had a steel door frame that wouldn¡¯t allow me to slip anything between the door and the frame, even though I would have had the same problem of the bar crashing onto the floor. I checked a second ground-floor door, and they were the same. I decided to check the balcony doors on the upper floors. The walls had traps. Nyx and I could navigate them well enough with a mix of climbing and Shadow Step. The first balcony door was the same. The door had glass panels, so I could see the bar, but that didn¡¯t help. The room was an empty bedroom. Empty rooms could be secured, but occupied rooms might be more flexible. The first occupied room I came across was on the third floor. There was a man and a woman asleep in the bed. I didn¡¯t recognise them. The bar had been left off the door. I disabled the trap and unlocked the door, letting myself in. I snuck through the room, monitoring the two people and let myself out into the hallway. Yes, the hallway had the occasional trap as well. My problem was this place was huge. I didn¡¯t know where I needed to go. I wish I had Wiremu¡¯s Sense Treasure skill. I figured the business areas would be on the ground floor or below, so I looked for some stairs. Each floor had a two-person patrol. Fortunately, I had plenty of warning of when they were coming. I did have to wait about fifteen minutes before I could get down the stairs without being caught. I emerged onto the ground floor in the western wing. This seemed to be the playground part of the house. There was a ballroom, swimming pools, a spa and a sauna. There was also a dungeon but not the scary kind, the other kind. I could sense the floor below me had other playrooms as well. Definitely not for children. I moved to the central area, and it was more like the reception area in a fancy Inn. It was possibly modelled off my luxury Inn in Duhovno, which used to be his luxury Inn. I found a diary with dates and bookings for fun and games, but not business. I moved to the eastern wing, which was where the business of being a Duke was carried out. I found more meetings and appointments for several key advisors and occasionally the Duke himself. It looked like this Duke was a big fan of delegation. This was the public business of the Dukedom. Where was the Duke''s private business? I kept roaming and avoiding the patrols. There were two on the ground floor. My problem was I was running out of time. It was well after midnight before the house quieted down for the night, and I now only had about two hours before dawn, and I needed to leave an hour to extract myself from this place. The Duke¡¯s private office was on the opposite side of the building from the main entrance and had extra protection levels. His private office was spread over two levels, the ground floor and the first basement level. Both were locked up tight. The ground floor also had bars across the doors, but one of the basement doors did not. I guess they had to get access in the morning open-up. I could sense the door from here on the ground floor, but I was worried I was running out of time to get down there and back out. The Duke was obviously a guy who worked late and probably also started late in the mornings. His staff would not be like that. They would have set hours to work. The cooks would be starting the morning baking soon. I would have to come back. At least I would know exactly where to come and what to expect. It was frustrating to get so close and then back out, but I didn¡¯t want to be caught. I retraced my steps. The couple were stirring but not yet awake. I went back over the wall. I will be back in a couple of days, and I know exactly where to go, so I wouldn¡¯t waste time. I figured it could take me an hour to get to the Duke''s office, and then I could spend the rest of the time seeing what he gets up to. I will be back. 199. Observations: Wiremu.

199. Observations: Wiremu.

¡°Have you ever tried sensing through your flames?¡± I asked Kelda. We were sitting on the porch of the Caretakers Cottage. I was vacating it so Anni could use it for an office and reception, and we could fence off the rest of the land, where the lions could roam. ¡°I am not sure I understand,¡± Kelda said. ¡°It is something I read about in the Lore Society. If you light this candle and I slip it in inside the door here outside your sensing range, it is still your flame. Can you sense from it? Probably try Thermal Sensing first because you know the heat of the flame.¡± She lit the candle, and I moved it. ¡°I am not sure. I know the candle is my flame, just like the fire arrows are mine, but how do you do more?¡± ¡°Try focusing it through your Spiritual Perception Attribute as this is the key attribute.¡± ¡°Hmmm. I need to raise that attribute.¡± I had been teaching her what I knew of Spycraft, and her Observer Class went up to 9. One more for Journeyman Level and to specialise. It meant she wouldn¡¯t get the Spy Class, though. Her Warrior Class was only at Level 7. By the end of the five years of service, most soldiers are reaching the Journeyman level in it and looking to specialise. The Class is obviously not suitable for her. Yet the Observer Class is rocketing up in comparison. She was still concentrating, so I didn¡¯t disturb her. My reading has been enlightening. I discovered I could organise my Status to some degree, so I separated out the Lore and Senses into different categories. I picked Fighting, General, Senses and Lore. Some skills have a lot of crossovers, so the categories are a guide. I have picked up Gem Lore, Metal Alloy Lore, and Spiritual Metals Lore. All my other Lores have risen. My Metal Worker Class has also been going up in leaps and is now apprentice Level. My Physical Perception has also gone up. I have Darksight, Farsight and Hearing Aid. I rely on my smell through my Bond Senses, so I don¡¯t need Olfaction. I also don¡¯t need Infrared Vision which is seeing temperature, because I have Thermal Sensing. I read about Xray Vision, where you can see through objects. Apparently, it is very good for Blacksmiths to see the consistency of the metal. It is like Tabitha''s Spatial Awareness, but only where you are looking, not all around you at once. There is a Telescopic Sight Skill which is an enhanced version of Farsight. Apparently, you can enlarge a small area of your sight so it is like you are closer. That sounds very handy. I could get an enhanced version of Hearing Aid as well called Expanded Hearing. I could hear higher than the elves or lower than the Orcs. I am not totally sure what the purpose would be of that one, but it comes with additional sensitivity, which could enhance the effectiveness of my Truth Sensing Skill. Once you start reading about what people have recorded in the past, there are so many options. Kelda is back, ¡°I think I can sense something, but it is going to take some work. I am trying to make things work through my existing link to the flame. I am not sure if that is right or not.¡± ¡°It sounds about right from what I read. I would keep at it, as I think it would greatly boost your observation abilities.¡± Kelda nodded, ¡°The Army or my past trainers don¡¯t teach this.¡± ¡°I think they are focused on destructive power, but there are other options. I have been reading quite widely. I have a lot of sensing skills, and I have been looking at options for me.¡± ¡°When are you going to start on the Advance Classes?¡± ¡°I think the week after next. This coming week I am going to look at bonds. In all my reading, there is something that seems to be missing. I don¡¯t know if it is something that is underlying skills and classes, but I am starting to sense something is missing in the bonds as well. I also keep thinking about affinities because, in my experience, affinities and bonds are linked. I can sense that with my Analyse Bonds and Bond Care Skills. It is part of what makes a bond compatible or not compatible. It is personality but is also affinity, even if neither has an affinity that they are aware of. I think it is partly why Rodion shouldn¡¯t bond with the wolf cub, and I think of Otto and his affinity experiments. There was a ritual Otto was playing with to try to force an affinity. It was based on the ritual of testing whether an affinity is compatible. Wait up.¡± I thought through what I just said. Otto and the rituals. Then the memory of the Goblin Chief performing a ritual and creating, or growing, a Shaman came to mind. I haven¡¯t seen anything in the Lore Society on Rituals. Why not? Affinities and Rituals are linked, and they work through a bond, or perhaps in a bond. The Goblin Chief had some sort of Bond with his goblins and Shamans, and he used his ritual to turn a goblin into a Shaman. It worked through a bond connection. The mental exercises you do to prepare for a bond have a lot of similarities to a ritual. It is especially clear in the new exercises I found. T¨¡oke learned my Granite Affinity through our bond, and both T¨¡oke and I learned Lava Affinity through our bond with Puia. I had a notification from my Status. My Bond Master Class just levelled. I am seriously on to something here. Bonds, Affinities and Rituals. I turned back to Kelda, ¡°Sorry, I think I might have just had a breakthrough. Bonds, affinities and Rituals are all linked, and I suspect skills and classes are also linked. I just have to figure out how. It may be clearer in the advanced Classes or bonds, but I think I need to find the material on Rituals, and I suspect it is restricted.¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. When I was in the Lore Society next, I asked about the ritual to test if an affinity is compatible and was led to a small section on the upper floor next to the affinity section. There wasn''t much there. There was an introductory book that introduced the ritual and the ritual itself. The ritual wasn¡¯t complicated, but the higher the skill Sense Spiritual, the better the results you would get out of it. It would be better if you had the Spiritually Sensitive Skill or similar. You needed spiritual materials of different natures to use in the ritual. If you don¡¯t know where the core comes from, you must perform the ritual multiple times to narrow it down. The first time you would test if it is Animal, Mineral, Organic or Spiritual. If you get organic like the plant elemental, then you can narrow it down to trees, herbs, vegetables, etc. But if it is acid and you didn¡¯t test for that, you won¡¯t get a result. This is testing the monster core affinity, but then you must test the person wanting to bond similarly. You can go through a lot of expensive spiritual material. There was a simple definition of a ritual in the introduction. A ritual consists of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order with Spiritual energy. Spiritual energy can come from various sources: the person performing the ritual, the items used in the ritual, or the object of the ritual. The only ritual that seemed to be available was the one that tested for affinities. This was interesting as, in some way, my Bond Care and Analyse Bond Skills were testing for affinity compatibility. They were also testing for other things, but Affinity compatibility was definitely part of it. I need to run some tests on this ritual and my skills. I got out my paper and started copying out the ritual. Then I remembered I had Otto¡¯s notes, and he had the ritual in there along with his variations. I copied this out anyway, as I didn¡¯t necessarily trust Otto¡¯s notes. It is time to read about bonds and how the mental ritual facilitates bonding. I bet the books don¡¯t say that, but I think this is how it will be. I will be testing that too. Tabitha is back performing with Nyx. She has been quietly investigating the nobles but has taken no action, so I think the nobles are writing her threat off. That is what she wants. I know she was very interested in the Duke¡¯s study, but I don¡¯t know what she found. She has her carefree comedian persona on whenever she is out as Skygge, so people find it hard to take her as a threat. Even when it is known, she has an associate who can break through steel gates. They don¡¯t take her as a threat. People forget too quickly. T¨¡oke is back in town. He hangs out either with me, on Oske or in the compound. I think he finds the Lore Society boring, but he sometimes comes to help with the bow. The bows are done. It is quite a complicated alloy mixture. In the end, we added some of my sand. The Blacksmith didn¡¯t know I supplied it, but it gives good fire-resistant properties. The metal bow will last a long while against the heat. We created a Granite hand grip where I hold it, which helps insulate the metal. The key to the bow''s survival is the self-repair, like the bowstring. We got a Master enchanter in for the repair runes and an alchemist for a coating on the metal to help resist more heat. I will have to recoat it periodically. It will be part of my maintenance. It has a really strong pull. I had to put my Physical Strength up to 60 to operate it properly. There is no way Kelda could shoot it. It is really powerful. I have two of the bows and an excellent knowledge of making them if I need someone to make another. The knowledge will help with my Weapon Repair Skills as well. The bow is quite distinctive, but Wild Bill is an archer. I am much happier now I have a good bow. I didn¡¯t realise how much it was frustrating me without it. This Metal Worker Class has certainly boosted my attributes. The new bow has a greater range and power, so I am seriously looking to get the Telescopic Sight. It had a massive requirement of a Physical Perception of 50 and a Spiritual Perception of 40. I would need to use all my spare attributes to raise my Spiritual Perception. It will help with my Bow Skills and my Scout Class, and to a lesser extent, my Spy Class, but I am becoming a close fighter with my new Warrior Class. I have Thermal Sensing for close range. I am going to do it. The enlargement function of the Telescopic Sight is fantastic. Even at Level 1, everything looks four times closer than it is. The enlargement function is based on the Spiritual Perception Attribute, so if I increase that, it will also improve. By the time it gets to the Journeyman level, it will be forty times closer. I can vary it as I wish, and it works with Darksight. A small snag in the smoke from the city fires interferes with it, but I can deal with that. I was on the roof of our house playing with, sorry, testing my Telescopic Sight when I heard a banging at the gate. Rodion yelled he would get it, and my Hearing Aid followed him as he opened the gate and said, ¡°Elemental Traders Residence, How may I help you?¡± Then a familiar voice said, ¡°I am looking for Sten, Skygge, or Modrica. I believe they live here?¡± Awesome! I went to leap off the roof and head to the gate as I heard Rodion say, ¡°I am sorry, both Sten and Modrica have passed away. Skygge is in mourning and not taking visitors. You may leave a message.¡± ¡°What!¡± then the voice turned dangerous, ¡°You had better give me more details, lad, and take me to Skygge right now!¡± Then I came running around the corner, ¡°Ruku! Good to see you mate!¡± I gave him a crushing hug. ¡°Good to see you too,¡± he glanced at Rodion, ¡°whoever you are. Sten is dead, huh?¡± ¡°Absolutely. A very touching funeral it was, too, although I was not allowed to go. Modrica is in exactly the same state, and you just missed her memorial service. Close the gate Rodion, so the sound enchantments activate, and we can talk properly. Hello Wai.¡± I greeted Ruku¡¯s Salamander bond. Rodion closed the gate, and I led Ruku deeper inside, ¡°It is great to see you, Wiremu and T¨¡oke. It sounds like you had an eventful time, with both you and Modrica dying. I thought I had exciting adventures.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t heard anything yet. Tabitha is now Countess Skygge of the Kirghiz Kingdom.¡± Ruku stopped walking, ¡°You¡¯re serious?¡± ¡°Absolutely! Tabitha is out at the moment, but when she gets back, we will go out to see Modrica and her bond Te?ka, and we can swap stories. You haven¡¯t met Puia either. We will do that when we get out of the city. Don¡¯t mind the lions. They are bonded to the Catkin. That''s C¨­mp¨¥?i, Mayakku¡¯s bond, and that is K¨¡valar, Anni¡¯s bond. The other two are down at the warehouse right now.¡± ¡°Wow, there are a lot of changes.¡± ¡°Well, you went and left us, Ruku. Of course, we got into trouble.¡± ¡°You got into trouble when I was with you. Don¡¯t blame me.¡± 200. Celebrations: Wiremu

200. Celebrations: Wiremu

We really celebrated. We loaded Dusk and Mosey, snuck out to Modrica and ate, drank, and swapped stories. Rodion came with us. He had gone through his army career hearing stories of the Mad Major, and now he not only met him but also heard a tale that beat all the others. We were so rowdy I think we will have to shift Modrica. I think they want to be closer to the action anyway. Ruku has several new Skills and lots of Skill levels and a few Class Levels, but no new Classes. He still beats me out in total Attributes as his Calsses are all hush levelled, and mine are mostly low level. His are weighted to the physical attributes and still beats me in everything except Perception. He has Skill points to allocate, so he could also beat me there. He doesn¡¯t see the need for another perception Skill right now. I was telling him about Telescopic Sight, but he is not a ranged fighter, so it wouldn¡¯t suit him. I told him about my new class, and even though Metal Worker gives only three attribute points, I have gained fifteen by getting to level 5 over the last few weeks. Ruku came bearing gifts. He has a good number of Skill Books, plus three Advance Class books, including the one on Slavery. I was fascinated to see the ritual to grant the specialist class. I had never come across that before. Then, later in the book, there was the Ritual to remove the class. This brought the number of rituals I had to three. The ritual to remove the class was interesting and not expensive. What I couldn¡¯t understand was why it required a Jouneyman-level Slave Taskmaster. Why not an apprentice? It wasn¡¯t about attributes; you can get attributes from any class. It wasn¡¯t a skill. The class gave the Skill when you first got it, and it didn¡¯t require the Slave Bond Skill to be at Journeyman Level. It requires the class to be at Journeyman Level. I would be going through this book in a lot of detail. The rituals themselves might have clues. I would work it out. Ruku also had a number of Skill books with him. He had the trainer class, which allowed him to use Skill Books to give someone a skill or level a skill. Skill books have limited durability depending on the level of the person who created them. Some of his books only had a couple of uses left, and some had ten or more. He had a variety, some Lore, but mostly fighting Skills of various types. He did have a few crafting skills. The trick is to pick a skill you are compatible with or need for your class, or it will be very hard to level. A Skill book couldn¡¯t help you if you didn''t have the attributes for the Skill, but it could reduce other requirements, like the minimum level for a previous Skill. For example, my Bow Skill had to be Journeyman Level before I could get Longbow or Triple Shot. A skill book could make those available earlier if I had attributes for them. Ruku offered us all one free Skill. He would need to source more books or a Scribe specialising in Skill Books. Most of the skills he had were common and could be learned. Things like Lockpick, Shield Bash, Camouflage, Traps etc. The Lore Skills were also common: Animal Lore, Mammal lore, Mineral Lore, and Sapient Lore. Crafting-wise, he had Animal Husbandry, Carpentry, and Metal Working. He had two archery skills, Longshot and Piercing shot. I didn¡¯t have Piercing Shot, but I adapted Power Strike to work with the bow in my last fight. Ruku said I should keep practising it as it would probably become a skill. While we got excited about this, there was not much for people of our level. I was interested in Metal Shaping, which assisted in shaping metal either with a hammer or in a cast. My Hammer Skills were up there, so I was just using them. It would help with the hammer and the cast, so getting the right shape would be easier. I would be able to make the perfect horseshoe or pot. It would speed things up, and the shapes became more complex at the higher levels. The right shape was critical in high-level blacksmithing, but there is much more to making a sword than the shape. I chose it anyway, as it would help, and everything else was too low level. Tabitha was easy. As soon as she saw Agility Riding, she wanted it. I was surprised she didn¡¯t already have it. It boosted the Physical Agility of both the person and the mount while riding. This didn¡¯t just mean speed, then. It also meant jumping and trick riding. Modrica was going to learn the sword, as it had been frustrating her, but we steered her away from that as it was obviously not her thing. She was a master of blunt weapons, but now a bloody fight was best for her. She also needed something with a longer reach that she could use mounted. Ruku had the perfect Skill for Modrica, the Flail. It would work with her Blunt Weapons Class and give her the reach she needed to use mounted on Te?ka. It would be devastating against armour; if it had a feathered or spiked head, it would draw blood. She learned the Skill, and now we need to get her a couple of Flails. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Rodion was honoured to be included, and he really wanted a disguise-type skill, but Ruku didn¡¯t have any. I suggested he needed a ranged Skill, as in the only fight I had seen him in, he had to resort to leaping off buildings. It turns out he did have the Throw Weapons Skill in the upper Apprentice levels. He just didn¡¯t have anything to throw. Rodion had the Sword and Shield at Journeyman level, so Ruku looked at his limited selection and suggested Shield Charge. Getting across the battlefield quickly is vital for a Skirmisher. When Rodion learned it, he let out a whoop of delight. It paired with his Sprint Skill, boosting it even from the low levels. Kelda wasn¡¯t with us, but when I told Ruku about the mismanagement in her class training and how effective she was with a Bow, he offered to teach her both the bow skills he had. If she could learn them. Ruku settled into one of the rooms in the compound. When Kelda visited next, I introduced them, and she and Ruku sat down and had a long talk about her training and skills. Ruku was an experienced Trainer for the Marines. He knows the options. She needed some disguise Skills to go with her stealth and Blend if she wanted to go into more clandestine work. If she wanted to be a scout, she should pick up a riding class to match her Riding Skill. There were plenty of nature Classes available for someone with observation skills. If she was more of an urban operator, most crafting professionals would snatch her up. If she was going into leadership, the Captain training in the army was first class at giving her the mental skills and Leadership Class. Then Kelda revealed she already had the Sharp Mind Skill that boosted her Mental Agility. She would rather be out of the army, although the Captain training was tempting. Her Bow Skill wasn¡¯t far from Journeyman, so was probably OK to learn the archery Skills. She had the attributes but didn¡¯t actually think the Archery Class was for her. ¡°What do you really like to do,¡± Ruku said. ¡°I like watching and teasing out secrets. That is how I got my Sharp Mind Skill, and I recently got the Lip Reading Skill from observing people,¡± Kelda replied. ¡°Fascinating. This is new territory for me. Lip Reading is an unusual Skill, but it would get around the sound barriers people use to stop those with Hearing Senses. I have heard of a Class called Treasure Hunter, which would be strong on observational Skills. With your Observation skills Learning Detect Traps and Tracking should be a walk in the park, and you should learn as many of those skills as possible.¡± I piped in, ¡°that''s easy. I can teach those. You should also spend time in the casino.¡± ¡°The Casino?¡± Kelda was puzzled. ¡°It will level your Observer Class and Sight Skills, especially Keensight. Tabitha learned Sleight of Hand and other underhanded skills there. You would be going to see if you can spot such things and detect cheating. They might even pay you. Tabitha can show you. She is probably missing it.¡± ¡°Interesting suggestion,¡± Ruku said, ¡°You should definitely try it.¡± In the end, Kelda did learn Longbow and Piercing Shot, as the bow is the best weapon that matches her Observational Skills. This would take more thought. She and Tabitha set a date to visit the Casino and teach her some games. And observe, of course. I set a date to start teaching Detect Traps and Tracking, but most of that will have to wait until she leaves the army. To my mind, she was a good observer, but she was really best at observing people. The next week, she came in all excited, ¡°Wiremu, I did it! I learned Flame Senses!¡± The Skill was limited to small flames, but that would grow as the skill grew and her Spiritual Perception grew. The bigger the flame, the more she could sense, but the smaller the flame, the more of them she could have active at a time. There seemed to be no distance limit. As long as it was her flame, she could sense through it. This could be another use for her fire arrows to scout the area. Liten could light fires for her to see through. We went out and celebrated. Status Updates Wiremu Hunter
Wiremu Hunter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 9 12 11 10 8 10 92
Earned Attributes 11 5 2 12 3 1 3 2 5 44
Hunter B 12 2 14 24 5 2 2 6 5 60 0
Monster Hunter S 5 5 5 5 5 5 25 0
Scout S 6 6 3 6 1 6 8 30 0
Assassin S 4 1 4 5 5 1 16 0
Bond Master S 2 2 2 2 2 8 0
Quarry Worker B 11 22 11 33 0
Prospecting S 4 4 1 2 3 1 5 16 0
Spy B 10 1 4 3 10 14 8 10 50 0
Warrior B 1 2 1 2 5 0
Metal Worker B 5 5 2 5 3 15 0
Totals 60 44 50 40 45 39 Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. 41 35 40 394
Constitution 154 124 116
Resistances: Poison +21, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +32, Heat +34, Fire +13, Disease 1, Acid 1 Skills: Novice: General Lock Pick 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap3, Spiritual Trapping 4, Metal Shaping 1, Bond Care 4, Venom Vapour 4, Lore Metal Alloy Lore 3, Gem Lore 2, Spiritual Metals 2 Senses Telescopic Sight 2 Apprentice: Fighting Granite Quake 7, Granite Wall 6, Petrification 7, Venom Arrow 9, Triple Shot 8, Longbow 9, Granite Sand 8, Sudden Strike 7, Lava Dart 5, Granite Armour 6 General Fishing 8, Sewing 9, Cooking 8, Animal Care 8, Butchering 7, Weapon Repair 7, Repair Leather Armour 8, Map Making 9, Dwarvish 9, Slight of Hand 5, Analyse Bonds 6, Elemental Bond 7, Hunters Mark 6, Molten Rock 9, Disarm Traps 5, Detect Traps 5, Detect Spiritual Trap 6 Senses Sense Treasure 8, Thermal Sensing 7, Lore Plant Lore 9, Mineral Lore 8, Monster Lore 9, Sapient Lore 8, Elemental Lore 7, Metal Lore 8, Journeyman: Fighting Hammer 13, Granite Spike 14, Granite Bones 14, Granite Shield 13, Granite Manipulation 12, Bow 12, Small Blades 13, Unarmed Combat 11, Throw Weapons 12, Spear 13, Quick Strike 12, Power Strike 11, Imbue Venom 12, General Mapping 13, Tutor 12, Identify 14, Deceive 13, Manipulate Status 12, Trapping 13, Tracking 11, Skinning 11, Hide Armourer 12, Riding 11, Veneer 10, Roleplay 10, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 10, Snakeskin 13, Regeneration 13, Orcish 13, Camouflage 12, Senses Hearing Aid 14, Darksight 13, Far Sight 14, Bond Senses 12, Truth Sensing 10, Sense Spiritual 12 Lore Animal Lore 12 Master: General Stealth 17, Animal Bond 17, Senses Granite Sense 15 Affinity: Granite, Lava Monster Kills: 9 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +22, Cold +30, Heat +34, Fire +13, Pain +22, Acid 1 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 4, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 4, Thermal Senses 2, Venom Vapour 3 Apprentice: Granite Shield 7, Granite Sense 7, Granite Manipulation 9, Molten Rock 6, Sudden Strike 8, Hunters Mark 6, Lava Spit 5 Journeyman: Strength Boost 121, Camouflage 14, Power Strike 11, Venom Spit 10, Regeneration 12, Granite Bone 14, Granite Spike 10, Grow 11 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 17 Affinity: Granite, Lava Bond: Puia, Lava Elemental Resistances: Cold +30, Skills: Novice: Granite Manipulation 4, Thermal Senses 3, Granite Spike 1 Apprentice: Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 7 Journeyman: Master: Molten Rock 11 Affinity: Lava, Granite Tabitha Carter
Tabitha Carter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 8 12 10 9 10 10 91
Earned Attributes 2 3 5 3 2 1 1 1 4 22
Thief B 13 3 13 13 4 1 13 6 5 7 65 0
Shadow Predator S 10 7 10 2 11 11 9 50 0
Racketeer S 5 5 5 6 5 2 23 2
Burglar S 4 4 2 6 12 4
Merchant B 11 2 11 6 11 11 3 3 8 55 0
Rider B 8 2 8 8 3 1 6 28 4
Entertainer B 5 5 5 5 10 25 0
Totals 30 50 48 34 40 45 40 40 44 371
Constitution 128 119 124
Resistances: Cold 20, Poison 3, Pain 4, Disease 1, Acid 2, Mental 1 Skills Novice: General Sewing 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Animal Bond 4, Shadow Step 3, Agility Riding 1 Apprentice: General Pickpocket 8, Trapping 5, Cooking 9, Hearing Aid 9, Adjuster 7, Binding Shadows 7, Spatial Pocket 9, Body Image 7, Syphon Energy 7, Syphon Consitution 7 Fighting Blunt Weapon 9, Knockout Strike 9, Parry 9, Rampage 8, Senses Elemental Senses 6, Lore Sapient Lore 8, Journeyman: General Riding 14, Bargain 12, Appraise 11, Shadow Puppet 10, Performance 10, Lock Pick 10, Detect Traps 10, Sleight of Hand 11, Detect Spiritual Traps 10, Disarm Spiritual Traps 10, Confuse Status 11, Identify 11, Distract 14, Disarm Traps 10, Orcish 11, Dwarvish 13, Lute 11, Coax 11, Mimic 13, Elemental Bond 11, Animal Care 11, Engulfing Shadows 14, Shadows Embrace 14, Fighting Intimidating Aura 12, Small Blades 14, Unarmed Combat 11, Swords 11, Dual Wield 10 Senses Sense Spiritual 12, Spatial Awareness 13, Lore Master: General Stealth 17, Shadow Manipulation 16, Senses Darksight 16, Affinity: Shadow Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Nyx, Shadow Elemental Skills: Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry, Coax, Engulfing Shadows, Sense Spiritual, Body Image, Bond: Dusk, Thoroughbred Horse Skills: Speed Boost, Shadows Embrace. Affinity: Shadow 201. Dark Knight: Tabitha.

201. Dark Knight: Tabitha.

Well, shit. That all collapsed like slime on a stick. How the hell does the assistant to a baron, not the baron, the assistant to the baron, have better guards than a Duke? Unfortunately, I will never know now because THEY ARE ALL DEAD! This mess is worse than a Troll in a glass merchant''s shop. I ripped some cloth from one of them and wrapped the cut in my arm. It is a weakness of my Syphon Consistution Skill in that it stops working when EVERYBODY IS DEAD. It is only a small townhouse. Four Guards and the assistant. At least one of the guards had a sensing skill that found me, and now I will never know what it was. It was a very quick and extremely vicious fight, and I very nearly died. I am fortunate to escape with the cut, and I will have a lot of bruising. After this, I will spend some time at the nearby stock sale yards and Syphon Constitution. Nobody will notice as the animals will recover in a few hours. I searched the house and collected enough evidence to implicate the assistant in bribing Army Officers. This was more than just the Duty Officer on the night Modrica was attacked. She actually did it, so I wasn¡¯t making it up. The poison and the coins all went through her. Through was the operative word. All the evidence of her backers pointed to George and Baron Anders, so they were obviously the sacrificial offerings because neither had a brain cell between them. I had spent the last few weeks gathering evidence quietly. But now one of the key players was dead, so the quiet part ended. It was time to update the King and negotiate a pay rise while I was there. The Kings Palace was huge and old. It was ridiculously easy to get in, I could almost have ridden Dusk in. The Kings living quarters were more secure. It still wasn¡¯t as hard as Duke Terry¡¯s place. He seriously needs better security. About two hours before dawn, I snuck into the King''s bed chamber, and the thrown knife sliced through my armour, drawing blood. Without my Spatial Awareness and Physical Agility, it would have been a heart strike. ¡°Shit! Do you greet all your visitors with a knife, Your Majesty?¡± ¡°Only the ones that sneak into my bedroom at 3 am.¡± ¡°I feel bad for the Dwarven mistresses.¡± ¡°Those I leave for my wife to deal with.¡± The moonlight glinted off a blade on his wife''s side of the bed, and I could tell she was awake and armed. ¡°I guess that was why it was so easy to get in here.¡± ¡°Got to keep my skills sharp somehow.¡± He certainly had good senses and reflexes. I am guessing he was some sort of rogue assassin in his younger days. He is certainly used to living on the edge and is still sharp. So was his wife. I am betting they make a good team. ¡°Is there a reason you disturbed my sleep? I do keep office hours, you know.¡± I was using my Syphon Constitution on the guards outside his door. They wouldn¡¯t notice, being the strong Physical builds. The knife had some sort of paralytic on the blade, which would have slowed my reactions if I didn¡¯t heal it. My Poison Resistance went up a level. All the extra health benefits of working for the king. ¡°I thought I had better let you know bodies will start dropping, so you are ready for the pushback.¡± ¡°Well, in that case, you had better drink this,¡± he tossed me a small vial. I caught it and tossed it back. ¡°I am fine, thanks. I already healed the poison.¡± ¡°At least a Journeyman Level Stealth Class and a Stealth specialisation class if you thought it was easy to get in here. Plus, a self-heal ability. You remind me of me when I was a century younger.¡± He tagged that right. What is he now if he was where I am a century ago? He has been a King for over 50 years, so that must have slowed him down. Before that, he was a Duke, so who knows what his skills are? I am thinking back to the throne room, and I think if I had struck at him when he was only two steps away, I would not have been successful, and not because of the guards. He was testing me. King Thorbj?rn sat up and swung his hairy legs over the side of the bed. He hopped to the floor. He was wearing a plain off-white nightshirt that came down to his knees. Did I mention he had hairy legs? He reached for a nearby dressing gown and put it on while slipping his feet into some slippers. He really did look like an old man. Old dwarf. A grandpa. I guess that¡¯s exactly what he is. That is just not all he is. ¡°Follow me,¡± he said, walking out into the lit hallway with the guards. I followed, and he said to the guards, ¡°This is Countess Skygge. You lot are buying the ale on Friday.¡± He turned to me, ¡°Next time, let these guards know you are here, as you might not be so lucky dodging the knife.¡± He led me into an adjoining room and lit the lamps. It was an office, and he indicated for me to sit. ¡°First up, I don¡¯t appreciate being woken in the middle of the night, so this had better be bloody important. Secondly, when we are alone, you can call me Thor. All that Majesty shit gets bloody annoying.¡± ¡°If we are sticking to the important things, then the most important is, what are you paying me to do your dirty work?¡± ¡°Ha! I bet your class is Thief! Thieves are almost as bad as Merchants.¡± ¡°Actually, it is Thief and Merchant. What were your clues?¡± ¡°I am old, and I have seen a lot of upstarts. Classes usually follow personality. It is not a definite thing, but it is often the case. Even if someone has trained in the wrong Class, they drift back to the right class more often than not. Classes that suit the person also level faster. I bet you are not even thirty yet.¡± I shook my head, ¡°Two journeyman-level classes and some specialisations. You are on the right track, lass. Now, what have you got for me?¡± ¡°You have some trickster or conman type class, don¡¯t you? Trying to steer me away from my pay again.¡± Thor smiled, ¡°You are not far wrong, lass. What do you want to be paid? By the way, I am not helping your Trading company. At the rate you are going, you will own the kingdom in a decade anyway.¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°I have a list.¡± Always go into negotiations prepared, especially when negotiating with a conman. He scanned down the list. His eyebrows raised. ¡°Item three is not happening.¡± I just grinned. He read down a few lines, and then he said, ¡°Who the hell is Wiremu Hunter? It sounds like a name from the Free Republic, and that is the other side of the continent.¡± ¡®You have actually met Wiremu. You gave him a Decree to research the Lore Society restricted materials.¡± ¡°Ha! You slipped that one past me. My eyesight must be going. I did think there was something off about that girl.¡± ¡°Wiremu is on a mission. It is a mission against Slavery. We are heading into the Empire after this and, more likely than not, will die there. Wiremu is a Hunter. He loves the wilderness, but he is someone who needs a home to come back to. His village was destroyed by Empire slavers, hence his mission. Giving him a home to come back to is the least we can do for him.¡± ¡°So you want a farm next to a good fishing river on the outskirts of Duhovno and the Steam Lands,¡± Thor said. ¡°That is Duchess Mojca. She is an OK sort and probably won¡¯t mind. Why is he operating as a woman and not in his name?¡± ¡°The Empire had a contract out on him for capture or kill. I don¡¯t know if it is still active, but the Empire was hunting him.¡± ¡°So giving him land, or even making him a noble under Mojca, will upset the Empire?¡± I nodded. ¡°Will they come for him?¡± ¡°They have already tried. He killed the Lava affinity guy and the hawk lady outside Jern.¡± ¡°Actually, I think I might remember being told that. He has already done us a great service.¡± ¡°He won¡¯t appreciate being made a noble.¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t suppose he will. I can only have one Count Auditor at a time anyway. Did you know the position was originally made to allow the king to chase reluctant nobles into coughing up their taxes? They got paid a percentage of the tax.¡± ¡°So I get paid a percentage of the tax, do I?¡± Thor chuckled, ¡°Yes, Lass, that you do. Haven¡¯t you been to see the Royal Treasurer to organise it?¡± ¡°Somebody forgot to mention that. I suspect their memory is going in their old age.¡± I paused, then asked, ¡°Why me? You don¡¯t know me. I could be a dangerous criminal for all you know.¡± ¡°I would expect you to have a significant criminal past, being a thief and all. I suspect you still have strong ties to the criminal world. But you have honour too. Your list has a lot of things for people other than you. You understand people and help them. Wiremu Hunter is a prime example. Plus, you have been doing a good job so far.¡± ¡°How would you know that?¡± ¡°Because I had someone following you.¡± ¡°You have someone that can follow me?¡± ¡°He was getting frustrated. You lost him a number of times. He figured he managed to get about half your night visits, but he doesn¡¯t know what you have found. He was impressed you got in and out of the Duke''s mansion twice without being spotted.¡± ¡°I have been in four times. Why don¡¯t you get him to do the job?¡± ¡°Because he is old like me, and my wife would hit me if I loaded more work on him.¡± ¡°You know, when we leave for the empire, we are probably not getting out of there alive.¡± ¡°Really? Then, getting a retirement farm for Wiremu doesn¡¯t make sense. You realise when an assassin finally gets me, or I step down from the throne, you will need to apply to the new monarch to keep your position?¡± ¡°That slice of the tax would have to be bigger.¡± ¡°I might be only allowed one Countess Auditor, but you can appoint deputies. You need to pay them out of your very generous income, though. Traditionally, they are called the Knights of the Auditor and have some immunity from the laws when on official business. You should probably read up about the position in the Lore Society. There is a whole section on Kirghiz Kingdom politics.¡± ¡°No thanks. Wiremu has probably already read it and will tell me what I did wrong after I have broken all the rules.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell me the second reason you came here tonight.¡± I laid out the documents I had collected. ¡°This is the trail of coins I followed regarding the bribery. You will see that everything points to either the Duke¡¯s son George or Baron Anders.¡± ¡°That is not worth the paper you have there. Those two couldn¡¯t organise their own birthday party, let alone the corruption of the army.¡± ¡°The corruption of the army is merely one of the means to the end. It is just the one that unravelled when it was used for personal use.¡± ¡°Go on.¡± ¡°The end, as far as I can tell, is to remove you as King and get their person on the throne.¡± ¡°That¡¯s nothing new. How are they going to go about it?¡± ¡°To replace you, dead or senile, requires a majority vote of all the Dukes unless¡­.¡± ¡°Unless we are at war. I know the rules, Lass. This skirmish with the empire has not yet been declared a war, but it is getting there. Especially the shipping losses in the Obalno Fleet.¡± ¡°And that is the reason they were getting key people of the army on board because this skirmish is not as bad as you have been told.¡± ¡°How would you know that?¡± ¡°One of my Knights has just returned from Northport. A plague is ravishing the whole city. Their fleet will be only half operational at best, and the effects of the plague will be felt for several years to come.¡± ¡°I hope you are paying this ¡°Knight¡± well. So the reports of trade blockade through the Hrothgar pass are probably exaggerated, along with a strong force at the Sothern pass? I will go to the Communication Enchanters and communicate myself.¡± ¡°I told you weeks ago to get new advisors.¡± ¡°Communication takes time, lass. Those Communication Enchanters are expensive even for a King. It¡¯s an emergency system only. Who are they going to replace me with?¡± ¡°There are a couple of layers to that. I am pretty sure they promised Duke Terry the throne, but I doubt he will be alive then. I have no proof, but I think the real candidate is his daughter, Harry.¡± ¡°So they kill off the Duke and the Heir as an Imperial Assassination, possibly at the same time they go for me. Better for them if I declare war before I die, but I am sure they have plans to fudge it after I am dead.¡± ¡°Basically. I have no proof, they have been very careful, but I think the mastermind is someone else.¡± ¡°What are you going to do about it?¡± The king asked. ¡°Nothing.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Well, the Duke was the one who interfered and had Modrica attacked, and in this plan, he dies. So, the most I will do is make sure their plan succeeds. I have warned you, and you are hardly helpless, and even if you are getting doddery in your old age, your wife is quite capable. Why would I do anything else?¡± ¡°Then why did you come to warn me that bodies are going to start dropping?¡± ¡°I had to drop some tonight. One of their middle women died. I didn¡¯t say I was the one going to start dropping the bodies.¡± ¡°I would like to know who the mastermind is. What would it take for you to do more than just watch?¡± ¡°Well, you do have that list. Oh, and I would like enough coin to have more than just one Knight.¡± 202. Core Experiments: Wiremu

202. Core Experiments: Wiremu

¡°Mayakku, Have you got a minute?¡± I asked, entering her little shop across the road from our compound. C¨­mp¨¥?i was sunning himself in the shop window, which might be putting off her customers. He was a larger-than-normal lion. ¡°Sure, come through,¡± Mayakku shouted from the back. Mayakku had a small workspace in the rear of the shop, but she had a large room in the basement of the residential building she had enchanted as a large workroom. ¡°I would like to borrow your workroom to perform a ritual. I think this may also help you with the Monster Core Enchanting.¡± Her face fell at that as she considered it to be a big failure on her part. Despite the revelation she¡¯d had in the cave with the Sand Elemental, she still had not managed to crack Core Enchanting. There was some aspect to it that was evading her. ¡°You think a ritual will help?¡± she asked. ¡°It can¡¯t hurt. I have been reading up on Monsters and on identifying core affinities, and I want to try the ritual. You have the space that smooths out the natural Spirituality and way more Spiritual Sensitivity than I do. We have never tested the core for its affinity, we just assumed it was from a Bonedog and that it would be a bone affinity, but that is not necessarily the case.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t just want to use my space. You want me to perform the ritual?¡± she asked. ¡°I want us both to perform the ritual and then compare notes.¡± ¡°How do you think this will help?¡± ¡°I think it will help us feel out aspects of the affinity that we can compare to other types, and I have a feeling this flavour or aspect may be the reason your enchantments are not accepting the core energy.¡± ¡°That may be the case, I am obviously missing something. I had pretty much given up. Why is this of interest to you?¡± ¡°You mean besides the Elemental Traders having a Core enchanter in the house?¡± She made a disbelieving face at me. ¡°I am exploring the link between affinities and bonds. My new skills tell me there is a link, and I want to find out what it is. I think the raw spiritual energy you experienced in the cave with the Sand Elemental is more nuanced than that. I think it has flavours or aspects that the Skill is sensing, and I want to see if I can sense it too. You will likely be the one to sense it, as you have much greater sensitivity than I do. Here this is the ritual, have a look at it.¡± I handed over the notes I had taken. ¡°You have some materials?¡± she asked. I tapped my backpack. ¡°No time like the present,¡± she said, and we closed the shop and took the tunnel back to the residence. She had not long finished her permanent enchanting room. It cost a lot to enchant, but it was much larger than her wagon. This ritual required a diagram to be laid out on a flat surface. Mayakku said it was similar to the Inspect rune, which makes sense. I drew out the diagram using a piece of chalk. There was some discussion in the book, and the material used to draw the diagram was similar to the affinity to get a better result. Often you don¡¯t know the affinity, and chalk was a common general material. The Item or person being tested went into the centre, and the materials you were testing against were around the edges. The Spiritual energy for the ritual would come from the items you were testing it with, so they could only be used once, as the energy was sucked out of them. The Items had to be Spiritually enhanced; the more enhanced they were, the stronger the energy. Monster materials were the strongest. We had a number of Spiritually enhanced creatures around us. The four lions, plus Dusk, who now had an affinity but wasn¡¯t a monster. Apparently, Ruku¡¯s bond Wai had consumed a lot of Spiritually enhanced food and was now a lot more than he was as an ordinary salamander. On top of that, we had a lot of people with affinities who could produce items for the ritual. Ruku could produce Water, Poison Water, and mist. I could produce Granite, Lava, Sand, and Poison. When I get better at smelting, I am sure I can refine a number of other minerals and metal fragments from the lava. I was also keen to figure out how to use Shadows, but that would have to wait. This all started because Tabitha wanted Mayakku to be able to enchant items that Nyx could recharge, so I am sure we will be experimenting with Shadow soon enough. We put the Bonedog core in the middle. Around the edge, I put some Items I had purchased. A bone fragment, a claw, some flesh, and some saliva. The Lions provided the saliva. They wouldn¡¯t let me extract a tooth to use. The ritualist, in this case, was the initiator and controller. Mayakku wanted me to make the first attempt while she watched. I was more familiar with the ritual than she was. The ritual called for the ritualist to perform an action with their hands and say a phrase to start the ritual. Then I had to move to each item in turn and perform a different action and phrase. I had no idea why, but I spent much time reviewing the actions and phrases with Mayakku before we started the ritual. The third time Mayakku stepped back and watched me rather than following along. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. When I had finished, she said, ¡°The first action to start the ritual is like you are drawing a rune in the air. It has the same outer shape as the empower rune, but the inside is different. Do it again slowly, and I will try to draw the runes.¡± It was harder to draw as when the hand moved to the centre, was that supposed to be a line to the centre or a dot in the centre? She drew common variations, but she couldn¡¯t work out which might be the correct one. It was time to try the ritual. There were only two different actions and phrases; the one to start the ritual and the one to perform at each item. I had Sense Spiritual and Granite Sense running while concentrating on the Spiritual Perception Attribute. I had Granite Sense on because chalk is a rock, which I only discovered when I had levelled my Mineral Lore. Granite Sense is also my only Master Level Sense. Sense Sprirtual is only mid-Journeyman Level. When I performed the starting Ritual, the chalk diagram lit dimly to my Sense Spiritual. I moved to the flesh and performed the ritual. There was a change in the Spiritual flow along the chalk to the core, but it seemed unstable or perhaps unhealthy. Then the sensation faded. These senses are hard to put into words. I moved to the bone. The Spiritual flow solidified and hardened but then seemed to crack. I have nothing to compare these senses to in order to know what might be right. I assume the unhealthy feeling and cracking would indicate they are not right, but maybe a different type of bone is needed. Maybe the strengthening part means I am close. I don¡¯t know. I move on to the claw. The claw produces a sharpness to the spiritual flow. It wasn¡¯t as sharp as it could be, but it wasn¡¯t wrong either. This seemed to be the most correct to date. I moved on the saliva. The sensation was of slimy water, unhealthy slimy water. The connections started breaking down as the item ran out of Spiritual Energy. The Flesh went first. It had been operating the longest, and then the saliva stopped. It must have the least Spiritual Energy. Then the claw, and then the bone. The ritual was over. Mayakku was bouncing up and down with excitement. Apparently, she could follow the ritual just by observing. She has Spiritual Sensitivity and Spiritual Flow Skills, and a higher levelled Sense Spiritual. ¡°I could feel the different Spiritual energies from here,¡± Mayakku exclaimed. ¡°It¡¯s the claw, right?¡± ¡°The claw seemed to be the closest, but it wasn¡¯t perfect.¡± ¡°I got a sense of the flavours. I want to try it.¡± ¡°Flavours?¡± ¡°It is the closest word I can think of to describe the differences.¡± ¡°Let''s repeat the ritual and see if your senses are stronger when you are running it, and I will observe.¡± We re-performed the ritual with fresh ingredients. Mayakku did them in a different order, saliva, flesh, claw, and bone. I could still sense the flavours but not as clearly from outside the ritual. I was interested in what Mayakku sensed. ¡°Definitely the claw, but not this claw,¡± she said. ¡°In fact, it may not be a claw. It might be sharpness. Everything was much clearer when I was running the ritual.¡± ¡°Interesting, that claw is from a feline. I will try and get one from a canine. Sharpness, you say?¡± I created a stone dart for piercing and a small stone knife for cutting. I had another two claws and some teeth from the same cat. ¡°Shall we try these?¡± Mayakku went first. ¡°I think the tooth and the dart were slightly stronger than the claw and the knife. You try.¡± I couldn¡¯t tell the difference from outside the ritual, or my senses were not strong enough. The claw and the tooth had cost me coin, but we were experimenting. I ran the ritual and did the claw first. The sensation was the same as before; I would use this as a benchmark for the others. I did the dart next, and the sense of sharpness returned, and there was a penetrating aspect, but it wasn¡¯t that simple as the sensation of the spiritual stone also came through, and it felt crumbly. The knife had the same stone sensation, so it definitely wasn¡¯t compatible with the stone. The sharpness was still there, though. The tooth was better, and the penetrating sharpness came through strongly. ¡°Definitely not stone, but apart from that, the dart and tooth were stronger.¡± It seemed to me that the more spiritual aspects an object had, the more complicated the sense or flavour came through. Mayakku was definitely more sensitive than I was. Then I saw her looking at C¨­mp¨¥?i, her bond. ¡°Can we test C¨­mp¨¥?i?¡± She thought he might be compatible with this Monster Core. ¡°I don¡¯t have any more claws or teeth,¡± I said. ¡°The idea was to help you with Core Enchanting.¡± ¡°I can get some, and we can try it. After all, that is what the ritual is for. I think that before we go there, we will need a lot more practice to test that we are sensing things right. If we mess up, both your lives are on the line.¡± I used my Skill Analyse Bond on their bond, and sharp piercing was one of the flavours, but only one. The bond also flowed with a gentleness and precision. This was more than when I tried the other catikin bonds. The Skill was growing, but still only early apprentice level, so I knew I was missing things. Was that sharp piercing flavour enough? I had never heard of a piercing affinity if that is what it was. Maybe it is just our inexperience at interpreting things. There are so many unknowns here. ¡°Getting back to Core Enchanting, did this help?¡± I asked, getting back on to the topic. Mayakku thought for a minute, then went to her desk, pulled some notes, and looked at runes. ¡°Maybe,¡± she said, ¡°I will need to experiment with this gathering rune. We enchanters changed it so only we can empower the enchantments for repeat business, but changing it to match the core, ¡­ that would also need changes to the flow regulator rune¡­.¡± her voice faded, and she got lost in thought. ¡°Right, I¡¯ll leave you to it,¡± but I am not sure she even heard me. I went and saw T¨¡tt¨¡ on my way out and got him to find more claws and teeth but from a variety of animals. We also thought about other spiritually enhanced sharp things, like needles, metal spearheads, etc. 203. Advanced work: Wiremu

203. Advanced work: Wiremu

There was some resistance to accessing the Advance Class books. The Royal Decree pushed through, but I think some of the Masters were not happy. I had to endure a tirade from one dwarven master, who clearly and thoroughly listed my unworthiness to have access to her area of speciality, and she was off to complain to the King. She was a Spiritual herb specialist, and she was so right. Out of interest, I looked at the Advanced Classes in Herbology. There were two, and I could not understand either of them. The book on the Slave Taskmaster that Ruku brought back with him was there. I skimmed it to check it was the same, and it was. There was a study of slaves carried out about two hundred years ago. They used some experiments that I would have killed them for. I checked the author, and it was written in the Empire. They tried many things, but the overall goal seemed to be to try to increase the Mental Agility of the slaves while keeping the other mental attributes down. If they could increase the Mental Agility attribute, they would have a more creative workforce and one that could learn new skills quicker. This was a big hindrance to using slaves. They struggled to learn new skills. There was some success with alchemical potions, but the cost of the potions was prohibitive. I checked the other books there, and all of them were written in the Empire except one thin one. A Kirghiz Mental Health Specialist wrote this on how to care for people with the Slave Class who came to the Kingdom. It was written about a hundred and fifty years ago, and the principles for slave owners and helping slaves live a life as normal as possible were still operating today. There were several copies of this book, and the custodian said it was required reading for all Mental Health experts today. In all the readings, the only way to remove the Slave Class was the Ritual by a Journeyman Slave Taskmaster. There was no explanation of why it required a Journeyman-level Slave Taskmaster. I moved my reading to other Advanced Classes. After all, they may need removing as well. Every advanced class book started with a warning that this class could not be removed. I didn¡¯t believe it. If the Slave class can be removed, then so can these classes. That didn¡¯t mean it would be easy or cheap, but there must be a way. There was an Advance Class that tempted me. It was called Mineral Extraction, and it focussed on using smelting and other techniques to break down rock into its separate elements. It also enabled you to imbue those elements with Spiritual Energy. This includes different mineral elements as well as metal elements. The downside to the class was it made any other Blacksmithing and Stone Masonry specialisation unavailable. Do you want enhanced pure silicon? Gold? Iron? Silver? With my Granite and lava Affinities, I could produce pure metals that were already enhanced. I couldn¡¯t do much with them, but I could pump out materials. Pure gold horseshoes, then I am your man. Or I would be if I had the class. I would be locked away and used to produce materials. To get the Class, I would need Mineral Lore at Journeyman, Metal Lore at Apprentice, and a Smithing and a Stone Work Basic Class, which I have. Then I would need a Journeyman Level Smith and Stone Mason to perform a ritual. They could be separate people. The ritual involved also needed different pure spiritual materials, three minerals and three metals. I compared this ritual with the Slave taskmaster ritual, which was totally different. No surprise there. I went through the other advanced Class books and copied down every ritual I could find. They all required a Journeyman Level Practitioner to run the ritual. Why? What does the ritual actually do? The ritual for testing affinities in Monster Cores and people focussed and moved Spiritual energy that could then be sensed. How are these rituals moving spiritual energy to make a class? Wait up! Back up a bit. Spiritual Energy is creating a class. Are all classes created by Spiritual Energy? How would I find out? Specialised classes come with Skills? Are Skills also from Spiritual Energy? Skills use different energy when you activate them, but are they created from this raw Spiritual Energy before it is divided into the nine attributes? How would I find out? Specialised Classes come with a skill, and not always the same skill. Two people specialising in the same class could get different skills. Why? To specialise, you must have your basic class at the Journeyman level. Is this linked to the reason you need a Journeyman level practitioner for the Advanced Class ritual? It seems likely. There must be a reason or a connection I am still missing. A cough interrupted me. ¡°Excuse me, Lady Dianne,¡± Susie, the small attendant, approached hesitantly, ¡°you have an important visitor¡±. I was in a private chamber where I could read the restricted Lore material alone. I was not supposed to be disturbed. I had also acquired the ¡°Lady¡± title as I was the sister to the Countess Auditor. It wasn¡¯t public yet, but I was now also a Knight of the Auditor, which seems a pointless title to me. Ruku has found it a useful title in noble circles. ¡°Very well, I am done for the day anyway. Please keep these books available for my next session as I haven¡¯t finished with them. Thanks, Susie.¡± ¡°Yes, my Lady.¡± I am not sure I will ever get used to being called that. I packed my notes into my bag. T¨¡oke slithered up my back and onto my shoulder while the assistant tidied the table. He comes with me more often now that Te?ka is back in town. Nobody has seen him on my shoulder. His Camouflage is now Master Level. In the Lore society, people are all Mental Attributes, and you can slip all sorts of things past them. I followed the attendant out and back up to the ground floor. I checked My Roleplay, and Decieve Skills were fully active, with me in the role of Dianne. It could only be a Lore Master or a high-ranking noble with the influence to disturb me. I entered the public area of the Lore Society and saw the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I automatically started to move toward her to introduce myself. Roleplay and Decieve were Journeyman level and reminded me of my disguise, but they seemed to be fighting something. Then the woman turned, and her smile lit up my whole world. I reached out my hand in greeting, and suddenly her smile faltered, and she took a step back. I wanted her to smile again. Then I heard a hiss by my ear, and I looked, and T¨¡oke was not in Camouflage but in a coil on my shoulder, with his head raised, ready to strike. His fangs were wide open with poison sizzling on them. I came to my senses and realised this must be Harriot. That is an insidious Skill. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. I dropped my hand and bolstered my Mental Strength as I said coldly, ¡°I consider it to be an attack when somebody uses a skill on me without my knowledge.¡± I know I do that a lot myself, using Skills on people without their knowledge. Especially Skills like Hunters Mark. Yes, it is an attack; if I am discovered, I expect to be attacked. Let¡¯s see what she does when she is discovered. She composed herself very quickly and hit me with a bright smile. This time I got a notice of Mental Resistance 1 on my Status Sheet. She attacked me again. I drew a knife so fast she didn¡¯t even see it, and I sliced her face from her eye to her chin. It wasn¡¯t deep, but it bled and would be ugly for a week or so, depending on the skill of her healer. She recoiled and raised a hand to her bleeding face. ¡°You cut me!¡± she exclaimed in disbelief. Time to try out this title. ¡°You attacked a Knight of the Auditor twice. The second time was after being warned that I considered it to be an attack. You are lucky you are not dead. I am a registered assassin.¡± T¨¡oke was back in camouflage and changed shoulders. She was speechless. I don¡¯t think she had ever been physically attacked before, and it had really thrown her off her script. I still held the knife. The attendant had backed away wide-eyed in fear and was cowering by the door to the society entrance. I guess it is not a normal thing to happen in the Lore Society either. ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ll¡­ have you brought before the King and executed.¡± she stammered. ¡°So I should just kill you now, then,¡± I said calmly. She looked frantically around for her guards but must have told them to wait outside while she seduced me. Who would expect violence in the Lore Society? She was alone with an assassin. She really hadn¡¯t thought it through. Her Mental Agility was kicking back in as she pulled herself together. A smile started and then stopped as I put the knife near her other cheek. ¡°I apologise, Dianne. It is only a skill that smooths the way for me,¡± she lied. ¡°You are also not aware that I have a Truth Sensing Skill. It comes in very handy in interrogations.¡± She was speechless again, now realising I would sense her lies. ¡°I ¡­ah¡­ I apologise once again. I will take my leave.¡± She gave me a brief bow and practically ran out the door into the street. I followed her with Thermal Sensing and Hearing Aid. She wouldn¡¯t talk in the street, threw a shawl over her head to cover the wound, and scurried off with her two guards trailing her, worried about an attack. I guess there were a number of better ways to have handled that, but I am not a noble and violence is in character for Dianne. And for me. What¡¯s done is done. There will be consequences. I made the knife disappear. I turned to the attendant, the only witness to the event. I gave her a smile, ¡°I am sorry you had to see that. Were you aware she has a mental Skill, so people find her attractive?¡± Susie shook her head. ¡°It is so vain,¡± I said, ignoring the fact that Veneer was working hard to make me look more attractive right now. I continued, ¡°Nobles don¡¯t like people to see them shammed. I think you might need to take a holiday for a few weeks.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have anywhere to go, my lady, and I,¡± her voice dropped in shame, ¡°I can¡¯t afford to not work here.¡± ¡°Do you have any relatives in Kirghiz?¡± ¡°No, my Lady.¡± Well, goblin shit. She is a nice enough kid, if a bit timid. She seemed bright enough, and I could tell she was excited to be assigned to work with me. That might be just because it was regular work for her. I don¡¯t want her to disappear just because I put a noble in their place in front of her. ¡°Come and have a cup of tea with me in the Teashop here and tell me about yourself.¡± ¡°Yes, my lady. I understand Lady Harriot will not be pleased that I saw what you did, and her supporters can get over-enthusiastic.¡± We went to the nearest shop, and I ordered tea and a snack. Surprisingly it was Susie that spoke first. ¡°I really like working at the Lore Society, my Lady.¡± ¡°OK, first rule. Stop it with the ¡°My Lady¡± crap. My name is Dianne, and I am a fighter, not a noble.¡± ¡°Yes, my¡­¡± she gulped. ¡°Yes, Dianne.¡± ¡°What do you like about working there? I know it is not the pay.¡± ¡°I like learning, my ¡­ Dianne. I like reading.¡± ¡°How long have you been there?¡± ¡°Just over two years¡± ¡°Would you consider doing another job for a while?¡± ¡°I guess so, but there is a lot of competition for assistant places in the Lore Society. I probably won¡¯t get a job there again.¡± She sounded really disappointed as well as resigned. ¡°Over two years in that place, ah? You must know a lot.¡± She nodded. ¡°What have you been learning lately?¡± Her face flushed red, and she didn¡¯t answer. Then it dawned on me, ¡°You¡¯ve been reading the restricted books after I leave, haven¡¯t you?¡± She hid her face in shame. ¡°Please don¡¯t tell.¡± ¡°Ha! I am not angry with you, Susie. Good on you, I say. It is probably your only chance.¡± She nodded her head in agreement but was still hesitant to look at me. We now had a shared secret that would engender trust over time. ¡°You know what I need? I need a research assistant. You can take secondary jobs while employed by the Lore Society, can¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What other duties do you have there?¡± ¡°I have been relieved of other duties to be on call for you.¡± ¡°Excellent. It sounds very likely you will get paid twice for doing the same work. I will need a more active assistant, though.¡± Her head was nodding, and she was starting to look excited again. ¡°You will need to stick with me for protection for a while, and we need to get you into new accommodation till this blows over. I have a friend who is living in East Marin who could do with a flatmate. She gets bored easily. She is also a very private person, and you will have to keep it a secret where you are living and who you are living with.¡± She nodded. ¡°You will be protected while at home, but will need to be escorted when out for a while? OK?¡± She nodded again. We passed her small attic, collected some of her belongings, and headed to East Marin. I hope Modrica likes her new flatmate. I hope Susie isn¡¯t starstruck with Modrica coming back from the dead. I hope she likes bears. 204. Repercussions: Wiremu

204. Repercussions: Wiremu

I knocked on the door of the townhouse where Modrica and Te?ka were living. It is not that Modrica would object if I entered. I came and went a lot as this was one of two key places I changed into Dianne. Dianne¡¯s own place is on the far side of the city. I knocked because I didn¡¯t want Susie to know how familiar I was with this place and because my Thermal Senses said Modrica was not alone. The townhouse looked like all the others in the street. We acquired it because of the large yard out the back. It was never adequately explained to me how we acquired it. Tabitha and Kelda returned from the casino one evening with the signed deed in Kelda¡¯s name. I chose not to ask for any more details. Modrica¡¯s visitor came to answer the door, ¡°Good afternoon,¡± she said. Susie immediately dropped into a bow. I thought she might drop to a knee. ¡°Ha... Hello, Countess,¡± she stammered. ¡°Hi, Skygge. Susie needed somewhere to stay for a few days.¡± I said. ¡°And you thought here would be appropriate?¡± Susie was giving me sharp looks, and didn¡¯t know what to say. ¡°Well, she can¡¯t stay with me, and she needed protection for a while.¡± ¡°Of course, she can¡¯t stay with you, Dianne. What would your girlfriend say?¡± That got me another sharp look from Susie. I rolled my eyes at Tabitha. She was just trying to embarrass me now. ¡°We had an altercation with Harry, and Susie witnessed it.¡± ¡°You had better come in, and we can discuss it.¡± We went into the main living room and sat down. Modrica was downstairs with Te?ka in his den. ¡°What happened?¡± Susie seemed very nervous. I suppose she hadn¡¯t met Skygge before. I described the incident. ¡°You sliced her face? Awesome!¡± Tabitha gave me a high five in congratulations. Now Susie was looking at her funny. ¡°I didn¡¯t find out what she wanted from me. I am assuming she wanted to get to you,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe or maybe not. You are quite the catch on your own, Dianne,¡± she said with a smirk. ¡°I am sorry, Countess,¡± Susie butted in, ¡°I didn¡¯t realise Lady Dianne was going to bring me to your house. I can find somewhere else to stay.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. No wonder she was so nervous she thought she would be staying with a countess. ¡°Oh no, Skygge doesn¡¯t live here.¡± Now Susie just looked confused. ¡°I am not sure about this,¡± Tabitha said, ¡°If this leaks, then public opinion will be brutal.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t say anything,¡± Susie promised, ¡°but I can also find somewhere else to stay.¡± Truth Sensing was confirming her intention, but she didn¡¯t know who her flatmate was yet. ¡°It is not whether you will talk that is the problem. It is whether you can be made to talk.¡± Tabitha explained. ¡°Harry, who started all this, has some sort of Mental Skill that makes you want to please her. Dianne here barely resisted, and she knew she had the Skill. There are others who are just plain devious. After we leave here, it won¡¯t be a problem, but for the next few months, we can''t have a leak.¡± ¡°It will be worse at the compound,¡± I said, ¡°and she needs someplace where somebody is around all the time. That is here or the compound.¡± ¡°She is probably safe enough at an Inn as long as she doesn¡¯t leave without an escort.¡± ¡°This is safer than an Inn, and a house and yard are better than a cramped room.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t be a problem for you,¡± Susie said, ¡°I will be fine at my place.¡± ¡°She can¡¯t afford an Inn,¡± I said bluntly. ¡°No,¡± said Tabitha to Susie, ¡°We both agree that you won¡¯t be safe at your place. The problem is we have many secrets. Our objectives will be harder to achieve if those Secrets get out.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± said Susie, ¡°You have your work for the King.¡± ¡°That too,¡± said Tabitha, ¡°Although that is mostly just something to distract the nobles while Dianne does the actual work.¡± Susie was looking between us, confused. ¡°At the end of the day, King Thor can sort his own problems out. It is just easier for the old fogey to dump it on us, although it is no longer cheaper.¡± She grinned. ¡°I know it is a risk, but Susie can be a big help in the research.¡± ¡°You offered her a job, didn¡¯t you? You bloody bleeding heart.¡± ¡°I could do with the help.¡± Tabitha just gave a long-suffering sigh. She turned to Susie, ¡°The knowledge you will have means people will kill you just because you know it.¡± ¡°The restricted information in the Lore Society?¡± Susie asked. ¡°Partly,¡± Tabitha replied, ¡°but more about what Dianne will do with it.¡± Then there was a rumble behind Susie and a voice, ¡°She can stay.¡± Susie turned quickly to see who was there. Tabitha and I knew Modrica had been listening, and the decision was hers at the end of the day. Susie was surprised to see Modrica¡¯s towering presence. She was even more surprised when I said, ¡°Susie, meet your flatmate, Modrica.¡± Her eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open. ¡°But¡­ but¡­¡± ¡°But she is dead. Yes, we know. Te?ka is in his lair downstairs.¡± Tabitha looked at Susie. ¡°Can you keep this secret?¡± We had to wait for the answer. I think she might have gone into shock. Eventually, she nodded, ¡°Y¡­Yes,¡± then she turned timidly to Modrica, ¡°Can I meet Te?ka?¡± Modrica nodded and led the way downstairs. When they left, Tabitha asked me, ¡°Do you think it will work?¡± I shrugged, ¡°We¡¯ll see.¡± 205. Duchess Elect: Wiremu.

205. Duchess Elect: Wiremu.

I collected Susie the next day to head to the Lore Society. At the entrance to the society was a squad of soldiers. The Sergeant approached me, ¡°Ma¡¯am, you have been accused of an assault against a noble and are summoned before the Duke.¡± ¡°The Duke, huh? The King was too big a risk for her, I assume. It is not unexpected.¡± Tabitha won that bet. I thought they would get the King involved. ¡°Miss Susanne Wells, you are summoned as a witness.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± I said. ¡°They must wrap up all loose ends. We will come with you, Sergeant, but we won¡¯t be separated or bound.¡± The Sergeant chose not to push it in public. The real fight will come when we get out of sight in the Duke¡¯s Palace. The squad formed around us, and we headed off. I made casual conversation as we went, ¡°Tell me, sergeant, do you believe the stories about the Great Snake Spirit that escorted Te?ka away from the army base?¡± I did say that loud enough for everybody to hear, including the surrounding spectators. ¡°No,¡± was the gruff reply. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be so certain,¡± I said, ¡°Stranger things have happened.¡± We arrived at the Gate to the Duke¡¯s Palace. I was disarmed. I only had a cheap knife on me anyway. As I said, this was predictable. They tried to push me around as they disarmed me. I merely locked the appropriate joint and watched them bounce, literally in one case. I eventually let them bind my hands behind my back. The problem was Susie; she was not nearly so robust, and I made sure to be near her and stop the worst. They tried to separate us, but I was pretty much immovable for these goons. I had expected more. They had obviously expected less. An assassin is stereotyped as a light, fast attacker. I was not the stereotype; if I had been, Otto would have killed me. For Susie''s sake, I was just starting to get annoyed when one of the Dukes'' flunkies came out to bring us to the Duke. It would have tipped our hand if I had beaten all ten of them. Saved by a flunkie. Duke Terrance was in his grand receiving hall, his imitation throne on a stage at the end. There was a balcony area on one side. The Duke and his current wife occupied the stage with his key advisors and Harry. Guards lined the hall, and there were four archers on the balcony. Also on the balcony were his other two sons, Michael and George, plus four others I didn¡¯t know. I guess they were their inner circle of nobles. I was marched to the front, and Susie was taken off to the side. The Duke rose. Everybody bowed if they were noble or dropped to a knee if they weren¡¯t. Everybody except me that is. I just stood there and looked at him. The guard behind me tried to knock my knees out, but that was also predictable, and I had locked the joints. ¡°You would defy me?¡± the Duke asked, ¡°You are here on charges of maiming my daughter. You should be begging for mercy.¡± ¡°Yes, I maimed your daughter for attacking me with a Skill. Do you have any questions?¡± ¡°I can have you killed right now.¡± ¡°I actually think you have been manipulated into bringing me here because they want me to kill you.¡± ¡°What? Who is ¡°they¡±?¡± ¡°Who is ¡°they¡±, Harry?¡± I asked. Everybody looked at Harry. She looked uncertain and surprised at the way things were going. She turned to her father, but before she could use her Skill on him, I said, ¡±You can¡¯t charm the whole room with that Skill. Everyone knows you have a Mental Charming Skill, and you are in a plot to kill your father.¡± They do now, anyway. Harry turned on me, ¡°You are an accomplished liar, aren¡¯t you? You obviously have a deceptive skill that turned everyone against me when it was you who assaulted me!¡± Her eyes were brimming with tears. I wondered how Tabitha would rate her performance. She turned to her father, ¡°You are not going to believe his lies, are you?¡± Whether or not her father believed her, he would always side with his daughter. His days were numbered anyway. This performance was for others. ¡°You admitted the assault, and the evidence is clear.¡± the Duke said, ¡°You are guilty. You are hereby sentenced to ten lashes with the whip and ten years of hard labour in the mines.¡± ¡°Except for the fact I am a Knight of the Audtior and acting under her orders,¡± I replied. ¡°We only have your word on that, and we have already established your word is unreliable.¡± ¡°You could always just ask me,¡± Tabitha said as she detached herself from a shadow near Susie. ¡°How did you get in here!¡± the Duke demanded. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°I actually just walked in the front door. Your security is pretty slack.¡± Then Harry shouted, ¡°Kill her!¡± The four archers on the balcony already had arrows notched, and they raised their bows and fired together. They must be under Harry¡¯s command, not the Dukes. Two of the archers used Triple Shot to spread the arrows. Tabitha tried to dodge, but it was too quick, and three of the four struck her, and she went down and lay still. ¡°What did you do?¡± The Duke demanded. Harry ignored him, shouting, ¡°Execute!¡± Three of the archers immediately fired at the Duke, and all of them hit. He was thrown back into his throne, bleeding. One of his guards stabbed the Duke, and the other one then struck at the traitor, wounding him. The fourth archer had turned and plunged a knife into Harry¡¯s older brother, Michael, followed by one of the nobles I didn¡¯t know slitting his throat. The Duke''s wife was screaming as the two guards duelled in front of her. Other guards were approaching the throne. The Duke''s advisors were huddled in a corner. The loyal guard took an arrow in the back, allowing the traitor to finish him off. Another arrow embedded itself in the floor in front of the approaching guards, causing them to stop as Harry mounted the throne steps and punched her stepmother unconscious. Harry then addressed us all. ¡°The Duke and my dearest older brother have been killed by the traitorous Countess Auditor and her underhanded Knight. This leaves me as the Duchess Elect. I am taking charge here, and you can either join me or be killed in the fight against this fierce Knight of the dead Auditor.¡± She glanced at me, still with my hands tied behind my back, ¡°I am sure you will die fiercely defending your traitorous boss.¡± she said to me with a smirk. I could see a bewildered George being restrained by the unknown noble on the balcony. The four archers were carefully watching everyone below, and the traitor guard was standing behind Harry, ready to defend her. ¡°Kneel before the Duchess!¡± yelled the guard behind Harry, and everybody who didn¡¯t want to die kneeled under the watching eye of the archers. I didn¡¯t bother kneeling as I was slated for death anyway. I made a show of struggling with my bound arms. ¡°Congratulations,¡± I spat. I was in the role of a valiant knight, defiant in the face of death. ¡°I couldn¡¯t have done it without you,¡± Harry said. ¡°The Countess was a problem you solved for me by bringing her here.¡± I looked over, and Tabitha¡¯s body was lying there, half in the shadow she came from. Susie was on her knees with her hands still bound, face to the floor. ¡°What¡¯s next?¡± I growled, ¡°The Kingdom?¡± ¡°Tieing up loose ends is next. Unfortunately, that means the end for you and your girlfriend over there,¡± she said, indicating Susie. ¡°She is not my girlfriend. She is my sister.¡± That got a puzzled look from Harry before everything went dark, and Tabitha and I went to work. The bindings on my arm literally melted off, and I stepped forward and punched Harry unconscious, as she had just done with her stepmother. I stabbed the guard behind her and left Puia to turn him into ash. The darkness was reduced to clouds of shadow moving through the area. Then, the fear hit. A ghostly giant snake appeared by the main door. It was partly translucent and had a real ghostly look. Nyx was getting good with these images. Those trying to escape turned back. T¨¡oke was guarding the private entrance the Duke used, and several advisors were dead there. Three of the archers were dead on the balcony, and Tabitha was engaged with the fourth and the noble. I created two Granite Darts. I preferred lava darts but didn¡¯t want to burn the place to the ground. I took the opportunity and poisoned the noble as Tabitha struck the archer. The guards on the ground floor were my responsibility. I picked up the dropped sword of the traitor guard. The floor guards seemed fixated on the ghostly snake and the fear, which was the idea. The one in charge of the guards was looking to make a break past the snake, so I moved to engage him as he was between me and the door. He must have sensed me coming as he turned and struck out with his sword. He was fast. Only one of the other guards noticed and turned to face me as well. They must have fairly extreme Mental Strength to resist the fear and the ghostly snake. I created a small shield for my off-hand and let them drive me back so it didn¡¯t break any of the others out of position. They were both good, and I had difficulty holding them off. They kept driving me back even when I wanted to stop. With my Thermal Sensing, I knew what was behind me, and I was running out of space. Then Tabita created a distraction by tossing a body over the balcony, and I managed to get my sword through to reciprocate some of the wounds I had taken. I created spikes on my shield and suddenly drove forward, drawing a lot of blood from the girl on the left. Then, the main doors burst open, and several squads of marine commandos burst into the room. The fear stopped, and the ghostly snake disappeared. My opponents stepped back in semi-surrender. We were all disarmed and watched by the commandos, and I could sense other teams sweeping the mansion. Tabitha was at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the balcony, holding George. It appeared she had just frogmarched him down the stairs when the commandos arrived. With his father and brother dead and his sister about to face treason charges, or at least patricide charges, he was now the heir, or Duke Elect, as they call it. I am sure the King won¡¯t let him stay in charge, but Tabitha and I shared a smile. Tabitha did look strange wearing Susie''s clothes. Susie was a sunny flower type of girl. Tabitha¡¯s favourite colour is black. Then the King arrived. He looked around and spied Tabitha, and said, ¡°Countess Auditor, please explain this.¡± his hand waved, including the dead Duke and other bodies. Tabitha dragged George forward and started a fairly accurate explanation of events. It left out the fear, the ghostly snake, and the shadows. She explained her first death by arrows as an illusion, which it was, just not by her. The commandos took charge of the prisoners, which included Harry, her Stepmother, George, and the other surviving nobles, as they were all suspects. Conspiracy to murder his father might be how the King was going to replace George with someone better. Oh, well, we tried our best for him. The dead noble that Tabitha tossed off the balcony was the heir to the Marquess Patrick Onslo. That''s a name I hadn¡¯t heard since Beitemark. He was the one supplying Otto with Monster Cores. We were planning to leave the King to sort out this mess from now on, but I might pay the Marquess a visit anyway. 206. A Simple Signature: Wiremu

206. A Simple Signature: Wiremu

I acquired two extra monster cores from a safe in Marquess Onslo¡¯s place. Nobody was home when I visited, but I couldn¡¯t find anything else of value. Mayakku and I experimented with identifying what type they were. We discovered gasses could be in a sealed container as long as the container wasn¡¯t Spiritual in nature, as that confused it, like my stone darts and the piercing aspect. I still wasn¡¯t sure about the piercing as an affinity. One of the Monster Cores was an air affinity, but we needed to figure out what type. It was a specific type, and both Mayakku and I agreed on that. We just couldn¡¯t get samples to test it against. If we knew what monster it came from and what environment it was in, that would have helped. We tested shadows as well. We needed Tabitha or Nyx to create and hold shadows while we did the ritual. None of the cores were shadows, but that wasn¡¯t the point. Using my Analyse Bond on Nyx and Tabitha, I was getting more detail as the skill levelled. At novice, it was giving me one or two impressions. Wispy shadows, or fast shadows etc. Now, things were getting more nuanced, which actually confused things for me. Mayakku and C¨­mp¨¥?i had Sharp piercing and gentle precision when the skill was low Apprentice. Two more levels and I am also getting quietness and soft fur. I have no idea what that means. The first ones are still the strongest. We put Mayakku in the ritual circle as well as C¨­mp¨¥?i. Mayakku was really mixed and had no clear affinity. C¨­mp¨¥?i reacted more to the tooth and claw than other things. The risk is we are only testing against items we have available. Maybe they have a strong affinity for something we haven¡¯t rested. Mayakku tested me. I reacted to a lot of stone, metal and to a lesser extent, poisons. I had almost zero reactions to other things. That contrasted with Mayakku, who had a low to middling reaction to almost everything. I read Otto¡¯s changes to the ritual and the results he had, which were mostly failures. He was trying to change the ritual to force an affinity rather than identify it. I am not sure how helpful that would be. I have seen the damage a wrong affinity causes. If it doesn¡¯t kill you, then you want to die to escape the effects. ¡°I think I have got it,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°Comparing these three cores has shown me the difference between them. The Bonedog, with a sharp piercing flavour. This air one is a constant presence of a type of air, and this third one that we haven¡¯t tested yet. I am starting to get a sense of it without the ritual.¡± ¡°What are you sensing?¡± ¡°The flavour seems to be of a rotting swamp. Can we test that?¡± ¡°Ruku¡¯s poison water is one ingredient. His bond, Wai, lived in a swamp. I wonder if his excrement is spiritually enhanced. It probably is because he has eaten enough spiritual food.¡± I pulled a leaf from our collection of spiritual ingredients. ¡°Plant Lore says this grows in swampy areas. If we add a piece of granite as a random test and see what we get?¡± We organised the ritual, and I let Mayakku run it. From looking from the outside, Wai¡¯s excrement and the plant seemed to be the highest. Mayakku confirmed this, but neither was quite right. The excrement was closest. Mayakku thought it was more about the rot or decay of things combined with water. ¡°I have just got a new Skill!¡± Mayakku exclaimed. ¡°Analyse Core. It is low level, but it tells me the basis or flavour of the core without a ritual.¡± She pointed to each core in turn, ¡°Sharpness, Air, Water. It has none of the piercing or rot, but it is a start without using a ritual. This means I can start altering the enchanting runes without a ritual.¡± Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. It sounded to me like this was a key skill for core enchanting. The skill should reveal more nuances as it levels. I think Mayakku has almost cracked Core Enchanting. But what does this mean for me? I don¡¯t have the Analyse Core skill. I have Analyse Bond Skill, which gives me a sense of some of the same flavours. Analyse Core is analysing a single item, and the accuracy will grow as it levels. Analyse Bond is different. There are two sources of flavours and the interaction between them. The Skill had levelled since I last analysed the bonds of App¨¡ and Mutalil. I checked again. App¨¡ and ?ir¨¡kkar had watchful guardians as a flavour. Back then, he was a specialised warrior and a brand-new hunter. Where was the hunter aspect, and where was ?ir¨¡kkar¡¯s flavour? The new levelled Skill had watchful guardian as the strongest flavour, but underlying that was a patient stalker. This was probably from ?ir¨¡kkar or App¨¡¡¯s Hunter Class. Possibly both. Mutalil and ¨¡??al have a strong flavour of fierce fighting, but now there were hints of swift pursuit. I think the journeyman-level warrior class dominates the bond, but as the bond grows, it more easily flows both ways, and the hunter-class influence appears. This seems a logical theory, but how do I test it? I have five basic Classes: Hunter, Quarry Worker, Metal Worker and Spy, which are all Journeyman level. Warrior is now level two, yet when I first tested our bond, the affinities dominated it. Poisonous rock and creeping rock. This was the case with Tabitha and her shadows as well. I analysed T¨¡oke and my bond again, and still strongly Poisonous Rock. There might have been hints of other things, but they might have also been wishful thinking. Where is the hunter''s influence? I was a hunter long before anything else. The Class and personal flavours must be there. I need to level the skill. I need to test Ruku, Modrica and Kelda¡¯s bonds. Ruku had taken the role of bodyguard to the Countess Auditor. He was the most visible Knight. He let me analyse his and Wai¡¯s bond, which was water-dominated. From Ruku, it was strong supporting water, but there were hints of poison. Where was his Warrior Class? His water was partially used in supporting and movement ways. I expected more aggression. Ruku wasn¡¯t surprised. ¡°An affinity will always dominate, regardless of how long you have had it. I don¡¯t have the Skills you have, but I have been around a lot of people. Very few have an affinity, and you are concentrating on the few rather than helping the many. Classes always affect people. I spent several months learning to be a Trainer. One of the things we are taught is to be sensitive to how people interact with their class. Those who are matched with the right class learn and level faster. It is similar with Skills. My Coach Skill gives me a feeling of compatibility. Does your Tutor Skill do the same?¡± Now that he mentioned it, it became very clear that was the case. I nodded, deep in thought. These feelings of compatibility were similar to Bond Care as to match the right bonds. Then it clicked, ¡°All these skills are reading our Spiritual Signatures.¡± ¡°That''s what I was taught. Your Analyse Bonds is a bit different as two signatures are interacting. My Coach and your Tutor are sensing people''s Spiritual Signatures. Your Bond Care is also reading the signatures of animals. Mayakku¡¯s Analyse Core is reading the signature of the monster cores. This is also the key to learning an Interrogate Status Skill. You must be more sensitive to a person¡¯s signature,¡± Ruku explained. ¡°So a signature changes with a class?¡± ¡°Yes, to some degree. The more compatible the class, the easier it is to assimilate into your spirit.¡± A whole world was opening up to me. ¡°So that is why you need a class at Journeyman Level to teach or specialise. It must be part of your spirit.¡± Ruku nodded. I went on, ¡°So these rituals I have been reading about need journeyman-level people running them because they are influencing the Spiritual flows.¡± ¡°You lost me on that one,¡± Ruku said. ¡°That¡¯s OK. It has been bugging me for a while why the advanced classes needed rituals run by Jouneyman-level practitioners. Now I have a better understanding.¡± Ruku understood which advanced Class I was talking about. We were in a public space here, so I couldn¡¯t expand on it. Now, I needed to figure out how to get around the problem. Either I needed to alter the ritual or alter the Spiritual flow. The other option was to coerce a Journeyman-level Slave Taskmaster to work for me. That sounded a lot like slavery. I looked at Ruku, ¡°Interrogate Status, huh? I have been wanting to learn a skill like that.¡± 207. Practical Experience: Wiremu

207. Practical Experience: Wiremu

Kelda told me where to find slaves in Kirghiz. Slavery is only legal for a specially licensed and trained Mental Healer. They are closely monitored, and their job is to help those with the slave class lead as normal a life as possible. I took a week to set up the appointment. That week, the Comedic Rhythm had their last show and a farewell party. Each one was going their separate ways, and I think Tabitha was quite sad about it. She never let it show, but I could tell. The comedy was a release valve for her. T¨¡tt¨¡ was completely running the legitimate side of the Elemental Traders, and I think Tabitha wanted to get back to making contacts with the criminal side. She had put that to one side with everything else going on. During the week, Ruku also taught me Interrogate Status. He said I learned it quicker than others he had taught. He thought it had to do with my Tutor and Bond Care Skills. It is hard to level as anyone with Mental Strength over 15 can resist the Novice Skill, and with a Mental Perception of 15, they are likely to detect the attempt. Then there are the Skills that block or confuse it. So, I am only likely to be successful with children or people in their first class until I can raise the level. Mental Perception is the key skill to seeing a status, backed up by Mental Strength and Agility. We have about another month and a half before Kelda is released from the army, so I have made that my deadline to crack the slave class. It is not looking good. However, we are about to meet Healer Deborah, who manages five slaves. Analysing a slave bond should hopefully give me some insights into what is happening. I had tried to do this in the Quarry years ago, but I didn¡¯t have the Skills or the attributes to be successful. Deborah was a large lady well past the century mark. She was the sort that would not put up with any nonsense. Ruku and Kelda were with me as Kelda and her military contacts got the appointment, although, without Ruku, I wouldn¡¯t have known to ask. Ruku and Kelda were asking Deborah questions, but mostly Ruku, as he had owned slaves. I sat at the back, sensing her bonds. The slave bond was very different to a bond with an animal. It wasn¡¯t a partnership. The bond was formed as a result of the class, and once accepting the class, the slave had no further say in the bond. The flavour of the bond was all from the owner. The slave¡¯s flavour, or Spiritual Signature, was suppressed. The flow was all one way, in a worse way than Otto¡¯s was. Deborah¡¯s flavour was of resilience and competence. I was unsure of how much that influenced the slave. I would expect the bond to influence the slave. Good masters would have better responses than bad masters. It is a Spiritual influence from the spiritual signature of the master. How that showed in the slave, I was unsure. My thoughts were interrupted by Deborah saying loudly, ¡°And you at the back, why are you here?¡± I had missed their entire conversation. Kelda spoke, ¡°Quinn is here ¡­¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t talking to you.¡± Deborah interrupted and looked at me. Mental Healers will be practised at seeing through lies. I decided to go with the truth. ¡°I am looking for a way to reverse the Slave Class.¡± That surprised her, ¡°You don¡¯t think that¡¯s been tried before?¡± ¡°Probably, but I can¡¯t find a record of the attempts in the Lore Society.¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°No, you wouldn¡¯t. Healers keep patient details confidential.¡± ¡°Is there a way I can see them? I could then build on them.¡± ¡°You are not a sworn healer. You also are having trouble with the meaning of the word confidential. What makes you think you can succeed when some of the best Healers haven¡¯t.¡± ¡°I am no healer. I am, however, a Bond Master. Encouraging healthy bonds and breaking unhealthy ones is the class focus. Slave Bonds are unhealthy.¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t agree more, but breaking the bond is not enough.¡± ¡°No,¡± I said, ¡°That''s why I need to reverse the class.¡± ¡°No,¡± Deborah said, ¡°That is not all you need to do. Being a slave comes with huge mental trauma and often physical and spiritual trauma. That is all suppressed while the Slave Class suppresses the slave''s mental attributes. If you restore those attributes, the trauma alone will drive them to suicide.¡± ¡°It¡¯s been done?¡± I said, excited. ¡°Of course, it¡¯s been done. 200 years ago, a Journeyman level Slave Taskmaster was paid to reverse the class on ten slaves. Three immediately killed themselves. Four were counselled but committed suicide within a month. The remaining three lasted longer, but the longest was a year. Getting over the trauma is one thing. Adjusting to living a normal life after being a slave for any length of time is almost insurmountable.¡± This was a depressing conversation. I¡¯d had visions of setting people free, but it would be a lot harder than I thought. Years of rehabilitation. For those who survive. It was too much. Deborah seemed to sense my mood. ¡°Reversing the class is a good thing, but it is only a start. I have been working with slaves for fifty years. I have the practical experience. I know what it will take.¡± ¡°It seems pointless.¡± ¡°No it is not pointless. If you manage this, you will be famous. But it is not as easy as just removing the Class.¡± I had a sudden thought, ¡°I was missing the big picture!¡± ¡°What?¡± asked Kelda ¡°I have been so focused on bonds and the slave class I have been missing the picture of slavery as a whole.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± Kelda said. ¡°Slavery is more than the Class and the bond. Deborah here has been telling us about the human cost. That is the end part. The middle part is the bond and the class. We have totally skipped the first part.¡± ¡°Which is?¡± ¡°Stopping new slaves being made.¡± ¡°How?¡± Kelda asked. ¡°By killing Slave Taskmasters. We could put a bounty on them through the mercenary guild, enough to even tempt rogues in the empire to collect. They are soft targets. They come from administration roles, not combat roles.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you realise how much that will cost.¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t, but we can find out. That senile king owes us. Maybe we could share the costs.¡± I saw Deborah''s puzzled frown at that comment. Whoops, I might be getting too excited and letting secrets escape. ¡°Thank you, Deborah, you have been a big help. If I find a reverse for the class, I will call on you.¡± We took our leave. On the way out, I saw a lady sweeping the floor. On a hunch, I used my new Interogate Status on her. She had the Slave Class, and Analyse Bonds recognised Deborah¡¯s flavour. Interrogate Status saw all her Classes as she had no mental defences. We didn¡¯t stop, but I would probably be back. I put a Hunter Mark on her. Then I took it off. Deborah was a Mental Healer. She is bound to sense the mark, and I didn¡¯t want to upset her at this point. She is a potential ally, not an enemy. I didn¡¯t learn what I thought I would, but I learned enough to start the fight now. I should have started this months ago. Better late than never. I went searching for Tabitha. 208. Racketeering: Tabitha

208. Racketeering: Tabitha

¡°That will send us broke,¡± I told Wiremu. ¡°Every sizable town will have a Slave Taskmaster. Cities will have more, and the army will have their own. We are talking hundreds, possibly a thousand. They have 26 provinces with a major city in each. Four or five per city. Each city will have six to eight sizable towns, that is three hundred right there. The army will have at least that many again.¡± ¡°So six hundred-ish,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°The army¡¯s slavers will be the most protected and towns the least protected.¡± ¡°Until the contract becomes known, then they will all hire protection.¡± I countered, ¡°We will have to work that into the price.¡± ¡°Even if this contract culls a hundred Slave Taskmasters, that will put a lot of pressure on the empire and slow down slavery.¡± Wiremu countered. ¡°Let me see if I can work out a price that we can then see about finding funding for. You realise a contract of this size is usually only used in wartime and backed by a country. The Kingdom won¡¯t want their name attached to it, which means more cost up front for us.¡± ¡°If you need a name for the Mercenary Guild, use mine. Wiremu Hunter. I will return the contract they put on me.¡± ¡°This is returning it a hundredfold.¡± Wiremu left me to it. This is going to require a lot of thought and planning. My Racketeering Class has been stagnant for quite some time. If this isn¡¯t large organised crime, I don¡¯t know what is. Fortunately, my plate is now clear of other tasks. The performances have ended, and the King''s task is done except for one missing Marquee. If the King can¡¯t find him, he shouldn¡¯t be king. T¨¡tt¨¡ has the Elemental Traders in hand, so it is back to my roots for me. Crime. I have a good network all up the coast and back down to Jern. Now I need a hub in Kirghiz to consolidate and feed the funds that we will need. The Fiske Crime Guild is the obvious one for me to work with, as they are already in the import and export business. My early approaches were rebuffed, but I now have the time to try again. I have fenced some goods through I''a, but I want a regular flow. If I don¡¯t ally with the Fiske, then they will become my primary rivals. The second group I have my eye on for an alliance is the Hazardirati. They run more sophisticated and upper-class crimes. They have their fingers in most of the casinos, especially the fancy ones. I didn¡¯t waste my time showing Kelda these casinos. I was scoping them out, and Kelda¡¯s observations were a great help. She knew I was using her for something, but I am sure she never figured out what. That girl is too upright to make a criminal out of her, but I can try. I decided the Hazardirati would be first as my information on it was the most recent. After that, I would decide what to do with the Fiske. The options were an alliance, taking them over or wiping them out. The Hazardirati. was run by an elegant Orc called. Janez. He always wore formal clothing and mixed with the noble and super-rich crowd. He based himself in a fancy casino in Central Queens. I knew he had a controlling interest in several other casinos and a share in the Treasury simply called The Crown. The Crown had turned down the Elemental Traders'' application for joining. They were more than a treasury. They were an elite club. It was time to meet Janez and see whether an alliance was possible. Goods were arriving in the city to be sold. Stolen goods from her contacts in the north. It was too much for one fence. I needed regular traders to work with. I doubted the Hazardirati could supply that, but it was time to find out. Janez usually worked from lunchtime till midnight. He is often out checking on his interests or entertaining his rich contacts. The last hour or so was usually spent in his office in the Gold King Casino. The main casino was on the ground floor and first basement level. The VIP lounges were on the first floor, and the managers and staff were on the second floor. Janez¡¯s had a corner office on the second floor. This was a private office. If he were meeting with people, he would do it in one of the VIP lounges. Outside his office was two administrators, and the rest of the floor was for other staff. I let myself into his office in the early evening and looked through his current projects. There wasn¡¯t high security, so I didn¡¯t expect much. He did have a couple of lucrative projects underway. It looked like he ran a tight and well-organised operation. This was his legal work. Where was his illegal work? There was a safe behind his desk, but it would take me too long to crack open. My Spatial Awareness could push through the Spiritual material of the safe, so I knew it was mostly papers and a small bag of coins. The spiritual material of the safe made it almost impossible to read the papers. I settled in to wait for him. Janez was an Orc who ran high-end casinos and high-end crime and had done for decades without being caught or killed. He would be highly intelligent and have at least Keensight high-levelled. His personal security was quite lax. Two obvious and competent guards and one hidden Rogue. On the other hand, he didn¡¯t usually go to unsecured places, so they may be enough. He is still alive, so they are enough, or am I missing something? I sat in a dark corner outside of the direct line of sight of the door. He was earlier tonight. One of the Guards opened the door and checked the office before he came in. This was an orc. The other guard was a human. I had deepened the shadows to see how long it would take them to see me. Janez only got two steps into the office when he stopped and searched with his eyes. He stopped and looked straight at me. His guards had gone on alert the moment he stopped and immediately drew steel. ¡°Hello.¡± he said, ¡°I imagine if you were here to kill or rob me, you would have attacked by now. How can I help you?¡± The rogue had crawled through a gap in the ceiling and was ready to drop through. The rogue was an orc. I wouldn¡¯t have known she was there without my Spatial Awareness. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°I am looking at the major players and where I might fit.¡± ¡°Yes, a couple of months ago, the Fiske were asking questions about a newbie wanting to muscle in. I was expecting a visit some time ago.¡± He moved to the desk, and I noticed he looked carefully before he sat down. I hadn¡¯t poisoned his seat. One guard moved near him, and the other stayed by the door. They were alert but not overly excited. ¡°I was caught up in other business for a while.¡± ¡°There are certainly strange events happening with this new Countess Auditor and the Duke''s assassination. It creates uncertainty. Not good for business.¡± Did that mean he suspected me of being involved in that business? I suspect he was connecting the two new events together. It is something I would do. I got up and moved into the light. I was hooded, and shadows enhanced the darkness of the hood. I sat in a chair a couple of meters from the desk. The door guard was, therefore, behind and to one side. The rogue was behind and above. The guard beside the desk could strike by taking one step. They still had their shortswords out. ¡°I have found it very profitable,¡± I said. ¡°It is all about adapting.¡± ¡°The Fiske said you were importing.¡± ¡°I am very adaptable. For instance, in this very casino, I gained the title deed to a very nice house in East Marin.¡± That got his attention. ¡°I was called in to investigate that. My security couldn¡¯t figure out how you did it. You are certainly not the naive lieutenant who gained the deed, so you were the companion we haven¡¯t been able to track.¡± ¡°The lieutenant was very useful. Even more, that she is the heir to the Duke of Hrothgar, so it limited reprisals.¡± I wasn¡¯t above dropping noble names around to prove I operated in his circles. I couldn¡¯t really drop the king¡¯s name. ¡°Indeed, but I checked, and she still owns the house. I expected it to have changed hands by now.¡± I shrugged, ¡°The lieutenant continues to be of use.¡± I could see his mind ticking over about how to track me using the lieutenant. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°That¡¯s very direct,¡± I said in orchish. ¡°You are full of surprises,¡± he responded in the same language. Then he switched back to common, ¡°What do you want?¡± he repeated. It wasn¡¯t until I met him that I realised why he ran such a smooth organisation. He wasn¡¯t running a criminal organisation. He was leading a Clan. It wasn¡¯t a traditional orc clan. I will contain all his key leaders of many races, which explains why he was so successful. His clan members are loyal and have been with him for decades. Crime Lords are usually assassinated by their ambitious underlings. His are loyal clan members. It is why he is safe with just three guards. He will use extreme violence to keep his clan safe, even over profit. This is very different to the usual Crime Lord, who is ultimately looking out for themselves. I replied in orcish, ¡°I want an alliance between clans.¡± He just sat and looked at me for some time, obviously thinking this over. It is not uncommon for clans to go to war with each other. Blood feuds happen. On the other hand, alliances can become very close, often being sealed with intermarriage. Eventually, he replied in orcish, ¡°I need to know who you are.¡± This was more than just an identity request. This would mean working together to develop trust. Alliances developed over time. They weren¡¯t created overnight. I think I knew enough to take the first step, or I would never have requested an alliance. I switched to common, ¡°That¡¯s complicated,¡± I said. I reached up and pulled down my hood, and released my shadows. He recognised me immediately, ¡°Countess Auditor!¡± he said, surprised. ¡°It is a recent appointment by a doddery old king who didn¡¯t want to deal with his own problems.¡± I smiled, ¡°I have found it to be very profitable.¡± He laughed heartily, ¡°A fool and his gold.¡± he said. I finished the quote, ¡°should always be parted.¡± ¡°I thought I ran some high-level scams,¡± he said, ¡°but you, you scammed the king!¡± ¡°He is an old rogue,¡± I said, ¡°literally.¡± ¡°So he knew what you were up to, and you still got away with it.¡± ¡°Leverage and need,¡± I said. ¡°And greed,¡± he added. ¡°Absolutely.¡± ¡°We can explore an alliance,¡± he said. ¡°We are a lot smaller than you. I don¡¯t have people to spare right now, but I can take someone with me if they can move discreetly.¡± I pointed to the ceiling behind me, ¡°She¡¯s not bad.¡± ¡°Julija considers herself to be very good and may get upset at being described as ¡®not bad¡¯¡± he raised his voice and said in orcish, ¡°Come join us, Julija.¡± Julija went back to the other room and then came in through the office door. She had a slight frown as she approached. I stood to my feet. Janez also stood. ¡°My name is Skygge,¡± I said, ¡°We both have secrets that need to be kept.¡± ¡°They will be.¡± Janez declared ¡°Same from us.¡± I turned to Julija, ¡°My Krvne Sestre is staying in a certain house in East Marin. We need to be unseen travelling there.¡± ¡°I understood your Krvne Sestre died,¡± Julija said. ¡°Not yet,¡± I said, ¡°although it was a touching memorial service.¡± ¡°You scammed the city?¡± Janez exclaimed. ¡°I needed the army off her back.¡± ¡°I will need to up my game,¡± Janez said. ¡°Keeping up with your clan is going to be interesting.¡± As I headed through the streets with Julija, I realised our fledgling alliance was enough to level my Racketeering Class. 209. Alliances: Tabitha

209. Alliances: Tabitha

Wiremu would be the ideal person to send to spend some time with the Hazardirati, but he is too busy. He spends his days as Dianne, trying to crack this slave class with Susie¡¯s help. He is also spending his evenings at the forge levelling his Metal Worker Class. He makes trips out to the farm to practice with his new bows. He is determined not to be lacking in ranged fighting options again. Modrica stands out too much, and she is the enforcer type, not the scammer type. That left Ruku or me. I am the only one used to working with criminals. So much for easing my workload. Ruku came with me and played bodyguard. Ruku seems to view me like some sort of adopted daughter. I don¡¯t let him know, but it is quite nice to be treated like that. The goods I am receiving come in small lots. A bag here, a crate there. So far, I have been stockpiling what I couldn¡¯t fence through I''a. I think I might need Modrica and Wiremu to extend my storage area. I bought some goods for the Hazardirati fence, and he looked through it. He separated out a couple of ornate jewellery pieces and two enchanted daggers. ¡°These we can get altered to be unrecognisable and resell. The rest we would sell to the Fiske.¡± ¡°OK,¡± I said, and we negotiated a price. The Hazardirati only deal in high-value goods. The rest they sell to the Fiske. It concerned me both my dealers went through the Fiske, but at least I now had two streams. Money was flowing in, and I purchased a share in one of Janez¡¯s casinos, and we became business partners. Racketeering was very pleased with this business and went up another level. Two levels in a month were unheard of for that Class. I figured Racteering takes a lot of setup work before the payoffs start rolling in. I was visiting I''a, my original fence, with another bag to sell when she said, ¡°The Fiske have demanded I stop trading with you.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°They said your goods are not locally sourced, so you are competing with them. Taking their business. They don¡¯t like people taking their business.¡± ¡°And what about you? You are not a member of the Fiske.¡± ¡°No, I am not, but 70% of my business goes through them. I can¡¯t afford to upset them.¡± ¡°I see. We have a good relationship. Can you put my business through other sources?¡± ¡°If the Fiske finds out, they will stop dealing with me at all, and I can¡¯t afford that. It is a shame, but that is the business.¡± ¡°I guess I was always going to have to deal with the Fiske eventually. I guess the time is now.¡± ¡°Good luck,¡± I¡¯a said, sounding like it would be the last she saw of me. We left, and I noted we had picked up a couple of followers. I told Ruku, ¡°Keep walking. I will deal with the followers.¡± ¡°I am pretty sure that is supposed to be my job as a bodyguard,¡± he muttered. We moved out of sight, and Nyx mimicked me walking with Ruku while I slipped into the shadows. It was none too soon, as when Nyx and Ruku rounded the next corner, five armed people confronted them. The two following dropped to the ground to cut off any retreat. I circled behind the front five. ¡°You¡¯ve interfered with Fiske''s business. We are here to make you stop.¡± said the bulky Mer in front. With a Mer, I need to be careful of Sonar. Shadows Embrace is good but not perfect against Sonar. If the purpose was to kill us, why bother talking? I guess some people like to instil fear in their victims. Some like the sound of their own voice. Some need to put on a show for their followers. For some, it is the opening line for negotiation. I wasn¡¯t getting the negotiation vibe here. I used Distract to throw my voice, so it sounded like it came from Nyx. ¡°OK then. We will stop.¡± That wasn¡¯t according to the script in his head. I wasn¡¯t going to stop, but there was no harm in lying to this goon. ¡°We will make you stop!¡± he declared. ¡°You have succeeded. We¡¯ve stopped.¡± I replied. ¡°You need a lesson!¡± he declared and raised his big club, and stepped toward Nyx swinging. He used some sort of movement skill as he was very quick. Ruku turned his back on him and used his movement skill to rush the two at the rear. I moved behind the five and started slicing, calling Dusk to me. The large Mer, and I am pretty sure he had some shark in him, was caught by surprise when his club passed through Nyx, and she disappeared into shadows. His empowered swing struck nothing, and he was thrown off balance. Only the fact that his club hit the pavers kept him on his feet. Ruku had a small buckler on one arm and a sword on the other. He crashed into the larger of the two, following shield bashing with the buckler. The buckler didn¡¯t have the same impact as a larger shield would have, but the guy was put off balance, and a combination of Piercing Strike and Fast Strike meant he was out of the fight. He immediately used his Water Sprint again to move to the other one. In this time, I had sliced two throats and had just been noticed by the other two. The Mer was just getting his balance again and looking around for me. Nyx tried to blind him with Shadow Manipulation spikes, but his eyes were not human and must be adjusted to the pressure underwater as she couldn¡¯t damage them. My remaining two opponents turned to me. I was dual-wielding a sword and a knife. I engaged the closest and manoeuvred so their backs were to the street, so they wouldn¡¯t see Dusk coming at full gallop down the street. Dusk looked like a fast-moving shadow deep in Shadows Embrace, which also muffled her sound. She struck the fighter that I hadn¡¯t engaged, and it barely slowed her charge as she headed for the Mer. The fighter was bowled toward us, distracting the one I was fighting, and I sliced her arm and leg and then drove my sword into the head of the person Dusk charged past. Dusk crashed into the large Mer, sending him rolling. She then reared up and came crashing her hooves down onto him. Then she did it again and again. In the meantime, I had finished my opponent, and Ruku was walking back after his. He had a cut on his arm, but I knew his Regeneration was amazing. Dusk backed off her victim. He wasn¡¯t dead. He had several broken bones, and he definitely wasn¡¯t getting up with his leg looking like that. The question was, what kind of message did I want to send to the Fiske? Did I want to send a live messenger or just dead bodies? They had declared war. Did I want to bring out the Black Butcher? Would that make them try for peace, or would they try to kill her? Leaving the shark brute alive to fight again was stupid, so there was no live messenger. The message would be simple. It can always be expanded on later. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Ruku helped me load the bodies on Dusk after taking their valuables. Actually, they had no valuables. We took their meagre coins and weapons. We led Dusk through the night and displayed the bodies outside their main meeting base. We then cleaned Dusk thoroughly and confused our scent trail. We left a message for I¡¯a that we had been ambushed from her place and that she might be a target. We then returned to the compound before dawn. I got a few hours of sleep, and then it was time to update our allies and see how they react. I sent Julija in with a request for an urgent meeting with Janez, and it was arranged for that afternoon. For this, I took both Ruku and Wiremu, and we will relocate Modrica and Te?ka back to the main compound tonight. Disguising a Dire Bear as a wagon was only possible at night. Entering the Hazardirati casino for the meeting, I identified two possible watchers. I had Body Image, so I looked like a fancy lady starting a night out. Wiremu had Veneer with a few minor changes, and Ruku had a fake beard. Ruku was teaching Wiremu Interogate Status, and in return, Wiremu was trying to teach Ruku Veneer. Ruku was not really suited to disguises, but he was doing his best. I don¡¯t know if the watchers identified us. If they were here because they knew about the meeting, then Janez has a leak. If they had been watching the building all day to try to catch us, then that was normal. We were led to one of Janez¡¯s VIP lounges and offered drinks. It was at that point I let Body Image go. Janez knew Ruku, who had been acting as my guard, although I am pretty sure he knew he was more than a guard. Wiremu had not been on the scene before. I am sure Julija had seen him around, but he was always passing through. Ruku and Wiremu stayed in their roles as guards for now. Janez came with Julija, his orc guard and another older orc lady I had not yet met. The orc woman sat at the back and didn¡¯t speak a word. After the pleasantries, I asked about the watchers. ¡°Yes, from the Fiske,¡± Janez said. ¡°They have been here all day. I have recently found out why.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I asked. ¡°I had an ultimatum from the Fiske to stop alliances with strangers to the city importing goods. They couldn¡¯t name or identify you, but it was clear they were referring to you. You have upset them?¡± ¡°They gave our other fence an ultimatum to stop trading with us and then ambushed us as we left her place last night. We left the bodies outside their little club room.¡± ¡°That would get them upset, and they had been asking pointed questions about the goods we were trading with them.¡± ¡°What do you plan to do?¡± I asked. ¡°I haven¡¯t decided. We certainly don¡¯t take orders from the Fiske, and we trade with whoever we like. That is what I sent back with the messenger. However, while we have defences, we are not set up for a protracted conflict. If the Fiske stopped trading with us, I do believe it would hurt them more than us. What do you intend to do? You are smaller than us, but you are showing no signs of injuries after being attacked by seven Fiske enforcers. One of them had quite the tough reputation.¡± He was telling me he had information on what happened last night and about the Fiske in general. ¡°They attacked Ruku and me, and they were not that good. Conflict can make or break an alliance. The Fiske don¡¯t intend to leave us be so this will escalate.¡± ¡°You killed seven with two of you, but you bring a third here?¡± ¡°Wiremu is not here as a guard. You have been under the impression I lead our clan. This is incorrect. I co-lead with Wiremu. I look after finances. He gives us direction. Meet my brother, Wiremu Hunter.¡± Wiremu stepped forward and greeted them. ¡°What direction is your clan heading, Wiremu Hunter?¡± Janez asked the obvious question. ¡°That will become obvious in a few weeks. What I am more interested in is a joint response to the Fiske.¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Why a joint response?¡± ¡°Because this alliance is important to us. I believe we can do great things together, but it will involve us trusting each other a lot more than we do at present. I believe the Fiske can be the stepping stone to that trust. Where are the Hazardirati heading?¡± Wiremu asked. Janez looked at the older lady. She nodded. He spoke to us, ¡°The Hazardirati had been content for a number of years. This means we have stagnated. Coin, we have plenty of. We, and especially the younger generation, have lost the drive, ambition and the will to fight. We are fat and rinding on our past achievements. This will be our ending in a few years.¡± ¡°What do you want from this alliance?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°We want a fire put under our youth. You are young. You both are young,¡± he included me in that even though he was talking to Wiremu. ¡°You have set a high example. You scammed the king! You don¡¯t get higher. That has already inspired many, including my daughter.¡± He nodded to Julija. ¡°We want more of that.¡± I decided to join the conversation again, ¡°Do you want to hear what we would recommend we do about the Fiske?¡± ¡°Go on.¡± ¡°If you have some capable young people, then I suggest we get together and take over the Fiske. But it would be your people that would need to be put in charge,¡± I said. ¡°You don¡¯t think small, do you? Why would you put us in charge rather than you take over?¡± Janez asked. ¡°Two main reasons,¡± Wiremu said, ¡°First, we are too small, and second, we are not staying in Kirghiz.¡± ¡°If you are not staying, why the alliance?¡± ¡°We will always have a presence here. The Elemental Traders will be based here. I have information and goods arriving most weeks,¡± I explained. ¡°We need allies we can trust to look after this for us, for mutual benefit, of course.¡± Julija joined in, ¡°Do you really think we can take over the Fiske?¡± ¡°It will be dangerous. It is a risk, as all things are in business. It is a matter of how far you are willing to go.¡± I said. The old orc in the back cleared her throat and said, ¡°She¡¯s done it before.¡± ¡°That''s a surprise,¡± Janez said. ¡°Very few hear from Babica. She is an Oracle. She sees the now rather than the future, but nobody has got anything past her yet.¡± ¡°What does she mean you¡¯ve done it before? You¡¯ve taken over a gang?¡± Julija queried. ¡°I have, yes. That is where I met Modrica for the first time, as she was the head enforcer. It was later we became Krvne Sestre. Taking over the gang is not the hard part. The hard part is keeping it together and functioning.¡± I could see Julija had doubts. Janez stepped in before I could continue. ¡°This is your chance to step out and lead like you have been wanting, Julija. Are you going to step up or let it pass?¡± I could see her uncertainty. Janez continued, ¡°You have watched me run the Hazardirati for three years. You know what to do.¡± Julija turned to me, ¡°What are the risks?¡± ¡°There will be deaths on both sides; don¡¯t think you are safe. If we fail in the takeover, our fallback position is to wipe them out. Modrica and us three can do that without your help, but that is bad for business and would create a power vacuum. The objective will be to take over the leadership and make the rank and file fall in line, but that is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is keeping their business contacts and smugglers working for you. If you can¡¯t do that, you just have another street gang rather than a criminal syndicate. You might as well have wiped them out. Their business partners will need reassurance about their agreements and the flow of coins and goods. You will need a team.¡± ¡°How big a team?¡± ¡°You have specific roles you need to have filled. If you are the leader, then you set the direction, as Wiremu does for us. You will need a Head Enforcer. You must show strength by bashing a few heads, but after the first few, it can be delegated. You will need a Coin Master. If you can¡¯t keep track of your coins, you will not last very long. This is your core team, and you must be absolutely loyal to each other. Other positions will depend on the current structure of the Fiske, and you may decide to use existing people. I am sure you can figure out the advantages and risks of that. The Fiske have traders in the Mer islands and in the City States to the south, so you will need to send representatives to them to keep the flow of goods happening. Finally, you will need your own troops to back you and to do this. You don¡¯t really want to get into a big fight, but you may not have a choice.¡± ¡°Did you end up in a big fight?¡± ¡°Yes, and this is something you all need to know about your alliance partners going forward, although you should not spread it around yet.¡± I took a deep breath, ¡°The fight I got in is now known as the ¡®Month of the Black Butcher.¡¯¡± I pulled out the Blacksteel knife and laid it on the table. ¡°Modrica and I both carry the scars. I still have nightmares. Hopefully, we will help you avoid those mistakes.¡± The room was silent. 210. Stepping Up: Wiremu

210. Stepping Up: Wiremu

It is hard to believe Tabitha is training the next generation of crime lords. Technically it is Ruku and Modrica who are training the small group out on the farm while Tabitha distracts and gains some insights. Julija and the team will need to devise a plan, and we are the backup. Not free backup. If they call us in, they will be hiring the Black Arts Mercenary group and paying accordingly. Hopefully, we won¡¯t be needed. Of course, things are not going to go to plan. Adapting and dealing with that is a necessary skill. Janez is fully on board. The rest of the Hazardirati will need more time. I think Janez is looking for someone to marry into our clan. Ruku is a widower. He might be open to that. The good thing is Janez is advancing us a loan, which will enable us to put a contract out on the first fifty Slave Taskmasters. According to Tabitha, we have the coin flow to support it but not the coins the Mercenary Guild is demanding as a deposit. The Guild requires the first thirty in an upfront payment. When their cut is added, it is an eye-watering amount. This sort of contract can only be done in a major guild hall. Khighiz or Hrothgar are the only two places in the Kingdom. Deciding the evidence required to claim the bounty has been a hassle. Fortunately, the Empire licences their Slave Taskmasters with spiritually signed tokens. That, plus evidence of death, is one way. There are others for missing tokens. Finally, we think we had most loopholes closed off and shouldn¡¯t get too many false payouts. Tabitha was a great help as she kept thinking about ways to fake it. The Guild needed a name for the person behind the contract. A contract this size is usually signed by the King, but in this case, it is in the name of Wiremu Hunter. I recognised there would be returned contracts put out for Wiremu Hunter by the empire. I so seldom use that name that I am not sure it matters. It will be a couple of months for the contract to spread throughout the empire, and we are leaving about then. Two months for a return contract to get here. Tabitha convinced me to delay starting it till a month before we leave. She would prefer a month after we leave. She joked about how tales about ¡®Hunter¡¯s War¡¯ will dwarf the tale of the Black Butcher. I am still experimenting with this Slave Class and the ritual that requires a Slave Taskmaster¡¯s spiritual signature. I don¡¯t have any Task Masters to test things on. I need to finish up here at the Lore Society. The empire will have more information, and we may need to go there and hunt Slave Taskmasters to test things. The Canine Queens have signed on as security for the Elemental Traders in Kirghiz for another year. They will work with T¨¡tt¨¡. The plan then is to make their way back to Jern via Hrothgar. I have officially resigned. We had been drifting apart for a while. I think T¨¡tt¨¡ plans a permanent caravan route to Hrothgar and Jern and back. He also wants to start trade with the City States to the south and is muttering about contacts with the Mer islands. I never thought Dianne would be the bookish type. I created her to be the assassin and Quinn to be the bookworm and metal worker. At the moment, Susie is off hunting the lore Society for any rituals she can find. She has found a couple. One is for testing unknown enchantments. Mayakku was rapt to have that. The other was for testing unknown potions. They were both variations on the Monster Core Ritual and minor variations at that. We cut out the variations on all three to see what was left, and we have called that the base ritual. What was obvious was the ritual locked the spiritual flow in one direction. Could the flow be reversed? This was the essence of what Otto was trying, to get the affinity from the core into something or someone else. Otto¡¯s experiments failed, but I had more information and more working rituals to compare. I put that to one side for now, as the ritual I wanted to work on was the one to remove the slave Class. The Ritual itself was not complicated. It required a Journeyman Slave Taskmaster, the slave and the slave owner. If the Taskmaster was the owner, then you didn¡¯t need anyone else. It required fresh blood from the slave that was used to draw a diagram on each hand and foot, then a different diagram on the forehead and a third over the heart. The Slave taskmaster had to power the ritual, channelling his Spirituality through the Slave bond. If the slave owner was there, they had to add their spirituality to the mix, so it was usually easier to transfer the slave to the ownership of the Taskmaster. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. The Taskmaster then had to prick the centre of each of the diagrams connecting them to the slave''s blood, which seemed to control the flow of the Spiritual energy. Then, it was a matter of the taskmaster applying enough Spiritual Strength, which was focussed on by the ritual in the class. This had to be kept up until the critical moment the class was at breaking point, and then both energy and class were sucked out, and the class levels would drop to zero, and then it would be removed. The higher level the Slave Class was, the more energy it required to remove. In order to identify the Spiritual Signature flavour of a Slave Taskmaster, I need to separate out the different class flavours. Those with an affinity have that flavour strongly dominating, but the underlying classes are still there. I am getting more flavours from those without an affinity. Mutalil and ¨¡??al, for instance, have the flavour of fierce fighting, probably from the warrior class. Next was a swift hunter. Is that from his new Hunter Class or ¨¡??al? Trying to untangle individual flavours from the Bond Analysis will be difficult. Deborah owned slaves, and her flavour dominated the bond. I need to go back and examine it more, as maybe the Slave Taskmaster who created the bond might have left some of their flavours. That will depend on whether the Bond is created with the Taskmaster''s input or wholly created by the class. I don¡¯t know, and it is in none of the books. As the Taskmaster becomes the initial owner, I would suspect they have an input. Analyse Bonds was mid-apprentice. I need to get it to Journeyman Level to get close to seeing enough detail. The advantage to the Slave bond was there was nothing I could detect of the slave. The owner dominated, and I couldn¡¯t tell if there was more. The Slave Taskmasters probably vary in their Spiritual Signatures depending on the influences of their other classes. I had a feeling I was coming to the end of what I could discover without a Slave Taskmaster at hand. I seem to have read all the information the Lore Society had on advanced Classes and Slavery. I would continue to improve my general knowledge, but I needed more physical exercises. If I hadn¡¯t had the forge to work at in the evenings, I would probably have gone crazy by now. I decided to visit Bodin and discuss my Metal Working Class. He and his wife Nissa seemed happy enough to continue working for me in the Smithy. He has his new arm now and is getting it back to strength and speed. ¡°Quinn, are you here to help?¡± Bodin asked. ¡°Absolutely. I also have a couple of questions.¡± ¡°Nothing new there.¡± ¡°My Metal Worker Class is now Apprentice Level, and I had the Metal Shaping Skill. Shouldn¡¯t I be able to upgrade the Class to Metal Shaper?¡± ¡°What Level is Metal Shaping?¡± ¡°Four¡± ¡°Bump it to Apprentice, and you probably will be able to upgrade the class. No guarantees, though, as your compatibility to the class plays a part.¡± ¡°Can you help me level it?¡± ¡°I have just the task,¡± he reached over and picked up a copper pot. ¡°I want you to change the shape of this pot into a copper kettle. The spout should come from the bottom here and curve evenly so it pours well. It will need a lid and a much fancier handle. Make sure the handle will still carry the weight of a full kettle.¡± He gave me some copper, and I got to it. It was trickier than it looked. I had to reshape the spout five times before I was happy with it. I used the copper to narrow the top of the pot so the lid would be smaller and created a lid that wouldn¡¯t just fall off. The handle was the easiest part. This was definitely pushing the Metal Shaping Skill to Apprentice Level. What would I have to do to get it to Jouneyman? A full metal sculpture or something? I felt the class wanted to change. Metal Worker gave three attributes per level, Metal Shaper gave four, and Blacksmith gave five. The level of the Class didn¡¯t drop, but I understood that was because it was at the bottom of the apprentice Level; otherwise, it would have dropped to this level. The extra attribute was free and was equal to the class level. I suddenly had five free attributes. That was well worth it. I suddenly looked at my Quarry Worker Class. If I could get Stone Shaping and upgrade the Class to Stone Shaper, it would drop to Level ten, Journeyman Level, but I would get ten free attributes. I need to find a Stone Mason to work with. With my Granite Manipulation, it should be easy. That would be for another day. Tomorrow is Kelda¡¯s first day out of the army, so we are going out to the farm together. We will check on the trainees, but I want to push my archery and see if Kelda¡¯s Flame Senses will work on my arrows. Fire arrows are quite noticeable, but it might be a way to get information in a walled city. 211. On Target: Wiremu

211. On Target: Wiremu

The next morning, I rode Mosey, and Kelda was on a dappled grey mare. It was the first time I had seen her out of uniform. Liten was flitting around catching insects. ¡°Did the army give you much trouble about not reenlisting?¡± I asked. ¡°A bit, but I am a Duke''s daughter, so they couldn¡¯t go too far. I had a lot of ¡°Think about my reputation when I take up my role as heir¡± and ¡°You could make Captain if you re-enlist for another term. It will set you up for the future,¡± etc.¡± ¡°Hanging out with us won¡¯t do your reputation much good.¡± ¡°I am not interested in my reputation at this point. I want to find my own path first. I haven¡¯t told anyone back home I didn¡¯t re-enlist, but they will find out soon enough, and the pressure will come to go home and help the family etc.¡± ¡°I am hoping not to be in Kirghiz long enough for messengers to find me,¡± she said with a smile. ¡°The only property I have in Kirghiz is a certain house in East Marin, and I have leased that to the Elemental Traders long-term. My family has a large estate in the Noble district, but I am not showing my face there yet.¡± ¡°Where are you staying?¡± ¡°Anni has organised a room at the compound. Technically, I am employed by the Elemental Traders as a consultant. In politics, that means we trade favours. I use my influence for you, and you reciprocate in various ways. If this leaks, it will seem quite normal for the nobles.¡± We turned into the farm gate, and the house came into view. T¨¡oke immediately slipped away to find Te?ka. A group of people were running an obstacle course created by Modrica¡¯s Earthwall. Actually, she must have learned Earth Manipulation to do that. My Granite Manipulation must have the highest Attribute requirement of them all. Ruku was blasting them with water randomly, and Rodion was leading them and yelling at them. Ruku¡¯s main task here was to teach Leadership and small-group tactics, with particular reference to urban warfare. Modrica is here to fight, as she and Tabitha had a lot of experience in Urban warfare, and Modrica in particular as a gang enforcer. Rodion is helping both of them and quite enjoying it by the look of it. As we got closer, I saw another area set up as an earth maze. I assume this is where they practice close-quarters fighting. I think Rodion might be the only one enjoying it. The group he was leading included four orcs, two humans and a minotaur. The minotaur was quite imposing. She will have quite a physical presence if she is the Head Enforcer. Size does help. I waved to Ruku as we rode past. We carried on past where Modrica had set up an archery range. Shooting into the earth is easier on the arrows than my granite, yet it shouldn¡¯t burn like hay would. These kids will be only doing short-range shooting and throwing. We are going to the hill in the distance for me to practice long-range and for Kelda to check her range and control. I think she will struggle to keep control of the flame at the speed the arrows will travel. ¡°Wow. Even with my Journeyman Farsight, that is a long way.¡± Kelda said. ¡°I can get the distance with my Bow and strength, but being on target is tricky. The wind, in particular, has a big effect, and the weight of the arrow affects the drop. I have some new fletching today to see if it helps control the flight. It also takes several seconds to travel, and moving targets are even more difficult to hit. There are targets at different distances all the way there if you want to practice.¡± Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I had been struggling with accuracy at the range. My new Telescopic Sight meant I could see clearly, but getting an arrow in the same place was more difficult. We both got out our bows and started with the shorter range and worked our way up. Her Physical strength and bow stopped her well before me. Her Bow skill went up a level, and she was getting faster. She needed a couple of more levels in Bow before she could get Longbow or Triple Shot. Skills were similar to classes. We then practised with her flames on my arrows, and even at close range, she found it difficult. Eventually, she wanted to be able to light her own arrows, but for now, she needed just to keep hold of the flame. I found out her Fire Arrow was new, as she had only recently had a bow that would survive it. The fight at the army base was her first time using it in a fight. We used the Fire Arrow Skill to transfer the fire to a normal arrow. Normal arrows were much harder for her. Once Kelda was resting, I tried to push my range. I used the target back from the main range. My first normal arrow went wide and short. I didn¡¯t compensate enough for the drop and the wind. I could see fine, and my Telescopic Sight levelled. The next arrow was closer, but the one after that went too far the other way. On the fourth try, I was on the outer edge of the target. The next three arrows were all on target, but no bullseye. I then swapped to my Venom Arrow. This was very different as there was very little drop in it, and it wasn¡¯t affected by the wind so much. It was a very different shooting experience. Kelda said it was the same with her normal arrows and her fire arrows, but the difference was smaller at her range. Adding lava to the tip of an arrow made the head heavier, and I would compensate with a small piece of Granite at the back. This makes the arrow the heaviest of all and lessens the range. It was almost like three different Skills. I have been practising for weeks, slowly improving and progressing toward a new Skill. I moved to the longest range, which I could only reach with my Venom Arrows at the moment. Six shots, four on target with one in the inner circle. Best yet! It was enough to tip Longbow to Journeyman, but instead, the Skill transformed and dropped to Level five. It was now called Marksman, and I had more of an instinctive feel for the arrow and wind and a distance boost. I had two normal arrows left in my quiver and tested the new Skill on the furthest targets. Both arrows were on target, although not in the inner ring. I hadn¡¯t even had that distance before. It would get better as it was only level five. ¡°Yes!¡± I exclaimed and jumped up. When I explained to Kelda, she was just as excited as me. The day with me had seen her Farsight level to Master as she tried to track my shots, giving her a Physical Perception attribute. It also levelled her Observer Class to Journeyman. She got a Spiritual Agility Attribute from our arrows on fire testing. She was rapted for a day''s work. I didn¡¯t tell her my Tutor Skill also levelled. We packed up and started back on our horses, stopping to pick up arrows on the way when she stopped. ¡°Observer has specialised already,¡± she said, surprised. I think it is from my earlier Monster Kills. It is called Targeting. It is a full five-pointer, assigning one to Physical Perception and two to Spiritual Perception, with two free. The Skill is Target Weakness, and it gives me a sense of where the weaknesses are in whatever I use it on.¡± ¡°That sounds incredibly useful. We will have to test it. It is interesting that Monster kills usually give specialisation to regenerate health in some way, but not from the observer class, ah? If you use it on me, what does it tell you?¡± ¡°Neck and groin are the weak points.¡± ¡°Interesting. It stayed away from bones. What about now?¡± I activated Snakeskin. ¡°They are still weak, but not as weak.¡± ¡°So the Skill also gives you a sense of how weak something is. That is an awesome skill.¡± ¡°I bought some camping gear. I suggest we camp out tonight as the farmhouse is full. We can start early, and I can teach you tracking, as I think you will get it very quickly. The Trackers Mark might also be right in your skill set.¡± ¡°A Tracker Specialisation does seem possible. I hope there is a nice secluded spot around here to camp because I have really wanted to get you alone for a night.¡± She smiled a wonderful smile. We did find a nice secluded spot, but the next day was a late start. Our relationship rose quite a few levels that night. 212. War: Wiremu

212. War: Wiremu

With Kelda¡¯s Keensight, she was picking up tracking very easily. I would have been envious if I wasn¡¯t still amazed at her from last night. We were literally on fire last night. In passion, both our affinities got away from us. I had to create a Grantie shelter as we destroyed our tent and sleeping gear. It will be a problem if it is always that explosive. Kelda gained a level of Fire and heat resistance. I am willing to work on a solution as it is an amazing problem to have. I don¡¯t know how Kelda can even concentrate. By the end of the day, she had Tracking and Detect Traps. We stayed camping so she could keep levelling them. At least, that is our excuse for everybody else. We retired early each night. We didn¡¯t bother with clothes, so we didn¡¯t need to hold back at all. Sometimes it was explosive, and sometimes it was gently stoking the flames and building the fire slowly and burning long and hot. By the end of the week, Kelda had Tracking and Detect Traps in Apprentice levels. And she had learned to Detect Spiritual Traps. I seriously think her Target Weakness Skill levelled as she targeted my ticklish spots. She swore it couldn¡¯t do that at Novice levels, but I wasn¡¯t convinced. The week helped me as well, and I levelled Marksman and Venom Arrow went to the Journeyman Level. It now cost less and was more potent. Kelda was the big winner, though. When her Tracking went to Apprentice, she got the specialist class, Tracker, which gave her the Skill Trackers Insight. This helped her get an understanding of what she was tracking and where it might be heading. It was a combination of Physical Perception and Mental Agility and Mental Perception. Trackers like me learn where to find the next track or spore. If a creature is moving from shadow to shadow, we look for the next track in the shadow. Trackers Insight gave her this understanding now, and as it levels, she would gain more insight. Was the creature heading for water, was it looking for food, or heading to its den? As it levelled, it would be useful on more intelligent creatures with more complex motivations, like goblins and goblin shamans. When it got to Journeyman, it would give more insight into sapients. She was very pleased. This Skill was very close to being a pure Mental Skill. It uses clues from the physical, but I was impressed. Two specialisations in a week just show she is well suited for the Observer Class. Tracker was only a four-point Specialisation, but this gave her four free points over the week. She was going to put them into Physical Perception and get another Sense, but that attribute is already over twice the others. Her fire used her Spiritual attributes, and she has just got a Skill using her Mental Attributes. I persuaded her to wait and consider her options. We dragged ourselves back to town at the end of the week as the war on the Fiske was starting, and we needed to be close. We didn¡¯t try to hide our relationship from the others. Tabitha and the Canine Queens gave us some ribbing, but that was expected. Kelda had a room on the top floor where she had a view. I had a room in the basement which was more fireproof. I Petrified the bed frame and invested in resistant blankets. Liten was our best source for following what was happening in the Fiske War. We would get daily updates from Janez, but we know there were things he wasn¡¯t told. Julija¡¯s plan to take out the Fiske leaders in one hit only succeeded in killing half of them. One other was injured enough to be hampered for a long time, but they started to consolidate their forces and strike back. They found their enemy quite quickly, and it was due to a bond not being spotted. They had been warned about that. The Fiske counterattack cost one of the orcs her life. Julija had rallied a number of foot soldiers and had connections with some of the Mongrel street gang, but the Fiske had long-established informers throughout the city. Tabitha was keeping track closer than I was. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. We were not long in bed when Tabitha sent Nyx to rouse us. A large dark sabertooth lion emerging from the shadows scared Kelda enough to let out a fireball. She was not impressed. When we went upstairs, Tabitha was smirking, and Kelda was so mad she was leaking flames. Saints preserve me. I hope they don¡¯t go to war. ¡°We have an issue. The Fiske have hired the Claws.¡± Tabitha started straight in on the briefing. Ruku, Rodion and Modrica were also there. ¡°The Claws are the gang that strongly focuses on fighting and protection. They run the cage fights in town. This is the worst-case scenario for Julija''s team. They don¡¯t know this yet, and I think they won¡¯t have a chance to find out before they are killed. The Fiske know where they are and are planning a dawn raid. The Claws are gathering at their home turf. The Fiske will come from the other direction and bock them in. The Claws are the tougher threat.¡± ¡°So what do you want to do?¡± I asked. ¡°I was the original target, so I propose to finish taking out the Fiske leadership and hold off the Claws until we can tell them they are no longer getting paid. Ruku, you have a plan?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Wiremu is the best assassin here, so he takes out the Fiske leadership, and Kelda watches his back. Tabitha and Modrica are in one team, and Rodion and I are in another to hassle and delay the Claws. We will be roving skirmishers, which is Rodion''s expertise.¡± ¡°Who are the leaders left?¡± I asked. ¡°The big boss is Alefasio. He is a Mer and is still limping from Julija¡¯s first hit,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Kaelo is their Head Enforcer. He is also a Mer, one of the shark species. Kapo was running the street gangs. He is human. Finally, there is Papahi. She is a distinctive Mer with tentacles for her fingers. She managed a lot of the trade. She is smart and will have organised to be well-guarded.¡± ¡°And they are all coming on this attack?¡± ¡°They were as of two hours ago.¡± ¡°Right. I think I will be Dianne for this outing. She is a registered assassin; if I am seen, she can take the blame. How are we coordinating?¡± Ruku looked at Kelda, ¡°Can Liten carry messages? You are the one most likely to know what is going on with the wider view of things.¡± ¡°Yes, and she shares my Darksight. Do you want me to warn Julija and co?¡± ¡°Yes. Get them moving against the Fiske. Then we will face the Claws together if we need to. If you get trapped or in serious difficulty, light up the sky,¡± Ruku said. ¡°We will carry flares. You have the fire. The first emergency responder is Kelda. You will also carry the main first aid kit. Any Questions?¡± ¡°Timing?¡± Asked Kelda. ¡°We will only start when the Claws start moving. Wiremu will take any opportunity he needs. Julija can move when she likes. Confusion will be good for Wiremu.¡± Ruku replied. I popped downstairs, got changed, and geared up. Dianne used the short bow. While I would love to take Marksman out for a run, we would be street fighting, which doesn¡¯t give long sight lines. If I go full lava, the bow can be sacrificed. T¨¡oke came and settled on my shoulder. He has taken to Kelda without a problem, although Kelda says Liten is wary of T¨¡oke. The only one missing out on this fight is Te?ka. He is just too big and obvious. He is back in East Marin, so I guess if something goes wrong, he is not far away to save the day. A rampaging Dire Bear will bring the constables and probably the army. Kelda and I slipped out into the night and headed for the Fiske docks. 213. Negotiations: Tabitha

213. Negotiations: Tabitha

As Rodion, Ruku, Modrica, and I moved through the city toward the Claw''s territory, I said, ¡°The easiest way for us to get them to stop is to pay them.¡± I was leading Dusk as she was my fast way of getting around if I needed it. Her hooves were good, too. Ruku said, ¡°Do you really think they will go for that?¡± ¡°If they are all about fighting, this won¡¯t be much of a fight for them, so the coin could work. Of course, they might be planning to double-cross the Fiske and take over themselves. That would make more sense, actually, but we won¡¯t know unless we talk to them. We might be able to make a deal. Split the territory or something.¡± Ruku wasn¡¯t convinced, but it was worth a try. Modrica would go with me as my bodyguard. She had leather armour with a helmet and a faceguard, so she wasn¡¯t immediately recognisable. Ruku and Rodion would be back up and our extraction plan if required. It was an hour after midnight, so the Claws were just trickling in for the raid to be timed just before dawn. Normal business was happening. The cage fighting was winding down for the evening, and the non-gang members were leaving with their winnings or, more often, without their coin. I picked out one or two fighters by their battered look. The gang members were of various species, but the leaders seemed predominantly wolfkin. I left Dusk with Ruku, and we approached a Wolfkin on the door. I said, ¡°We are here to see Volk.¡± He looked down at me and said, ¡±He¡¯s busy. Go away.¡± Modrica stepped around me, grabbed the guy hauling him toward her, and then head-butted him. He looked dazed as she dropped him back on the ground and sat suddenly. There were five other guards on the door or nearby, and they all reached for their weapons. ¡°As I said,¡± I repeated loudly, ¡°I am here to see Volk.¡± A large scarred Wolfkin stepped forward. ¡°He¡¯s busy. But I am willing to let you earn the right,¡± he said generously and nodded to the fighting cages. ¡°You must be the one they call Scar,¡± I said, looking him up and down. It was quite a way up. He was almost as tall as Modrica. ¡°Not impressed,¡± I said dismissively. He laughed, ¡°You¡¯re cute, little girl. Your bodyguard might give me a fight, but you, I would just walk over.¡± ¡°You want a fight? How about this, me and my bodyguard against you and your boss.¡± ¡°Why would we do that?¡± ¡°Because this is a boss fight over the Fiske.¡± ¡°The Fiske are finished. No one can stop us.¡± ¡°I can stop you.¡± A new voice said, ¡°Are you here from those kids playing around, pretending to be crime bosses?¡± Another large wolfkin came through from the back with two others beside him. This was Volk. ¡°Those kids have done more damage to the Fiske in the last week than the mighty Claws have done in the last fifteen years.¡± They didn¡¯t like hearing that. There were some growls and mutterings. ¡°Who the hell are you?¡± Volk demanded. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°They are the glove. I am the fist underneath.¡± Volk burst out laughing, ¡°Scar is right. You are cute.¡± Then he looked at me. ¡°Why should we let you walk out of here?¡± ¡°I am not interested in walking out of here. I am interested in you and Scar against me and my bodyguard in a cage.¡± I saw his eyes narrow. He wasn¡¯t dumb. He could tell I was a mobile rogue type that struck from the shadows. In a cage, there is limited movement and no shadows. If I was going in there willingly, I had a trick. I could see he was confident in his ability, but what was the trick and could he counter it? I am sure he had a few tricks as well. ¡°So you want to fight, and the winner gets the Fiske? We are about to have the Fiske. Why would I bother?¡± Volk queried. ¡°The fact that I am here and know your plans says that you don¡¯t have the Fiske. I planned to take the Fiske and then drive you off. I can still do that.¡± I pointed out. ¡°But the fact you are here means you have doubts you can do that.¡± He looked at the gang members around him, ¡°Kill them,¡± he said. They surged forward, drawing weapons. I hate smart, bloody enemies. Volk decided to trust his numbers rather than my ¡®trick¡¯. I thought he would go for the grand boss battle, but he is too smart for that. I plunged the area into shadow. He still has to deal with my trick. In the darkness, Modrica created four earth spikes and managed to impale two attackers. She collapsed the spikes as we moved, so the evidence wasn¡¯t obvious. Nobody was dead yet, although two were out of the fight. I pulled one of my surprise packages from my Spatial Pocket and left it just by the door to the fighting rings. Now, we were on a timer, and we moved toward the gate. Volk and Scar, and the two others also moved toward the gate. They may not be able to see much, but they knew their own base and figured out the most obvious way we would go. Most of the others were lost. One pair were fighting each other. I knifed on who got too close, and Modrica used her mace on another. Neither of those two would ever get up again. Volk¡¯s two bodyguards were closing the gate when Dusk crashed into it, sending them sprawling. Ruku and Rodion came in on either side of Dusk. Rodion dealt with the wolfkin on his side, and Ruku stabbed the one on his. Volk struck out, slicing Ruku. Volk could obviously see better than most in my shadows. I wonder what Skill that is. Ruku and Volk engaged in a furious fight. We approached Scar¡¯s side. He didn¡¯t have Volk¡¯s sight, but his smell or hearing was better, and he faced us. I let Modrica take the lead, and they started exchanging blows. Scar was the head enforcer, and he was good. Seeing them both in action now, I think I am lucky we didn¡¯t end up in a cage fight. Ruku was holding his own with his sword and buckler combination but had taken some cuts. Volk had a sword and knife, and he was fast. I saw Ruku get cuts in on Volk, but there didn¡¯t seem to be any blood. I think he had an extremely Tough hide or better like Modrica. I hope he didn¡¯t have an affinity like Gwaed. Rodion struck Volk from behind, and Volk had to go on the defensive for the first time. Modrica and Scar were exchanging big hits. Modrica¡¯s mace was hitting harder, and Scar was spending a lot of his energy keeping away from it. I moved behind him and sliced his hamstring on one leg and then had to follow it up with my knife as well because, shit, he had Tough Hide. Even then, I only drew blood, but it was a distraction. Modrica took advantage of the distraction, and her mace cracked his arm. His hide is tough, but bones are another matter. Dusk reared up behind him, but he sensed her somehow and dived into a forward roll, and her hooves missed. He faced us but backed off. We let him go and moved to the gate. I put everything into my Shadows Embrace and launched myself at Volk with both my knife and sword, coming down in a stab. I wanted to test his defences. Even with that, he managed to twist away, and only my knife hit. It definitely penetrated his armour and hide, but not very far. Physical strength was always a weak attribute for me. Dusk and Modrica were following me, and Volk decided it was time to get away. Ruku and I both tried to box him in, including me, with my Binding shadows, but he still escaped, and I got sliced for my trouble. It wasn¡¯t deep, and I had Syphon Constitution running from the start. The Binding Shadows meant Ruku had a good stab at him before he ran. We didn¡¯t have time to chase him. I left another package by the gate, and we made our own escape. I kept the Engulfing Shadows in place until the first explosion splattered, burning alchemy everywhere, and the warehouse and some of the gang were set a light. The second explosion set the gate alight, but I doubted it would burn for long. Hopefully, the injuries of some of his best people and the fires burning his base will mean the Claws won¡¯t get involved. They may double down and want the Fiske and revenge. Volk is smart, but he has his gang to appease. It could go either way, and I have already bet wrong once tonight. 214. Countdown: Wiremu

214. Countdown: Wiremu

Kelda left me halfway to the Fiske to go and warn Julija and the crowd. I had four bosses to hit: Alefasio, Kaelo, Kapo and Papahi. Three mer and a human. Their headquarters was busy as all their people gathered. There were a lot of preparations underway. I spotted the sentries and slipped past them. T¨¡oke was still with me, but I might need him to scout. I hid in the nearby shadows and watched for a while looking for opportunities. I made sure to check for people with bonds. There were two so far. One had the sense of inky water, and I am pretty sure it was a water-only bond. The other had a sense of inquisitive investigations. I had no idea what that might be. It might be the one that discovered Julija¡¯s location. I risked placing a Hunter''s Mark on that one. I saw the sentry change come out of the HQ. This could be a chance. Before I moved, a sparrow fluttered down and landed on the shoulder opposite T¨¡oke. There was a scrap of paper tied to Liten¡¯s leg. I read it. Julija had leaked their location so the Fiske would gather. They were not aware of the Claws¡¯ involvement. Julija would be assaulting the Fiske HQ in an hour. She will hire the Black Arts to keep the Claws off her. At least Tabitha is getting paid. I guess I am stuck with the charity work. It is time to take out some sentries. I followed the new sentry, and once the old sentry had left, T¨¡oke killed her. I followed the old sentry as a plan was forming. He was about my size and build. Veneer could lighten my skin colour and hair, but height and build were beyond it and always would be. I ambushed him with Sudden Strike, Power Stirke and Imbue Venom. He never had a chance, and Sudden Strike levelled. I had thrust up under the chin and into the brain so there was as little mess as possible. I changed from Dianne into whoever this guy was. I had used Interrogate Status on him and got a glimpse that he was a Journeyman Level Thief and had a couple of specialisations. I couldn¡¯t see what because while my attack might have upset his mental defences, he died too quickly. I changed my status to Thief but kept the rest obscured. I didn¡¯t bother with the other sentries. Julija will have a plan for them anyway. T¨¡oke rejoined me, and I Roleplayed what I had observed of this nameless guy, and we strode into the Fiske HQ. The two bruisers on the door nodded to me. They were expecting me. The one on the left said, ¡°Meeting in half an hour or so in the main hall.¡± That was going to be Julija¡¯s attack time as well. Everyone does things on the hour. I mumbled acknowledgement and entered. I scoped out the place, looking for the quiet corners and hiding places. Thermal Sensing was great for that, as it also told me which quiet corners were occupied. Many people were around, and about half were rogue types. I picked a young lad and used Interrogate Status on him. I figured with all the people he wouldn¡¯t be able to identify me even if he sensed it. He didn¡¯t. He was a Level Five Thief. Not even high enough to specialise. They had called in everyone. The lad looked excited to be included, but I knew his chances of living through the night were minuscule. ¡°Tom! Hey, wait up, Tom!¡± a voice yelled. I had a sinking suspicion I was Tom. I darkened my skin tone, changed my hair and added a moustache. As I turned to look, I changed my body posture to Roleplay Wild Bison Bill¡¯s more arrogant style. It was a woman pushing her way through, ¡°Tom! Oh, hang on, you are not Tom. Sorry mate.¡± ¡°No worries,¡± I said in Bill''s lazy way of speaking. If this was a friend or lover, I would have been done if I had stayed as Tom. Her eyes narrowed, ¡°That¡¯s Tom¡¯s jacket.¡± I smiled widely, ¡°Awesome, isn¡¯t it? He sold it to me just outside here.¡± She wasn¡¯t buying it. ¡°Hey, are you Lucy?¡± I asked. ¡°Ingrid,¡± she said uncertainly, ¡°Ingrid, sorry, I am bad with names. Tom said you might be able to help with something.¡± I steered her out of the main hallway into a smaller room. There were three others in the room, whom I addressed, ¡°Gentlemen,¡± that go some snorts, ¡°If you could give me a moment alone with the lovely Ingrid here?¡± ¡°No, piss off,¡± one of them said. ¡°I am sorry, Ingrid. Can I catch up with you after the main event?¡± ¡°I am going to find Tom,¡± she huffed and stormed out. ¡°Burned, man. She and Tom have been together a while, dude.¡± I put on a wiry smile and shrugged. I slipped back out the door and removed the jacket. Time was ticking down. Ingrid was probably going to be thorough. I found a quiet corner and changed my appearance again. I went a full beard and blond this time. Veneer was getting a workout, and it levelled. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Then the door crashed open, and in streamed a number of teenagers, followed by Kapo. He had bought the older teens from the street gangs. They really were bringing in everybody they could. They were desperate and probably untrusting of the Claws. We started being herded into the meeting room. It was going to be standing-room-only. I followed the flow and ended up near the far side of the room, about a third back from the main platform. I kept my head down as I spotted Ingrid enter. She was searching for someone. I don¡¯t know whether it was me or Tom. Probably both. Then I saw she was holding Tom¡¯s jacket. I should have hidden that. Fortunately, there were a bunch of rowdy teenagers between us. The room was full, and then my four targets climbed up on the platform. Alefasio was a large Mer, but it was hard to tell what type. He called for quiet and got it quickly. He started to outline that general strategy. Apparently, everybody was already assigned to a group with a leader and a specific objective. They had moved their time forward as ¡°the young upstarts¡± were active. Suddenly, a loud shout outside the meeting was abruptly cut off. Alefasio was no idiot. ¡°Move to attack now! Defence 1!¡± His senior members started leading groups out. An explosion suddenly ripped the side of the building open, and arrows started raining down. I was on the side of the blown-open building, and I was thrown into the other people in the room. I had a cut on my head that was bleeding. An arrow thudded into the floor beside my head. I am in danger from my allies. I scrambled up and pressed through the throng of people drawing weapons and orientating toward the new exit through the wall. I kept pressing toward the raised platform. I noted only Alefasio and Papahi were still on it. Papahi was surrounded by four fighters guarding her. Then Kapo appeared next to me, yelling at the teenagers. It really was too good an opportunity to miss, so I stabbed the back of his spine with Sudden Strike, severing it. His body hid the strike from the teenagers, and he collapsed to the floor. In the panic around, I saw several people trample over him. If he had some sort of self-heal, he might survive. I kept pressing toward the platform. I was near the platform when Thermal Sensing picked up two anomalies. There was so much going on it was hard to tell, but two figures suddenly appeared behind Alefasio and stabbed at him. Alefasio was fast, but his wounded leg still hampered him. One of the assassins got in a good strike, and the other missed. It was Julija who missed, which meant Alefasio countered the other assassin, and his head bounced off the platform. Alefasio was now wounded with a limp arm and his wounded leg, but he was still fast bringing his sword around. I saw Papahi stop her guards from interfering. I don¡¯t know whether she knew Alefasio was capable or she just wanted to keep her protection close. Alefasio was capable. Julija came at him fast, but he countered her, and she took a cut across the face. She was pushed back, and Alefasio was still for a second, which gave me time to throw a Lava Dart, which went into his eye. That gave Julija enough time to slice the artery in his throat. Papahi didn¡¯t miss the dart, and her eyes flicked to me even as I blended back into the crowd. The crowd wasn¡¯t thinning. If anything, it got more pressed as the attackers pressed into the building. The ones out the back were trying to escape out the main entrance, but I knew there were people outside there trying to force them to surrender. Julija had seen the lava dart, too. She could hardly miss it. Alefasio bled out on the platform, and I worked my way toward the corner when one of the people in the crown backstabbed me! I went down with a knife in my back, but T¨¡oke launched from my shoulder and had his fangs in Ingrid¡¯s throat before I hit the floor on my knees. I think it was Granite Bones that stopped me from becoming like Kapo. Ingrid hadn¡¯t left the knife in, so I got back up and kept going. Regeneration got to work. T¨¡oke will take care of the vengeful lover. After all, I did kill her partner. Back on the platform, Julija is talking with Papahi. I would assume Papahi was trying to make a deal. I am glad I don¡¯t have to deal with that. There was one mer missing, Kaelo. I went hunting through the building. Thermal Sensing picked him up in the basement with two others raiding the safe. Looks like he is planning to do a runner. I wonder if Julija had found the escape tunnel that will be there somewhere. If everybody had kept to the original timing, I might have been able to clean out the safe before all this started. Shit, now I am thinking like Tabitha. The stairs came into my Thermal sensing range, but I didn¡¯t bother as they were now below me. Puia created a circular lava platform, and I superheated it to burn through the wooden floor. Ten seconds later, I crashed down into the room. They had already started running as soon as the ceiling started had started smoking. I took off after them. I sensed them entering the tunnel through a hatch. As soon as I got there and jumped down, I splashed into knee-deep water. I put my hand on the stone wall, and spikes crisscrossed the exit, but I only caught the one who was bringing up the rear. He was thoroughly impaled, but the other two had exited already. The Tunnel wasn¡¯t very long as the HQ was by the fisherman docks, and we came out under the wharves. If it were high tide, this would be all underwater. As it was, I was waist-deep by the time I exited the tunnel, and the other two were mer, so they were long gone. There is no way I would catch Mer in water. My Granite bones were so heavy I doubted I could keep my head out of the water for very long. If only Ruku had been here. I waded back to where the stone pier ended and the wooden wharves started, and I used Granite manipulation to climb onto the pier. I walked back to the action, staying well back. I went to where I had stashed Dianne''s gear, including her bow and found a good place to keep an eye on things. T¨¡oke was telling me the fighting had died down. It seemed the Fiske were running or surrendering. Everybody was herded onto the street outside, and Julija appeared flanked by the minotaur and an orc. Papahi followed her with one guard. It seems like they made a deal. She gave a short speech about taking over and working for her. One of her people dragged Alefasio¡¯s body out so they knew he was dead, and then she let them disburse. I waited to see if there would be further trouble, and It was just as well as I did. A little birdie visited Julija, and then she started barking orders. From her orders, there were Claw incoming. 215. Claws: Wiremu

215. Claws: Wiremu

Julija¡¯s people scrambled. About fifteen lined up behind her, and about ten archers took to the roofs. I moved as I was in a prime spot for an archer, and I wasn¡¯t officially here. Julija was going to wait for them here on her new home turf. Julija has lost three people from her leadership training squad. Having twenty-five fighters left was good, but they did look tired and battle-worn. She was obviously expecting the Claw from up the road, so I headed there to see what was coming. About twenty strong fighters were coming. A closer look showed they were not unscathed themselves. I recognised Volk and his second Scar. They both looked like they had been in a fight, although Volk had no apparent injuries. Scar was favouring one of his arms. Thermal Sensing picked up a stealth-type shadowing them. I moved to intercept. They might be a Claw. They might be a friend or just a watcher from someone else. I moved into camouflage on the ground in a street where they would be soon, notched an arrow, and waited. A shadow flitted across the end of the street and then approached. It was watching the roofs. I raised my bow, but I waited. I didn¡¯t want to hit a friend, although I could tell it was not Tabitha or Ruku. When they got into range of Thermal Sensing, I lowered my bow. I knocked three times on the stone with my Granite finger. Kelda lowered her bow and approached. She had taken out the Claw Rogue on this side of the street, and Tabitha was on the other side. She wasn¡¯t sure what the Claw were up to, but Tabitha wanted to wait and see. Her Keensight soon noticed the knife hole in the back of my armour. Regeneration had taken care of the wound by now. It was nice to have someone who cared. ¡°Come on,¡± Kelda said, ¡°I want to get somewhere I can lip read.¡° I let her go ahead as I wanted to be behind them. I would have no problem hearing with my Hearing Aid. Coming in from the back was a better tactical position. The Claw approached Julija and stopped about ten meters back. They spread out, taking the whole street. Although Volk¡¯s twenty seemed to dwarf Julija¡¯s fifteen, she had another ten archers scattered around. Volk looked at Alefasio¡¯s corpse at Julija¡¯s feet, and Papahi standing beside her and said, ¡°So you managed to remove the fishy bastard. That¡¯s a surprise.¡± ¡°What business do the Claws have here?¡± Jlija asked. ¡°At least you are not ignorant about who we are. We are here for revenge. We were attacked, and our building was set alight by someone who claimed to be backing you. I want their head. Maybe I will take yours as well.¡± ¡°Somebody is backing me, you say? That is news to me. I have allies but no backers. Describe these people for me?¡± Volk looked warningly at her but said, ¡°Two females, one short skinny human and one an orc larger than Scar.¡± ¡°Nope. I hired a mercenary outfit to watch our flanks. While they were two females, they were both human. I think you have been had, and they are trying to put the blame on me.¡± ¡°I guess we will find out when we take you apart.¡± Volk snarled. ¡°You are too young to hold onto what you have anyway.¡± ¡°While I don¡¯t have backers, I am not without allies. You have met four times this year with my father, Janez.¡± That paused Volk. ¡°This is a Hazardirati takeover?¡± ¡°No. This is me getting out of my father¡¯s authority, but he is very protective of his Clan. He is a powerful ally.¡± I could tell Volk was thinking the same. ¡°I will have my vengeance. I lost three powerful fighters tonight, and half my building is burned.¡± ¡°I can understand that. You and Scar are known as the top fighters in the city, but I see Scar has a broken arm. If these powerful attackers are blaming me, I might have to join you in the hunt. They obviously want us to fight. It looks like we have a joint enemy.¡± ¡°There is a problem with that theory, lass. I don¡¯t think they were lying. I think they have something to do with you. I figure we take you down, and we get the Fiske and flush them out.¡± ¡°The first problem with that theory,¡± Julija said, ¡±is you are forgetting the Hazardirati will start a blood feud if you attack me.¡± Julija was impressing me with how calmly she appeared to be handling this. She was her father''s daughter. ¡°The second problem is these two women killed three, injured more and burned your building. I think you are underestimating them.¡± ¡°They had two other allies. A human male and a wolfkin. Both were obviously ex-military. She also either had a dark affinity or a weird ass bond.¡± If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°And they escaped from your base alive, or you wouldn¡¯t be out looking for them.¡± Volk growled as Julija pointed out their failings. The Claw''s reputation was for being the strongest fighters. Julija continued, ¡°You really think you can take down someone with an affinity?¡± then she paused, ¡°Oh, that¡¯s why you bought the extras.¡± she indicated his followers. It was looking like we would not be able to avoid a fight. I made sure I was looking like Dianne and checked my weapons. I had the short bow, and I created three stone spears. Tabitha seemed to think the same as me. She came out of a side ally just behind Julija¡¯s line. She was riding Dusk, who had whisps of shadows flickering around her. Julija¡¯s people parted to let her through. Modrica followed her, and next to Modrica was Nyx in sabertooth lion form. They moved into the space between the groups. Nyx was impressive. She was massive, coming up to Modrica¡¯s chest, which put her taller than Tabitha. The detail was all there, and she seemed much more solid than when I saw this form last time. They must have levelled Shadow Manipulation and Mimic. Tabitha also had a low-level Intimidation aura flowing from her. They turned and faced the Claws in a row. ¡°You wanted to meet me, Volk?¡± Many of the Claws thought this was not a good idea as they were looking around for an exit. Volk growled menacingly, trying to bolster his fighters. ¡°You attacked us and burned our base.¡± ¡°I had hoped you would stay there,¡± said Tabitha pleasantly, ¡°Then you would have remained in charge of the Claws.¡± She saw some of the fighters looking to back off and said, ¡°Don¡¯t think about escaping.¡± This was my cue. I walked out of the ally behind them and turned to face them in the centre of the road. I didn¡¯t look impressive like Tabitha as I was dressed as Dianne with a bow and three spears. I planted the spears into the ground so they stood upright for me to grab. They went in as if it was soft earth. This was done effortlessly even though it was not soft earth but into the stone road. It gave the impression of immense strength when it was really just a deft use of Granite Manipulation. I then grabbed the bow off my shoulder and notched an arrow. ¡°Let me introduce you to the other half of the Black Arts Mercenary Team, Dianne Prints,¡± Tabitha announced. Then, because there are no guarantees about the intelligence of people, she added, ¡°We,¡± she indicated her Modrica and Nyx, ¡°are one half. Dianne is the other, equal, half.¡± She looked back at Volk. ¡°I believe you were stating your issues?¡± Tabitha was good at intimidation. I knew most of the fighters would target me as we looked less impressive. Volk was in a bind. If he backed down, he was showing weakness, yet if he fought, it looked like he had less superiority than he thought, especially if Julija backed us, and she would. ¡°Who are you!¡± he demanded. Tabitha smiled, ¡°Excellent question. You may call me Black.¡± she pulled out the Blacksteel knife, ¡°I am also known as The Black Butcher of Jern.¡± That caused a stir. I could tell a number of wolfkin among them were ready to lie down and show their bellies in submission. Even among Julija¡¯s people, it was a surprise. A number of her co-leaders recognised Modrica from their training, but nobody but Julija and her father should know about the Black Butcher. Everybody is going to know the Black Butcher is in town after this. The King will soon find out Dianne Prints, to whom he gave a Royal Decree, is in a Mercenary team with the Black Butcher. He is not dumb. He will link Tabitha as the Black Butcher. I wonder how he will deal with his Countess being the Black Butcher? That is a future issue. Right now, I must concentrate on the twenty experienced fighters from the Claws. It is all going to hinge on Volk. His fighters are cowed, and he came to fight one affinity user. He knows there is more than one, as it is obvious from Tabitha introducing me. What he doesn''t know is there are five Affinity users against him. He has no idea about Modrica, Ruku and Kelda. Twenty fighters are not enough against what he can see. I could tell Volk didn¡¯t want to back down. He was a fighter. He wasn¡¯t afraid of death. He put his life on the line every time he stepped into a cage. It would have been a long time since he had faced a better fighter, but this cage was not of his making. He could tell it was a losing fight. ¡°What do you want,¡± he growled reluctantly. ¡°I am in Kirghiz making allies,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I have come to an agreement with the Hazardirati and soon with whatever the new Fiske will be called.¡± ¡°The Izvoz,¡± Julija supplied. ¡°Indeed, the Izvoz. I think the Claws will also make for good allies.¡± She was handing Volk a way out that could potentially increase his reputation. ¡°What would being allies mean,¡± he asked. ¡°You would protect my interests in Kirghiz and work with my other allies. There would be payment and a reciprocal benefit, of course.¡± The promise of coins can be a powerful motivator. Volk turned to whisper to Scar. I decided a fight was unlikely, so I picked up my spears and moved into the opposite ally I had emerged from. Nobody was paying attention to me. It would look like I vanished. Volk turned back to Tabitha, ¡°Very well, the Claws accept an alliance with the Black Butcher!¡± he yelled, trying to raise morale. Tabitha smiled widely and pulled out a bag of coins, which she tossed to Volk. ¡°To help you celebrate our new alliance!¡± she yelled over the growing excitement. Volk held it up and shouted, ¡°Let''s celebrate!¡± and they moved off. Volk wanted them out of there and possibly drunk so he could slant the stories. The group moved off. Several looked around for me, but I was camouflaged in the shadows. Tabitha turned to Julija and said, ¡°Congratulations on your victory,¡± She tossed her a bag of coins ¡°To help my other new allies celebrate.¡± Wait till Janez hears about this scam. 216. King: Tabitha

216. King: Tabitha

¡°So I made the Black Butcher my Countess Auditor? Why the hell didn¡¯t you tell me?¡± King Thor was a little irate. ¡°Firstly, because you sprung it on me in public and didn¡¯t give me a choice. Secondly, I repeatedly told you that you needed better advisers, and thirdly because I thought it was hilarious.¡± I didn¡¯t try to hide the smile. We were sitting in his private meeting room just after midnight. At least Thor was dressed this time, and I didn¡¯t have to look at his hairy legs. ¡°Duke Lamonte of Jern will be furious and want your head.¡± ¡°Tell him to get in line.¡± ¡°I should just kill you myself.¡± ¡°How ungrateful. After all that we have done for you. Now, when you have a Duke causing trouble, you can threaten to send the Black Butcher to see them. You shouldn¡¯t have trouble for long.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± grumped Thor. ¡°My new advisors tell me a contract has just been issued for Imperial Slave Taskmasters by Wiremu Hunter. Shouldn¡¯t you have given me some warning? The kingdom may not back it, but it is coming from us.¡± ¡°Just testing to see how strong your heart is.¡± ¡°Bloody troll shit. You are like the granddaughter I never wanted.¡± ¡°Hey, I am not that old. Add a couple of greats in there. At least great great granddaughter.¡± ¡°Now I am the one to protest. I am not that old.¡± Thor was full of complaints today. ¡°The main point was the bit about not wanting you.¡± ¡°Hey, if you don¡¯t want your granddaughter, she could always come with us into the empire,¡± I joked. ¡°I thought you would never offer,¡± Thor said, then he raised his voice, ¡°Runa! Get in here!¡± One of the dwarven guards on the door entered. ¡°Skygge said you can go with them into the empire.¡± Bloody hell, he just conned me again. ¡°Great Gramps, anything to get away from you.¡± And she takes after her grandfather. ¡°I suppose you are a con artist like Gramps over there?¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s a rude thing to ask.¡± then she winked at me, ¡°But I will show you mine if you show me yours.¡± I need to get away from dwarves. Or maybe it is this kingdom I need to get away from. It is definitely this king. ¡°We are leaving at the end of this week, and we plan to ride fast,¡± I told her. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, me and Horny won¡¯t slow you down,¡± Runa said. ¡°Dare I ask?¡± ¡°It¡¯s my bond. He¡¯s a mountain goat, and we can ride anywhere. He is a horny old goat in every sense of the word.¡± It is probably still faster than Wiremu¡¯s Mosey. ¡°Met me tomorrow at this address, and we will discuss it with the team. You know it is probably a one-way trip, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Are you kidding me? It is a strike team with five affinity users. We are going to kick the imperial¡¯s bald arses.¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough, Runa. Swap out with your second and go prep.¡± ¡°Sure, Gramps.¡± and she left. ¡°Have you found your missing Marquess yet?¡± I asked Thor. ¡°He disappeared into the City States in the south. If you see him on the way through, slip a knife into him for me, will you?¡± ¡°You seriously need to find some competent people to work for you.¡± ¡°I am going to retire and leave this mess for someone else. The Dukes are pushing me to name a preferred successor, not that doing that means shit. They will fight over it anyway. The Western faction wants me to name Duchess Fielding, who is basically war-mad. The Central faction is in disarray after Terry¡¯s coup. The Northern Industrial faction wants me to name some brand new Duke who hasn¡¯t even got out of nappies yet, Eluf from Obalno. The Southern faction is a mess, but Duchess Irena is trying to round them together to support her.¡± Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°You will be pleased to know that I have only slept with one of them, Eluf. I can tell you that he is good in bed.¡± ¡°That¡¯s all you humans think about, isn¡¯t it? That¡¯s why you need a Dwarf or an Orc on the throne. Mind you, if he survived sleeping with you, maybe he is tougher than he looks. Or maybe he is just dumber than most.¡± ¡°You couldn¡¯t resist my charms either. That¡¯s why I am a countess.¡± ¡°Well, Countess, you can earn your keep on your way to the City States. Duke Boris is behind on this year''s taxes. Sort him out on the way past, will you?¡± ¡°I am reduced to being a tax collector.¡± ¡°At least you have finally learned your place. Took a while.¡± ¡°Maybe I will just nick off with his taxes and disappear into the empire.¡± ¡°Well, just go and leave me in peace. I need some sleep in my old age.¡± Runa was obviously there to keep an eye on us for the King. She was nice enough, and at this point, the King should know enough about us never to trust us anyway. She was a Warrior with specialisations in Shields and a class called Heavy Infantry, which was good for heavily armoured warriors. She was devastating with a sword and shield. With her shield, she could even keep Modrica at bay, which was funny as she barely came up to her waist. Horny was fast and agile, but Runa always fought on foot. I was amazed at how Horny could carry her and her plate armour and weapons. She was small but very solid. That description applied to Horny and Runa equally. The problem was Mayakku. Mayakku came to us all excited because she had finally cracked Core Enchanting and got the specialisation. Better yet, she figured out how to enchant it so that Nyx could empower and recharge it. That was what I asked her to do almost three years ago when we met in Jern. She wanted my Blacksteel knife to enchant it for me. I asked for the Tough Hide Enchantment as I lacked a defensive ability. She would only be able to enchant the equivalent of a low apprentice level at this stage, but it was better than nothing. It was also not very efficient yet, but this wasn¡¯t the problem. The problem was when Mayakku explained why she could only put one enchantment on the knife. ¡°It is the rune sequence to take the Core energy from Nyx and remove the flavours to make it clean like the energy from my enchanting skill,¡± she said. ¡°The sequence takes a lot of room, and until I level it, I am limited by the size of the runes.¡± ¡°Wait up,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°You can take Monster Core energy and remove the flavours with this rune sequence?¡± Mayakku nodded. ¡°Can you add a flavour?¡± Mayakku had to think about that, ¡°Possibly?¡± she said uncertainly. Wiremu thought this was the key to empowering the ritual to remove the Slave Class. Using a Monster Core, filtered through a rune sequence to remove the flavours and then add the flavour of a Journeyman Slave Taskmaster. We didn¡¯t know what that flavour was yet, and Mayakku was unsure about adding flavours, but Mayakku had the highest Spiritual Sensitivity and the most Skills in that area. Wiremu wanted her to come with us. A Catkin Pride is a very close-knit group. Males are usually the ones that venture out on their own, not females. The Pride is committed to running Elemental Traders, so the Pride can¡¯t come. Mutalil and Anni are expecting another litter in a few months. The Pride is settling down and establishing a base, which they haven¡¯t had before. Wiremu wanting Mayakku to come with us is a big problem. Mayakku herself is open to coming. This could be the influence of C¨­mp¨¥?i, her male lion bond. Young male lions are usually driven from the pride by the senior, but I guess things are mixed up in the bonds. That is Wiremu¡¯s expertise, not mine. The Catkin all retreated to the Farm for three days to discuss it. When Wiremu, Modrica and I went out to the farm to discuss it, we immediately noticed a difference in Mayakku. App¨¡ was there when she met with us. ¡°Mayakku will go with you, but we were concerned for her safety,¡± App¨¡ said. ¡°Your bond has changed,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Yes,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°The Pride were concerned for me, and so we empowered C¨­mp¨¥?i.¡± ¡°You used the monster core,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Piercing Sharpness,¡± Mayakku said and picked up a metal plate and extended a claw and drew a rune on the plate with her claw. ¡°It seemed the right thing to do, and the Pride was there to support and help.¡± Then C¨­mp¨¥?i came in. He had changed. He had always been large enough for Mayakku to ride. Now Mayakku had to climb up on his back. His teeth were more pronounced and sharper. He wasn¡¯t a sabertooth, but he was close. I am sure his claws are equally enhanced. He was now definitely a lion king. ¡°Wow,¡± was all I could say to that. We got Ruku and Rodion a horse, although Rodion was very uncomfortable on a horse. That would either change, or he would run all day. He could easily run all day. He was a Skirmisher. We will see. Kelda had a horse and Wiremu had Mosey. I think Wiremu was going to see if Kelda can specialise Observer into Scout. It seems compatible, but we will see. The last surprise was Astrid. ¡°You need a Healer,¡± she stated. ¡°I have been a healer for a Mercenary company for ¡­ well, several decades. I can''t settle down now. I am coming.¡± So she and Trassig, her stoat bond, joined us. We hired a boat to travel down the Kirghiz River and the coast. This meant we could hide Te?ka easily. As soon as we got past the cultivated farmland. Wiremu was basically over the moon to be out of the city and even more so to be off the boat. Ruku distracted him by showing him the best way to fish from the boat, but deep water is Wiremu¡¯s weakness. Nystad Empire, here we come. Wiremu Hunter with T¨¡oke and Puia Tabitha Carter with Nyx and Dusk Modrica with Te?ka Ruku with Wai Rodion Mayakku with C¨­mp¨¥?i Kelda with Liten Runa and Horny Astrid and Trassig Four humans, one orc, one wolfkin, one catkin and two dwarves. What a mix. What a fellowship. 217. Southward: Wiremu

217. Southward: Wiremu

We need Monster Cores, and we will not find them on this cursed boat. I said that to Ruku, who told me about the flying fish delivering a core onto the boat to Northport. Truth Sensing said he was telling the truth, but it was hard to believe. It sounded like an old fisherman''s tale, and Ruku is definitely an old fisherman. I don¡¯t like deep water. I know I would sink and drown. I like fishing but only from solid ground. Ruku tried to distract me by teaching me to fish in the ocean, and I guess it sort of worked. Fishing went up into the Journeyman levels. The sooner we are off this boat, the better. Mayakku spent most of the time on the boat trip refining the enchanting runes to try to give the Spiritual energy a flavour. Nyx and Puia provided the energy. Puia¡¯s spiritual energy was more difficult for Mayakku to work with than Nyx¡¯s. Puia¡¯s was more intense and difficult to cleanse. Nyx¡¯s was easier, and she collects energy through skills, but we need to get some monster cores to work with. Mayakku started to work with a flavour she knew: Sharpness. She has been enchanting weapons with it for a long time and now has it as part of her own affinity. Enchanting focuses the spiritual energy into a flavour and applies it to an object. The energy empowers the object until it runs out and has to be replenished by an enchanter. This is very close to rituals. Rituals focus the energy to create or change something. The change is then fixed. For Rituals, the type of energy is important. The very first ritual I saw was a Goblin Chief using the blood of ordinary goblins to create a Goblin Shaman with a blood affinity. I am still not totally clear on how that worked, but for Advanced Class rituals, you need the flavour of a journeyman-level class holder. Enchanting can change the flavour of the spiritual energy. Mayakku is starting to work with what she knows, but we will need to move on to the flavour of a Class. Basic and Specialised Classes add different layers of flavours, which is more complicated when you have multiple classes. We don¡¯t have access to a Slave Taskmaster to find out their flavour, but just trying to create a flavour of a class, like Hunter or Warrior, is a big shift in the way normal enchanters work. Mayakku figured out enchanting Skills are closer to Classes. For example, she knows how to enchant a knife to give a bonus to the Small Blades Skill. She can enchant to boost Resistances. Classes are more like a combination of Skills and sometimes Resistances. Modrica¡¯s Unyielding Specialisation Class essentially boosts a lot of her Resistances. This is seen in the Armoured Skin Skill she received with it. It primarily resists Cutting and piercing, but also acids and possibly others. It has less resistance to blunt forces. To capture the Unyielding class flavour, you have to start with the skills and combine them. Specialised Classes have a narrower focus than Basic Classes. My Hunter Class would be almost impossible to replicate as so many skills are involved. Hunter is a top-tier Class. Quarry Worker would be easier as there are fewer skills involved. A specialisation like Scout or Assassin has fewer skills required. Scout has vision, movement and mapping. Assassin has stealth and deception with sudden attacks. It is still far from easy. Slave Taskmaster is a specialisation from administrator-type basic classes. It seems to have a singular focus on the Slave Bond. We hope my Bond Master Class will give us insight into it. Mayakku is worried as she knows of no enchanting around bonds. Ruku had some insight here as in his travels to Northport, he came across an Animal Tamer. This seemed closer to a Slave Taskmaster in that it forced a bond even though it was a temporary one. He didn¡¯t have any Skills to see what was going on there, but it was a lead to follow. Animal Tamers are fairly common and combined with Animal Trainers to produce guard animals, pets etc. I am now kicking myself at the lost opportunity I had when I met the Animal Tamer outside Kirghiz. My bond skills were new then, and I was focused on finding a bond for T¨¡tt¨¡, but I still missed the opportunity to study what was happening. At least we are off this blasted boat tomorrow. We are landing outside the nearest city. This boat is a smuggler contact of Tabitha¡¯s, and we need to avoid population centres as we are a very noticeable group. Te?ka, Modrica¡¯s massive Dire bear and C¨­mp¨¥?i, Mayakku¡¯s massive lion, are the main problems. We will establish a camp, and then some of us will visit the small city. Wild Bill and Rodion will go drinking and see what the local area holds. Monster stories are what we are looking for. Odla was a small provincial city serving a large farming community. A dwarven duchess was in charge, but we hope never to meet her. From here, we head inland to Skog, which is on the kingdom''s edge and the jungle''s edge. Skog has a Duke not paying taxes. Tabitha will go and rustle up more coins for us and maybe for the king. Then we go to Waiouru, which is the large southern military city of the Kingdom. It is on the edge of the Great Desert. Then, we leave this Kingdom behind. There is a Lizardkin City state in the desert before we enter the Empire. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. I am not going to be able to get an update on the Contract I put out on Slave Taskmasters until I get to Waiouru. It has a decent-sized mercenary Guild with a Communications enchanter. We found a nice quiet gully an hour out of town to set up camp. There was an Animal Trainer on the edge of town, so Rodion and I stopped in. She mostly trained riding animals and sheep and cattle dogs for the farming community. There was an Animal Tamer who came through every couple of months, but she could not say when he would be back next. Rodion was taken with two new dogs, which she had just started training. They were mid-sized dogs, much smaller than Kryddor. Their fur was orange-yellow with black overlapping. They looked to be fast animals. ¡°Where are these dogs from?¡± he asked. ¡°They run in packs in the wilds not far here. They are a pain for the farms on the edge of the wilds, but when they are trained, they make good farm dogs.¡± I used my Bond Care Skill, and being a canine meant Rodion had a natural affinity with them, but something was missing. I shook my head at Rodion, but said, ¡°Close,¡± indicating he should not bond with the dogs, but we were getting closer. Something was missing. ¡°Tell me about these packs of dogs,¡± I said to the trainer. ¡°In the wild, the packs range in size from two to thirty adults and yearlings. They are highly social animals, and we can minimise that through training, but it is best if you have more than one. I will have these two adequately trained in two weeks.¡± She was looking for a sale here. She was going to be disappointed. I thanked the lady and kept working with Bond Care, Rodion, and the dogs. Then it clicked. The flavour missing from a bond with these dogs was that Rodion had the Pack Leader Class. He needed to bond with the Pack leaders, not these two. Bond Care levelled to Apprentice. Flavours of a class can be sensed with Bond Care. When I told Rodion, he wanted to go looking for a pack straight away. We would be heading out in a couple of days, so I cautioned him to wait. We would be weeks in the wilds in the territory, so we would have plenty of time to go hunting. Bond Care is making bonding so much easier. The local ales were good. We would be a while away from civilisations, so we stocked up on ale for the trip. Astrid had a skill to keep things fresh, and Ruku could keep things cool. The two of them are going to be very useful. The only thing useful from the evening was the variety of ales to stock up on. There were no rumours of monsters. It is going to be a busy trip. Now that Ruku is back, I want to concentrate on levelling my new Warrior Class. We also need to try to get Kelda¡¯s Warrior Class to Journeyman if we could. She is not really compatible with it, but making specialisations available just makes sense, and it should make Monster Hunter immediately available from her monster kills. Tabitha has the Journeyman level Riding Class and agreed to teach Kelda that. She already has the Riding Skill, so it shouldn¡¯t take long. Scout is a specialisation from Riding if you also have Farsight, so if she can level that to Journeyman, that specialisation should be available. Scout may be available from the Observer Class anyway. All these Classes are more attribute points that she needs. We will obviously work with Kelda to level her Targeting and Tracking classes. It is just a shame we don¡¯t have anyone here with the Archer Class, as I think that would suit her well. My Hunters Marks are not at Journeyman level yet, so I can¡¯t teach her that. Kelda is also interested in learning my Map Making Skills, as she wants to learn to draw what she sees. I recently levelled it to Jouneyman on the boat by mapping Thermal Currents. She paid a Trainer in Kirghiz to teach her the Drawing Skill already, so she thinks the two will go together well. If she can get the Scout Specialisation, she will probably get the Mapping Skill, which would tie it all together. She can use the Skills without them, but she has to wait and draw where she can see the land, which takes time and is not as accurate. Kelda made a good point. I am focused on wilderness skills, but when we get to the Empire, we will mostly be operating in the cities. We need skills for urban areas. Her Sparrow bond, Liten was chosen with the urban environment in mind. I guess she had in mind life in Hrothgar as the Duke¡¯s Heiress. That doesn¡¯t bode well for our long-term relationship. She is an heiress and will one day be a Duchess. I need to put that aside, or I will get depressed. I wonder if she thinks about us long term? Am I just a fling? Time for some more of that ale. 218. Preparation: Wiremu

218. Preparation: Wiremu

We picked up fresh supplies in Odla and moved on after two days. Tabitha would neither confirm nor deny whether she took over a criminal gang in that time. We travelled at night for the first two days until we left the farming areas. There was a main road, but we paved our own way through the wilderness. Once we were well away from everyone, I called a meeting to discuss our preparation for the Empire. I started things. ¡°I have been reminded recently that my major Skills are for use in the wilderness, but when we get to the empire, we will largely operate in the cities. Our key opposition will come from the Imperial Inquisitors. Tabitha and I have tangled with one before, and they are largely perception and investigative-based. We need to practice combatting perception skills, including Status blocks.¡± Tabitha added, ¡°The Inquisitor will be surrounded by Specialised troops at all times. Fighting is not their major area, so they are protected.¡± I continued, ¡°The Lore Society didn¡¯t have a lot on the Inquisitor Specialisation, but it comes from the city patroller classes. So the Inquisitor will have basic combat and restraint skills, along with investigative skills. Truth Sensing or similar is common, along with evidence location skills and interrogation techniques. Sometimes torture techniques. The Inquisitor class itself almost always gives a specialised Perception or Status Interrogation Skill.¡± ¡°The way I see it,¡± Tabitha said with a small smirk, ¡°Is the person here closest to the Inquisitor Class is Kelda with her Observer Class.¡± ¡°I have recent experience against Imperial Troopers,¡± Ruku said. ¡°My Sense Treasure and Truth Sensing can test the ability to hide and deceive. Tabitha has the strongest ability to get into someone''s status,¡± I added. ¡°However, the biggest thing we are going to rely on is our disguises. My Veneer, Role Play, Tabitha¡¯s Body Image and Mimic, and our Status Protections will need to be the strongest.¡± So we set a plan for training and some loose roles. Kelda was going to be our lookout or Watchman. Watchman may be an actual specialisation she might get, but her role was to watch for anomalies and sneak attacks. To level her Skills she was to practice against Tabitha and Nyx¡¯s shadows and images. Tabitha¡¯s main role was to get us, and particularly Te?ka and C¨­mp¨¥?i, to be where we needed to be. She was also our main stealth assassin. I think Kelda was highly motivated to unravel Tabitha¡¯s shadows. Tabitha has never had a lot of fighting classes. She is good with blades and dual wielding, but her only fighting class is Shadow Predator. Her Classes are all about making coins. Ruku, Modrica, Runa and I were all capable of taking on an Imperial Trooper solo and prevailing. Those of us with affinities could do more than one. However, Imperial Troopers don¡¯t come in singles but in squads and companies. Ruku was going to work with Rodion and us so we could comfortably take on a squad and get used to group tactics. Astrid would work with us as the healer. I was the most versatile one. I was the primary ranged attacker, backed up by Kelda. I was a backup assassin and primary scout. I was also the backup for the front-line fighters. Rodion was the most manoeuvrable, so he was the primary backup for everybody, especially Kelda and Astrid. Mayakku would take part in the exercises to strengthen her skills, but C¨­mp¨¥?i was her main defender. Mayakku¡¯s main job was enchanting. This was not just around classes but also all our equipment. Enchanted gear was going to lift all of us up several notches. With that amount of enchanting in front of her, we would need a lot of Spiritual material, so finding monsters to kill was even more important. So we set up a routine every morning. The day would start before light with individual Skills training. Ruku got a bit of flack for that from Tabitha and Astrid, but the ex-military people were used to it. This didn¡¯t just include your current Skills but learning new Skills. For example, Mayakku and C¨­mp¨¥?i didn¡¯t have Tough Hide. Ruku¡¯s Tough Hide was at the mid-journeyman level, and he was a qualified military trainer. Astrid and Trassig also got in on that training. Increasing our survivability was the number one priority. When Tabitha heard about it, she and Dusk also got in on it. They wanted Armoured Skin from Modrica, but nobody had the Attributes or the Class to support it. Some Skills were Class-specific. Some Skills, like Regeneration, were not worth the pain to learn outside the Class. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Ruku was very smart. He taught Mayakku and C¨­mp¨¥?i Piercing Strike, which matched ideally with their affinity. I had Rodion teach me Sprint to enhance my manoeuvrability. Kelda already knew that, so I could train by trying to catch her. I wasn¡¯t very successful even though my motivation was high. I would also tutor Kelda in levelling the Bow. After individual training, we had breakfast. Then it was mental training. This focus was on our statuses, Perceptions and deceptions. Tabitha was working on her images to counter some of the weaknesses. Her images were weak to Thermal Sensing, and both Kelda and I had that. To strengthen Kelda¡¯s perception, she would try to see through Tabitha¡¯s shadows. Her shadows were Spiritual and needed Spiritual Perception to pierce. Then Kelda had an inspiration that her fire should pierce through the shadows. She tried various fire skills with limited success. Then I suggested she focus her fire through her eyes. She was very reluctant as she is not comfortable with her affinity, but when she did, she felt a Skill becoming available. It cost her all her free attribute points in Spiritual Perception, but she got Eyes of Fire. It was a perception Skill to see through illusions and other visually disrupting mediums, like smoke and water. Her eyes would change to a fiery red when she used the skill. Her Novice Skill couldn¡¯t see far into Tabitha¡¯s high Journeyman level Shadows, but it would level. This even twigged me onto why we were having so much success in learning Skills. Ruku had his Inspiring Aura running for every session. It was making a difference. After Mental training, we had group training. Ruku had us practising group manoeuvring and were would form teams and practice. Often Ruku, Tabitha and I would take on the others. Ruku and I would engage, and Tabitha would attempt sneak attacks. This did wonders for my Warrior Class. This squad-on-squad training was the normal way for the army to train new Warriors. My Shield work improved a lot from Runa. Runa also had the Journeyman-level Heavy Armour Skill. She got the Skill from her Heavy Infantry Specialisation, but there seemed no reason I couldn¡¯t learn it. My Granite Armour was defiantly Heavy. I would strip to the buff and equip my Granite Armour, and she would bash me around or try to make me catch her. The Heavy Armour Skill was based on Physical Strength and Agility Attributes. I had plenty of both of those. The Skill gave defence and movement bonuses while in Heavy Armour. At level 1, with my attributes, I got a 6% increase in the armour blocking attacks, and I could move 4% easier and faster. By the time the Skill got to Journeyman level, it was 60% and 40%. That was huge. It only applied to heavy armour, though. There didn¡¯t seem to be anything I could teach Runa in exchange up until she learned I had the Hammer Skill. I kept ignoring that skill because of the connotations of the quarry. Runa had been wanting to learn the War Hammer for a while, so I was happy to teach her. We would then be on the road by mid or sometimes late-morning, and we would keep moving until sunset. Then we would repeat. When we hit the trail, I would mostly go out with Kelda and Rodion and teach them to scout. Kelda sometimes stayed with Tabitha to learn the Riding Class. Rodion didn¡¯t have a basic class leading to the Scout Specialisation, but it was good for him to learn, and might be another Specilaisation available. He was keen to look for packs of wild dogs. We were all levelling under Ruku¡¯s Inspiring Aura, but Kelda was doubly inspired. She had the Sharp Mind Skill, which boosted Mental Agility. After using her fire in her eyes and learning it couldn¡¯t hurt her, she started using her fire with different Skills and different parts of her body. Some were failures. She stripped nude and tried to channel her flames to her skin to create something like Tough hide with fire. It didn¡¯t work. What did work was combining fire with Sprint. It was Liten that got it first, as she used Sprint a lot as she flitted around. Liten combined fire and Sprint and created Wings of Fire, which was explosively fast over short distances. It looked like Litens wings were on fire. Kelda Learned it through their bond, and she could also blast around. It was only short distances, but it didn¡¯t need the ground. She could essentially fly for short distances explosively fast. It was not a discrete skill. She left an afterimage of fire. Astrid had to heal her after she ran out of energy too high above the ground. She would get the hang of it. At level 1, with her attribute of Spiritual Strength, she could only use it for 2 seconds. At apprentice, it would be ten seconds and at journeyman, twenty seconds. I can see her spare attributes will be put into Spiritual Strength. The Skill had a recharge time equivalent to its use. What I like is that she is finally getting some enjoyment from her fire affinity. 219. Seeker: Wiremu

219. Seeker: Wiremu

Two weeks later, it was Kelda who found the wild dog tracks we were seeking. Her Trackers Inspiration told her they were on the hunt. My higher-level Tracking Skill told me there were eighteen adults, and they were chasing a gazelle. We set off in pursuit, with Kelda anticipating where they were. That was a powerful skill, almost prescient. I leaned over to reach into the bags Mosey was carrying. I pulled out two nets I had weighted the edges of. I had been thinking of using them in a trap for the dogs, but Ruku suggested I add weights to throw them. I practised and was surprised that my Throw Weapons Skill combined with my Trapping Skill made me very accurate. I cut off from the other two. Kelda was riding, but Rodion was on foot. I hopped off Mosey and crept forward roughly at right angles to the other''s approach. Hearing Aid confirmed they had made the kill and were feasting. The dogs heard Kelda and Rodion approach and moved to defend their kill. I used Bond Care on Rodion and then the pack. The Pack leaders stood out under the Skill. A male and female. I might get them both with one net if I am lucky. If I cast my net, do you think my Fishing Skill will kick in as well? I cast the net, and something alerted the female, and she moved. I got the dog and grabbed my other net to get the bitch. Rodion rushed forward before the dog could get loose, and several others of the pack moved in to attack him. I tracked the bitch, and when she moved to attack Rodion from the rear, I cast the other net. Rodion had a tough hide, but the dogs were still tearing at his flesh, and he had several open wounds. He growled at them as only a wolf could do, and several backed off, marking him as a dangerous predator. If Rodion had been fighting them, he would have torn through them, or more likely, they would have let themselves be driven off. He was trying to bond, and the Pack Leaders were not making it easy for him. The Pack continued to hound Rodion, and more wounds appeared on him. I was watching with Bond Care and Anaylse Bond, even though the bond hadn¡¯t formed yet. Bond Care was adamant these were the right bonds, but the Pack Leaders were fighting it with everything they had. Rodion kicked one of the attacking pack members away, and it whined and retreated. It must be a show of dominance that is required. I had to trust Rodion knew what he was doing. I indicated to Kelda to back off. She lit a small flame before she left, and they rode away. The flame did not expand. It was Kelda¡¯s flame that she could use to sense through. Rodion was bleeding quite a lot now, but he was still fighting for control of the Pack. I felt it when the bond snapped into place with the male. The female redoubled her fight, but Rodion could now focus everything on her, and she was soon belly up, and the bond formed. I watched with Analyse Bond, and the connections strengthened. The two pack leaders were bonded to Rodion, but there was a much weaker bond connecting all the pack members with the pack leaders. I wasn¡¯t sure that would happen, but these weakened bonds with the pack leaders are an extension of Rodion¡¯s bond. He is now truly the Pack Leader. The pack had stopped attacking, and Rodion untangled the leaders. He led them to the downed gazelle, and they all ate, including Rodion. Rodion looked at me, ¡°I am going to run with the pack for a while. I will catch up tomorrow.¡± I tossed him a healing potion. He rubbed some on his wounds and then sculled the balance. We didn¡¯t have that many positions anymore. Astrid was not a Herbalist like ?rt was. She had more direct healing skills, but you had to be near her. I waved him an OK and left him to it. Both Bond Care and Analyse Bonds had levelled. Bonding with a pack was new and different. Then I checked, and the Bond Master Class had levelled as well. I joined Kelda, and we continued to scout. ¡°Tell me about this Trackers Inspiration. It seems almost Predictive in the way you used it.¡± ¡°It went to Apprentice level back then. It seems to link my Tracking Skills, my sight skills and my Sharp Mind Skill to work out what is happening. I think I only got it because of my Sharp Mind Skill. Even when the skill is not active, it has an influence.¡± ¡°Sharp Mind boosts your Mental Agility, right?¡± ¡°Yes, one point per level when I activate it. It is mid-apprentice now, and even when it is not active, I can feel it has some sort of passive effect on the other skills.¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°How did you get it?¡± ¡°It was not long after we left Jern, and I was working through the training you gave me, particularly the fact the army was working against me and the political influences. I made a link back to my father. It was a jump or maybe inspiration, but I got the Skill then.¡± ¡°So it is not easily repeatable.¡± She shook her head. That was disappointing but not surprising. ¡°That the Skill has a passive effect is unusual. Classes have passive effects. Now that you bring it up, Farsight gives bonuses to ranged attacks, Hearing Aid blunts sonic attacks etc. But I hadn¡¯t thought about it before. I probably should have, as it relates back to the Spiritual Flavour Mayakku is figuring out.¡± Kelda got out her pad and sketched and drew maps as we rode. She was determined to level her skills and wanted the Scout Class with the mapping skill. I used to rely on my Mapping Skill and draw maps after I was back at camp. Kelda drew on the go. We would occasionally stop to give her time, but she was getting good at drawing and riding. The skills levelled faster than mine did. I will blame her Sharp Mind, not my laziness. I followed Kelda up a rise, and she stopped at the top. ¡°Wow.¡± was all she said. When I got there, she was drawing furiously, and the scene was incredible. We could see the grassland stop and the jungle start, and the jungle went on as far as the eye could see, and that included our Farsight and my Telescope Sight. We dismounted and just admired the view. Kelda sketched it to take back with her. She was using a charcoal slither, and I couldn¡¯t see how she could represent this in a monochrome drawing, but she did and did it well. We sat there for about an hour after she completed her drawing, just relaxing in each other''s company and admiring the view. I was focussing on different areas with my Telescopic Sight, and it levelled again. Mid-journeyman, and I was becoming aware of its passive effect. It was making my sight clearer. Even though there might be pollen or a heat haze, it was not affecting me as much. I activated my Sense Treasure, and my eyes were drawn to a number of different points. Sometimes, the sense was stronger than others. I marked as many of the points on my Mapping Skill as possible. We needed Spiritual Material and Monster Cores. I couldn¡¯t tell what treasure I sensed, but concentrating on what I considered treasure was becoming increasingly effective. I know at least one of those treasure marks was moving. Sense Treasure also levelled. This jungle was new to me. Using my sight skills, I identified a lot of different plants, and my Plant Lore was eager to explore them. Our route would take us along the edge of this jungle to the small city of Skog. That was still almost two weeks away. Some jungle exploring sounded good to me, and I know T¨¡oke fully agreed. I looked at Kelda, and I saw her eyes light up. She was using her Fire Eyes. ¡°What do you see?¡± I asked. The Fire Eyes Skill was good against illusions, but now she has it at Apprentice level, and it is also working against camouflage-type skills. ¡°My farsight is not high enough yet, but I am pretty sure something is hiding at the edge of the jungle and watching us.¡± We were a couple of kilometres from the edge of the jungle, but we were sitting on top of a hill and being obvious. From the jungle edge, we were probably silhouetted against the sky. I am getting careless again. I use my superior Farsight to scan the edge of the jungle and zoom in on a couple of places. A movement caught my eye, but I wasn¡¯t quick enough to see what. ¡°There is something there. We should move off the hill and watch our backs for a while.¡± As we picked up our small picnic and mounted up, Kelda said, ¡°I think I just got my equivalent of the Scout Class. It is called Seeker, but there is no mapping skill. It has five points, one for each of the Perceptions and two free. The Skill that came is called Seek Hidden, and it pretty much lets me do just that.¡± ¡°Congratulations. Where are you going to put the free points?¡± She smiled, ¡°Spiritual Strength. I am going to fly.¡± She had made explosive leaps in her progress. Her Tracking Class and her new Rider Class were both now level 3, and her Warrior Class had gone to 8. She wanted to put most of her points into Spiritual Strength, but we also strongly recommended Mental Strength as well. As we rode back, I asked how her Seek Hidden differed from her Fire Eyes. ¡°At novice, it is very compatible by highlighting clues to where something might be hidden. This could mean actively camouflaged or just tucked away. From the apprentice level, it will help with something I am actively seeking, giving me an increasingly accurate sense of direction and distance. I have to know what I am seeking, though. From the Journeyman level, if I know someone is hiding something from me, that would be enough for me to seek it out. At that point, it might not be a physical object but information or similar. When I looked over the jungle with it, I had a couple of clues of where something might be hidden.¡± That was good for a Level 1 Skill. ¡°You will never lose anything again, and as it levels, you will be a terror in an interrogation. Is Inquisitor one of your specilaisations?¡± I got a dirty look for that one, and not the good kind. 220. Shield Wall: Wiremu.
220. Shield Wall: Wiremu. From the height of a new class and skill, Kelda was supremely frustrated the next morning in training. Tabitha pushed her way through her Mental defences to her new status information, and there seemed no way to keep her out. She was using everything she could, including Sharp Mind, to boost her defences. Tabitha was rubbing it in by using a mocking tone. Using tone and language like that weakens your defences if you let it get to you. Tabitha learned that from Eluf, and Ruku reiterated it. It was a common interrogation technique to continually put someone down to break through their mental defences. Eluf was more subtle in letting Tabitha celebrate a victory to slip through. Eluf was good at the mental shit. Today it was working on Kelda very effectively. ¡°I put all those points to mental Strength for no bloody reason!¡± Tabitha smirked again. I have to remember Kelda has significantly less experience in the rough part of life than Tabitha or myself. I want to come to her defence, but I know it is good for her and I have my own struggles going on. Astrid kicked me out again. I know my Status interrogation skill needs a lot of levelling, but I have the Mental stats to support it. I am letting myself get distracted by Kelda, which is a known weakness of mine. All of a sudden, Tabitha yelped, ¡°Ow! What did you do?¡± We all looked over, and it was Kelda who was smirking. ¡°I figured out a new Skill.¡± ¡°Well, don¡¯t hold back. Could we learn it?¡± I asked. ¡°I am not sure. I remembered how I learned Fire Eyes, so I did the same to my brain.¡± ¡°What?¡± several of us said together. ¡°Burning Mind is a new defensive skill I learned by applying my affinity to my mental defence. It burns anyone who attacks me. Only a little at this point, but it will level.¡± ¡°Let me try,¡± I said, thinking my fire resistance might help. I used Interrogate Status on her, and it was an extra layer of resistance to get through. ¡°You are right about it being an active defence. We might be able to apply it to an attack as well.¡± ¡°Let me try,¡± Ruku said. ¡°My water affinity should counter the fire.¡± We waited, and then he said, ¡°That''s good. It clearly shows what affinity you have, though. Let me try and do the same. Did you use a skill as a base for it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure, maybe my Flaming Touch or Fire Manipulation.¡± ¡°Hmm. Let me try my Whirlpool Shield.¡± We waited. Ruku was our expert in all things mental, as he had been through military leadership training. I suspect he was taking us through a simplified version of it. After a few moments, he said, ¡°Yep, that worked. You try to interrogate me,¡± he said to me. I did, and the probe seemed to get washed away when I said that, Ruku continued. ¡°Yes, it is a combination of Water manipulation and the skill. A shield Skill would seem to be the better skill to use, but once I get the hang of this, I might also try to use an attack.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got it,¡± Tabitha exclaimed. When I interrogated her, it seemed like a dark hole. ¡°I used Engulfing Shadows and got Shadow Mind.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure what to use. Lava or Granite. My Granite Armour is a combination of both, so I tried that. It was very difficult. Granite is a difficult thing to manipulate. Hopefully, that means I will have the toughest shield. I manipulated the granite and lava from the armour and tried to make a shield around my mind. It took me several attempts. Mayakku got Piercing Mind while I was still trying, and it felt like a porcupine surrounded her mind. Tabitha was trying to talk Modrica through it when I finally got success. Granite Mind Armour was what mine was called, and it was solid granite, and if you broke through, as Ruku did, it was superheated lava. The granite and lava layer was very thin at Level 1 but would grow. Rodion wasn¡¯t back yet, but Astrid and Runa looked at us with undisguised jealousy. ¡°An affinity is such a cheat,¡± Runa said. Ruku looked at her, ¡°You know, you may not have an affinity, but you are a Master of the Shield. Why don¡¯t you use your shield techniques in your mental defences?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good point,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°I know all Skills had a flavour, and those at journeyman level and higher, that flavour can be used and replicated to some degree.¡± ¡°The Shield Skill is a technique or a series of techniques you use. Grab the flavour and use it for your mental defence,¡± Ruku added. He took Runa aside, and half an hour later, she was whooping and hollering that she had a Mind Shield. Astrid was a different story as a healer. Her healing skills were her highest-levelled skills. He Revitalise Aura was her most used Skill, just short of Master level. Next was her Infection Cleansing Skill, then Cooking. Ruku thought Cleansing Infection might work if she thought of an attack like an infection getting in. Astrid had high mental Attributes, so she was an agile thinker. She went off to work on it, and as Rodion was not back, we decided to stay camped here for another day. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. When Astrid got a Skill, it caused a lot of mirth from Runa, ¡°A dwarf with a Clean Mind? There is no such thing. You will never be able to ride Horny!¡± Rodion didn¡¯t arrive that night either. I decided to go looking after training the next morning. Kelda can try her Seek Hidden skill. That, combined with Trackers Insight, is going to make her a formidable tracker. The following day, the Mental training was very different. Instead of floundering around trying to counter someone without mental Strength or rebound them with our Status skills, we have a new defensive Skill. We knew how to use skills, and Tabitha combined her Confuse Status with her Shadow Mind, and I couldn¡¯t get through. Ruku did, but it took some time. My Manipulate Status was the weakest in defence, but my Mind Armour hugely bolstered the defence. I managed to have my Status Manipulation on top, so it looked normal. I could also have it show what I wanted, but if they tried to pierce through it, they hit Granite, and if they kept digging, they hit the lava. I went from one of the weakest to one of the strongest. It would take a lot of practice to keep it consistent and grow it, but we had time. I showed Kelda how to layer it, as she also had Manipulate Status. Modrica had Block Status, and she became a solid defence with her new Earth Mind. It was like hitting a wall, which was Modrica all over. Piercing someone''s Status was the opposite of defence. Tabitha had the cheat here in her Spatial Awareness, but the rest of us had to work at it. Granite Spike has pretty much been my go-to attack since I got it. Layering that with my Interrogate Status Skill would take a lot of work, especially if I wanted to keep my defences up simultaneously. The next morning in training, Ruku said that we would start incorporating bonds into our group training. ¡°Tabitha, I want you to work with Rodion when he gets back and see whether a skirmisher-style hit-and-run would suit you and Dusk. It might lead to a Specialisation for your Rider Class. If Rodion comes back with the sizable pack, I also want him to work on crowd control, which fits with your Shadows.¡± Ruku then looked at Modrica and Runa. ¡°The three of us will be the main shield wall, and we will anchor it around Te?ka. One of us must always be on Te?ka¡¯s blind side, which should mostly be you, Modrica, as you can communicate with him. It will be preferable for Runa and I to be where he can see us. Hopefully, a healer in Waiouru can regrow his eye.¡± ¡°What about Horny?¡± Runa asked. ¡°He is always ready to totally fuck someone.¡± ¡°That¡¯s an image I don¡¯t need,¡± Ruku said. ¡°There are two options for Horny. He could work with us as the shield wall and deal damage with those horns and hooves, or if you think he is better as a skirmisher, he could join Tabitha and Rodion.¡± ¡°Can we try both and see what works?¡± ¡°Absolutely, that is why we are organising now,¡± Ruku replied. Then he looked at Kelda and me. ¡°You two will be our primary ranged attackers. However, there are additional roles for you both.¡± He looked at Kelda, ¡°You first. You will also be our spotter against stealth attacks, and you will be directing the fight, calling out weaknesses and opportunities. This should fit your Targeting Class well, but I realise you have only had the Lieutenant Training. You would get this training if you had done the Captain level training, so I will have to teach you. It will be a steep learning curve,¡± he warned. ¡°What about Liten?¡± she asked. ¡°Liten is our only aerial attacker. She is fast, and her fire packs a punch, but it is a single target only. Because she is small, she will be able to avoid most attacks against her. Her weakness is in wide-area attacks. Part of your spotter role will be directing her to where she will do the most good. If you have any spare attributes, I would recommend putting them into Mental Agility, as there are multiple things you must always keep an eye on. You and I will need to spend at least three hours a day together so I can upskill you until Skog, then at least an hour a day until Waiouru. Experience will count for a lot as well.¡± Ruku turned to me, ¡°I haven¡¯t forgotten you are a highly skilled Trapper, and T¨¡oke is an ambush predator. If we get time to prepare the ground before an engagement, you will trap it, and T¨¡oke will wait in ambush. Even if we don¡¯t get time, T¨¡oke should make his way to the enemy''s rear and ambush them. There is an alternative if Kelda thinks T¨¡oke will be too exposed on his own or the damage on the Shield wall is too much. At that point, T¨¡oke should be riding Te?ka, and it will add Granite defences and striking attacks to our front line. We will have a formation for both options. You, Wiremu, will also be a backup melee fighter.¡± I will have to prepare some traps, although fall traps are now easy for me to prep, especially with Modrica¡¯s help. ¡°We have a lot of crowd control abilities in our main force, with Wiremu and Modrica¡¯s spikes, walls, Puia¡¯s lava and my water. It will be up to Kelda to call out where we need them. My bond, Wai, is not good in a fight, so he will stay with me and be my main support and poisoner.¡± I keep forgetting about Ruku¡¯s salamander bond. Wai stays out of sight generally. ¡°Astrid is our healer, so you will stay close behind the front line. You will be a target, and you will need a shield. Your job is to keep everyone alive, especially the front liners, who will be taking the brunt of any attack. Trassig is your emergency deliverer of potions. Can she do that?¡± Astrid nodded. ¡°Good,¡± He turned to Mayakku. ¡°I know you don¡¯t have a fighting class, so your role is to watch Astrid¡¯s back and do what you can to help her keep us all alive. C¨­mp¨¥?i, however, is a fighter. I think he would best to fight alongside Modrica and guard Te?ka¡¯s blind side. He is fast enough to get out of Te?ka¡¯s way if needed, and his claws should produce a lot of blood for Modrica and Te?ka to self-heal.¡± Ruku looked around, ¡°Everybody clear?¡± We nodded. ¡°Good, let''s get into position assuming a standard frontal attack. Kelda, this will be the first formation. The second formation will be if we are surrounded, and we will practice moving between them. Kelda will make the calls. They will be called A1 and B1. We will start with six basic formations, three defensive and three aggressive. Then, variations will depend on the changing roles and the skirmishers. They will be numbered A2, A3 etc. The letter is the base formation, and the number is the variation. Moving from defensive to aggressive at the right time in the fight can be crucial, Kelda. The reverse can save lives. I can teach you the theory with examples, but experience is what will really teach it to you.¡± This will take a lot of practice, but we need to be ready for a medium-scale battle. Kelda looks a bit shellshocked at Ruku¡¯s words and the responsibility he is putting on her. This Captain-level responsibility would still be several years away if she were in the army. Now, we need to find Rodion. 221. Rodion: Tabitha
221. Rodion: Tabitha Rodion found us. We were packing up camp as we were going to move on anyway as we looked for him. I was thinking about how easy it was for me to wind up Kelda. She needs to get tighter control. I know Wiremu is her weak spot, but she needs to learn to hide it, or she is going to get trampled over mentally. She is better at using it to fuel her rage. I call it my Darkside, but she probably has some fire analogy. Even though she needs to toughen up, she is a very bright lady. Her coming up with using our affinity in our mental defence was a stroke of genius. Of course, she wouldn¡¯t have got there without me needling her. I can take some credit here, but I am not going to say that. At least not until I want to wind her up again. Ruku¡¯s training is helping us a lot. Wiremu and I have worked together for years, so we are in sync, but the others haven''t. We also haven¡¯t directly clashed in an open fight with the Imperial military, and Ruku has several times in his career. The closest we came was chasing the imperials out of Obalno, and they were leaving anyway. We have taken on plenty of gangs and Empire stealth attackers, but trained specialised soldiers are at another level. My Spatial Awareness picked up Wiremu, suddenly lifting his head and looking south. Then, my Hearing Aid also picked up sounds of a dog¡¯s whimper from that direction. Then Rodion came over the rise carrying two dogs, with a number following him. He was limping with open wounds, and several of the dogs were limping and bleeding. ¡°Astrid!¡± Wiremu called, drawing her attention. I felt her Revitalising Aura came on simultaneously with Ruku¡¯s Refreshing Mists. She grabbed the healer pack and grabbed Mayakku to help. Mayakku is now the official Healers¡¯ assistant, and Astrid is teaching her first aid. Astrid started work. Rodion wanted her to work on the two dogs before himself, as they were close to death. Astrid muttered about not being a vet but got to work with her Wound Healing and Bone setting Skills, along with bandages and healing salve for the less critical wounds. Ruku was checking over some of the walking wounded and asked, ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°We were attacked last night. It was a big cat, pretty sure it was a monster panther, and it had skills similar to your Shadows, Tabitha. It tore through the pack before we drove it off. We wounded it, and there is a blood trail to follow. It escaped into the jungle. It killed eight of my pack, including one of the bitches that was about to give birth. I want to hunt it.¡± ¡°These two won¡¯t be able to hunt for a week or more,¡± Astrid said about the two dogs she was working on. ¡°If we have a fresh trail, we should be able to follow,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°We need monster cores and Spiritual ingredients.¡± ¡°We will need to reset up camp for the wounded.¡± Ruku said, ¡°We will need to leave the horses. Te?ka won¡¯t be fast in the jungle. He could be on the camp watch.¡± ¡°I will stay and look after the wounded,¡± Astrid said. ¡°No, I think we will need you, Astrid. A fast stealth monster is not going to be easy. Mayakku, would you and C¨­mp¨¥?i be on camp and wounded care?¡± She nodded. ¡°I would like C¨­mp¨¥?i to come, but with him and Te?ka, the camp is well looked after.¡± There were four of Rodion¡¯s pack to hurt to hunt. With eight dead, he only had ten dogs left, so six would come with us. Dusk would stay behind with the horses. We would travel light and fast, with enough supplies for an overnight hunt. Ideally, we would attack during the day. I was really curious about meeting a creature that may have a shadow affinity. It might not be exactly the same as mine, but I was unique so far as I could tell. Unique was going too far, but extremely rare anyway. If it was compatible, there might be a monster core Dusk could use. It was under an hour later when Rodion led us back to the site of the attack to pick up the trail. ¡°I got a new Specialisation in the fight last night,¡± he said as we started off. From the Pack Class, I got Pack Fighter. It has four attributes with the skill Empower Pack. That boosts Physical Strength and Agility briefly for my bonds.¡± ¡°Really?¡± said Wiremu, excited. ¡°A skill that works directly through the bond! You have to let me watch that in action.¡± He and his Bond Master Class. He is always wanting to poke at our bonds. Kelda and I are the spotters. Kelda, Wiremu and Rodion are al tracking. I am spotting as my Shadows may react to the panther¡¯s shadows if the affinities are close. Nyx and I have a light layer of Engulfing Shadows out as far as possible. It is carrying one of the dog carcasses,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°I can smell that,¡± Rodion said, ¡°It will make it easier to track.¡± Entering the bush line, it very quickly got thick bush and dark. It is ideal for shadows. Once we got under the canopy of the bigger trees, it became easier to move. Liten was flickering in and out of my Spatail Awareness range as she darted around. She was not using visual skills, but Kelda¡¯s eyes lit up every so often as she checked out whatever she sensed. After an hour of moving through the jungle, we stopped. ¡°It climbed that tree,¡± Wiremu said. He turned to Kelda, ¡°Can Liten follow the tracers in the branches? If you look here, these are the claws'' patterns, and that is a drop of blood.¡± ¡°I have been following the smell of the blood,¡± Rodion said. ¡°If it is not too high up, I might be able to continue doing that.¡± I saw Liten move up into the tree. ¡°She has got the trail, but there are a lot of predators up there for a small bird,¡± Kelda said. ¡°I would normally climb the tree and follow up there,¡± Wiremu said, ¡°Here, you carry my bow and spears and Liten and I will follow up there. T¨¡oke is with me, and his sense of smell is great.¡± He passed the equipment to Kelda and scampered up the tree. We set off again, following Wiremu as he leapt from branch to branch. I caught glimpses of Liten. Rodion¡¯s dogs were staying close in, and one thing was for sure: Runa had no concept of stealth. She pounded her way after Ruku. Even Modrica was quieter. We were moving slower now as Wiremu picked his way through the trees. It was only ten minutes later he stopped. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°This is where it ate the dog,¡± he called down from the trees. Sure enough, a pool of blood, guts, bones, fur and a cloud of flies was on the ground below. We carried on ¡°It¡¯s moving faster now,¡± he said. The local wildlife was scattering out of our path. Not only birds but monkeys and other small creatures. We kept going for another two hours. It was late afternoon now, and the shadows were deepening. The panther was most dangerous at night, being a nocturnal hunter. ¡°Wait up, Wiremu, there¡¯s something ¡­¡± she trailed off. All of a sudden, things exploded into action. Wiremu was thrown out of the tree with a huge black panther on him with claws ripping through his armour. As he fell, a giant snake appeared, trying to curl itself around the panther, and T¨¡oke went for a bite. The panther was too quick, launching itself from Wiremu¡¯s body onto a branch, evading T¨¡oke completely. The panther darted back into the trees as Wiremu landed with a thud on the ground. T¨¡oke¡¯s tail wrapped itself around a branch, and he slithered off after the panther. Astrid was about to run to check on Wiremu when Ruku stopped her. ¡°We go together,¡± he said. ¡°Kelda? Tabitha?¡± he asked as we moved toward Wiremu¡¯s prone form. ¡°I didn¡¯t detect any shadows,¡± I said, ¡°I suspect a Master level of camouflage.¡± ¡°I concure,¡± Kelda said. ¡°Keensight triggered Sense Hidden, and I shared Fire Eyes with Liten to pierce the camouflage, and it attacked.¡± ¡°It was always going to attack. It is an ambush predator,¡± said Ruku. We reached Wiremu, and Astrid checked him, ¡°He is alive,¡± she said. ¡°That is all we need to know,¡± I said. ¡°He will recover fine if he is not dead,¡± That got me dirty looks from Astrid and Kelda. Ruku knew what I was talking about. Astrid continued to check Wiremu and was alarmed by the bruise on his head, and his arm was broken. She straightened his arm and used her skill on it. ¡°I am not sure what to do about the head. He will have a concussion,¡± she said. ¡°His Regeneration will take care of it,¡± Ruku said. ¡°Let''s pick him up and follow T¨¡oke and Liten.¡± ¡°He can¡¯t be moved. He has a concussion, possibly a cracked skull, and a broken arm!¡± Astrid exclaimed. ¡°You fixed the arm, and his Regeneration will take care of everything else. We have two team members pursuing on their own without backup. We are moving now.¡± ¡°I am more concerned that you don¡¯t know how heavy he actually is,¡± I said, earning myself another dirty look. ¡°Modrica?¡± Modrica grunted assent, picked Wiremu up, and slung him over her shoulders. Kelda pointed us in the right direction, and off we went. Rodion dogs were barking, excited to be in the chase. He was continually keeping them from running on ahead. Kelda had her bow ready. Ten minutes later, Wiremu was stirring. Five minutes after that, he had Modrica put him down, and he retrieved his bow and spears from Kelda. He tested the bow, but his arm was still too weak, so he shouldered it and kept the spears ready. Astrid looked like she wanted to examine him and keep him from the fight, but I knew he wouldn¡¯t stop until the hunt ended. I think she did too, and kept quiet. Her Revitalise Aura was still running. We heard a cat snarl up ahead, and Ruku said, ¡°Rodion, you and I and the pack will go ahead and try to drive the panther back this way. Kelda, You are in charge here.¡± hand they angled away to the side. I sensed Kelda hesitate briefly. Ruku hadn¡¯t taught her anything yet, and we had only practised two basic formations. However, she was a Lieutenant with combat experience, so her hesitation was small. Ruku must be a real believer in letting experience be the teacher. This will be his initial test for her as well. ¡°Let''s get into attack formation A1. Wiremu, you can¡¯t use the bow, so you take Ruku¡¯s place in the front line. Do you have any traps that might work?¡± ¡°I have the nets we used for the dogs.¡± ¡°Good, get them ready. Limiting its mobility will be critical. We have to try to stop it from climbing, so target the legs. Runa takes the centre, Modrica and Wirimu on each side. Astrid, stay behind Runa until we can get you a shield. I will be ranged,¡± she turned to me, ¡°Tabitha, you are our assassin.¡± ¡°Awesome,¡± I said, moving away into the shadows to the opposite of where Ruku and Rodion went. ¡°Let¡¯s move.¡± I slid through the trees not far from the group, keeping them in Spatial Awareness range. This is what my Shadow Predator Class liked. We heard a snarl up ahead, and then the dogs started barking. Kelda fired an arrow at an area of darkness that was just coming into my Engulfing Shadow range. ¡°Damn,¡± I heard Kelda swear,¡± It has Tough Hide. The arrow barely broke the skin.¡± She loosed another arrow. I switched out my sword and dual-wielded two knives. One was the Blacksteel knife. My Small Blades Skill was higher than my Sword Skill. In fact, it was almost master-level, and the Blacksteel would get through the hide. My Engulfing shadows passed over the dark spot where I could see movement. T¨¡oke was getting mauled, and the panther''s claws were stripping scales off him. He had his fangs in, and there was smoke coming from the area around his mouth. A dog ducked in from behind to nip at the back legs, and the panther ripped away and ran toward the side of the group. The interesting thing was I saw all that with my Darksight but not with my Engulfing Shadows. There was a blank spot. I reached out with Binding Shadows, and they just slipped out of my grasp. The Panther had seen the group and swerved toward me to avoid them, and Wiremu tossed a net. The net caught its rear legs, and it stumbled, and I dashed forward with my new Sprint. I double-stabbed, but the main attack was with the Blacksteel knife, and I was aiming to sever its spine. My ordinary knife slid along its pelt without penetrating. The Balcksteel pierced the pelt but glanced off a bone missing the spine. The Panther was quick, and I had claws swiping at me, so I Shadow Stepped instead of landing where I would have been clawed, and I shadow-stepped a second time before rejoining the ground in the roll and ducking out of reach and out of sight. It wasn¡¯t until I was away I realised how lucky I was. I would have been mauled severely if my Shadow Step had failed like my Binding Shadows. I rely automatically on my shadows. The Panther was up and found its escape route blocked by a row of Earth spikes. An arrow sprouted from the knife wound I had just given it. Kelda is good. Toughen her up a bit, and she might be good enough for Wiremu. I hope she knows she won¡¯t live if she hurts him. Rodion and the dogs were coming fast behind the Panther. I couldn¡¯t sense T¨¡oke. The panther decided to try to slip past the edge of the shield wall, but Kelda moved everybody right to close the gap. The panther was already running for the gap, so it decided to go over the group and lept at the lowest member. Runa was up to the task, leaping up with a shield bash, which knocked it sideways. Modrica kept it going sideways with a punch, and it slammed into a tree. I was moving as fast as I could to get into position, but as I watched, a thrown spear from Wiremu pinned a leg to the tree, and Rodion and Ruku were closing in. I still couldn¡¯t sense anything with my shadows, and shadow manipulation didn¡¯t work. I tried surrounding it with engulfing shadows and crushing them in. I had never tried that before, and they moved in a bit. I called on Nyx to help, and we made more progress when the Panther''s claws shredded our shadows, hurting Nyx, and then something happened that I didn¡¯t understand. Just as Rodion pounced, it seemed to become shadows and was no longer pinned to the tree. It avoided Rodion¡¯s pounce and clawed Ruku. Its back leg was no longer functional, so its Shadow Phase didn¡¯t heal it but wasn¡¯t pinned anymore. The dogs kept snapping at its wounded leg. And it realised it was trapped and was definitely fighting for its life. It clawed a dog that wasn¡¯t fast enough, flashed forward, and got its teeth into Rodion. It may have sensed he was the most wounded, but the teeth only paused slightly and penetrated his Tough Hide. I heard his arm bone crack. Then T¨¡oke dropped on it from above and wrapped his massive body around the panther. I was interested to see if it could turn to shadows again and escape, but it couldn¡¯t. Maybe it was out of energy. Rodion¡¯s other clawed hand stabbed the panther''s face, and then he ripped its neck open. ¡°Don¡¯t damage the pelt!¡± yelled Wiremu, him and his bloody crafting. Mind you, this would make a great coat or cloak. We are heading into the tropics, so it would be a lot warmer, and coats are not required. Rodion pried his arm loose from the jaws and cradled it, waiting for Astrid to arrive. He had a big smile. ¡°That¡¯s my first Monster kill. I am a Monster Hunter, and I have Regeneration!¡± Then he staggered back and fainted. ¡°That won¡¯t help with the blood loss, idiot,¡± Astrid mumbled as she made him comfortable and started patching him up. 222. Hidden Treasure: Tabitha. 222. Hidden Treasure: Tabitha. We set up a camp for the night nearby. Both Rodion and T¨¡oke needed to recover. Wiremu started skinning the panther, and Ruku was talking with Kelda, probably an after-fight review or something. I helped Runa get a fire going. Liten started it for us. I was keeping an eye on Wiremu. I wanted a look at the Monster core. Wiremu finished skinning the beast, letting the dogs and T¨¡oke have the organs and guts and started butchering some for our dinner. Trassig darted in for a bite. I kept forgetting about the stoat. Then I saw a flash of Wai darting in as well. I went over when he dug the core out. Wiremu looked up. ¡°You think this might be compatible with Dusk?¡± I nodded, and he tossed it to me. ¡°We will need to test it. Mayakku has the greatest Spiritual sensitivity. How did it escape my spear?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t actually know. It seemed to become a shadow briefly. I was hoping it would do it a second time when T¨¡oke trapped it so I could get a closer look. It is certainly something for me to work on.¡± ¡°Any gains from the fight?¡± ¡°No, but I didn¡¯t do much. Hang on. Shadow Step went to Apprentice. What about you?¡± ¡°My Trapping went to 14, one step below Masters. You know my Sense Treasure is letting me know there is something close.¡± ¡°If you finish up, we could go and have a look. I can¡¯t in good conscience leave treasure lying around.¡± That got a smile out of Wiremu. We decided to rest the night and go as a group in the morning. Kelda¡¯s Seek Hidden was also indicating something good. In the morning, T¨¡oke was almost back to total health, thanks to his Regeneration and Astrid. Rodion would be limping along with us, his new Regeneration levelling fast. Ruku had also been clawed, but he showed no signs of injury. We walked on alert but were reasonably confident the panther had removed any serious threats from its territory. Close to an hour later, we found Wiremu¡¯s Treasure. It was a tree. Wiremu, Ruku, Astrid and Kelda all ooohed and aahed over it. To me, it looked like a tree. ¡°It is not just a tree,¡± I was informed. ¡°This is Ironwood, which is actually harder than steel, but much, much lighter. It will make an ideal shield for Astrid, strong and light.¡± Runa¡¯s eyes lit up when she heard the word Ironwood, ¡°And me! I want one, too.¡± When Wiremu looked at her, she clarified, ¡°An Ironwood shield can carry much stronger enchantments than any ordinary material. I have also been partial to long hardwood since puberty.¡± Wiremu rolled his eyes at her innuendo and said, ¡°That means Mayakku will want a lot, too. It is not easy to cut. And we will have to lug it back to the horses.¡± ¡°Mayakku will want the leaves and sap as well as they can be ground up into a paste for spiritual enchanting,¡± said Astrid. ¡°Some of the thick lower branches will be enough with spare to sell,¡± Ruku said. Wiremu made several stone spikes, a hammer, and stone cups. Astrid drove the spikes into the tree and positioned the cups to catch the sap. Wiremu then formed three strong stone axes, and he, Ruku and Modrica started on a branch each. This was going to take several hours. Kelda, Runa and I were on the lookout and camp duty. Rodion rested. I watched Kelda in my Spatial Awareness as she seemed to be searching for something. She circled the tree, then started another circuit wider out. I nudged Runa, ¡°Let''s see what''s up with Kelda. Rodion, you and the pack are on watch.¡± We went over as Modrica¡¯s branch cracked and fell. The others weren''t halfway yet, but she had the strength and Axe Skills. Kelda had stopped. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked. ¡°There is something under here,¡± she pointed. ¡°Do we have anything to dig with?¡± ¡°Hey, Modrica, have you got a moment?¡± She grunted and came over. ¡°Can you clear some of this away?¡± and like magic, the earth moved and piled up on the side as she used her Earth Manipulation Skills. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Wiremu came over, ¡°More to the left and deeper.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you have a branch to chop?¡± I asked. He just grinned. As the earth moved, it exposed a tangle of roots. The chopping sound stopped completely as everybody came to see what was happening. ¡°That¡¯s not a root,¡± Runa said. ¡°No, it is a bone,¡± Astrid said, jumping into the hole. She tugged at the bone and tugged at it, but it refused to break. ¡°It is ancient,¡± then she looked at it, ¡°and huge. This is a rib, which would make it ten times the size of Te?ka. At least.¡± I helped her climb out, ¡°I have no idea what type of animal it would have been.¡± Modrica moved more dirt, and the ribcage came into view in more detail. She bent down and examined the soil she was moving. She looked at me and said, ¡°Good spiritual dirt.¡± I bent down to appraise the soil, ¡°That will bring in good money with the farmers,¡± I said. I was the merchant here. ¡°Looks like we will be here for a few days,¡± Ruku said. ¡°We had better bring the horses in. Even then, we will be limited in what we can carry.¡± ¡°We only need to take what we need and samples of everything else,¡± I said. ¡°The real money is in selling the location, and Wiremu can draw us a map. I will send it to T¨¡tt¨¡; he might sell it or set up a harvesting camp himself. There is a Monster Core in there, isn¡¯t there.¡± ¡°Probably,¡± ¡°Yes¡± Said Kelda and Wiremu together. ¡°You two make me sick,¡± I said. They just grinned. Ruku and I would return and get Mayakku and make a track for the horses while the others continued the work. We didn¡¯t get back till near dusk. Kelda had found some mushrooms and herbs and had a really tasty meal cooking, along with panther steaks. There are definitely advantages to travelling with a chef. The branches were down, and two were trimmed. They just needed to be chopped into manageable lengths, and the third needed to be trimmed and chopped. The leaves and twigs were stacked on the side. The ribcage of the monster was half exposed, but it was entwined with the roots of the Ironwood tree. The biggest Monster Core I had ever seen was sitting on a log. It was three times the size of anything others, about the size of my head. When Mayakku saw it, she rushed over and examined it in excitement. Rodion settled his pack all together again, and we had to pull Mayakku away to eat. She wanted to set up testing rituals immediately. Everything could wait until morning. The spiritual bones will be worth a fortune alone. There are many Spiritually enhanced plants growing from the soil in addition to the Ironwood tree. This is the first time I have seen Spiritually enhanced worms. This is better than a gold mine. They have yet to find the head. I stored the core in my Spaitial Pocket for the night as that was the safest place. After dinner, Wiremu got some of the hides from his previous hunts out of the packs and started making bags to carry everything in. Kelda started drawing a localised map of where the skeleton was in relation to the tree and other features. She also started drawing what she thought the Skeleton would have looked like if it had been upright. She left the head and tail as we had not uncovered those, but she scaled it with a human to the side. We found thick bone plates that stuck up near the backbone. We assume it was a defensive feature, but it seemed strange. I talked to Mayakku after dinner about the Monster Cores and C¨­mp¨¥?i¡¯s change when he consumed it. He grew and gained Skills from the Core like T¨¡oke had got the Grow Skill from the core that changed him. The Skills they had in common levelled and new skills came from the core. She would perform the ritual to check the core¡¯s compatibility in the morning, but the core came from a carnivore, and Dusk was a herbivore, and they were very different. More different than a Bone Dog and a Lion, or a Goblin Shaman and a Snake? Affinity covers a lot of other differences. In the morning, Wiremu started constructing a simple pack frame for the two pack horses to carry the load to the city. Mayakku and I set up the ritual area. She would be doing several rituals to try to narrow down the affinity of the large core as well. For the Panther core, we used my shadows and some of the local material, a leaf from the Ironwood, some of the dirt and some of Dusk¡¯s saliva. Mayakku performed the ritual, and I watched carefully. ¡°Shadows, definitely, but it is more than shadows. It was a partial fit, possibly less than C¨­mp¨¥?i¡¯s core, but it is hard to tell. My Analyse Core Skill is picking up the idea of a moving shadow or darkness, but it still has a long way to level.¡± ¡°Could the affinity be Dark instead of Shadows?¡± I asked. ¡°I have no idea how to test that.¡± ¡°Dark might be close to shadows, like Lava and Rock.¡± I mused. ¡°Possible,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°How did you learn Shadows by manipulating existing shadows?¡± ¡°Yes, but since then, I have created my own.¡± Wiremu came over, ¡°What are you thinking?¡± ¡°About Lyla and how it can all go wrong.¡± He nodded. The deformed Lionkin had affected us deeply. It was a huge lesson on how wrong a Monster Core could go. ¡°It is always a risk, and it is up to you, Dusk and Nyx, as this could break or increase all three of you.¡± I held the core and let Nyx examine it. The reaction wasn¡¯t positive, but it wasn''t negative either. We approached Dusk and let her examine it, ¡°What do you think, girl?¡± I asked her. Dusk sniffed at the core and snorted. I looked at Dusk¡¯s current Skills, Speed Boost, Shadows Embrace, Tough Hide and Shadow Manipulation. I thought about the Panther. High Agility, Master level Camouflage, A Skill that allows it to become shadow-like. It certainly had a Tough Hide type Skill. Ruku is pretty sure it had bite-and-claw skills, but we don¡¯t know what else. The fact my shadows couldn''t penetrate it could mean a higher level of Shadow Manipulation than me, but mine was over the Master Level, so it was possibly a shield or something. Maybe it was equivalent to my Shadow¡¯s Embrace, which Dusk also had. I have never sensed that from the outside. At the end of the day, the Panther was a carnivore and ambush predator. Dusk was a herbivore and speedster. Was it worth the risk? I am a Shadow Predator. I have the Class. Dusk and Nyx share the class flavour, as Wiremu and Mayakku would say. What the hell, ¡°If you want it, Dusk, we are all in.¡± 223. Merging: Tabitha 223. Merging: Tabitha Dusk decided she wanted it. She bit down and swallowed the core, reared up to her full height, and screamed. I jumped on her back. Whatever happens, we will be in this together. She whirled around, and we left at full gallop. I directed her to the path we made leading out of the jungle, and she was aware enough to take direction from me. Dusk was all about speed, and as we sped through the trees, I could feel the muscles change under her. We didn¡¯t have a saddle, which was good as she was changing under me. It seemed to be no time before we left the jungle for the more grassy area, and she sped up. Her stride lengthened, and she was moving a lot smoother. I just let her run and reminded her we were here. We were going faster than ever before, and we had tested our speed thoroughly. Suddenly, shadows burst out around us and seemed to stream behind us. Nyx and I let our shadows merge in with Dusks. I am unsure when I noticed, but we were definitely higher off the ground. Dusk screamed again, and I let out a yell as well. We were leaping logs, and at one point, I was sure she Shadow Stepped. I directed her into a small turn so we didn¡¯t get too far away. If I get lost, Wiremu can track me. This was awesome. I put my hand on Dusk¡¯s shoulder, and her fur felt different, softer but tougher. Her mane was softer, too. We came to a rise, and Dusk slowed, reared again, and screamed. Her hooves slammed into the dire, and then she bucked and kicked violently with her rear hooves. I hung on and felt my Riding and Agility Riding Skills levelling. She kept this violent movement going. It was almost like she was pushing the boundaries of her movements. It wasn¡¯t just the movement range; her hooves striking were cleaner, sharper and faster. I don¡¯t know how she could keep it up so long. Eventually, something seemed to settle inside her, and then we were off galloping again. This was her favourite activity, and we both screamed in delight. We sped along, and the shadows seemed to strengthen. It was only mid-morning on an overcast day. Dusk spied a copse of trees and shifted toward them, slowing as we approached. When we entered the shadow of the trees, we slowed to a walk and the shadows condensed. Silence reigned as we moved through the small wood. It was like Dusk was testing her abilities and what might work for her. By this time, I was reasonably certain the core had settled. Dusk didn¡¯t seem to be turning into a weird Panther Horse hybrid. I was about to check our statuses when she reared again, almost unseating me. Now wasn¡¯t the time to lose focus. This time, her hooves came down onto a tree, and we paused in a half rear with her front hooves up a tree. Was she trying to climb? Did I speak too soon? Her rear leg muscles tensed, and she jumped against the tree. Then she did it again, but in a half turn, so she landed back with all four hooves on the ground. Then she turned again, and her rear hooves struck out at the tree trunk, sending splinters flying. Then she did it again, and then we were off galloping again. I don¡¯t know how it happened, but the night was falling when Dusk finally slowed. She was covered in sweat. We both were. We found a stream, and we both drank deeply. All my brushes were back with the packs, so I couldn¡¯t brush her properly. I rubbed her down with my hands. Her shoulder was taller than I was now. She looked sleek, but that was deceptive due to her larger size. She was powerful and fast. Time to see what we had become. Dusk was now a Shadow Charger. Our Novice Tough Hide was now Journeyman level. Shadows Embrace was Master''s level for us both. My Agility Riding was mid-apprentice, my Riding Skill was now at Master''s level, and my Riding Class levelled, but Dusk had the most changes. She had picked up Sprint, Fast Strike and Power Strike. What was most surprising was that she had picked up my Intimidating Aura. I wonder if the panther had a similar Skill. Dusk had picked up my Syphon Energy and Syphon Constitution Skills; yes, she had Shadow Step. Fast Strike and Power Strike came from the Panther, as did Shadow Merge. This is the skill that enabled the panther to escape the spear. Dusk would teach it to me. We had cooled down now, and Dusk had spent a bit of time grazing. It was fully dark now, and the moon was rising behind the cloud layer. Through our new journeyman, Level Bond, I felt that Dusk was restless. ¡°Come on, girl, Let''s go hunting.¡± We had some Skills to test out. We prowled through the night. We ran down deer and Bison. We stomped through a pack of wolves, killing several and then driving them off with our aura. We are not your prey. Dusk had a limited Shadow Step, and we practised over logs, but she wouldn¡¯t be galloping up walls any time soon. We managed to string two together, which would more than double our jump distance. We had a misstep that could have broken Dusk¡¯s leg if we didn¡¯t have Shadow Merge. It was a tricky skill for me to get my head around. It worked best in shadow, as the surrounding shadows seemed to empower it. I watched Dusk with all my senses and our Bond as she used Shadow Merge on parts of her body. It was very energy intensive, which is mitigated by our energy syphon. Merging a body part with shadows also felt very strange. I had to put all my free attributes to Spiritual Strength as it uses Spiritual Strength to power it, and it would be Apprentice level before I could merge my whole body with the Shadows. Which means Dusk couldn¡¯t merge her whole body while I was riding her yet. Spiritual Agility was what I could do while merged with shadows. Fortunately, I had enough Spiritual Agility, or I could not use the Skill yet. I could use it with Shadow Manipulation to move objects with my shadow hand. I had the feeling it wasn¡¯t until Journeyman Level that I could grab an object and make it shadow as well. It was dawn when I finally found my way back to the camp and collapsed into a bed roll.
Tabitha Carter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 8 12 10 9 10 10 91
Earned Attributes 2 3 5 3 2 1 1 1 4 22
Thief B 13 3 13 13 4 1 13 6 5 7 65 0
Shadow Predator S 10 7 10 2 11 11 9 50 0
Racketeer S 7 5 7 8 7 8 35 0
Life Thief S 1 2 1 1 4 0
Burglar S 5 5 1 5 2 7 20 0
Merchant B 11 2 11 6 11 11 3 3 8 55 0
Rider B 11 2 11 11 4 1 10 5 44 0
Entertainer B 8 5 1 8 8 8 10 40 0
Totals 35 57 52 40 45 55 51 41 50 426
Constitution 144 140 142
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Resistances: Cold 20, Poison 4, Pain 5, Disease 1, Acid 2, Mental 1 Skills Novice: General Sewing 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Shadow Mind 1, Sprint 2 Apprentice: General Pickpocket 8, Trapping 5, Cooking 9, Hearing Aid 9, Adjuster 8, Body Image 8, Agility Riding 7 Syphon Energy 9, Syphon Consitution 8, Shadow Step 5 Fighting Blunt Weapon 9, Knockout Strike 9, Parry 9, Rampage 9, Senses Elemental Senses 8, Lore Sapient Lore 9, Journeyman: General Bargain 12, Appraise 11, Spatial Pocket 10, Shadow Puppet 11, Performance 11, Tough Hide 10, Lock Pick 10, Detect Traps 10, Sleight of Hand 12, Detect Spiritual Traps 10, Disarm Spiritual Traps 10, Confuse Status 12, Identify 11, Distract 14, Disarm Traps 10, Orcish 11, Dwarvish 13, Lute 12, Coax 11, Mimic 14, Elemental Bond 12, Animal Care 11, Binding Shadows 10, Engulfing Shadows 14, Animal Bond 10. Fighting Intimidating Aura 14, Small Blades 14, Unarmed Combat 11, Swords 11, Dual Wield 10 Senses Sense Spiritual 12, Spatial Awareness 14, Lore Master: General Stealth 17, Shadow Manipulation 17, Shadows Embrace 15, Riding 15, Senses Darksight 16, Affinity: Shadow Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Nyx, Shadow Elemental Skills: Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry, Coax, Engulfing Shadows, Sense Spiritual, Body Image, Bond: Dusk, Shadow Charger Skills: Novice: Syphon Energy, Syphon Constitution, Shadow Merge. Apprentice: Sprint, Fast Strike, Power Strike, Intimidating Aura, Binding Shadows, Shadow Step, Journeyman: Speed Boost, Tough Hide, Master: Shadows Embrace, Shadow Manipulation. Darksight Affinity: Shadow 224. Core: Wiremu. 224. Core: Wiremu. I really wanted to follow Tabitha. Not just because she tends to get lost but to examine the changes happening to her bond. But there is no way Mosey could keep up with Dusk on his best day. I would give them a day and then go looking and hope they weren¡¯t mad or dead. Ruku insisted on the morning training. Then, after getting the horses'' packs done, I helped Mayakku set up the ritual for the other Monster Core. Fortunately, Tabitha had left that with Mayakku. We would start with spiritual items in the environment. A stick of Ironwood, some sap, some dirt, and a piece of bone from the creature. I don¡¯t think the Ironwood growing here is an accident. It could just be the enhanced spirituality from the decomposing monster or more directly from the core. The Lore Society was filled with debates of that sort. Mayakku performed the ritual, ¡°They all have some connection to the core. The strongest is the Ironwood stick and the bone.¡± The creature did have a lot of bones. We did the ritual again with a worm and other plants in the area, along with a piece of my Granite. ¡°These plants are as strong as the Ironwood and the Bones,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°Do you think it might have a dual affinity, like me?¡± I asked. ¡°Plant and bones don¡¯t seem compatible,¡± Mayakku commented. ¡°No, but Plant and Ironwood do.¡± ¡°I wonder where the bones come in?¡± ¡°I have Granite Bones. Maybe it had Ironwood bones?¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± Mayakku said hesitantly. The core is worth a fortune regardless of the affinity. We spent the rest of the day gathering materials to take back with us. We only took small samples of the less valuable things. Runa wanted one of the large flat bones as she wanted to find someone to make a shield from it. The bulk of the load was Ironwood and bone. My Prospecting Class had levelled with the discovery of the core. Sense Treasure had levelled to Journeyman. I had a lot of spare attribute points. I needed to support my Lava Skills with Spiritual Strength and Agility, but I would keep some for new Skills. Kelda prepared another lovely meal. I was worried about Tabitha. I looked at Modrica, and she looked calm. She always did, of course, but I figured if Tabitha were in trouble, she would be the first to know. I would give her until the morning. We were just starting our Mental Training when Tabitha and Dusk rode in. She looked exhausted. Dusk looked wonderful. A powerful fast horse didn¡¯t describe it well enough. She was by far the biggest horse I had ever seen. She looked sleek and fast. And big. One more day, and we will be on the road again. Rodion¡¯s dogs were mostly mobile, courtesy of Astrid Aura and Ruku¡¯s Mist. I scouted around and filled in more details of the map I was producing. Rodion and I spent the afternoon erasing evidence of us being here as much as possible. We would cover our trail in as we leave. We wouldn¡¯t want another tracker to find this place until it is secure or sold. People will start hunting for the source when we turn up with these goods. We can¡¯t hide the Ironwood Tree but can lay out misdirection. I was producing a second map to mislead people. Both the true and false maps were created with my Mapping Making Skill to be recognised as legitimate by a Cartographer. The false one also had input from my Deceive Skill, which pushed it over to the Master level. I am now a Master Deceiver. Wow, that has come a long way from the quarry where I used it to hide T¨¡oke. This triggered a new specialisation for me. From my Spy Class, I received Forger. It was a four-point class with three assigned, one to each Mental Agility and Perception and one to Spiritual Agility. This was the first time Spy specialised. Forger came with Copier. Copier used all three attributes the Class gave me Mental Perception to understand the style of the writing, Spiritual Agility to copy it and Mental Agility to change things in the same style. As the Skill Levelled, this would become easier with longer texts or more complex drawings. At Novice Level, I could copy a writing or drawing style if I had a document in front of me. It was also painfully slow, even at my attribute levels. I could be freer at Apprentice if I knew the person or style. At Journeyman Level, it was much quicker and more convincing, even being able to copy some Spiritual Signatures. This was on documents only. A false map was not enough. Treasure Hunters are notoriously difficult to mislead. Kelda¡¯s Skill to Seek Hidden would eventually find it. We will be careful dealing with our goods. Fortunately, those seeking skills are rare. Treasure Hunting is a valid path for Kelda when she levels a bit. Maybe we could team up and go treasure hunting together when this is done. Even I knew I was fooling myself. It was a nice thought, though. We headed out the next day after training. Rodion, Ruku and I all took turns hiding our trail. We took hard turns, and everybody was single file. We kept at it for three days until we hit the main road two days out of Skog. Tabitha had prepared papers for us as we travelled. Now, she used her Adjusters Skill to change them, so we were a prospecting team from the Elemental Traders. It will help explain the goods we picked up at various places on the way, or so the story goes. We won¡¯t be entering the city together anyway. Modrica and Te?ka will not enter it at all. Rodion and I will stay out with her for now, with a lot of the goods. Tabitha took both maps into the city with her. I borrowed Kelda¡¯s only drawings to level my new Copier Skill. She would stock up on new drawing materials for us both. In a couple of days, Rodion and I would swap with Runa and Astrid. Then we would go drinking as Wild Bill.
Wiremu Hunter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 9 12 11 10 8 10 92
Earned Attributes 11 5 2 12 3 1 3 2 5 44
Hunter B 12 2 14 24 5 2 2 6 5 60 0
Monster Hunter S 5 5 5 5 5 If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. 5 25 0
Scout S 6 6 3 6 1 6 8 30 0
Assassin S 4 1 4 5 5 1 16 0
Bond Master S 3 2 3 3 3 1 12 0
Quarry Worker B 11 22 11 33 0
Prospecting S 5 5 1 2 3 3 6 20 0
Spy B 11 1 4 3 11 15 10 11 55 0
Forger S 1 1 1 1 3 1
Warrior B 6 12 6 8 2 28 2
Metal Shaper B 5 5 2 5 3 15 5
Totals 70 44 51 46 47 42 50 41 42 433
Constitution 165 135 133
Resistances: Poison +21, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +32, Heat +34, Fire +13, Disease 1, Acid 1, Mental 1 Skills: Novice: General Lock Pick 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap3, Copier 1, Spiritual Trapping 4, Sprint 4, Venom Vapour 4, Granite Mind Armour 3 Fighting Heavy Armour. Senses Lore Metal Alloy Lore 4, Gem Lore 3, Spiritual Metals 3 Apprentice: General Sewing 9, Cooking 8, Animal Care 8, Butchering 7, Weapon Repair 7, Repair Leather Armour 8, Dwarvish 9, Slight of Hand 5, Analyse Bonds 8, Elemental Bond 7, Hunters Mark 6, Molten Rock 9, Disarm Traps 5, Detect Traps 5, Detect Spiritual Trap 6, Metal Shaping 5, Bond Care 6, Interrogate Status 6, Fighting Granite Quake 7, Granite Wall 6, Petrification 7, Triple Shot 8, Marksman 6, Granite Sand 8, Sudden Strike 8, Lava Dart 6, Granite Armour 7, Senses Thermal Sensing 7, Telescopic Sight 7 Lore Plant Lore 9, Mineral Lore 8, Monster Lore 9, Sapient Lore 8, Elemental Lore 7, Metal Lore 8, Journeyman: General Mapping 14, Tutor 13, Identify 14, Map Making 10, Manipulate Status 12, Trapping 14, Tracking 11, Skinning 11, Hide Armourer 12, Riding 11, Veneer 12, Roleplay 11, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 10, Snakeskin 13, Regeneration 13, Orcish 13, Camouflage 12, Fishing 10 Fighting Hammer 13, Granite Spike 14, Granite Bones 14, Granite Shield 13, Granite Manipulation 12, Bow 12, Small Blades 13, Unarmed Combat 11, Throw Weapons 12, Spear 13, Quick Strike 12, Power Strike 11, Imbue Venom 12, Venom Arrow 10 Senses Darksight 14, Sense Treasure 10, Bond Senses 12, Truth Sensing 10, Sense Spiritual 12 Lore Animal Lore 12 Master: General Stealth 17, Animal Bond 17, Far Sight 16, Hearing Aid 16, Deceive 15 Senses Granite Sense 15 Affinity: Granite, Lava Monster Kills: 9 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +22, Cold +30, Heat +34, Fire +13, Pain +22, Acid 1 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 4, Venom Vapour 4 Apprentice: Granite Shield 7, Granite Sense 7, Granite Manipulation 9, Molten Rock 6, Sudden Strike 8, Hunters Mark 6, Lava Spit 5, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 5, Thermal Senses 5, Journeyman: Strength Boost 12, Power Strike 12, Venom Spit 11, Regeneration 14, Granite Bone 14, Granite Spike 10, Grow 12 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 17, Camouflage 15 Affinity: Granite, Lava Bond: Puia, Lava Elemental Resistances: Cold +30, Skills: Novice: Granite Spike 3 Apprentice: Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 9, Thermal Senses 5, Granite Manipulation 5, Journeyman: Master: Molten Rock 11 Affinity: Lava, Granite 225. Skog: Tabitha 225. Skog: Tabitha Skog was the most rundown city I had come across in the Kingdom. All its streets were dirt, except for the main roads. It was on the edge of the tropical jungle with high rainfall, so when I say dirt, I mean mud. Timber was the primary building material due to its plentiful supply, no doubt. There were three main roads. We came from the northeast, and there was another heading west to Waiouru. There was also a road to the south through the jungle. This lead eventually to the nearest Animalkin City State somewhere in the jungle. It was a rural border city. The main market was where these roads met and was also paved with a central fountain. The King wanted me to discover why Duke Boris wasn¡¯t paying his taxes. Looking at his capital city, he wasn¡¯t paying for anything at all. Most Nobles at least paved the roads and dealt with the garbage, even if it was only so they didn¡¯t have to smell it. Skog was smaller than Obalno. It was slightly smaller than Duhovno and a lot poorer. Duhovno had the bounty of the Steamlands, and Skog had the jungle. The main export was timber. There were some mines in the Jungle, but they were common metals, and there were few of them. The jungle also provided other resources, but Skog was a poor city. The land around the city was full of sharp crags and escarpments, all covered in jungle. The city was at the bottom of an escarpment, and the Dukes Mansion was at the top, outside the city''s walls. The road to the mansion was off the main road west. It was well paved, and the jungle cleared well back from it. I assume he can sit in his nice mansion and survey his muddy, stinky city. Maybe he has a nice view out over the Jungle on the other side. Once we get to the central square, we split up. My first job is to book some rooms in a nice Inn, or at least one of the better ones. Mayakku, Astrid, and Runa are all going shopping, such as it is. They shouldn¡¯t get hassled, as Runa and C¨­mp¨¥?i both have a competent and threatening air about them, especially C¨­mp¨¥?i, that lion outweighs everybody, including Wiremu with his Granite. This is definitely a rough border city, and there are rough people to match it. Being on the border with the independent and mostly Amimalkin-run City States, there are a lot of varied species in town. I had never seen Gorrilla-kin before. There were two on security outside a Treasury building. There were also some brightly coloured Avions and a couple of lizard-kin. Ruku and Kelda are sticking with me. We have the Ironwood, bone and soil samples and are sending the map to T¨¡tt¨¡ in Kirghiz. The Mercenary Guild put out courier contracts, but the Avion Express is the way to go if you want fast delivery. What they lack in carrying weight, they make up for in speed. A map and bone and wood samples with the Express Service and additional privacy and protection options are worth it. I pretend to hitch Dusk to the post outside, and Ruku follows me in while Kelda stays outside people-watching. Liten is around somewhere. The courier company has had some personnel losses so it takes a bit to organise. I eventually watched the Hawk-kin with a Falcon-kin escort take to the air with the package. The Express service is immediate or close to it. It cost a packet for the Express delivery, but we had an account with Avion Express, and I picked up the regular messages waiting for me from T¨¡tt¨¡ and Janez. We move to the horses, and I hear a gravelly voice say, ¡°That¡¯s a mighty fine horse you have there, miss. How much for it?¡± It is not like I didn¡¯t sense the six people standing behind the horses. As this is such a nice, friendly town, I figured this must be a nice, friendly greeting. I mount Dusk and turn him around. I am now towering over everyone. It gives a nice friendly impression. ¡°She¡¯s not for sale.¡± ¡°If it is not for sale, you must be giving it to me!¡± he declares with mock happiness. His friends laugh along with him, except one standing back from them. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I smile at the joke. He continued, ¡°You are not man enough for a horse like that. How about you hand it over before an accident happens.¡± ¡°I can see you have my well-being close to your heart,¡± I replied, ¡°and you are right. I am not man enough for this horse. This horse requires a real woman to ride her. Are you woman enough?¡± Gravel Voice lost his smile as some of his mates chuckled. It is essential to spread the humour around. ¡°I can see an accident in your future,¡± he said warningly. ¡°I very much appreciate your warning. I will make sure I keep a close eye out.¡± Dusk did a half rear turn, making everybody step back with his hooves, and then we rode down the street, ¡°You be careful that you don¡¯t have an accident as well,¡± I called out over my shoulder. You have to reciprocate the kind well wishes to keep everyone happy. He did seem to me like he might be a clumsy sort. Ruku followed me, but Kelda stayed behind. She is a good observer but lacks deception skills, so I hope she knows her limits. I did notice she was using her Blend Skill to remain unnoticed. We rode to the Craftsman district looking for a carpenter or joiner who might be willing to make some shields from the Ironwood. There were a lot of wood crafters. A lot of the crafters specialised in buildings. They had big yards stocked with timber. An equal number specialised in furniture and some lovely furniture was displayed. A lot of the furniture makers also head wooden weapons on display, including shields. These weapons were for training purposes, and one glance at the shields and Ruku moved us on. They were not built with quality in mind. A few coins into the pocket of a knowledgeable street person, and we were directed to a workshop off the main road. ¡°How much.¡± the Orc said abruptly. ¡°Isn¡¯t that my question?¡± I asked, ¡°How much does it cost to make two shields from ironwood?¡± The orc carpenter growled in a low tone of annoyance, ¡°How much Ironwood you got.¡± ¡°Enough for the shields and more.¡± ¡°Enough for four shields?¡± he growled. I nodded. ¡°You give me enough for four shields I make two for you. Enchanting extra.¡± Now I understood. This would have gone easier if I had brought Modrica, and they could have communicated in grunts. ¡°Deal,¡± I said, ¡°We have our own enchanter. I will deliver the wood tomorrow.¡± He grunted. I escaped. That was frustrating, but we will get good shields from it. I need to get Astrid and Runa to visit with the wood so he can size the shields. Back at the Hungry Horse Inn, Kelda was waiting for us. Once we were in a private area, I said, ¡°Did you follow the idiots that accosted us?¡± ¡°No, they were not what I saw that caught my attention. There was a bond, an owl. It is out in the day drew my attention, but I am sure it was there in the fight at the army base in Kirghiz.¡± ¡°How sure?¡± ¡°Fairly certain.¡± ¡°What was the group called again? Dragon¡¯s Fart?¡± ¡°Dragon¡¯s Breath was one of the names.¡± ¡°I am sure that is what I just said.¡± Kelda ignored me, ¡°Liten tried following it but lost it when it entered the jungle. She stayed too far back, but owls do eat sparrows, so I don¡¯t blame her.¡± ¡°Which direction?¡± ¡°South¡± ¡°Did it recognise us?¡± ¡°I shouldn¡¯t think so, as only Wiremu, T¨¡oke, Modrica and Te?ka were really visible, and even Wiremu was armoured up. The owl also did not depart in a hurry, so I doubt we were recognised.¡± ¡°So the question is, what was it doing? Wiremu and Rodion might want to explore that way. I know Modrica, Wiremu, and I are all looking for some payback.¡± Ruku said, ¡°It is far too big a coincidence that they are here along with a Duke not paying his taxes.¡± I nodded. ¡°How to flush them out?¡± ¡°That is the easy part,¡± said Ruku. I looked questioningly at him. ¡°When you want to flush them out, just send them a message the Countess Auditor is coming for a visit.¡± ¡°That will stir them up, but we need more intel first if we can. I only wanted to be here a couple of weeks, but I can tell it will probably drag on. Finding the dragon fart base is probably too difficult, with nothing to track, so¡­¡± ¡°Not so difficult,¡± Kelda interrupted. ¡°My Trackers Insight from the owl tells me that the base will only really be accessible from the air. The jungle is huge, but there won¡¯t be that many spots within a couple of hours'' flying distance, which is about the range I would be at if I was contracted here.¡± ¡°Two hours flying? Maybe a day on foot in this jungle,¡± Ruku supplied. ¡°Inaccessible from the ground means Wiremu is the best to access it as there will be rock escarpments. We need to find out where the Duke''s tax money is going.¡± ¡°Looking around this place, all his money is going somewhere else.¡± 226. Boris: Tabitha.

226. Boris: Tabitha.

The obvious place to start looking for information is to sneak into Boris¡¯ mansion and look around. If I threw my weight around as Countess Auditor, he would try to hide key information. Why make life difficult for myself? To get to Boris¡¯ mansion, you take the western gate out of the city, and after about half a kilometre, you turn off the main highway. The road to the mansion is humbly called the Duke''s Road, which is conveniently carved into a marker stone. About two kilometres up this road, the jungle wides into a clearing, and the gate to the Duke¡¯s Mansion is on the left. What you can¡¯t see from the city is that the jungle on the right of the road has been cleared, and a fort, or barracks or similar, is under construction. They are close to being finished, actually. The outer wall is all timber logs. There are Watchtowers around it, and the walls have a walkway for defenders to stand on. I climbed the wall with Shadow Step. There are barrack-like buildings, cook house and stables, with a large open parade or training ground. The cookhouse and one of the barrack buildings still need the roof finished and then to be furnished. My estimation is a couple of hundred soldiers could be housed here. It looks very military. The only people here tonight are two of the Dukes House Guards. Why would the Duke need to house guards close to his mansion, and where is he getting those guards from? There were only fifty or so in the Dragon¡¯s Fart, and we thinned them out. There was a site office with plans. It was definitely a fort with barracks and a training ground. The rest of the information was just schedules for crafters and goods delivery. The pressure was on as it was all supposed to be complete in five weeks. It was time to try the Duke''s mansion for more information. The Duke¡¯s Mansion didn¡¯t have any more information. I left Dusk in the shadows by the road and went over the wall. Slipping in an open window was easy. There were patrolling guards, but they were easy to avoid. It was so easy to get in I spent all my time looking for the trap and waiting for it to spring. It was no trap. It was just easy. It was also a waste of time. His office had a safe with boring stuff in it and barely enough coin for a week¡¯s expenses. There were a couple of mementoes from his military career and a portrait of a woman on the wall. Probably a wife, maybe a daughter. There is no record of where his coins went or the purpose of the fort next door. The city records must be kept elsewhere, maybe the city mayor¡¯s office in town. I poked my senses into the Duke¡¯s master suite, and he was asleep, and he was alone. He was a tall, thin man with greying hair and a beard. There was no fat, so there goes theory number one. He is not spending his coin indulging himself. He looked quite elderly, so I must find out about his heir. Maybe the heir is stealing the coin. The Master suite was on the city side of the mansion. Maybe he enjoys watching his people suffer. There was a balcony with a table and chairs. I was watching through the glass doors. The doors were locked and alarmed. I could get in but chose not to. I figured it was still early in the morning, between 1 and 2 a.m., so this hadn¡¯t taken as long as I thought here. I was deciding whether I had time to get to town and hit the city administration offices when the wall alarms started ringing. This was interesting. My Hearing Aid was almost Journeyman Level and picked up a lot of sounds from the city. People shouting, Alarms ringing, and, was that the sound of angry monkeys? I couldn¡¯t see very well as I didn¡¯t have Farsight. I was tempted to go down and join the excitement, but it would probably be more useful to stay here and see how Boris reacts. I retreated back from the window and then decided to climb onto the roof. I could hide in the shadow of the chimney. I could track Boris from the sounds through the chimney to his room and could follow on the roof or head down as appropriate. It was ten minutes later when a knocking on the door woke Boris. I was surprised the rising noise from the city didn¡¯t wake him. The noise was getting worse, and whatever it was moved through the city. I am sure they are monkey sounds. Maybe Farsight would be worth it, although I tended more toward Keensight or similar enhancement to my Spatial Awareness. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Old man Boris is a deep sleeper. It took repeated and increasingly loud knocking to finally rouse him. I caught most of the conversation about a rampaging horde of baboons moving through the city. Boris dragged the messenger to the balcony to see for himself. ¡°They came from the southeast, my Lord.¡± Boris¡¯ eyes tracked to that part of the city, and he spent some time just looking at different parts of the city. He may not have Hearing Aid, but he definitely has Farsight and Darksight. Then his eyes lifted to the sky, and he spent some time searching the sky. That was interesting. Was he perhaps looking for certain Avion farters? Did he suspect this was arranged? ¡°How are the guards handling it?¡± Boris asked. ¡°I am not sure, my Lord. I was sent to warn you as soon as the alarm was raised.¡± ¡°Alfred!¡± the Duke yelled. He may not have Hearing Aid, but he has some voice Skill for sure. As soon as a servant came running, he said, ¡°Get the horses ready. We are going to the city to sort this troll shit out. You,¡± he pointed to the messenger, ¡°help him. I will be down soon.¡± Boris then quickly dressed and put on a strong leather jacket and leather leggings, grabbed a sword and briskly marched out of the room. Since I knew where he was heading, it went over the roof and called Dusk to move closer. The Stables were to the side of the main entrance by the road, and when I got there, there were a whole squad of guards getting ready to mount up, with stable hands running everywhere. They were mounted up and on the road fifteen minutes later. I slid off the roof and followed on Dusk. The city gate is only a five-minute gallop away. I was halfway there and cursed myself for not stealing something. My Burglary Class will never level at this rate. The gatekeepers had the western gates open or the Duke, so he galloped straight through. They held the gate for me, not realising I was the eleventh person in the ten-person squad. My Mimic and Body Image Skills made me look like one of the guards. I peeled off from the group at the nearest side road. I debated staying as a guard in the confusion but decided I would rather not be ordered around. I kept the guard image going as a disguise. The Duke went to the main square and entered the City Administration offices. I finally got a look at the attacking creatures. Baboons. They were not causing a lot of damage. Anyone with a basic fighting class should be able to fight one off. The trouble is there wasn¡¯t just one. There was a whole pack or group or whatever the hell they are called. Hundreds of them, and they were mad. I climbed on a roof and looked around. Despite being monkeys, these baboons seemed to prefer to stay on the ground. Strange that. Wiremu could probably tell me why if I cared enough to ask. I saw squads of guards and one squad of soldiers clearing streets and herding the animals to the south gate. There was some property damage, but I would be surprised if there were any deaths. Some injuries certainly, but most of the population were locked up in their houses asleep. They were no longer asleep, but the smart ones stayed in their houses. What was the point of this? Boris searched the skies, so I followed suit now that I was closer. It took a while, but I eventually saw a bird I was sure shouldn¡¯t be out of its nest at this hour. I think. My Animal Lore is not great. Then I caught the flutter of larger wings at the edge of my Darksight. This was being observed and had probably been orchestrated. Was this at the Duke''s request or attacking him? Seemed to be against the Duke at this point, and he knew who was against him. Maybe we could get a contract to deal with these pesky bird farters. We will deal with them anyway, but there is no harm in getting paid for it at the same time. Then I saw an Avion fall with an arrow in its chest. It has to be Wiremu with his Marksman and Darksight / Telescopic sight combo. I jumped down back onto Dusk, and we headed to where the Avion fell. I saw another bird fall, no arrow, but obviously full of poison. I left Dusk a block away and went overhead. When I got there, the avion was being collected by a squad of guardsmen. She was dead, but I was unsure if it was the arrow or the fall. They also collected the arrow, and the squad leader wrapped it carefully to avoid contamination. He was obviously an Investigator. It will be interesting to see where that leads them. I followed them to the local Guard HQ. Then I went to check on my mate Boris. He was doing Duky things, which means he was sitting around listening to people report to him and issuing the occasional order. When I got back to Dusk, there was a dead monkey at her feet, and Nyx had another bound in shadows and was feeding. I moved them all back to the Inn and left Nyx in the stall with Dusk to finish her meal. It was a very interesting evening. 227. Mandrills: Wiremu.

227. Mandrills: Wiremu.

¡°I bet Tabitha will call these monkeys,¡± I said to Rodion. ¡°I am not taking that bet,¡± he replied. ¡°Although she might call them Baboons. The Mandrills are very distinctive, though, with the red and blue skin on their faces, surely she would know.¡± ¡°Want to take that bet?¡± He shook his head. We had been out setting traps in the early evening. I was teaching Rodion the trapping skill. It is a useful skill to have, even though he was never going to be strong in it. He had a growing pack to feed. Apparently, one of his bitches was pregnant, but still in the early days. We had come across this large family of Madrills all on the move toward the city. Mandrills can be very aggressive, but only if you invade their territory. This was a very large group of several hundred, obviously angry and on the move. Mandrills are ground-based primates, like baboons. They might sleep in trees, but they live on the ground. Rodion had sent some of his dogs to backtrack the Mandrills to see if a larger predator had driven them from their territory. With a group this large, it would have to be a monster. Rodion and I tracked alongside them. I took to the trees. Darkness was falling, and at the rate the Mandrills were travelling, it would be after midnight before they hit the city if they kept in the same direction. Could I redirect them? Did I want to? The answer to that would depend on what is moving them. I had several hours to find out, and they may stop on their own. The Mandrills were moving along the ground, so T¨¡oke and I had the trees to ourselves with all the other creatures who got out of their way. I went higher, and the sky had patchy clouds. I caught sight of a small Jungle Owlet darting along the tops of the trees. They were native to the area, but they would generally hide with the racket going on below. My second look identified this as a bond. Now we are getting somewhere. I got a Hunter''s Mark on it and veered away, so I didn¡¯t alert it to my presence. I was kind of hoping this would be a bond from the Avion Mercenary team that attacked us, but that was not likely. It could be a Jungle Ranger trying to figure out what is happening like us. It could be a regular hunter or part of whatever is moving the mandrills. I kept high in the trees and watched for other bonds. In the next hour, I Marked five other bonds, all birds of different species. Two of them had the same bond flavour, meaning they had the same Sapient in their bond. This meant it was almost certainly an Avion, as Animalkin had advantages when bonding with species that were close to them. The obvious example was Rodion, a wolfkin, bonding with his pack of wild dogs. I couldn¡¯t have done it. I so hope it is the same mercenary group. Modrica and I have a debt to settle. I want another go at the wyvern. After the attack, I researched wyverns at the Lore Society, and there were several recorded variants. The green fire was a giveaway as to which one had attacked us. As I had surmised, the green fire was not really fire but a spiritually enhanced acid spray that ignites when it comes in contact with air. Acid fire with high Spirituality. The spiritual component apparently helps bypass resistance. I am really curious about the nature of the bond between the wyvern and the Avion. That won¡¯t stop me from killing them, though. I stopped at the top of a tree and scanned the sky for Avions. I couldn¡¯t see any, but they might just be gliding and watching things through their bonds. I dropped down to Rodion again. ¡°Do you think we should try to turn them?¡± I asked. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Do you think we can?¡± ¡°Probably not, and it will just alert the watchers to our presence.¡± ¡°The Mandrills won¡¯t really do much damage to anything, so let''s watch it play out and see if we can ambush the watchers,¡± Rodion said. ¡°Which makes me wonder as to what the purpose of this is.¡± ¡°It does seem like a lot of effort for little damage.¡± ¡°Therefore, damage is not their goal. So what is?¡± ¡°Cause confusion to pull off an assassination or heist or something? I shrugged, ¡°Maybe. I will run ahead and watch from the walls. I will leave you spikes to climb up on the southeastern corner.¡± I got a thumbs-up for that. He was still waiting for some of his dogs to catch up. When I reached the wall, I scaled it using Granite Spikes and left them in place. The guard heard a lot of noise from the Jungle but had not identified a threat yet. They were alert, anyway. I found a good spot to see over most of the city, went into camouflage, and readied my bow. I used my Telescopic Sight to watch the guards, and I could see the Duke¡¯s mansion on the escarpment above the city. I zoomed in on various windows to see if anybody was watching from there. I would have some guards with Farsight on watch from there, but I couldn¡¯t see any. I looked at the sections of the city wall I could see, and the guards were alert and watching the noise approach, but I guess most of the noise was muffled from the city by the wall. The Madrills hit the gate and climbed the wall. The enchantments on the wall threw some off and sounded an alarm, prompting the guards to ring the alarm bells. T¨¡oke decided to slither off and go hunting. I turned my attention to the sky. Where were our watchers? I started with the birds with my Hunters Marks. They were flying into the city. Then I searched for Avions. I knew there was at least one around. I caught a flash of wings and discovered a weakness in Telescopic Sight. Fast-moving objects move out of range of it very fast as Telescopic Sight zooms in on a small area. I zoomed out so it was barely more than Farsight and searched the sky again. It took me quite a while to find the flyers. The cloud cover was increasing. That was good in it would make them fly lower, but the patchy cloud obscured my vision. The first Avion I got a good look at seemed to come from an Owl kin. It would make sense if they were here to observe. I was interrupted by a rogue Mandrill climbing the granite spikes I had left. I put an arrow Imbued with Poison in him, then readied another arrow. I have to be careful with Puia here. Everything was made of wood. While everything was also wet, that was no guarantee against lava. My sky-watching suddenly paid off when I caught a glimpse of a feather pattern I recognised. The Avion disappeared behind the cloud before I could verify it, but I am sure they were present at the attack on Modrica in Kirghiz. I kept searching. I found him again and followed him with my Telescopic Sight and my Marksman Skill. The Marksman Skill didn¡¯t just increase the range of my arrows. It was giving me a feel for the amount of lead I needed to aim for to have the arrow hit the moving target. That assumes the target stays on the same trajectory long enough for the arrow to reach. There are other variables as well, but my Thermal Sensing can give me an idea of wind speed and direction. I followed him for a while, understanding his flying pattern. He stuck to one flight line when he was concentrating, either through his bond or looking at something in particular. I readied the arrow, steadied my breathing, and Imbued Poison to the arrowhead. When he spotted something on the ground, I released the arrow and watched. I knew I would be lucky to get a hit on the first try, but I felt lucky today. The arrow flew true. I had aimed for the centre of mass to maximise my chances, and I am sure it struck his heart. Avion have very light bones in order to help them fly, but that means they break easily. He fell from the sky, and I watched to see where he would fall. One of the bonds I had the Hunters Mark on suddenly went crazy and flew directly toward the Avion. I didn¡¯t have another arrow ready, so I lined up a Poison Arrow. The Falcon was fast but flying in a straight line. The arrow clipped his wing, but that was enough to get a killing load of poison in him, and he went down. I might as well take down some more now that I know who I am killing. I will leave a couple with the Mark to follow back to their nest. 228. Dominance: Tabitha.

228. Dominance: Tabitha.

We split up in the morning to find out what was happening. Ruku and I would hit the Army Base. I was going all official as Countess Auditor. We discussed it, and I should be able to command the army at my back. Word will get to the Duke that I was in town, and that should rattle his cage, and I can pretend to investigate the recent security lapse. I wanted Mayakku with us, mainly for C¨­mp¨¥?i, as not much would threaten the three of us. Mayakku was safest with C¨­mp¨¥?i and us. I would prefer to have let Mayakku return to the camp, but C¨­mp¨¥?i would be significantly less effective. A monster lion has a presence only matched by a Dire Bear. Or a massive Venom Serpent. Ruku suggested we take Kelda as well. Astrid and Runa would get sized for the shields. Then, they would shop for supplies so we could get out of there in a hurry if required. I am expecting pushback. This attack is the perfect excuse to shake things up. When I am being official, I want a look of rich and dangerous. I don¡¯t know how many rumours have reached here yet, but I need them to think twice about messing with me. Ruku has the role of a tough military guard and has been that for forty-odd years. There was only a small army presence in Skog. It was like Jern, basically a recruiting post. The big army base was only two weeks'' march away in Waiouru. One Captain, two Lieutenants and two ten-person squads under each Lieutenant. Less than fifty soldiers and some support staff. I can imagine Skog being a punishment posting. We were heading to the Army compound on foot when a little birdie whispered in Kelda¡¯s ear. I looked at Kelda as she had Liten watching the Duke. ¡°The Duke is on his way to the army compound,¡± she said. If I delayed a few minutes, I could catch the two together. We paused at a cafe and got C¨­mp¨¥?i out of sight. I ordered some tea, and we sat and watched the Duke and his guards ride past a few minutes later. We finished our tea. We approached the entrance to the Army compound, and two Privates were on gate duty. I could see most of the Duke''s guards milling around in the marshalling yard. I counted eight, so he had two with him. ¡°Identification and reason for visiting, please,¡± said one of the Privates. I handed over my identification, ¡°Skygge, Countess Auditor, here to see the captain.¡± Both Privates straightened up, ¡°Ah¡­ Yes ma¡¯am! I will get the Corporal, ma¡¯am.¡± ¡°Sure, you do that, and I will just head on in,¡± and I started walking toward the largest building with all the Duke¡¯s guards in front. The Private ran off to the side, I assume to get the Corporal. The other Private half-heartedly tried to make me wait, and I just ignored him. The Duke¡¯s guards looked at me approaching and gathered in a semi-circle. ¡°No one is to enter; the Duke is busy with the Captian.¡± one of them said. ¡°I know.¡± I held up my ID, ¡°I am Skygge, the Countess Auditor. If you obstruct me, what is left of you will spend the rest of your life in the mines.¡± I projected mild Intimidation, and C¨­mp¨¥?i growled on cue. They parted without further comment. I guess the bosses were inside with the Duke. I entered, and in front of me was a desk with a corporal. In the waiting area to the side were the remaining two guards. I could hear the Duke in full rant from the conference room behind the corporal. He rose to his feet, and then C¨­mp¨¥?i squeezed in the door behind me, and everybody stood up. I interrupted the Corporal and flashed my ID, ¡°I know, the Duke is in there. I am the Countess Auditor, and I will go straight in. C¨­mp¨¥?i will stay here to make sure we are not disturbed.¡± C¨­mp¨¥?i jumped so his two front paws were on the Corporal¡¯s desk, and he looked down at the standing Corporal. Then he looked over to the Duke''s two guards, and they froze in place. Ruku, Mayakku and Kelda followed me into the conference room. The Duke was still in full swing when I entered. ¡°...and what is the army going to do to protect us from the next beast attack? That is the third this month! Where the hell were you¡­.¡± I crash open the door. ¡°Who the hell are you? Get the fuck out of here, or I will bury you so deep you will never see the light of day again!¡± ¡°Skygge. Countess Auditor on assignment from King Thorbj?rn.¡± That shut him up. Briefly. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°I hope you have bloody come here to help. Otherwise, you can just fuck off back to the king because I am sick of being left with no support and being blamed for everything in this shit hole.¡± ¡°Of course, I am here to help.¡± I could see the Captain was not happy. If the Duke thought he was abandoned, a lowly captain would feel it worse, especially with the duke piling it on him. ¡°This is the third in a month?¡± ¡°Unsettling the citizens it is, They can¡¯t sleep. They don¡¯t feel safe. My guard is stretched, and now I have more wounded. The Army is no bloody use, and no help is coming from Waiouru.¡± ¡°I have notified the Major in Waiouru,¡± The Captian butted in,¡± by courier, post and emergency Runes. We need to wait for a reply.¡± ¡°It is only two bloody weeks away, less by courier. Reinforcements should have been here by now! Did you come from Waiouru?¡± the Duke swung toward me, ¡°Did they send you instead of a bloody company of troops?¡± his tone made it very clear which he preferred, and it wasn¡¯t me. ¡°No, we came from the coast. But we are here now and can sort this small problem.¡± ¡°Small problem!¡± The Duke''s tone was a mix of disbelief and disgust at my attitude. ¡°I have beasts invading my city, civil unrest, and to top it all off, there was an assassination last night!¡± ¡°Assassination?¡± ¡°One of our prominent Avion citizens was brought down by an arrow while trying to escape the beasts. The arrow is quite unique, with a snake poison on it. We are now hunting the killer. They probably thought they would get away with it in the confusion.¡± ¡°And you know this how?¡± I asked. ¡°My senior guardsman reported it, of course,¡± his tone indicated this was obvious, and I shouldn¡¯t be asking such obvious things. ¡°I observed this assassination. I saw the Avion fall, and your guardsmen collected the body. If you compare the identification of the avion with the wanted to be noticed on the board on the outside of this compound, you will find your upstanding citizen is a wanted criminal with a bounty.¡± I looked at the Captain, ¡°I will be claiming that bounty on behalf of my Knight who brought down the criminal.¡± I turned back to the Duke, ¡°It seems like you have been fed misinformation.¡± ¡°I will need proof of the criminal and the killer,¡± the Captain said. ¡°The Duke can make the body available. If they don¡¯t, I will suspect a larger coverup operation is happening. When you have verified the body, come and see me.¡± The Duke did not look pleased. I kept going while I had momentum, and the Duke was off balance. ¡°As Countess Auditor, I am hereby taking temporary command of the Kirghiz Forces in this city at this time of crisis. Knight Ruku will oversee military operations, and you will report to him, Captain.¡± Now, it was the Captian¡¯s turn not to be pleased. ¡°I must protest. I don¡¯t think a civilian will be effective commanding military forces.¡± ¡°Protest all you like, but it is still happening. I have also been remiss in my introductions here. This is Ruku, Knight of the Auditor, formally Major Ruku of the Royal Marine Commandos from Obalno.¡± Ruku nodded to him, ¡°Captian,¡± he said in greeting. The Captian straightened up, although he was still displeased. ¡°The Duke can escort me back to the City Administration building. I wish to review the construction and maintenance records, the City guard reports and the city accounts.¡± The Duke started to gather himself to protest, but I cut him off. He wasn¡¯t used to being cut off. ¡°The Wall enchantments should have been more effective than they were. The gate should not have been able to be opened. We will be inspecting both of those, including the guards who were supposed to be on duty.¡± Ruku spoke up before anyone else could get a word in, ¡°And you, Captain, will call an immediate inspection of the troops, and we will be inspecting the armoury as well as the emergency supply depots and communication systems.¡± Ruku turned to me, ¡°Please leave Mayakku here as a consultant at this time.¡± I nodded. I was planning to have her accompany me to inspect the wall enchantments, and I had no idea why Ruku wanted her. I wasn¡¯t going to argue here. He will have his reasons. ¡°I turned to the door and indicated with my hand, ¡°Duke Boris, if you would. I have summoned my mount.¡± Duke Boris was not used to being pushed around. Years of people scraping and crawling toward him meant I had him off balance, but he would come back with a vengeance. For now, he went out the door and suddenly stopped at the sight of C¨­mp¨¥?i sitting in the reception area, licking a paw and watching the three people. His two guards rose to their feet and bowed. The Duke scowled at them but didn¡¯t say anything apart from, ¡°We are heading back to the Admin centre.¡± Kelda followed me out, but I noticed her touch the lantern on the wall of the conference room and again the lantern in the reception area. She was replacing the flame with her spiritual fire so she could keep watch. There may be hope for her yet. C¨­mp¨¥?i backed off, letting us out of the building. Outside, the head guard organised the others to get their horses, and one of them brought the Duke¡¯s horse over to him. He mounted and was about to say something when everybody''s attention was drawn to the gate as a horse screamed a challenge. Dusk appeared and leapt over the half gate into the compound. The Duke''s guards scattered out of her way as she came to a stop and reared to full height, letting loose another challenging scream. Several of the Guard''s horses reared and tried to break away but were quickly brought under control. Dusk was announcing her dominance in no uncertain terms. She looked utterly wild with no bridle or saddle. Then she turned to me and pranced over. I grabbed her mane and jump-mounted her, then reached down to Kelda. She grabbed my arm, and I swung her up behind me. We towered over all the others as I looked around and said, ¡°Is everybody ready?¡± 229. Sensible: Wiremu.

229. Sensible: Wiremu.

I jumped off the wall and hit the ground running, yelling at Rodion, ¡°Follow me! We¡¯ll find their nest!¡± Rodion had all ten dogs with him, and we set off at a fast pace to the south. My Hunters Mark only had an 8km range at this level, and the birds would fly much faster than we could run through the jungle. T¨¡oke was still in the city somewhere, so it was just the ten dogs and us. After four hours of running at breakneck speed through the jungle, I sensed the two bonds turn to a more westerly course. I changed direction to where I could cut across the angle but was frustrated an hour later when I hit a fast-flowing river we couldn¡¯t cross. We followed it upstream, looking for a crossing, as the bonds disappeared from the Hunter''s Mark range. Hopefully, there will not be another course change. It took us fifteen minutes to fall a tree that was hanging over the river so we could cross using the stone axes I created. Even then, one of the dogs had to be fished out of the water. We set off at a more moderate pace on the line the birds had been flying. The Mapping Skill was invaluable in keeping us on track in the heavy bush. We passed the point where I lost them from my mark and carried on in the same direction till nightfall. We caught some small game and rested for a few hours as it cooked over heated rock. I wanted to carry on, but Rodion had Nightsight instead of Darksight, so he was hampered by an overcast sky and heavy canopy. Nightsight enhances light, so you need a small amount. I created glowing rocks for him, but our pace was significantly slowed. We stopped a few hours before dawn and got some sleep. We had a cold breakfast, and I climbed a tree to look around. The climb to the canopy was easy. The thinner branches near the top couldn¡¯t bear my weight. I had to strengthen them with Granite Spikes. I couldn¡¯t see much to the west, but I think there was an escarpment to the southwest. Climbing that should get me a better view. I spent some time searching the sky and the ridge for signs of life but concluded no Avions were visible and no birds were acting unnaturally. We set off to the southwest. It was after lunch when we came to the base of the escarpment. I created handholds in the rock for Rodion and myself to climb, but the dogs stayed below for now. From the top of the bluff, I could see we were on one side of a massive valley. I had a good view over the valley and saw glimpses of a river in the trees. It may have been several different rivers. This gave my Mapping Skill an overview, and Skog was in the valley and upstream of where we are now. What I couldn¡¯t see was what was behind us. While I went looking for another tree, Rodion made some vine ropes and went down and carried his dogs up. It took him three trips. I found a monster tree about ten minutes of trekking from the edge of the bluff and climbed it. The land to the west of the river valley was steep jungle-covered hills. It is certainly the sort of territory I would use to hide in, especially if I could fly. The question was, how were we going to find them? The area was huge. We could wander for months and not find them. Do I sit in the tree and watch the sky for them moving around? I could easily miss them, especially if they flew above the cloud cover. I reviewed my Sensing Skills. The only one that came close was Sense Treasure, which was early Journeyman Level. To a certain extent, I could designate what the treasure was. The Treasure couldn¡¯t be living, so I could not use it to hunt for monsters or people. What the Skill did do at this level was integrate well with my Sensing and Mapping Skills. From a high vantage point, with Telescopic Sight, a number of possible treasure positions started populating my map. A weak sense indicated lower value and also less precision in the position. Lesser value treasures were only able to be sensed closer. The further away the treasure, the less accurate the position as well, being indicated on my map as a circle or oval, sometimes kilometres in area. This position would refine as we go closer, or the skill level. I figured the hideout of the outlaws would also hold their treasure. Maybe they popped into town and deposited it in one of the Treasuries, but I am betting there is a stash for working capital and another for emergencies. When I narrowed my treasure down to the metal, the number of possible places was reduced. I needed to level the skill to narrow it down to a single metal, like gold, but I didn¡¯t need to for this. I was pretty sure we were close, and I was looking for places that would be easily accessible for flyers. That narrowed it down to two places, and my bet was at the top of that hill there. It looked like a half-day hike to the base of the hill so that we would get there at around nightfall. That was not bad timing. I met Rodion, and we set off at a brisk pace. The side of the hill we approached at dusk started as a cliff. We picked a direction and started working our way around, looking for an easier way up, especially for the dogs. Half an hour later, the dogs found a body. The decomposing remains were human at one point. The clothes were of good quality and looked like recent fashion from Kirghiz. I am pretty sure it was male. There were only rotting strips of flesh on his face and evidence of scavengers having feasted. I checked the pockets, but they were empty. He had been dead a couple of weeks or more. We were about to move on when I used Sense Treasure, and his belt lit up like Kelda¡¯s Wings of Fire. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Wait up,¡± I said to Rodion and bent down to examine the belt. The stench up close was not pleasant. The belt had clever pockets in it, so I cut the leather and pulled it away from him. It was a very sturdy belt with two layers of leather sewn together. I picked the stitching apart and pulled out five coins and a metal badge. The coins weren¡¯t gold or even platinum. They were Cargonite. Five Cargonite coins would probably buy the Duke''s mansion in Skog or a moderate house in the suburbs of Kirghiz. The badge had a house coat of arms that I recognised. It was similar to Tabitha¡¯s identification as Countess Auditor. I turned it over and said to Rodion, ¡°Looks like we have found the King¡¯s missing Marquess.¡± Marquess Oslo was engraved on the back. ¡°Do you reckon he fled here, and they just killed him?¡± Rodion asked. ¡°That is the most likely scenario.¡± I flicked him two of the coins ¡°for your retirement fund.¡± I said. ¡°Wow, are you sure? That is more money than I ever expected to have.¡± ¡°Of course, I am sure. There have to be some benefits to following us around.¡± ¡°I would have said my Pack was more than enough, but, you know, we are mercenaries, so we are always looking for more benefits.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the spirit!¡± The cliff turned into a very steep slope, which would have been more difficult to climb than the cliff, except for some discrete granite steps that appeared. The dogs followed us up with Rodion, making sure they kept quiet. Near the top, the bush had been cleared in a way that was not obvious from the ground. My Stealth was the highest, so Rodion and the dogs stayed back while I explored. The cleared area had three areas with decking at different levels on the slope. Landing pads. There were wooden huts just on the edge of the trees up the slope from the pads. The hill was a gentle slop here near the top, and there were well-worn paths through the trees. There were three larger wooden structures on the edge of the upper landing pad, like barns. I crept close to the nearest barn, and it smelled like griffon. There was movement in the barn, and at least one griffon was at home. The barn looked big enough to house three, but I could only hear one heartbeat. I crept past, and the next barn was smaller, with various bird smells. Possibly, some of the other larger bonds were housed there. It seemed empty at the moment. The furthest barn was the same size as the griffon barn and had an acrid smell. I am betting the wyvern stayed here. It was not home at the moment. The buildings behind the barns were obviously built for people. They all had larger and wider doors than a human would have, and all of them had a second-story deck open to the sky. Built for Avions to accommodate wings. I figured I would start with the house directly behind the Wyvern barn. Nest? Roost? I don¡¯t know what you would call it. This one probably belonged to its bond, which I assume was the boss. It only had a simple lock. I have to assume the wyvern was threatening enough. It was comfortable but not overly luxurious. There were signs of two people living here, so I am guessing he or she had a mate. Nobody was home. My Treasure Sense was telling me the second story had something worth looking at. When I got to the top, the balcony was only a short hop, if you had wings, from the roof of the wyvern barn, and I could see roof access. That makes sense. I found the safe but left it for now and continued exploring. The bandit group was about fifty-strong when we were attacked in Kirghiz. From the buildings here, it looks like it would comfortably house thirty or so. They probably have other bases. This looks like a permanent base and usually houses the wyvern and griffons, meaning this is the boss''s residence and his or her key people. There were only five people here at the moment, and two of those were low-level camp workers. They were not slaves, I checked. Well, they may be slaves, but they did not have the Slave Class. Of the other three, one was bonded to the griffon, another had a parrot bond, and the third had a bond that was not here at the moment. All five were Avions. It was close to midnight when I got back to Rodion and described it to him. Then I said, ¡°You know the base will never be any less defended than it is now.¡± Rodion grinned at me and said, ¡°That does not sound like a sensible idea.¡± I grinned back, ¡°No, it¡¯s not.¡± 230. Dinner: Tabitha. Tonight, I am going to have dinner with the Duke at his mansion. He will give me a tour of this new ¡°Training Barracks¡± where he will train a new guard force to defend the city. He wasn¡¯t clear on where the recruits would come from or why it was adjacent to his mansion rather than the city. Mayakku spent all of yesterday with Ruku at the army base while I looked at the city accounts. The Army¡¯s emergency Rune communication system had been tampered with and was not functional. Mayakku had no idea what most of the runes did as it was way outside her speciality, but the person who did the tampering had no clue either. Hence, the sabotage was rather obvious. She is 80% confident she can reverse the damage using her general knowledge of runes. This morning, I took Mayakku on an inspection of the walls. The wall runes had not been sabotaged, just very poorly done. I then dropped Mayakku back to the army compound and interviewed a few key people in the city guard. It is times like these I wish I had Wiremu here with his Truth Sensing. The only person I was really sure was guilty was the one who disappeared and couldn¡¯t be found. I probably shouldn¡¯t assume that. He may have been assassinated, kidnapped, or eloped with his mistress. It was a mostly fruitless day for me. Ruku, Kelda and I are going to dinner. Mayakku was invited as well, but I am not sure I trust the Duke enough yet. Mayakku and C¨­mp¨¥?i will join Modrica, Te?ka, Runa and Astrid as our backup force if everything goes wrong. They will station themselves close to the mansion but hidden. Liten should be able to carry messages, or Kelda explodes something, and they come running. Kelda¡¯s main purpose in coming was to plant some of her watchfires in the house so she could keep an eye on the Duke. She had discovered a snag in her Flame Senses Skill. When people leave a room, they generally snuff out the lanterns to save on oil. She couldn¡¯t very well tell them that her flame didn¡¯t consume oil but was powered by her Spiritual Energy. The trick was to pick key-occupied rooms or areas like the gates that would be lit all night. It limits spying on confidential information. We left the city gates in the late afternoon. I rode Dusk, and the others were on their horses. We met the Duke and four of his guards outside his mansion, and he gave us a tour of the fort, sorry, training facility. We were up one of the watchtowers when Ruku said, ¡°You can see a good portion of the road to Waiouru from here.¡± I looked, but I could only see trees. Ruku has Farsight, and I do not. Any watchman will also have Farsight. The Duke brushed it off. I had assumed the Duke had built the fort for his own protection. The road to Waiouru is the road to the largest kingdom army base in South Kirghiz. Why would you need to watch that? Dinner was basically the Duke trying to gather as much information as possible from us. He asked all sorts of questions about the king and the state of the skirmish with the Empire. He tried to discover how I became the Countess Auditor, but I deflected all those questions. He had a lot of questions about Dusk, but I shut that down hard and quite rudely. After that, he returned to general questions about the kingdom''s state. He had heard the Duke of Kirghiz had been assassinated, but the rumour was that Imperial Assassins carried it out. I didn¡¯t change that rumour but assured him my Knights, and I had caught the assassin, and they were now in the hands of the King¡¯s interrogators. The Duke¡¯s successor was yet to be announced by the King. For my part, I discovered Duke Boris did not have a family. His wife died fighting in the Two-Year War against the empire about ten years ago. His son died in a mine collapse seven years ago, and his daughter was killed in a bandit raid on her caravan five years ago. His nominated Heir was currently one of his countesses who lived and managed one of his outlying Jungle towns. There was some controversy about the appointment as she was a Wolfkin. It was the first time an Animal-kin was heir to a Duchy. ¡°I am not discriminating against her because of her race.¡± the Duke declared. ¡°She is a bloody good Countess and has greatly increased our relationship and trade with the Wolfkin City state to the south.¡± I didn¡¯t miss the slight frowns on Ruku and Kelda¡¯s faces, even if they were only momentarily. It looks like I need a much closer look at her. And her enemies. We left the Duke late in the evening, mounting in his courtyard and turning onto the short road back to the city. We were parallel to the fort entrance when Kelda suddenly whirled around and yelled. ¡°Take cover!¡± My Spatial Awareness was swarmed with arrows and javelins coming down on us. Dusk jumped ahead, but there were too many to avoid. Nyx blanketed the area in Engulfing Shadows to hide us. Dusk screamed as a javelin pierced her flank, her Tough Hide stopping it from becoming crippling. She Shadow Merged her head, and an arrow went through it. The troll-shitting dragon farters have ambushed us. ¡°The Fort!¡± Ruku yelled. I steered Dusk to the fort as an arrow pierced my shoulder. I Shadow Merged my shoulder, and the arrow came out, but the wound remained. The Fort¡¯s gates were closed, but Dusk reared up and smashed down with her hooves in a Power Strike, crashing them open. We moved to the cover of the tower by the gate, and Dusk Shadow Merged her flank so the javelin fell out. Like me, the wound remained, but I had my Syphon Skills running. I sensed Kelda and Ruku approaching the gate. Both were on foot, their horses dead or dying. Ruku was pulling an arrow from his leg and had another in his back that he couldn¡¯t reach. Kelda was leaking blood from two places, but she had the most warning of us all. She had her bow out and was walking backwards, firing into the sky. The aerial attackers couldn¡¯t see us through the shadows, but we could see out. Suddenly, Nyx and I screamed in pain as green, spiritual flames ripped apart our shadows as the wyvern made its presence known. Kelda responded with fire arrows, causing it to jerk back up into the sky. Ruku was dragging his saddlebags with him. I noticed he had cut them off his horse. We had obviously planned and practised against aerial attacks. Since the fight at Kirghiz, we would be fools to leave such a weakness to only the two archers. Ruku pulled some weighted nets from his saddlebags and went up the tower to the wall. As he passed, I ripped the arrow from his back so his Regeneration could work properly. I am not sure Ruku can be killed anymore. If it is not an instant kill, he will regenerate. He was busy soaking the nets in Poison Water. I saw a bird fall embedded with an Earthern Spike. Modrica had been especially motivated with ranged attacks, pushing her Throw Weapons Skill to the Journeyman level. Our backup had arrived. I saw another bird crash down, its wings entangled in a small net. It wasn¡¯t dead, but it was out of the fight. Te?ka was carrying a lot of small throw nets for the team, as all you had to do was entangle the wings to bring something down. Kelda was the one still out in the open when the shadows went down. I saw her suddenly throw her bow towards me and launch herself into the air on her Wings of Fire. This wasn¡¯t planned in any of our scenarios. She lit up the whole area, and I saw the Duke and his Guards standing on top of the Wall around the Mansion, just watching. They weren¡¯t being attacked, and they were not attacking. They obviously wanted to claim innocence under a truth Skill. We deal with this, and they won¡¯t live to be interrogated. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I was too busy trying to Shadow Spike the creatures in range to pay much attention to Kelda. Most of the birds had a Feather strengthening skill, so I had to go for the eyes or get the angle right to slide under the feathers. Then Kelda came back into view. She was wreathed in flame, riding a burning griffon into the ground. They were being chased by a crazed Avion who was trying to stop what she was doing to her bond. The griffon was frantic to escape, but Kelda had broken one of its wings. Just before it hit the ground, Kelda lept off, and it was impaled onto a row of Earthen Spikes. Kelda kept rolling as the enraged Avion kept coming straight for her. Suddenly the Avion was bashed to the side as Horny charged into her with Runa on his back. Runa lept off Horny, and Shield Bashed the Avion and stabbed through her neck, almost decapitating her. She then spun, hiding behind her shield, and the area was inundated with arrows. By my count, there was one more griffon up there, the wyvern and 12 - 15 Avion. At the rate they have expended arrows, I am guessing they are at least halfway through their supply. Ruku and I have dealt with four bonds, which has got to be upsetting for them. I was on the wall watching Ruku¡¯s back and using shadows for selective strikes. Ruku caught an owl in his net. I think he considers this like net fishing. However, I had no more room to ponder this as a desperate Avion and two of his mates came swooping down to save his bond. This is exactly what Ruku was waiting for, and the three of them crashed into a wall of water and fell on the inside of the fort wall. I dove off the wall after them with a knife in each hand. One died before we hit the ground, and the other two shortly afterwards. They were disorientated, and I was not, and that is all it takes. I picked myself up out of the mud Ruku¡¯s water created as two enraged bonds assaulted me. I got my knife on one, and Binding Shadows caught the other for me to finish. Then I heard a roar from Te?ka and saw a green light reflected off the top of the wall. Shit, what¡¯s happening? I lept back up to the top of the wall using Shadow Step. The others were fighting from the edge of the tree line, and the whole area was now lit with a green flame from the wyvern. Te?ka caught it worst as he was so large, but I could also see Astrid running between people healing. The wyvern didn¡¯t fly high this time but swung around low to return for another pass. I caught sight of an Avion flying with it in perfect synchronisation. Its bond was directing it carefully. ¡°Look out,¡± Ruku shouted and shoved me off the wall. I caught myself with Binding Shadows, but I could only watch as the griffon grabbed Ruku in its claws and rose into the air. Ruku¡¯s shove had saved me from getting impaled by the spear carried by the griffon¡¯s avion bond. They had executed a joint attack when I had been distracted. I shadow-stepped back up onto the wall. Ruku was being carried higher. I wasn¡¯t too worried about him, and everybody forgot about his bond, Wai who is a small, concentrated bundle of poison. I looked over to the main group, and the wyvern had just finished its second pass. The one was less effective as everybody had time to take cover. Just as the green flame finished, two things happened unexpectedly. Modrica stepped out of the trees, ignoring the acid flame that licked at her legs, and she threw something at the wyvern. It wasn¡¯t an Earthern Spike or a net. Before I could see what it was, the whole area lit up with Kelda¡¯s Wings of Flame, and she launched herself at the Avion, flying with the wyvern. She caught her as well. And they both tumbled to the ground. Then, the wyvern crashed to the ground next to them. Its wings were all twisted with a twelve-meter-long Venom Serpent wrapped around them. I had forgotten T¨¡oke wasn¡¯t with Wiremu. I saw T¨¡oke try to sink his fangs into the wyvern, but the scales were too hard. I also saw bits of Granite crumble away from T¨¡oke¡¯s body, so it looks like the scales also resisted the Granite Spikes. Then I saw his body tighten around the wyvern, twisting the wings more and breaking one of them. Then, his body started to glow with heat. If the scales are like T¨¡oke¡¯s, they are weak to temperature. Ruku and the griffon crashed into the trees not far from the road. I sent Nyx to help him as I jumped onto Dusk to provide air cover for the main fight. Now the wyvern was grounded. I could canopy my shadows to confuse the archers above, maybe binding some to bring them down. I have realised my Binding Shadows can act like flexible nets. They need wings to keep flying so they can be brought down with some small entangling. Dusk and I exited the gate and headed to the main fight when I saw the wyvern enshroud its entire body in acid flame, trying to get rid of T¨¡oke. T¨¡oke¡¯s lava, or it was probably Puia, resisted this and kept burning. What scared me was the Avion Kelda had brought down did the same thing to her, and her fire winked out. The Avion cast Kelda aside and turned to help her bond, launching herself at T¨¡oke. Kelda lay still on the ground, green flames licking at her body. I caught the Avion in Binding Shadows. She quickly burned through them, but it was enough that she landed short, and Te?ka charged her with Modrica beside him. The Avion shot flames at them, but those two had Armoured Skin. The flames burned through part of the Armoured Skin, but those two don¡¯t know how to stop. The Avion was distracted by a crazed flaming sparrow that dive-bombed into her eye. If Liten has lost it, Kelda may not be alive. Te?ka bowled over the Avion, who was now blind in one eye and the crazed sparrow was circling and diving at her. Modrica¡¯s flail came down, chipping the scales that appeared on the Avion. She obviously shared skills with the wyvern. Her wings were the weakness, and Modrica¡¯s second strike broke one of her wings. I was mostly concentrating on what was happening above us, and two more bonds had crashed in my Binding Shadows as five Avion dived down to help their leader. I saw Astrid¡¯s bond Trassig dash to Kelda. That cleaver stoat managed to pour most of a potion down her throat. I hope she is alive. I directed Dusk, and we charged into one of the Avions, Dusk¡¯s hooves cracking bones. Runa and Horny engaged one each, and Mayakku riding C¨­mp¨¥?i took out a fourth. The fifth was swiped out of the air by Modrica¡¯s flail, and I don¡¯t even know if it was deliberate. I was more worried about T¨¡oke as the wyvern had one foot free and clawed at T¨¡oke¡¯s body. I left Dusk to deal with the Avions and launched myself at the wyvern. I came down on him with both knives stabbing at his neck. Only my Blacksteel knife penetrated the scales. The other knife just bounced. The wyvern¡¯s head came around at me to either bite or flame, but I shadow-stepped over it. If it is concentrating on me, it is not ripping T¨¡oke to shreds. I flashed Intimidating Aura to distract all enemies, but I didn¡¯t have any attention to spare. I stabbed at the Wyvern''s eye but only scratched the scales next to it. It was fast, and I would have lost a hand without Shadow Merge. It meant I dropped my knife, but that wasn¡¯t too bad, as my Shadow Manipulation brought it back to me. Only my Blacksteel knife was doing any damage, and even that was only minor. My role was to keep it distracted and keep T¨¡oke and myself alive until Te?ka and Modrica could get here. My arm was burned badly, and my leg was bleeding badly when help finally arrived. It wasn¡¯t Te?ka and Modrica. It was C¨­mp¨¥?i. That massive lion bit into the wyvern''s throat and his piercing affinity meant those massive teeth cut through the scales. He was not letting go for anything. The wyvern tried to throw him off but couldn¡¯t move much because of T¨¡oke. Blood was pouring out of the throat past C¨­mp¨¥?i and being splattered everywhere. I just backed off and looked around. Mayyakku was with Astrid doing something with Kelda, so that is hopeful. Modrica was wounded. Her arm was limp. Te?ka had the Avion pinned and was in the process of ripping out her throat. The five Avion were all dead. Runa was probably the healthiest of us all, but Horny had a broken leg. Dusk¡¯s wounds were closing, as were mine. I saw Ruku limp out of the edge of the forest onto the road. He was seriously hurt if he was limping and using a spear as a crutch. Then the wyvern bled out and died. We were all tired, we all had wounds of some sort, and we were low on energy. The remaining Avion had fled, and then I heard Duke Boris say, ¡°Kill them all.¡± He and thirty guards were fast trotting toward us from his mansion. Modrica took one look at them, bent down and picked up the avion corpse at her feet, sunk her tusks into the neck and started drinking. I haven¡¯t used the Rampage Skill since the Month of the Black Butcher in Jern. That was about to change. Shadows closed in. Dusk reared and screamed out her challenge, and I went on the Rampage. 231. Base Busting: Wiremu.

231. Base Busting: Wiremu.

My main job was to make sure nobody escaped to raise the alarm. The best spot for that would be on the roof of the wyvern barn, where I could see most things, and I was reasonably confident my bow could bring down any escapees. Everybody here had wings, so escape would be by flying. Rodion¡¯s job was to kill as many people quietly as possible. I was better at that, but I also needed to keep an eye on the griffon. The griffon was the most dangerous creature here. If the griffon got loose, Rodion was to come back and help. He left most of his dogs here. Before we got to killing, there was the looting. Normally you would loot after the killing, but we weren¡¯t planning on leaving anything standing, and I already knew where the main safe was. I didn¡¯t try to open the safe, as I would destroy any paperwork in it. Rodion and I just ripped it out of the floor and carried it out into the bush near where we climbed up. Then we hid it. As we were about to go our separate ways, I suddenly stopped. ¡°T¨¡oke is hurt. They have engaged the wyvern.¡± ¡°Can we get back in time?¡± I shook my head, ¡°It will all be over in the next hour.¡± ¡°Then let''s do this quick and get back to them,¡± Rodion said. I nodded, ¡°At least we know where the wyvern is and won''t get surprised by them.¡± We started to jog our separate ways. The quickest way for me to get to the roof of the wyvern barn was through the internal stair access. I entered the barn and froze. That was unexpected. On one side of the barn was a depression dug into the dirt floor lined with fur. In the centre of this depression were two eggs. They had to be wyvern eggs. They were about the size of my head. I had no idea how fragile they might be, but I knew they would be worth a massive amount of coin. I could see the army snatching them up for combat bonds. I grabbed some fur and wrapped each egg individually and then together in a larger fur. I took off running, stashed them with the safe, and ran back. I checked the middle barn, as eggs for bird bonds are also popular. Three nests had eggs, but I had to kill an owl. That will alert whoever its bond was. I wrapped and stashed the eggs closer and raced up to the roof of the wyvern barn as a noisy fight erupted in the base. Time for action. I readied my bow and created a stone spear. The griffon was stirring. I was annoyed I wouldn¡¯t be able to check for griffon eggs. Do griffons lay eggs or give birth to live young like mammals? I didn¡¯t know. I did know there was only one live griffon in the barn. Puia rose from the ground outside the barn, split into two small spider-type creatures and moved to the wall of the griffon barn on either side of the doorway. Puia¡¯s job was to burn everything to the ground, starting with bringing a burning barn down around the griffon. The wooden walls started burning. The noise of the fight increased with the barking of dogs, and then an Avion burst out of the tree canopy and headed to the griffon barn. My arrow clipped his wing, but he managed to right himself, and the griffon screeched. The barn was well alight, and suddenly, the flames in the doorway blew out, and the griffon barged out. As it came through the door, I triggered one of the Puias to fall onto its back. The other Puia was to move through the buildings, ensuring they were all ablaze. The griffon screeched again, this time in pain as Puia burned its back. I put an arrow in its chest and shot at the incoming Avion again, missing this time. All my arrows were imbued with poison. The Avion changed direction and came at me, dodging my next arrow. The griffon turned and spread its wings to come at me as well, but the dogs were snapping its legs, distracting it. I decided to ignore the Avion and put a full Venom Arrow in the Griffon. I then shouldered my bow and picked up the spear I had created. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The avion was too smart to fly straight into a spear and landed on the other side of the building. I was too smart to let it get sorted and threw darts at him as I advanced. One of them hit. I was a bit sad I couldn¡¯t pre-make lava darts. However, the poison should be building in his system. He came at me with a sword. From his stance, I picked up he was used to having a light shield as well, but he didn¡¯t have it. He must have given the griffon stronger instructions as it ignored the dogs and flapped its wings to attack me. The dogs had done their job, though, as a Howling Stun came from Rodion, and he combined his Sprint with his new Shield Charge, knocking the griffon off its feet, then laying into it with his sword. I was fully engaged with the Avion. I could tell he wanted to go and help his bond, but one small hesitation and I would have him. My spear had the reach on him, so I pressed forward with relative safety. He used his wings to dart around, and that surprised me the first time, but my armour and Snakeskin stopped any real damage. If he had had his shield with him, I think I would be the one pressed backwards. I surprised him by making a lava dart, and it lodged in his wing and started burning. His wings helped his manoeuvrability, but they were also bigger targets. Rodion and the dogs were getting the upper hand on the Griffon with Puia¡¯s help. The Avion was getting desperate to help and surprised me with a Screeching sonic attack before leaping off the building and diving toward Rodion. I was expecting a desperate move, but the sonic attack was a surprise. It was blunted a bit by my Hearing Aid, but seconds matter in these things. The Avion was almost on Rodion before my spear struck him square in the back. All of us have been practising our Throw Weapons Skills. I grabbed my bow and put a Venom arrow in him as well, and the griffon was going berserk. I started putting arrows in it as well. The fight was largely over, and Rodion finished the Griffon off to get his second Monster Kill. Two of Rodion''s dogs were injured and would need attention. He fed them half a healing potion each and let them feast on griffon guts. I let Rodion dig out the monster core and harvest the feathers and other non-perishable parts. I went searching for any remaining treasure and helped finish setting the buildings alight. I found a few minor coin stashes and a few nice pieces of armour. The armour was made for Avions, and while it would sell well, we were going to have enough trouble lugging the safe back. I threw the armour into the fires. I went into the wyvern barn and grabbed the better furs before setting it alight. I was going to need to make something to carry the safe with. I wrapped the furs around some sturdy poles, and we could carry it together, or one of us could drag it. We also needed some way to carry the injured dogs and the eggs. I guess if the eggs broke, we could always scramble them for breakfast. It is probably good T¨¡oke is not here as he loves eggs. T¨¡oke is Regenerating fine, and I have the sense they defeated the wyvern. However, he has concerns about Kelda. That has me worrying. I want to get back as soon as possible. Do I take the time to open the safe, or do we just carry it back as it is? The safe is not of a type I have seen before and is a solid block of spiritual material. Even the door didn¡¯t have the weakness I expected. I decided to carry it back and let a proper workshop at it. Rodion carried the two dogs while I carried the eggs. To get the safe to the bottom of the hill, we decided to toss it off the cliff and see what happened. If it contained anything breakable, it would be broken. Unfortunately, the safe itself didn¡¯t break. There were some dents, but it was very well made. It didn¡¯t rattle too much, so we put it in the sling and headed back to the city. It was going to take us well over a day to get there, even with a more direct route. When I looked back after the sun had come up, there was black smoke visible, making the location obvious. I didn¡¯t see any flyers heading there, but there were clouds around, and I was more interested in making good time back than watching the sky. 232. Emergency: Tabitha

232. Emergency: Tabitha

Rampage takes its toll. I levelled it over the hump into Journeyman. I slept for six hours straight after that and, even then, felt weak. I didn¡¯t kill 30+ specialised warriors by myself, though. With the wyvern down, Nyx and I were free to use our shadows, and we Engulfed the whole area. I ensured the Duke was bound until I could get to him, but that was about the limit of my conscious thought. I was tired and very angry, and I just let it flow. When the guards lost visibility, they grouped into twos and threes to watch each other''s backs, but they had no chance, really. It was a slaughter. They never had the chance to doge when Dusk charged out of the shadows and trampled them. They never saw Modrica¡¯s flail until they were splattered with their comrade''s brains, or a blood-covered lion would pounce and rip them apart. Runa was in there with her shield charge and sword, and Te?ka meandered from one group to another, leaving destruction in his wake. It was the stuff of nightmares, but none of them would ever have any again. For myself, I had one target, the Duke. I cut my way through to him and then proceeded to cut him to pieces. The whole thing was over in less than five minutes. Ruku hadn¡¯t even limped all the way over when I lifted the shadows and basically collapsed. Ruku took charge. He had a broken leg, but once it was in a splint, he was fine. Astrid was pouring all her energy into keeping Kelda alive. The sun was well up when I woke, and the first thing I saw was Horny. He was lying not far from me with his leg in a splint at an awkward angle. I worked out we were in the fort, in one of the completed barracks. I was in a bottom bunk. As my Spatial Awareness expanded, I was aware that Modrica and Te?ka were just outside and had a small fire going. There was food, which was what I was interested in. I levered myself up. I was going to be weak and sore for a while. When I got to my feet, I checked on T¨¡oke, who was in the top bunk, still in his large form. He seemed to be healing fine. Modrica grunted at me when I came out of the barracks and handed me a plate of food. I sat down on the ground and leaned my back against Te?ka as I ate. I could hear shouting outside the walls, but some of it was Ruku and Runa, so I didn¡¯t worry. About half an hour later, I got up and washed off most of the blood and grime and made myself look presentable. Yes, that took a minor application of my Body Image Skill. I then went out to see what was going on. Ruku had called in the army to take charge of the mansion and the clean-up. The Captian was there in person with two squads. Ruku and Runa were making sure the Monster cores and materials were not going where they shouldn¡¯t. The army had not met Runa, but once they found out she was a member of the King¡¯s Guard, they were all very proper and efficient. Apparently, you have to be pretty special to become a member of the King¡¯s Guard. Having met several of them, I didn¡¯t see anything particularly special about them, but whatever. It was almost like she was a celebrity to them. A particularly badass celebrity they were half afraid of. Astrid, Mayakku and their bonds had taken Kelda into the city to the best healer they had. ¡°Astrid is worried some of the damage is going to be permanent. They are with the local specialist but may need to wait till we get to Waiouru to know.¡± Ruku said. ¡°What damage are we talking about?¡± ¡°Permanent scarring and potentially permanent eyesight loss. Both eyes are gone, and there is acid damage to the optic nerve. She is still unconscious and is lucky to be alive. Without Tressig getting a potion into her so quickly, she wouldn¡¯t be.¡± ¡°I am not sure that is going to be any consolation to her when her whole class is orientated around observing.¡± Ruku just nodded, and I could tell he was very worried as well. My anger was rising again. The stupid army trained her as a Warrior, for which she was totally unsuited. If they had trained her as an Archer, she would have specialised by now and probably have the Monster Hunter Class with the Regeneration Skill. But she doesn¡¯t, and there is no way she could get it now, and it may not work with existing permanent injuries. ¡°Let¡¯s hope it is not permanent,¡± Ruku said. I was worried about Wiremus''s reaction. He really cared for Kelda. If I am angry, he may be furious enough to go on the warpath. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Ruku updated me on things. There were three monster cores. Ruku and Modrica got the credit for a griffon each. Surprisingly C¨­mp¨¥?i got the credit for the wyvern kill even though T¨¡oke did most of the work. This should make for an interesting class opening up for Mayakku. I have no idea what class an enchanter with a monster kill would get. Has there ever been such a thing before? Everybody was wanting to know why the Duke would attack us. A fast rider had summoned his Heir, but it would take a week for her to get here. Many were wondering if the Duke did attack us or if we attacked the Duke. Some of the servants in the mansion verified the Duke attacked us, and the army Captain was satisfied, but that wouldn¡¯t stop the rumours. Or the questions about why. Why? What links the Duke to the Dragon farters, to the beast attacks on his own city, to an empty fort with a view to the road to Waiouru? Then there are the missing taxes, the sabotaged communications¡­ the total lack of communication with Waiouru, either by messenger or courier. The courier company has had personnel losses. ¡°Tell me about this Countess and the wolfkin to the south,¡± I asked Ruku. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about the countess. Krov¡¯ runs the city-state to the south. He is a large, aggressive wolfkin and proudly displays his blood affinity. He has proved very hard to kill. Four years ago, he took over an adjacent city and took the title of Warlord. It was a nasty fight, and the kingdom was hoping it would be his death. His blood affinity brought him through to victory. He always travels with two hundred elite wolfkin warriors called the Blood Bitches.¡± ¡°I am sure any competent healer could fix that,¡± I said before the realisation hit me. Ruku and I both turned and looked at the fort at the same time. ¡°That troll turd sold us out.¡± I looked at Ruku, ¡°Did Mayakku fix the emergency rune communication system?¡± I asked. ¡°She thinks so, but it hasn¡¯t been tested yet.¡± ¡°Captian!¡± I yelled at the army captain, ¡°I need you and your communications officer at the compound now! It is a category 1 emergency!¡± Dusk came out from the fort. ¡°Runa, go with her!¡± Ruku said, obviously regretting his still broken leg. ¡°What, on that mountain?¡± she said, eyeing Dusk suspiciously. ¡°Dwarves avoid heights, and for good reason!¡± She still trotted forward and allowed herself to be hoisted up. The Captain and I galloped back to town, straight to the compound. The Captain called for his officer, and we gathered in the communications room. ¡°What do I send and to whom?¡± the officer asked, then tacked on ¡°Ma¡¯am¡± after a look from his Captain. ¡°You send this immediately to Waiouru,¡± I handed a sheet Runa had just written for me. It looked like gibberish to me. The communications officer and the Captian both understood it and went white. ¡°I can¡¯t send this,¡± the officer stammered. ¡°It says Invasion Imminent. Nobody ever sends this.¡± ¡°You will send it to Waiouru and then repeat it to Kirghiz on my authority as Countess Auditor.¡± ¡°And on my authority as a King''s Guard,¡± Runa added. I didn¡¯t know the King¡¯s Guard had any authority outside of protecting his majesty¡¯s hairy arse. He looked to his Captain, who nodded to him, and he got to work sending the message. Then he took a deep breath, changed some settings, and sent the same thing to Kirghiz. He looked exhausted after five minutes of work. It must have taken a lot of energy. ¡°Nobody is to speak of this. If I hear one whisper, neither of you two will make it to the court marshall.¡± I didn¡¯t want a whisper to get out to the inevitable spies in the town. I needed the army to get her first, and at their best speed, they were two weeks away. I hope Krov¡¯ and his bitches were longer. I was pretty sure they were due to the expected completion of the fort. I debated killing the communications officer because we had not found out who sabotaged the runes, and he could be a traitor. In the end, I decided against it. Even a barely competent communication Officer should be able to do a better sabotage job than that. The Captain contained my problem by declaring an emergency. I thought I had already done that, but whatever. This made the one and only communications officer required to be on the compound and almost living in the communications room for the duration. Sure enough, the runes lit up, and a signal chimed with a message from Waiouru, asking for code confirmation. I told him to resend it with Runa and my IDs as verification. Then they chimed again with confirmation that the Second Infantry Division was on emergency mobilisation to Skog. The communications officer was exhausted. There would be no more messages out for a day or so while he recovered. There should have been at least two of them here. Mayakku might be able to send something with directions, but it was done. Now, it was all down to timing. Now, I had a more difficult task of checking on Kelda and keeping Wiremu from going on a rampage. He is the one who normally holds me in check. I don¡¯t know how to do this. 233. Damage: Wiremu

233. Damage: Wiremu

¡°What do you mean it might be permanent?¡± I yelled. ¡°We are not sure. She is still unconscious, and the healers want to keep her that way as long as possible.¡± Rodion and I got in late that night, and Tabitha was waiting for us, with T¨¡oke obviously guiding her to us. She was guiding me to see Kelda, who was at the Healers Society. The sign outside said ¡°Society for Healthy Living¡±, then advertised ¡°Everything for your Total PMS Health¡±. ¡°PMS health? I asked. Tabitha looked at me like I was a simpleton, ¡°Physical, Mental, Spiritual Health.¡± ¡°Of course, the attributes,¡± I felt like a simpleton. I guess I wasn¡¯t thinking straight at the moment. ¡°Kelda looks a mess. She is mostly covered in bandages with healing salves to encourage skin growth and reduce scarring. She only has patches of hair. She is breathing OK. If it had got into her lungs ¡­ well, it didn¡¯t. I just don¡¯t want you to be upset when you see her.¡± ¡°I think it is too late for that already.¡± Kelda was in a private room on the first floor. Astrid was asleep in a chair next to her, and Liten flitted over and then back to Kelda. ¡°Yes, I know, little one, I feel helpless too,¡± I told her. Astrid woke at the sound of my voice, ¡°Oh, you are here, good. I will leave you alone with her.¡± I stopped her for a moment. ¡°Thank you so much. Tabitha said it was only because of you that she is alive.¡± ¡°Well, I already lost one team, I wasn¡¯t going to let it happen again.¡± Trassig, her stoat, scurried up her leg and hid in her jacket. ¡°The Healers will be around in the morning to change the dressings.¡± I sat in Astrid¡¯s chair, held Kelda¡¯s hand, and looked at her with every sense I could. The parts that weren''t bandaged were still raw. She had bandages over her eyes and most of her head. Her mouth wasn¡¯t covered, but there was some sort of cream on the skin. My Thermal Senses identified hotspots under the bandages, and this was confirmed by my Spiritual Senses that there was residue still there, which was being combated by the ointment. I reached over to the window, which was open enough for Liten to slip in and out. I opened it wider, and T¨¡oke slithered in. He was still quite injured and was in his 12m long form, and we didn¡¯t want to scare the healers, so he hadn¡¯t come in with us. He curled up under the bed. Tabitha grabbed a second chair from somewhere, and we just sat. After a while, I said, ¡°So there is going to be an invasion?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the plan,¡± she said. ¡°The beast attacks?¡± ¡°I think they are the excuse. Krov¡¯ turns up at the gate with an army, and Boris is all, ¡°Protect us from the constant attacks the Kingdom has abandoned us,¡± I raised an eyebrow at that. She shrugged and continued, ¡°He submits to Krov¡¯ to save his people. He can sell that to the people anyway.¡± ¡°So the wyvern group were here to isolate the city?¡± ¡°Yeh. I am pretty sure there is a spy in the courier company stopping messages for help, and those they can¡¯t stop, they then signal the bond so the dragon farters can intercept it. They were losing people. I haven¡¯t figured out who sabotaged the Rune Communications, but it was an amateur.¡± ¡°They have to know the kingdom wouldn¡¯t stand for it and that an army was coming.¡± ¡°I think the plan was to be entrenched and fortified before the kingdom finds out, so any attack is too costly, both in troops and civilian casualties. That was part of the reason for the fort. Ruku thinks that is a fifty / fifty gamble depending on the commander the army sends. Even if the army backs off, he says there are other methods. They just take longer.¡± ¡°Assassination, sabotage and infiltration?¡± ¡°Basically. I get the impression the kingdom has tried assassinating Krov¡¯ before, but his blood affinity has kept him alive. There is also some sort of Pack link with his Blood Bitches, which nobody seems to understand.¡± ¡°And there are two hundred of them. What¡¯s the plan if Krov¡¯ gets here first?¡± ¡°There are several being tossed around. We can¡¯t defend this place, and I am pretty sure Krov¡¯ will be surrounded by his Blood Bitches, so assassination is unlikely. The favoured plan at the moment is to retreat and meet up with the army.¡± The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Can you prove anything you just said?¡± ¡°Not much. When the army gets here, we will sweep for spies and try to get confirmation. There also might be something in that safe you brought back. The Blacksmith has only just started on it and is unhappy with the soldiers that won¡¯t let it leave their sight.¡± ¡°Why would Boris do this?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t stop to ask. My prevailing theory is he was bitter at the loss of his family and disillusioned at the Kingdom. I think he had just had enough. I haven¡¯t found whether any advisors were encouraging these thoughts or not. I have only just met them officially.¡± ¡°He has to know Krov¡¯ wouldn¡¯t leave him alive.¡± ¡°Maybe, maybe not. He may not have cared. One last ¡°Fuck you¡± to the king as he exits life. I don¡¯t know, and it doesn¡¯t matter anymore.¡± ¡°Let me know if you need me to do anything,¡± I said. ¡°I am good for now. I am running around playing Countess. Ruku and Runa are a big help. You stay with Kelda. She is going to need a lot of support when she wakes. The Healers have big concerns over her Mental Health. Her greatest ability and enjoyment in life have been stripped away, and it may be permanent.¡± ¡°Yeh, and by fire as well. It is going to resurface issues from her childhood.¡± Tabitha left soon after that, and I settled in for the night. I dozed on and off. Kelda stirred a couple of times but didn¡¯t wake. I woke to a scream. Sunlight was streaming in the window, and a Healer and two assistants were at the door to the room. ¡°What?¡± I asked a bit groggily. One of the assistants pointed to the other side of the bed and said, ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± I stretched my head and then said, ¡°Oh. That¡¯s T¨¡oke. He won¡¯t hurt you.¡± When I said he curled up under the bed, he was too big for that, and half of him was curled out the other side. His head rested on top, and he watched the door with his tongue tasting the air. I guess it could look intimidating. The intimidating look was a bit spoiled, in my opinion, as Liten was perched on top of his head, and she was fluffing her wings. ¡°We can¡¯t work with him there.¡± The healer said. ¡°Right. I said. ¡°He can pop out and sun himself on the roof for a bit. Actually, before he does, he has these lacerations. They are healing, but you might have something to speed it up?¡± I got T¨¡oke to uncurl enough for the healer to see. When they came into view, the healer took a sharp breath, ¡°How is he even moving?¡± ¡°With great difficulty, actually. The claws ripped out some of his bones in the area, and they will take time to Regenerate.¡± ¡°We have a whole Vetenary branch. Mike, run down and get the flesh replacement paste and notify senior Vet Geraldine, as she will be the best to help.¡± as Mike turned to leave, she said, ¡°Bring the big jar.¡± She turned to me and said if it is too painful to move, we can free up an adjoining room.¡± I got the impression from T¨¡oke he would prefer to lie in the sun. ¡°Thanks for the offer. He is fine to move. Our Pain Resistance is quite high.¡± She looked at us as if we were mad. Mike wasn¡¯t long, and I helped the healer cover the wounds with the paste. Geraldine would be along later in the morning to see him. We were just finishing when Trassig scampered into the room. He ran up T¨¡oke¡¯s curled body, nuzzled his head in greeting and jumped onto the bed to sniff Kelda. ¡°What are you doing blocking the doorway?¡± I heard Astrid¡¯s voice complain from the hall. The two assistants parted out of the way, and Astrid stopped at the door. ¡°Yep, that would crowd the room. Morning,¡± she greeted us. ¡°Morning,¡± I said as we finished, and I opened the window. T¨¡oke slithered out and up onto the roof. ¡°Don¡¯t get it dirty!¡± Astrid shouted at T¨¡oke. They wanted me to leave while they changed Kelda¡¯s bandages, but I insisted on staying. ¡°It is pretty horrible,¡± Astrid said. I just shrugged, so she turned to the Healer, ¡°Just do it. Nothing will move him if he doesn¡¯t want to move.¡± It was pretty horrible. They worked one limb at a time. One thigh was particularly bad, with acid marks on the bone. The skin and flesh were completely gone on the upper thigh. One arm was the same, but the other only had flesh wounds. Then, they started on the torso. She had been facing the attacker, so it was only the front that was burned, but it was bad. Several ribs were eaten through. One breast was gone completely, and the other was only half there. Then it got worse, and they uncovered her face and scalp. The flesh on her nose was gone, and only a damaged bone was there. She had no lips and scared teeth. Her eyes were just open sockets. No eyes, eyelids, or eyebrows, just empty space with scaring all through them. I barely registered the scalp with the skull visible. How did she even survive? How is she staying alive? The Army cheated her out of the Regeneration Skill by making her learn an unsuitable class. If she had been an Archer, she would have passed the journeyman level and specialised as a Monster Hunter. On the other hand, she wouldn¡¯t have nearly as high a Physical Constitution if she had the Archer Class. I checked her Status. She was always open to me. Her Warrior Class had levelled in that fight, but it was now Level 9, one short of the Journeyman Level, and the needed Specialisation. I looked at her Classes: Observer, Targeting, Tracker, Seeker. Are all those classes now useless to her? She will be able to see through Liten¡¯s eyes, and she has Flame Senses and Thermal Sensing (Air). Will it be enough? She was a Chef and Baker. The Army should have put her with the support division, and she could have cooked her way through her enlistment. Her tongue was half gone. Will she be able to taste anything again? I know it was not the whole army but a political faction that damaged her. I feel like hitting something hard and repeatedly. I want to kill something. Maybe I should go and join Krov¡¯. The Healers finished wrapping her back up, and the assistants left. The Healer and Astrid stood beside the bed and spent some time pumping some sort of Spiritual Healing into Kelda. I could sense the flow but didn¡¯t know what it actually was. Kelda wouldn¡¯t want me attacking her kingdom. I forced myself to sit back down and hold her hand. Pain Resistance didn¡¯t help with this type of pain. 234. Awake: Wiremu

234. Awake: Wiremu

The Healers woke Kelda after a week. At that point, she only had bandages on one leg, one arm, her chest and her eyes. Some of the regrown skin was smooth, like her nose, which was all new, but where the skin had been regrown over scared tissue, it was like wrinkled scars. This included her face, skull and neck, as well as most of the front of her body. The healers said the scars would fade with time but never go away. Once the healers had told her about her healing, the scars and her sight, they left us. Liten was perched on her shoulder, snuggled close, trying to comfort her. Then she just cried. There were no tears, just heart-wrenching sobs. I couldn¡¯t do anything except hold her. When she had cried herself out, she slept. I just stayed and held her. I really, really wanted to kill somebody, but Modrica had already killed them and sucked them dry of blood if Runa is to be believed. The next day Kelda was just going through the motions mechanically. There was none of the life in her I had come to know. It is like she was in shock. I didn¡¯t know what to do for her, so I stayed with her to be there. I wanted to do something, say something, but it seemed like there was nothing I could do. Liten was a comfort to her. She wanted time alone, so I went out to find a place to move her to. She would be able to move shortly, and the healers could come to her. If there is a fight, the beds at the Healer Society will be needed anyway. I went back with dinner, something easy for her to swallow. Tabitha joined us, ¡°The Army arrived today, well, the forward scouts. The main body is still four days away. The Captain wasn¡¯t convinced this was happening until I showed him the documents from the safe you brought back.¡± ¡°There was stuff there then?¡± ¡°Yeah. The Dragon Farters kept the orders from Krov¡¯ and the spy''s communication from here, including one from the Duke. Future blackmail, I think. There was info from some other jobs as well. It is being kept for the Military Intelligence team coming with the army.¡± ¡°Never trust a mercenary, ah?¡± I said with a wink. ¡°Damn right.¡± We continued with the light banter, and it seemed to put Kelda at ease somewhat, although she never joined in. I stayed the night with Kelda again. She had another crying session in the dark. ¡°You should have just let me die,¡± she whispered. ¡°Never going to happen,¡± I said. ¡°Why not? I am useless and disfigured. They won¡¯t want me as a Duchess now.¡± ¡°You are not useless at all, and I would be pleased if they don¡¯t want you as the duchess. You can come and live with me. Apparently, I own a farm near Duhovno.¡± ¡°Apparently? You don¡¯t know?¡± she sat up. I shrugged, ¡°The King bought it for me. I have never been there.¡± ¡°The king¡­?¡± she hit me on the shoulder, ¡°You swine. You are distracting me. Is that true?¡± I nodded, ¡°Yeah, but we will be raising chickens, not swine. T¨¡oke is partial to eggs. Actually, better make that emus or ostriches.¡± ¡°We better have a couple of swine. I like my bacon.¡± ¡°Deal.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t you get sick of me now I am ugly?¡± ¡°First of all, you are not ugly. These are battle scars. You have seen every one of mine. Not even Regeneration takes the scars away. Secondly, I have a skill I can teach you to cover them up if you don¡¯t want someone to know about them. Veneer is a short-term Skill, but you will never need to cover them up around me.¡± Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. She just held me for a while after that. Eventually, she said, ¡°You know most of my skills and classes are useless now.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know that. We still need to see the specialist in Waiouru. Even then, you can still see, so we need to test things.¡± ¡°Do you know what I see?¡± She held out a palm, and a small flame appeared. She was using her flame senses. ¡°Every time I look through this or Liten, all I see is me and the ugly scars.¡± ¡°And all I see is my princess.¡± She hit me on the arm again, ¡°It is Duchess to you, you imp.¡± There was some of that fire I was used to. ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡± We settled down again for the night after that. In the morning, I started teaching her Veneer. That afternoon, Tabitha came in. When she saw what we were doing, she stopped, horrified. ¡°No, no! Don¡¯t let him teach you, Veneer. He thinks the prime method of disguise is beards. If you let him teach you that, he will have you in a beard before the end of the day.¡± ¡°But they look good.¡± I moved my hand away from my face, and I was wearing my red goatee beard with a pencil moustache that I knew Tabitha hated. ¡°See? You, too, could look like this.¡± ¡°Hmmm,¡± said Kelda noncommittally. ¡°You can see he has a thing for redheads,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that,¡± Kelda said, and she turned her head toward me. More importantly, I saw Liten turn her head so one eye directly faced me. ¡°Red beards are looking more attractive all the time.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we will get the skill levelled to Apprentice in no time, and you too can look like this,¡± I said. Tabitha shook her head, ¡°You two deserve each other. I actually came to say the cottage is ready if you want to relocate. I have a couple of big, burly blokes out here to carry you. It is not far.¡± ¡°I am not big and burly,¡± said Ruku, ¡°I am old and decrepit.¡± ¡°And I am not a bloke,¡± said Runa. ¡°I fit that description, though,¡± said Rodion. Modrica just grunted. ¡°Look out. Make way, coming through,¡± said Astrid as she pushed past and into the room. Mayakku was on her heels. ¡°After all, I am the one who says whether she can be moved or not.¡± She looked at Kelda, ¡°Do you want to be relocated from this fine ¡­ ah ¡­. Healer bed in a busy Healers Society hall to a small, quiet, sunny cottage? Actually, I can¡¯t guarantee the quiet bit with this lot.¡± ¡°Speak for yourself, woman,¡± Runa said loudly. Kelda nodded and Astrid¡¯s question and Astrid proclaimed, ¡°I hereby declare she can be moved! Let''s do this!¡± Rodion dragged a stretcher into the room, and we set about moving her. It was fun, and Astrid made sure we didn¡¯t do any damage. The cottage was a bit bigger than what it sounds like. It was two-story and not far from the healer''s hall. We had prepared a room on the ground floor for Kelda, with doors that open onto the sunny yard. The yard looked smallish with Te?ka and C¨­mp¨¥?i lying in the sun and dogs running around. The cottage was too small for us all, but Tabitha, Ruku and Runa were staying in official residences elsewhere. It was a typical wooden cottage, but Kelda took a sharp breath in surprise when she saw her room. I had lined the walls, floor and ceiling in granite, and the bed and key furniture were petrified. ¡°When?¡± she asked me. I ignored the question and said, ¡°It is so you don¡¯t have to worry about holding back if you don¡¯t want to.¡± ¡°That is our cue to get out of here,¡± Tabitha announced, and they all filed out, leaving us alone. I saw Kelda¡¯s cheeks go red in embarrassment. She was always so tightly controlled with her affinity that the only time she lost control was when she was in the throes of passion. ¡°I¡¯m not¡­¡± ¡°No, no, you need to be much better before we make love,¡± I said. ¡°But sometimes I just need to let my anger out. Normally, I go hunting, and I don¡¯t really know how you show your anger except by hitting me in the arm, but if you need to¡­¡± I shrugged. ¡°Thank you. I never let my affinity loose. It is just too ¡­¡± she paused, ¡°bad memories,¡± she finally concluded. I just nodded. Then she said in a quiet voice, ¡°Do you really want to have sex with me looking like this?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t just want to have sex with you. I want to make love to you, always. It doesn¡¯t matter what you look like. It is you, that amazing woman inside there,¡± I tapped her forehead, ¡°that I am in love with.¡± ¡°You are in love with me?¡± ¡°Was that not obvious?¡± ¡°You are an amazing man, Wiremu Hunter.¡± I winked at her, ¡°I know.¡± She hit my arm again. ¡°Hey, I have another Skill I could teach you,¡± I said. ¡°It could be a lot of fun. ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°Yeah, it is called Roleplay.¡± 235. Decisions: Wiremu

235. Decisions: Wiremu

After the healers left the next morning, I dragged a table next to Kelda¡¯s bed. I laid some fur on it and placed three eggs. ¡°What is this?¡± she asked. ¡°This is something for you and Liten to consider, and the decision must be from both of you. You bonded with Liten; these eggs are from birds with good sight skills, and you may be able to bond with one of them. This is normally very difficult without the right class, but my Bond Care Skill can help, greatly increasing the chances. This egg is a Tawny Owl and has unparalleled night vision. This egg is from a Golden Eagle, the best distance sight.¡± ¡°What is the big one? One I can ride?¡± ¡°Possibly, but it is different. This is a wyvern egg.¡± She was shocked, ¡°You found a wyvern egg?¡± ¡°We found two. Wyverns are born monsters with an affinity. Mayakku and I tested the two eggs with the ritual, and this one was more fire-orientated than acid. If you want to try to bond with it, we should run the ritual again with your fire as one of the elements. There is a chance for you to bond; there is no guarantee, and it affects both of you.¡± ¡°And your Skill can do this?¡± ¡°My skill can help. These two birds,¡± I pointed to the owl and eagle eggs, ¡°are more compatible than the others. The Wyvern is a wild card, and we can narrow the margin of error with the ritual..¡± ¡°I am not sure.¡± ¡°There is no hurry. The bird eggs won¡¯t hatch in less than a week. We actually have no idea about the wyvern.¡± Kelda took a breath, plucking up her courage, ¡°I¡­ I am not sure I can actually fight again.¡± she said quietly as if afraid of my reaction. I sat down on the edge of the bed. ¡°That is completely fine. You never wanted to be a fighter in the first place. You don¡¯t have to. Nobody will make you. Not while I am here.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mind?¡± ¡°Of course, I don¡¯t mind. Most people don¡¯t fight. You are a chef and a baker. What man doesn¡¯t want his woman in the kitchen?¡± I got my arm hit for that. ¡°Possibly even barefoot and pregnant.¡± That got me a harder hit. ¡°I never said I would have your sprats, you barbarian hunter!¡± ¡°Oo, Ooh. Me hunt, you cook,¡± I said in my best barbarian imitation. It wasn¡¯t very good. ¡°It probably means I won¡¯t come into the empire with you. I know how much that means to you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want you to come if you are uncomfortable with the risks and what will happen. There will be more injuries, possibly death. We have time. We are going to Waiouru to see that specialist first.¡± She nodded. ¡°You think about it, and you and Liten think about the eggs. We don¡¯t have to try any of it. All those eggs will get good coin, especially the wyvern. The army is here, and they will be a great market. You get the first option.¡± I left them alone to think. Kelda lay back to sleep. She tired easily still. Liten jumped onto the table and investigated the eggs as I closed the door behind me. It really was up to them. I went out to find Tabitha, but Rodion and Runa found me first. ¡°You¡¯re coming with us!¡± Rodion declared. ¡°Where were we going?¡± ¡°Drinking!¡± declared Runa. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°You need to get out more. We haven¡¯t been drinking since Kirghiz!¡± Rodion declared. I thought about it briefly, then said, ¡°You know it might be time Wild Bill arrived in town.¡± ¡°That''s right!¡± Rodion declared, ¡°Wild Bill is much more fun than stuffy old Wiremu.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I have ever met Wild Bill,¡± said Runa. ¡°You are in for a treat then,¡± Rodion said. ¡°OK, give us ten minutes, and I will meet you outside.¡± It did sound like fun, and I felt like I could let loose as Wild Bill more than as myself. Sometimes, Roleplaying is fun. We got back late. Early. Whatever. Kelda was asleep when I checked on her, so I left her with it. When the healers left in the morning, for Kelda, not me, Kelda asked questions about bonding with the eggs. My Bond Care would help, but it is very difficult with two bonds without the right class or a similar species. If she were Avion, two-bird bonds would be fairly straightforward as long as they were compatible. Gwaed had a Druid-type class that enabled multiple bonds. Bonds that differ are easier, like Tabitha and myself with Animal and Elemental Bonds. Elementals are very rare, but she might be better off finding a fire elemental. Puia wasn¡¯t interested, but I got the impression there were less rock-oriented and more fire-focused elementals in the Steam Lands where I found Puia. ¡°You might be better off with just you and Liten if you want to go back and be a Duchess,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t necessarily want to be a Duchess, but I will have to go back and sort out some sort of solution with my family.¡± ¡°Your Dad is the problem, right?¡± ¡°He is not a problem as such. He has been distant and stern ever since my older brother died in the fire. I think he blames me even though he denies it. I was seven, for fucks sake! I didn¡¯t even know I had an affinity!¡± I could tell her father wasn¡¯t the only one with lingering issues. It was also the root cause of her reluctance to fight. She was amazing to have made it through five years of military service. I suddenly realised she had come with me and continued to fight because she wanted to support me and as a way of procrastinating from heading back to her family. Maybe it was time for her to head back. She needs to decide that, though. ¡°Your Mum¡¯s OK, though?¡± ¡°Yeah. It turns out she is actually Dad¡¯s spymaster, but nobody is supposed to know that. I only found out when I was on leave after the goblins. I was too observant, apparently.¡± There was some bitterness coming out in the last sentence. It was a reminder of what she had lost. I brought the conversation back to the present, ¡°What does Liten think about all this?¡± Liten was perched on her shoulder, and she reached a hand up to stroke the sparrow, ¡°Liten is frustrated she couldn¡¯t protect me. I think she considers me like a chick that needs protecting, and she couldn¡¯t do that.¡± ¡°Interesting. I was thinking about your classes and Skills last night.¡± ¡°Last night when you were drunk?¡± ¡°My Poison Resistance is too high for me to really get more than a buzz, but yes, last night when I was drunk. Not all your observation skills are sight-based. Two, in particular, are more spiritually oriented. I am thinking of Trackers Insight and Seek Hidden. They are more intent and spiritually focused.¡± She thought for a bit, hopefully engaging her Sharp Mind. ¡°You are thinking I could get some sort of Prophetic or Oracle-based class?¡± ¡°It is a possibility.¡± ¡°How would I do that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t actually know. My first thoughts would be to focus on those two Skills and try to figure out how they do what they do.¡± ¡°You have some interesting ideas when you are drunk.¡± ¡°Well, I don¡¯t have your Sharp Mind Skill, so I have to substitute with excessive external spirit potions.¡± ¡°That''s what you are calling it now?¡± I grinned. ¡°That distillery has a great potion maker. The trouble is the good ideas come with bad ideas.¡± She got serious, ¡°OK, spit it out. You thought of something you don¡¯t think I will like.¡± She has got to know me too well. I took a breath, ¡°Have you tried using your Eyes of Fire yet?¡± She stopped, and Liten also focussed on me. Several candles were also burning around the room, so she could be looking at me from any of them. ¡°I haven¡¯t. I was afraid they wouldn¡¯t work without eyes, and it would be another useless Skill.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think any of your Skills have been made useless with the loss of your eyes. You can still use Keensight and Darksight, etc., through your Shared Senses with Liten and through your Flame Senses. They just have to be used slightly differently.¡± She was silent for quite a while. ¡°Should I remove the bandages?¡± ¡°I would start with them on. Eyes of Fire are for seeing through illusions, shadows and other obstructions. The bandages should count.¡± Then I saw two spots start to glow through the bandages. Her face relaxed from a tension that I had not noticed. ¡°I can see,¡± she whispered. ¡°The bandages are too thick, I think. Hang on.¡± She reached up, and I helped unroll two layers. She looked around the room, ¡°I can see,¡± she said, amazed, ¡°and I don¡¯t have to rely on an external source.¡± That was a relief. I was a bit worried myself, but I hoped it would work. ¡°We can get you some masks to wear.¡± I looked at her. ¡°We might be able to get masks that obscure the glow from the skill during the day, but I think it will always be visible at night.¡± 236. Change: Wiremu

236. Change: Wiremu

I am feeling very unsettled. I really don¡¯t want Kelda to leave, but it is looking more and more likely that she will go after Waiouru. I realise she is not asking me to stop my mission to go with her. I can''t ask her to stay with me when she is uncomfortable with the fighting. There will be lots of fighting. Bloody hell, this is hard. She hasn¡¯t decided yet and won¡¯t till after Waiouru, but I need to be prepared. I went with Tabitha and watched the army march in today. I think the whole city watched their arrival. There were almost three thousand troops under Colonel Peters. There were four majors under him, each with four captains, and so on down the line. Along with the army were two affinity users with their own squads. One was some sort of Nature Affinity, and the other was Air Affinity of some sort. The Colonel, his key leaders and the Affinity users took over the Duke¡¯s mansion and the fort for now. Half the troops stayed in the city, and the other half started construction of a new Army base just outside the walls. The Nature Affinity User did a lot of the work. I think it was a wood or tree affinity. This obviously took a lot of Tabitha and Ruku¡¯s time. Runa was on the periphery as well. I stayed well away. Kelda was allowed up the next day but only allowed gentle exercise. Her leg and chest still had bandages. Astrid says it will be maybe a week before we can think about travelling to Waiouru. While Tabitha hob nobbed with the top brass, Rodion and Wild Bill went drinking with the troops. I wanted a feel of how the soldiers felt. As expected, they had rushed here expecting a battle only to find it peaceful. Everybody was wondering what was going on. Some were thankful for the peace, and others wanted to test themselves. Everyone was glad they didn¡¯t have to fight in the streets with civilians. It was early evening, and I got warning vibes from T¨¡oke. He had stayed with Te?ka at the cottage, and something was wrong with Kelda and Liten. I got up to leave the tavern when the city alarm bells went off, and the army buglers trumpeted the call to arms. Krov¡¯ had arrived. My priority was Kelda. Krov¡¯ was why the army was here, so he was their problem. Everybody was moving at speed, so my running did not stand out. The door to Kelda¡¯s room was locked, so I knocked loudly. The ¡°Come in.¡± I received sounded strange, so I forced the door and entered. The first thing I saw was Kelda huddled on the floor, cradling something, holding it tight. The second thing I saw was the table with the eggs pulled to the centre of the room. The wyvern egg was cracked open. Did it hatch? I started moving forward, and a bloody mess at the table''s base came into view. I hope it is not Liten. No, I made out the dead remains of an almost-formed baby wyvern, lying with rips and cuts. I approached Kelda and saw she was cradling Liten, but a struggle was happening. I used my Analyse Bond Skill and ¡°Dragon shit!¡± It slipped out. ¡°She wanted to get stronger,¡± Kelda said. They cracked the egg and got the embryonic Moster Core from the wyvern, and Liten ate it. The core would not yet have formed properly, and the ritual said compatibility was not there. I wanted to run the ritual again with their fire to test it. A bond might happen with less compatible cores, but making a monster was a big risk, as Layla had shown us. ¡°What do I do?¡± Kelda said desperately. How the hell do I know? I didn¡¯t say that. I don¡¯t think. ¡°Stay strong. Let me examine the bond.¡± They were bloody idiots. Kelda should have known better. It was pointless saying that now, and I am sure Kelda was realising this in the worst way. I sat beside her and had a good close look at the bond. Before, the bond was like bright, dancing flames flickering between them. Now, everything was in turmoil. Keld¡¯s flames were the same, but Liten¡¯s were a mess. I even saw some green in there. There was no dancing it was like a battle, savage, fierce and consuming. ¡°The bond is strong, but the changes are on Liten¡¯s side. This is all new, so we are going to try some things. I am going to try to use my Bond Care Skill to make the bond flow one way, or at least I will try. I want you to flood the bond with as much fire as possible. Pass it all to Liten. It won¡¯t hurt her.¡± I had no idea how to use my Bond Care Skill like that. I gently grabbed it as I did with Onslo¡¯s Griffon, but instead of trying to break it, I wanted to massage the flow in one direction. Kelda¡¯s fire increased and pushed back to Liten I changed my grip and tried to create a series of ripples. I couldn¡¯t tell if it was helping. We kept at it with me, trying different things. ¡°Liten is changing,¡± Kelda said. She opened her hands, and I could see feathers and down in a pile like she was moulting. It reminded me of when T¨¡oke went through this. He shed his skin several times as the core was integrating, along with growing large and small again. Dusk and Te?ka didn¡¯t do anything like that, though. ¡°It is not unusual. T¨¡oke did something similar,¡± I reassured her, all the time thinking of Layla and her deformed wings. Her body changes were unnatural, and she couldn¡¯t fly or do anything. If she had lived, the wings would probably have had to be amputated. I didn¡¯t say any of that. ¡°This is going to be a long process. Let''s get you up on the bed and comfortable so you don¡¯t re-open any wounds.¡± I helped her up. She kept Liten close and covered in her hands. ¡°Keep filling her with fire.¡± I encouraged. When T¨¡oke went through this, he was merging the Shaman''s Skills with his and mine. An embryo doesn¡¯t have skills. An embryo is growing the body into the adult version. I am guessing here, but physical changes will probably be a strong focus. Two hours of work later, Kelda said, ¡°She is changing again.¡± ¡°Let me see.¡± Feathers were falling out again. I touched Liten gently. There was something hard there. Was it scales? It was too early to tell, and even if it is, she may not keep them. I poked through the feathers she shed, and I think there were a few tiny scales there as well. There are definitely going to be physical changes. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Try to focus your intent through the bond as well as how you appreciate her physical form and her personality and caring. Help her to focus on you and what you like about her physically, mentally and spiritually.¡± I had no idea if it would help, but it might, and it would keep Kelda busy and focused. By morning we had had two more intense sessions with no sign of it abating. My Bond Care had levelled, and my Analyse Bonds were one step from the Journeyman level. Liten had gone from feathers to some scales poking through and then just bare skin, which worried us. Feathers were growing back now. She hadn¡¯t changed in size. I did think her feet changed a bit, and I was a bit scared when I thought I saw teeth in her beak. The Healers arrived for the morning session, and I had to chase them away. At least there was no fighting happening out there. I didn¡¯t know what was happening, but Tabitha would be in the middle of it as she was the acting duchess. I am sure she has scammed them already. The morning dragged on. Kelda caught a few short naps between Liten¡¯s Spiritual struggles. I constantly tried to analyse the bond and compare it with the changes I observed. Sometimes, I think there is a spiritual comparison, and other times, I am completely baffled. Things settled down in the afternoon, but I was concerned as only one wing had feathers. The wyvern had leathery wings like a bat. At least it was not like that. Yet. Tabitha told me Dusk was trying different things when she consumed the panther core. Apparently, she tried to climb a tree. But this core will have no Skills. It has affinity and physical imprints. Dusk¡¯s hair is more like panther fur now, but she hasn¡¯t had many other physical changes. Liten¡¯s change is looking mostly physical and spiritual. The affinities are not the same, and that worries me. It brings me back to Layla and her constant sense of a strong wind blowing through her mind and the fact that she couldn¡¯t live with it. If I have to kill Liten to save Kelda, I will. We are not at that point yet. The pushing fire through the bond seems to be working. The fire is stronger in Liten and suppressing the other things. I assume the other is acid from the results of the ritual. They might be able to get a double affinity, but I feel Kelda is incompatible with acid. If it seems like it is going that way, I will kill Liten. Kelda might never forgive me if I do that, but I will do it anyway if I think it is necessary. Mid-afternoon, Liten started to moult again and give off a fiery and acid Spirituality. The fire was predominant, which I was pleased about. Liten was in pain, though. We couldn¡¯t sense where her pain was, but it went on and on for over two hours. I seriously thought she was going to die. One time, when she opened her beak to squark, I clearly saw teeth. It was nearly dinner time when she shuddered and squawked, and her beak fell out, revealing a small wyvern jaw full of teeth. Liten collapsed in exhaustion, and I wasn¡¯t sure it was over as the bond was still very unsettled. We all slept for a while. I woke first, and then Kelda woke. Liten was still asleep, or maybe unconscious. I encouraged Kelda to keep pressing Fire through the bond as I could still sense it was unsettled. Liten woke a few hours later and was in pain again. She started moulting feathers again. I pushed with my Bond Care Skill. I was worried about the acid. I wanted to emphasise the fire. Liten burst into flame. Kelda¡¯s flame was red, moving into orange, which was an indication of how hot it was. Liten''s flame was orange, moving into white. It was hotter and more intense. This was good. We wanted flame. She exhausted herself quite quickly, and when she had settled down, her body was covered in scales. Her wings were still feathers like a sparrow, but her body was scaled. Her body was still the short, almost round body of a sparrow with a feathered tail. She had not changed to the sinuous body of the wyvern except for her jaw and two small horns poking out of her head. Sometime later, it started again, and it almost felt like Liten was fighting us on something. ¡°She wants the acid,¡± Kelda said. ¡°Talk to her. I strongly think acid is bad for you. Communicate that. It won¡¯t make you stronger if you feel like you are being eaten by acid all the time. You must get stronger together.¡± Kelda tried, but Liten was stubborn. There was back and forth for hours. Liten would burst into flame, and then it seemed her taloned feet would drip acid, or her teeth would drool acid and then the flames again. At least she was not bursting into acid flames or breathing acid. In the end, I think it was T¨¡oke¡¯s intervention that settled it. He came up on the bed in his small form, which was still enough to wrap around Liten and squeeze. She burst into flame, but even with hot flame is not comparable to lava. He hissed at Kelda and me, almost telling us off for not trusting Liten. At least, that is what I got through our bond. I think he was communicating the same message to Liten about trusting us. Everybody backed down, and we rested. The bond settled down, and I realised the conflict was part of the cause of the disturbance. Dawn came and went, but we were fast asleep. I woke first and checked the bond. It was calm and flowing with fire. Not dancing anymore, but flowing strongly in both directions. It was definitely hotter. Liten looked like a strange amalgamation of a wyvern and a sparrow. She was the same size and body shape as a sparrow. She had the face, jaws, teeth and horns of a wyvern. Her body was feathered, but when I looked closer, I could see scales underneath. This was the same for her wings. Her tail was just feathers. The talons on her feet looked stronger and sharper, more like a miniature wyvern than a sparrow. I could only hope all the parts worked together OK. Kelda and Liten woke together, and Liten immediately proved she could move by flying to the table and pecking at the leftover food somebody had delivered last night. ¡°What is the Verdict?¡± I asked Kelda. ¡°She is a Sparrow Wyvern with a fire affinity. She has taken on all my useful Skills, including Tasty?¡± That was said in a puzzled way. ¡°Another connoisseur for your cooking.¡± ¡°She has Sharp Mind and Veneer¡­ Wait, there are two skills I don¡¯t have, Acid Claw and Acid Bite.¡± she looked a Liten, ¡°Aren¡¯t you a clever little thing.¡± Liten just nodded her head. ¡°Veneer ah? So she can look like a sparrow?¡± ¡°And other things,¡± Kelda said. ¡°My fire has improved as well,¡± she held out a hand, and her normal red-orange flame appeared and then got hotter and hotter until it was white hot. That team has just powered up. If Liten¡¯s purpose was to protect Kelda better, she has achieved it. It was risky, though, and I think it could easily have gone very wrong. Sparrow Wyvern - Liten Resistances: Fire 29, Heat 29, Pain 23, Acid 20 Skills: Novice: Veneer, Target Weakness, Seek Hidden, Sharp Mind, Burning Mind Apprentice: Acid Claw, Acid Bite, Wings of Fire, Eyes of Fire, Thermal Sensing (Air), Journeyman: Blend, Fire Bolt, Sprint, Share Senses, Darksight, Farsight, Keensight, Tasty Master: Flaming Touch, Fire Manipulation, Affinity: Fire 237. Allies: Wiremu

237. Allies: Wiremu

¡°Thank you,¡± said Kelda again. I got a kiss on the cheek as well. Kelda was cooking in the kitchen, and Liten was helping, sort of. I think Liten was tasting everything, testing her new Tasty Skill. Kelda was cooking us dinner. She moved slowly and carefully, but she enjoyed working in the kitchen. She had a light cloth mask covering her upper face. We didn¡¯t want to do anything about the empty eye sockets until the specialist in Waiouru could see if her eyes could be regrown. We were still waiting for Tabitha, Ruku and Runa, who were seeing Krov¡¯ away, and we wanted the inside story as to what went on. I am not surprised there was no fight. The only way he could hope to keep the city was to defend it from a fortified position. When he arrived, a whole Infantry division was in that fortified position. I just want to know what went on, and Tabitha was in the thick of it as the Acting Duchess. The errant trio finally arrived, and I helped Kelda dish up the meal. ¡°Ok, you three, spill!¡± I said. ¡°Wait till I get a drink at least,¡± Runa said, ¡°After all, you two spent all day and two whole nights playing in the bedroom while some of us had to work.¡± Kelda blushed at the inference. ¡°What happened after the alarm bells rang?¡± I prompted. ¡°Nothing. It was the advanced scouts letting us know he was close. He didn¡¯t actually arrive until dawn, and it was planned that way.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°How many were with him?¡± Kelda asked. ¡°He had all two hundred of his Blood Bitches, plus another five hundred troops. I was surprised that not all his Blood Bitches were female. It was a mix, although they were all wolfkin.¡± ¡°You should have seen his face when he marched up, and the gates were closed, and the walls were lined with infantry.¡± Runa smiled at the memory. ¡°Krov¡¯ and his Blood Bitches all had the same thick leather collar on with metal studs. It made them easy to recognise,¡± Ruku said. ¡°He demanded to speak to Duke Boris and claimed to have been invited. Colonel Peters was fantastic. That man is wasted in the army. He informed Krov¡¯ of the sad, sad news of Duke Boris¡¯ unfortunate and untimely passing. His body is lying in state in his mansion if Krov¡¯ wants to come and pay his respects. He was obviously a good friend and ally to have come so far and only missed him by a few days.¡± ¡°Ya should have seen Krov¡¯s face, man. He looked raving mad and barely held on to it.¡± Runa said. ¡°One of his commanders stepped to speak because Krov¡¯ was ¡°obviously overcome with emotion,¡± Peters asked why they had come with far more than an honour guard into an allies territory. It took Commander Olga a bit to think about that before she said, ¡®Our dear ally, Duke Boris, had said the city was being overrun with beast attacks, and so we came to help defend the city.¡± ¡°Bloody lying bitch,¡± Runa inserted. ¡°Well, they are called the Blood Bitches,¡± Tabitha observed, earning a rude gesture from Runa. ¡°Colonel Peters didn¡¯t bat an eye and went on for quite some time about the Kingdom being grateful to have such loyal allies willing to come to their aid. Peters then introduced me as the acting duchess, and I know Krov instantly blamed me for this turn of events. The bitch commander did too, but she was much more controlled.¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°Tabitha played the part superbly.¡± Ruku added, ¡°She was dressed as a rich noble who rarely stepped outside her luxurious halls. Certainly, she appeared never to have been in a fight before.¡± ¡°Ruku and I played her bodyguards,¡± Runa added. ¡°It is just as well they stayed close as I think Krov¡¯ and his key commanders all wanted to attack me immediately, army or no army. I obviously insisted they couldn¡¯t just leave. They had come so far to help we had to put on a feast to celebrate such loyal allies.¡± ¡°I swear she was trying to make them attack her,¡± Ruku said. ¡°Peters pipes up in agreement and says they also had to tour the new permanent army base they were building. This was just extending what the good Duke Boris had started, and there would be a permanent garrison and training ground. Troops would continually be rotated through here for jungle survival training and developing specialised Jungle fighting classes.¡± ¡°The colonel sounded very enthusiastic,¡± Ruku took up the tale. ¡°He insisted Krov¡¯s troops make camp outside the walls, ¡°as there was no space inside until we could get the new base built.¡± The army was there to help if they couldn¡¯t manage. Peters then took them for an extended and detailed tour of the facilities even though only the foundations were started.¡± ¡°We excused ourselves from that to go and prepare for the feast to celebrate our allies and remember the poor Duke,¡± Tabitha added. ¡°The Colonel kept them busy all day while the army watched his troops,¡± Ruku said. ¡°We had a lovely feast last night,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I got most of the chefs to prepare their best vegetarian dishes because,¡± and she put on her innocent noble act, ¡°This is all the rage in the capital, and we simply must have the best for our allies.¡± ¡°Only one member of Krov¡¯s entourage was not a wolfkin.¡± Runa hooted in laughter. ¡°You should have seen them picking at the food. Not sure what they were eating!¡± ¡°Krov¡¯ had to be restrained by his commander from throwing a temper tantrum,¡± Ruku said. ¡°I am sure the commander was on to you, but your performance was so smooth. You played with fire and got away with it.¡± ¡°I am a professional actress. Sapient Lore went to the Journeyman level. Messing with other sapients is good. I also levelled my Performance Skill, and my Entertainer Class went up a level, so somebody thought it was entertaining.¡± ¡°I think that was Colonel Peters. I caught him trying not to laugh several times,¡± Ruku said. ¡°The wolfkin didn''t know what to make of you,¡± Runa said. ¡°Were you the evil mastermind foiling their plan or a bumbling idiot noble put up as an expendable front person? I think the latter won out.¡± ¡°I know Krov¡¯ wanted to make you expendable,¡± Ruku said. ¡°What happened with those two Blood Bitches that almost cornered you?¡± ¡°Obviously, I tripped and fell, and the big, strong army corporal had to save me,¡± Tabitha said. She threw a couple of coin pouches on the table. ¡°I discovered being a Blood Bitch doesn¡¯t pay much, so I hope there are other benefits. My Pickpocketing Skill also went up a level. Who knew being an acting Duchess would bring me so many levels?¡± I saw Kelda sitting there shaking her head. I think she was partly horrified at Tabitha¡¯s antics. Kelda had grown up being taught how to act in formal situations, being groomed as the next Duchess of Hrothgar. ¡°I still think Tabitha was trying to start a war,¡± Ruku said, with Runa nodding. ¡°Who me? Surely not.¡± Tabitha said innocently. ¡°What happened this morning?¡± I asked. ¡°I think Krov¡¯ just wanted out of here, but Colonel Peters insisted on a full military parade as a send-off. He was clearly sending the message this was a Kingdom city and is defended by Military might. They escaped just before lunch, even though I said I had prepared a special lunch for them.¡± Tabitha said with a smile. ¡°How rude,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s what I thought,¡± Tabitha agreed. ¡°The Colonel¡¯s report is going to be interesting to read,¡± Ruku said. 238. Heroes: Wiremu

238. Heroes: Wiremu

We are going to get a medal when we get to Waiouru. Two, actually, but one will be public and one private. The public one will be for taking out the notorious bandits Dragons Breath, which has plagued the area for decades. It comes with a financial reward on top of the Mercenary Guild Bounty. The private one is for stopping the invasion of Skog, but no one is admitting that was a thing, so we everything around it is hush-hush. That one is the Kingdom''s highest award, but it doesn¡¯t come with any other perks. I guess when I wear it, people have to treat me with respect or something. Tabitha says I need to decide who is actually going to get the award. It can¡¯t be Wiremu Hunter, as he has this massive bounty on him, and I will be identified and targeted. It is probably best not to be Wild Bill, as this was to be my main disguise into the Empire. It could be Dianne Prints, as she is a known associate of the Countess Auditor. The Kingdom recognises Quinn Fletcher, as they gave me that ID. I can get a new ID as long as I do it before we leave Skog. While she is Acting Duchess, she can create ID¡¯s for free. I know she has made herself a couple of extras. I am leaning toward Quinn being the hero. Kelda is very pleased. She might be going home maimed for life, definitely scarred for life, but she is going home a hero, or heroine in her case, even though she can¡¯t talk about it. She hasn¡¯t said directly, but from how she talks, she is probably heading home to Hrothgar after we have been in Waiouru. It is starting to depress me, but I don¡¯t want our last few weeks together to spoil. I want to make them memorable for us both. Two weeks after Krov¡¯ left, we also left Skrog and rode for Waiouru. We rode slowly as Kelda was still building stamina after her convalescence. ¡°Mayakku,¡± I grabbed her attention, ¡°I understand you and C¨­mp¨¥?i got a Monster Kill. You never did tell us about your new Specialisation Class.¡± Mayakku was looking a bit reluctant. Tabitha added, ¡°You have been hiding away with various materials. What did you get?¡± Mayakku was riding C¨­mp¨¥?i in the centre of our group. Colonel Peters would not let us go without an escort, so we had a captain, a lieutenant, and two ten-person squads as escorts. It was the smallest he would go. There was one squad ahead of us and one behind, but we had a bit of privacy with a gap between us. The Army horses really didn¡¯t like getting too close to C¨­mp¨¥?i and Te?ka. I figured that by the end of the two-week journey, they will be just starting to get comfortable with them. ¡°I got a specialisation called Flesh Enchanting. I didn¡¯t even know you could enchant living flesh. I thought it was only possible to enchant nonliving things, metal, stone, leather, cloth, etc. It is very complicated. I need different inks, or it won¡¯t last. The runes need to be carefully chosen as well. There may have been an accident or two as I tried it,¡± She glanced at Astrid. ¡°Don¡¯t look at me, girl. Patient confidentiality is a basic rule for us healers.¡± ¡°You may have noticed that C¨­mp¨¥?i is no longer wearing the bands around his feet with the sharpened enchantment.¡± ¡°We figured he didn¡¯t need it with his affinity,¡± Tabitha said. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°That¡¯s true, but I also have learned to enchant his claws directly,¡± then she said quietly, ¡°and mine.¡± ¡°Wow. That must be incredible. What else can you enchant?¡± I asked. ¡°Nothing yet. It is what I know best. I have tried Toughen Hide, but the skin became inflexible, and we had to cut it out. I am not sure if it is the ink or if I need to alter the Rune slightly. Possibly both.¡± ¡°What Skill did you get with the Class?¡± I asked. ¡°Analyse Flesh. It helps me to know what sort of enchantment might work or, more commonly, what won¡¯t work.¡± ¡°Can you practice on corpses so you don¡¯t kill yourself?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Fresh corpses, possibly. It is something else I need to experiment with.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go hunting later and see what I can bring back,¡± I said. It was overcast on the sixth day of travel when Kelda suddenly yelled, ¡°Stop! Ambush ahead!¡± Captain Ashbee didn¡¯t hesitate to ask questions. She immediately blew the whistle for defensive formation 3. I guess she thought if it was a false alarm, it was good practice. The front squad immediately stopped, dismounted and formed a defensive line. The rear squad closed on us and dismounted, forming around us. ¡°There is a rock escarpment 100m to the left,¡± Keld said to her. The Captain immediately had us moving through the bush toward the escarpment. There was a flurry of movement ahead of us as the ambushers realised they had been seen and moved to reposition. They didn¡¯t run away, so they were not weak bandits. They might be stupid bandits. ¡°How did you know?¡± I asked Kelda. ¡°A number of small things, but nothing I can really point to. It made me use Seek Hidden, and then I knew.¡± ¡°Keep following those small clues or intuition.¡± She nodded, knowing I thought that might lead to the Oracle-type classes. We got the rock escarpment to our backs. The horses were corralled in the centre, and a line of soldiers in a semi-circle. I noticed a slight change in the brightness of the day, and Tabitha said, ¡°There are fifty of them.¡± Tabitha had remained mounted on Dusk, Modrica mounted on Te?ka next to her. Everybody else had dismounted. ¡°That¡¯s a neat skill,¡± said Commander Olga as she stepped out of the trees with five other Blood Bitches identified by their collars. ¡°It is only counting. I am sure you can find someone to teach you how to count,¡± Tabitha replied. Several of the Bitches snarled at Tabitha for that. Olga ignored the remark and said, ¡±I was wondering who we would capture. Would it be the airheaded noble or the cunning commander?¡± ¡°Neither of those people are here,¡± said Tabitha as she started trimming her nails with her Blacksteel knife. The implication was lost on Olga, who said, ¡°As the lady said, there are fifty of us. All of us Blood Bitches.¡± They stepped out to be visible, trying to intimidate us. It might have worked on some of the soldiers, but they were a well-disciplined group. I moved forward to Tabitha and Modrica and stood between the Dusk and Te?ka, feeling dwarfed by them. No offence, Runa and Astrid. They sheltered me from being seen by most of the Bitches. T¨¡oke was making his way through the bush to come up behind the wolfkin. I spoke quietly and quickly to Tabitha and Modrica while the Bitches were posturing. ¡°This is a problem. There is a pack bond from Krov¡¯ flowing with Blood Affinity. The life energy from 200 Bitches flows to Krov¡¯ and out to any who need it. They can probably regrow limbs and organs in minutes. Killing the brain is the only sure way to kill them. The collars are to protect against decapitation, and I would bet their Tough Hide is Masters Level or close.¡± ¡°Shit,¡± Tabitha said. She knew she would have trouble cutting through a Tough Hide. Physical Strength was never her best area. Tabitha¡¯s main role will be controlling the environment with her shadows. Modrica and Te?ka will be fine if she bashes the head and Te?ka rips them apart properly. C¨­mp¨¥?i can also rip them apart with his sharpened sharp claws. Liten could burrow into the brain with her acid bite. T¨¡oke, Puia and I will be fine, but everyone else will struggle. The soldiers will die. The Bitches moved into some sort of intimidating tribal dance, which gave me a chance to warn the Captian and the others. The dance culminated in an intimidating combined howl. I wasn¡¯t even paying attention to them, and I was intimidated. Olga stepped forward again, ¡°We could kill you all. The hardest part will be the pets, and that won¡¯t be so hard. But we only want one thing.¡± She pointed to Tabitha, ¡°Give me her head, and we will let you live. If you want to try to be heroes, you will just end up dying. You have got ten minutes to deliver her or just her head. Ten minutes, or until I get bored, whichever comes first.¡± That got a few chuckles from some of the Bitches. I guess Olga wasn¡¯t known for her patience. 239. Blood Bond: Wiremu

239. Blood Bond: Wiremu

In the culture where I grew up, every challenge needed a reply. I had my own cultural war dances to intimidate the enemy, but I am the only one here from my culture. Funnily enough, the wolfkin challenge showed me that their culture was closer to my home culture than any of the others I had encountered. I made a mental note to share cultural experiences with Rodion after this. We might have a lot more in common than we realised. I grabbed my spear and pushed out past the line of soldiers to stand clear of the group and face Olga. I jammed my spear into the ground. I wasn¡¯t planning to use it. The spear was only there as a prop. ¡°I have heard your challenge. I am here to reply. You can have her head,¡± I indicated to Tabitha, ¡°if you can keep yours.¡± ¡°Ooh, the little human thinks he can challenge me?¡± Olga said condescendingly. That got a few chuckles. ¡°Very well, little man, I will have both your heads.¡± Olga drew her sword as I unbuckled my leather armour, took it off, and hung it on the end of the spear. ¡°What the fuck, little man? Most people keep their armour on to fight me.¡± ¡°Well, I just cleaned it, and it is hard to get the blood out of all the joints.¡± I turned to face her bare-chested. ¡°That bare chest is enough to frighten anyone,¡± she said, although her eyes narrowed in contrast to her banter. She wasn¡¯t dumb. She knew there had to be a trick. She approached slowly as I pulled a stone knife out of its sheath and then stepped toward her. A knife against a sword is a bad match. I would have been better with the spear as she had claws in her off-hand. She knew I had left the spear deliberately. She became even more wary and started to circle. I triggered Snakeskin, and I was covered in scales. There is no point in bleeding when you don¡¯t have to. It might also make her think my bond is the trick. With her blood bond, she will shake off any poison easily, but I Imbued the knife anyway. ¡°Ooh, the little human has a bond. Where is it human? I don¡¯t see it. Maybe you had a bond, and somebody stepped on your little friend, and they died?¡± Halfway through the last word, she made her move. She was fast. Faster than I thought she would be. Faster than me. It was some sort of speed skill. Fortunately, she made the move I expected, going for a quick decapitation by slicing for the neck. I ducked under the swing, losing some scales to her sword, simultaneously slicing her arm with my knife using my own Quick Strike. She was an old hand in fighting, and her knee came up and crashed me back as my offhand threw a dart that lodged in the gap between her armoured vest and her leather collar. She didn¡¯t follow up. She was testing as I was. ¡°Poison, ah?¡± She lifted her bleeding arm and slowly licked the wound clean. It was a show for her people as well as for me. ¡°You will have to do better than that, little man.¡± She plucked the stone dart out. I ignored her as she wasn¡¯t telling me anything I didn¡¯t already know. She had a leather vest as armour, but her arms were only fur-covered. My cut and dart pierced through her Tough Hide, and I could tell she was surprised. Her response was fast, vicious, and unrelenting. She thrust with her sword, and her claws swiped at me when I moved aside. I blocked with my off arm, thrusting my knife at her eyes. She ducked, kicking me in the stomach, using her claws on her feet to draw blood. I was thrust back, but she kept coming, her sword slicing down, which I parried with my knife, punching her arm with a Power Strike. I heard bones break. She thrust her sword again, and as I moved my body sideways to avoid it, she turned it into a cut strong enough to go through my Snakeskin, making a long cut on my chest. I responded with a kick to her knee, which only put her balance off a bit, and she brought the sword back, making me back off. I am sure the bones were already mended. To slow her down, I will have to do more than just crack them. She didn¡¯t let me back off coming at me with her speed Skill. She struck with her sword, but the real danger was in her kick which I only had time to take on my thigh. I lost more scales and blood to those claws. I got an elbow strike to her ribs, causing her breath to explode. She brought her sword around to give her some space, but I moved on to the offensive, throwing a dart at her face. I used my Novice Sprint to close the distance and stab my knife into her guts with a Power Strike. She elbowed me in the head and brought her sword around before I could grab her, and I backed off. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°The little man is good,¡± she said as she touched the stab wound in her stomach. It was already closing. ¡°It is not going to be enough.¡± I was well aware of that. The claw marks she had left me had mostly stopped bleeding, and I concentrated my Regeneration on the sword cut. I was limiting myself by not using any Granite or Lava Skills, but I needed to take her by surprise so she couldn¡¯t call for aid. I had no doubt she would if she thought she would not win. I also needed to shock them enough that they would back off rather than fight. That was the hard part, and the likely response would be to attack rather than back off. I had to try, but I had to get my hands on Olga before I could do that. That sword is a problem. She came at me with a number of pure sword-fighting moves, and I danced and parried and tried to get momentum back with the darts. I have practised with sword fighters like Najprej and Drugi? of the Canine Queens. Runa fights with a sword, but she is not a specialist, so I haven¡¯t practised against a sword specialist for a long time. I was getting cut and couldn¡¯t close. She basically ignored my darts unless they went for her face. I don¡¯t know whether she was keeping count of the darts, but I had run out of the premade ones and was making them on the fly. Darts weren¡¯t doing it, and I had to close with her. I took a stab to the shoulder as I missed a parry. She grinned; she was bleeding me, and she knew it. The next dart I threw was not a dart but a full throwing knife, and it was embedded in her leg. ¡°Shit,¡± She said in surprise. Her pause meant I was suddenly pushing her and moving close. She tried to make some space, but a knife in the leg was not a small thing. I kept her moving so she didn¡¯t have a chance to remove it or to consider where it came from. Her distraction meant the sword went slightly wider than usual, and I moved decisively inside its arc and grabbed the arm holding it. Her knee came at me to drive me back, but it was the leg with the knife, and my other hand drove down on the knife and shoved the leg back. She obviously had a high pain resistance, but spikes of pain like that still get through. I know from experience. I twisted the knife before I brought the hand back up. I twisted her arm away from me. She might be slightly faster than me, but I think I am slightly stronger. Her offhand swiped at my face, and her claws drew blood, but I grabbed her face and filled her lungs with Venom Vapour. Now I had her sword arm in my hand, her lower jaw in my other hand, and her lungs full of Vapour. I triggered the lava. Lava flowed out of my skin, building in layers to form my Granite Armour. Olga¡¯s leather and fur started to burn and catch fire. She coughed a scream, but I wasn¡¯t nearly done yet. Her free hand clawed at me but couldn¡¯t penetrate the armour. I saw some movement in the periphery of my vision as others moved to help. They were stopped by a row of Earthen Spikes. Olga was pulling hard on the bond for healing, and it was almost a form of torture, pain and continuous healing. But I wasn¡¯t done yet. I used my Bond Care Skill to reach out to the bond and squeeze it to restrict the flow. When I initially used this Skill on Otto and the Griffon, that was an unhealthy bond. There was nothing unhealthy about this bond. It functioned how it was intended and how everybody wanted it to. The Skill worked regardless. I squeezed, and I put Granite into the squeeze. I vaguely recall a knife bouncing off my helmet, but I was focused on the bond. I discovered a healthy bond was much harder to affect than an unhealthy one. The healing slowed, and then I twisted, and the bond snapped. Krov¡¯ would have felt it the most, but everybody connected to the bond felt it and looked in shock. Olga went limp in my arms, and I let her fall. I raised my foot and stomped her head, making it very obvious she was now dead. I looked around. We were in a semicircle of Earthen Spikes. Modrica and Te?ka were just walking up behind me. Now, to keep them off balance. I took a slow step to the left, and Puia formed a replica of my armour where I had stood as if I had stepped out of the armour but still wore it. There now appeared to be two of us. Then, to my surprise, another two copies appeared, stepping out of both my and Puia¡¯s armour. Tabitha and Nyx were mimicking us, and now we were four. Tabitha¡¯s voice came from behind me. I could tell from Thermal Sensing she was still riding Dusk and was coming up beside Modrica and Te?ka. Her voice was amplified with Intimidating Aura. ¡°Yes, we broke her pack bond. Yes, we will do the same to you. You leave now and tell Krov¡¯ if any of his pack sets foot in Kingdom territory again, we will come for him.¡± The shock of the bond breaking. The shock of thinking you will survive almost anything to knowing that you are vulnerable. The shock of your commander having her brains splattered on the ground and Tabitha¡¯s Intimidating Aura was too much. The weaker ones started backing into the bush, and there was no one to rally them because I had taken out the commander. Three of the ones that were with Olga were standing just outside the ring of spikes. One of them looked like he was about to call the others to battle. In the time it would take for me to break his bond, the other two could do me some serious harm. Fortunately, I was not alone. Now, I had to stop them from realising that they still massively outnumbered us, and I couldn¡¯t do it to all of them. He was close enough that I could reach out with my Skill and stab at his bond. It wasn¡¯t enough to break it, but it rattled him, so I also did it to the other two standing there. They looked at me with wide eyes. One of them was actually looking at me the others were looking at one of the other me¡¯s. They all joined the move back into the bush, and my Hearing Aid heard them start to run. I am sure Liten will keep track of them. Once I was sure they were gone, I looked at Tabitha, and her two images stepped back into Puia and me, and then I stepped into Puia, and there was only one. We don¡¯t want to reveal all our secrets, even to the army. Besides, if the army thinks there could be four of me, they might not try to bully us so much. Tabitha certainly wants to keep the knowledge of her images to a minimum. I let the Granite Armour go, and Tabitha tossed me some pants. I turned to the rest of the group, and the soldiers were just staring at me. Kelda rushed forward, grabbed my jacket, and helped me into it, breaking the silence. Astrid¡¯s Revitalising Aura soothed me. Tabitha spoke, ¡°Captain, we need to get moving. We also need some recovery time.¡± I am sure Tabitha said that to keep people away from me. The fight was strenuous, and I had some wounds, but creating Granite Armour for five minutes was not draining. Cutting the bond took effort. That got the army moving anyway. Ruku came up, ¡°That was close,¡± he said. I nodded, ¡°It could have gone either way.¡± 240. Waiouru: Tabitha

240. Waiouru: Tabitha

I am the heroine of Skog, who led her team to take down the Dragon farters and stop the invasion. Now that hero worship is transferring to Wireimu. Bloody typical. At least it is only twenty soldiers. So far. The story is growing. My job is to keep them away from Wiremu. He is travelling as Quinn to save any confusion when we get to Waiouru. That Captain Ashbee is the worst. She is definitely looking for more than ¡°details for her report.¡± I told her bluntly that Quinn and Kelda were together. She took one look at Kelda¡¯s scars and blindness and figured she wouldn¡¯t have a problem replacing her. Idiot. I almost left Wiremu to put her in her place, but he would be quite brutal. I took pity on her and made sure she realised that Kelda was the same Kelda that was heiress to the Duke of Hrothgar. That gave her pause¡ªthe wrath of a future Duchess. I hope the pause lasts until we get to Waiouru. There is no way that Kelda¡¯s eye for detail missed this, and my Spaitial Awareness has spotted Liten flitting around masquerading as a sparrow. Wiremu said he gained a level in his Warrior Class in his duel and several Skill levels. Most Notably, Analyse bonds went to the Journeyman level. He said Bond Care went up two levels, but that only put it at mid-Apprentice. I Levelled Shadow Predator in the Dragon Farter fight but not much else. I got more levels toying with the wolfkin. I guess that shows our different strengths. I need to find somebody to mess with to level. Maybe I will practise on an annoying Captian. Waiouru was almost as large as Kirghiz. We were escorted directly to Duchess Irena. She came out to greet us straight away. She had obviously been briefed on Skog, and, of course, I was the Countess Auditor with direct contact with the King. The same King she is wanting to replace. Duchess Irena was a graceful middle-aged woman. I must admit I didn¡¯t know much about her. I do remember hearing somewhere she had not spent time in the army, which meant the Western Dukes saw her as unsuitable to be the next monarch. She was well-spoken and graceful. She was definitely experienced in politics. The Duchess insisted we stay with her in her mansion. Her mansion rivalled the king''s palace in size and luxury. When she realised Kelda was the Duke''s daughter, she made a big fuss. ¡°I remember you when I visited Hrothgar almost twenty years ago, and you were four or five, running around after your brother.¡± Then she was all business about getting the eye specialist to come as soon as possible, and there was a skin specialist who might be able to do something about the scars. She was a take-charge type of lady. We got the mounts and bonds sorted. They had nothing suitable for Te?ka, but that was not unusual. Oh, the bliss of soaking in a hot bath. Bubble, oils, and many servants were used to keep the hot water coming. It has been too long. As I staggered back to my room, I passed Wiremu entering Kelda¡¯s room. ¡°Just going to wash her back,¡± he said with a wink. I am pretty sure there were servants for that. Back in my room, there were clothes laid out for me in the local styles. Loose-fitting clothes in bright colours were the local style. Waiouru was tropical, with the prevailing wind blowing off the Great Desert, keeping it hot and dry. I went for a walk as the Duchess was located in the central area. Waiouru was a major trading hub with key caravan routes converging on it from the desert. Similarly, caravans came and went constantly from the Kingdom side. It was a huge melting pot of peoples and cultures, with wares from all over the continent. I made a note to message T¨¡tt¨¡ as Elemental Traders has to get a major base set up here. This was my kind of city. We joined the Duchess for dinner. It was a casual affair with us and some of her key people lounging around and servants bringing around various dishes. They eat later here than in other parts of the kingdom. They wait for the sun to set and eat outdoors in the cool of the evening. Duchess Irena was open and friendly, as were her key staff and relatives that joined us. It was a very pleasant change. I am starting to think Irena and I could work well together, which is probably her plan. The days merged from one to another with relaxing and shopping. The only downside was that Te?ka was always uncomfortably hot and grumpy. This made Modrica grumpy as well. In contrast, T¨¡oke was loving it. This was his native climate. Wiremu said he started out as a Desert Viper. I know Wiremu spent a few years at a quarry, but I didn¡¯t bother to find out more. Kelda had her medical appointments with mixed results. There is damage to the optic nerve. One eye is worse than the other. The Eye Specialist wanted to go in and cut out the damage and regrow the nerve before they try to regrow the eye. There are significant risks to this. They will be cutting very close to the brain for a start. She is not going to rush into it. The chances of success are better for the left eye than for the right. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. The skin specialist was also mixed. I joined Kelda for this as I also have a lot of scars that could be better. We got some oils and creams that would soften the skin and make the scars less noticeable. For some of Kelda¡¯s, they suggested cutting some of the worst of it out and using other skin from her body to replace it, and it would regrow and be much less noticeable. She is thinking of having that done for some of her facial scars. The clever skin specialist also brought along a makeup specialist with all sorts of powders and tricks to hide scars and change your look. Kelda and I both spent a small fortune with the lady. The advantage of makeup is you don¡¯t need to keep a skill running for a long time. Kelda¡¯s Veneer is particularly hard to keep going after a couple of hours. I learned a lot, and makeup can be done a lot more subtly and cleverly than how I had used it in the past. The skin specialist was very pleased, so I am sure she is getting a cut from the makeup artist. Wiremu decided to delay our departure for a month to be there when Kelda went through her skin grafts. Kelda is holding off from a decision about her eyes. She is returning to Hrothgar for a second opinion from the specialist there. I am not surprised Kelda is leaving us, and I don¡¯t think Wiremu is either, although I can tell he is very unhappy about it. The month is good for me, though, as I will have time to get a warehouse and some basic staff. I also got that eye specialist to look at Te?ka¡¯s eye. It was gouged out by a talon, rather than being filled with acid. All the connections are still functioning, so we regrew it over the month we were here. Quinn has been in seclusion since arriving in Waiouru. The rumours have spread, and everybody wants to know this wonder kid, especially the military. Irena has been good at sheltering him. While Quinn is hiding, Wild Bill has been out having a riot with Rodion. Those two have got closer since the fight. I even spotted Dianne in the Bazaar looking at all the exotic wares with Kelda. They were holding hands. It was cute. Getting to know Irena has been good for me. She is from a Merchant background and is very shrewd in all her dealings. I think she would make a very good queen after the hairy bastard quits or is killed. The kingdom could be very prosperous under her. Starting with a quarter of the Dukes against you is a difficult start, but I wish her the best of luck. Quinn had to make an appearance for our medal ceremony. We all got dressed fancy, but we had to leave most of the bonds behind. Te?ka and C¨­mp¨¥?i were the problem size-wise even though they were main contributors to the fight. The bonds didn¡¯t care, especially as I bought out a local food distributor, Ruku used his Refreshing Mists, and they stayed in an emptied-out cool store chewing on the bones of some giant desert lizard. They had the best day out of all of us. Wiremu decided that T¨¡oke should come to the ceremony. Quinn was known to have a snake bond, and if he wandered around with a poisonous snake on his shoulder, it would deter a lot of people from hassling him. The private ceremony was held first in a side area of the grand city hall. Duchess Irena was there representing the Kingdom. General Viggo was the army commander, and he had two of his Colonels and four majors present, all dressed in their parade best with their medals. I was presented with the Kirghiz Medal of Honour, which is the highest award they give out, usually after you have died heroically. All the others were given the Kirghiz Hero Medal, which is pretty close to the same thing. The General gave a speech about how I had upheld the highest. virtues and ideals of the Kingdom and was an example for all citizens, and especially Nobles and Officers. I found that hilarious, as I wasn¡¯t even officially a kingdom citizen. I was born and bred Imperial. I was being honoured under the name Skygge which was a forged identity. back in the goblin days, and it was created to facilitate my thieving. Yes, these are the virtues and ideals everyone should follow. They have done me well. I am not sure who the General was aiming his speech at here. There were less than twenty of us here. Anyway, he wound down, and we moved through to the main hall for the public medal presentation. There was to be a celebration meal afterwards. Rodion and Runa were trying to talk Ruku and Wiremu into drinking the bar dry. We trooped onto the stage in front of the Whose Who of Waiouru to be rewarded for taking down a notorious bandit group that had evaded the entire southern army. I am convinced there is something fishy going on there. Then the General repeated his speech from before with a few minor changes, which clarified who it was really written for. At least Irena¡¯s speech was unique. Pomp and ceremony over, it was time to mix and mingle with the nobles and rich elite of the city. This was my time to deal. I was mentally rubbing my hands at the thought of the coins I could extract. A lot of the nobles came bearing gifts. I kept an eye on Wiremu / Quinn for a while, but Kelda was sticking to him like glue, and she was experienced at dealing with nobles. He would be fine. I really thought I would be fine as well. Better than fine, I was hunting coin. Foolish me. I was the hunted. Apparently, I was the most eligible bachelorette in the city. Everybody wanted me to date them or just straight-up marry them. The gifts came with insistent requests for a date. I am sure half the people who asked me were already married, some with their spouses standing next to them. One elderly dude approached me. He was old and wrinkled and limped with a cane. He must have been well over 150. I figured I was going to get matched to a grandchild, but no! He wanted a date. He gave me a cheeky grin and a wink, ¡°I¡¯ve been a widower for ten years, but I was married for eighty happy years, don¡¯t you know? I know how to show you a good time!¡± He looked quite the character, actually, and I was tempted to agree to spite everyone else. He would certainly have some good stories. In the end, it felt like I was the one to escape. I did accept the invite to the old codgers'' birthday. He was about to turn 180, so it was a real milestone. Together we would have a lot of fun winding people up and starting rumours. He can keep his hands to himself, though. Status Update Wiremu Hunter
Wiremu Hunter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 9 12 11 10 8 10 92
Earned Attributes 11 5 2 12 3 1 3 2 5 44
Hunter B 12 2 14 24 5 2 2 6 5 60 0
Monster Hunter S 5 5 5 5 5 5 25 0
Scout S 6 6 3 6 1 6 8 30 0
Assassin S 4 1 4 5 5 1 16 0
Bond Master S 3 2 3 3 3 1 12 0
Stone Shaper B 11 22 11 11 44 0
Prospecting S 5 5 1 2 3 3 6 20 0
Spy B 11 1 4 3 11 15 10 11 55 0
Forger S 2 2 2 2 6 2
Warrior B 7 14 7 8 2 31 4
Metal Shaper B 5 5 2 5 3 15 5
Totals 72 44 51 47 48 43 50 53 42 450
Constitution 167 138 145
Resistances: Poison +21, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +32, Heat +34, Fire +13, Disease 1, Acid 1, Mental 1 Skills: Novice: General Lock Pick 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap3, Copier 1, Spiritual Trapping 4, Granite Mind Armour 3, Stone Shaping 2 Fighting Heavy Armour 4. Senses Lore Metal Alloy Lore 4, Gem Lore 3, Spiritual Metals 3 Apprentice: General Sewing 9, Cooking 8, Animal Care 8, Sprint 5, Butchering 7, Weapon Repair 7, Repair Leather Armour 8, Dwarvish 9, Slight of Hand 5, Elemental Bond 7, Hunters Mark 7, Molten Rock 9, Disarm Traps 5, Detect Traps 5, Detect Spiritual Trap 6, Metal Shaping 5, Bond Care 8, Interrogate Status 6 Fighting Granite Quake 7, Granite Wall 6, Petrification 7, Triple Shot 8, Marksman 6, Granite Sand 8 Sudden Strike 8, Lava Dart 6, Granite Armour 8, Venom Vapour 5, Senses Thermal Sensing 7, Telescopic Sight 7 Lore Plant Lore 9, Mineral Lore 8, Monster Lore 9, Sapient Lore 8, Elemental Lore 7, Metal Lore 8, Journeyman: General Mapping 14, Tutor 13, Identify 14, Map Making 10, Manipulate Status 12, Analyse Bonds 10, Trapping 14, Tracking 11, Skinning 11, Hide Armourer 12, Riding 11, Veneer 12, Roleplay 11, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 10, Snakeskin 13, Regeneration 13, Orcish 13, Camouflage 12, Fishing 10 The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Fighting Hammer 13, Granite Spike 14, Granite Bones 14, Granite Shield 13, Granite Manipulation 12, Bow 12, Small Blades 14, Unarmed Combat 12, Throw Weapons 12, Spear 13, Quick Strike 12, Power Strike 12, Imbue Venom 12, Venom Arrow 10 Senses Darksight 14, Sense Treasure 10, Bond Senses 12, Truth Sensing 10, Sense Spiritual 12 Lore Animal Lore 12 Master: General Stealth 17, Animal Bond 17, Far Sight 16, Hearing Aid 16, Deceive 15 Senses Granite Sense 15 Affinity: Granite, Lava Monster Kills: 9 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +22, Cold +30, Heat +34, Fire +13, Pain +22, Acid 1 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 4, Venom Vapour 4 Apprentice: Granite Shield 7, Granite Sense 7, Granite Manipulation 9, Molten Rock 6, Sudden Strike 8, Hunters Mark 6, Lava Spit 5, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 5, Thermal Senses 5, Journeyman: Strength Boost 12, Power Strike 12, Venom Spit 11, Regeneration 14, Granite Bone 14, Granite Spike 10, Grow 12 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 17, Camouflage 15 Affinity: Granite, Lava Bond: Puia, Lava Elemental Resistances: Cold +30, Skills: Novice: Granite Spike 3 Apprentice: Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 9, Thermal Senses 5, Granite Manipulation 5, Journeyman: Master: Molten Rock 11 Affinity: Lava, Granite Tabitha Carter
Tabitha Carter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 8 12 10 9 10 10 91
Earned Attributes 2 3 5 3 2 1 1 1 4 22
Thief B 13 3 13 13 4 1 13 6 5 7 65 0
Shadow Predator S 10 7 10 2 11 11 9 50 0
Racketeer S 7 5 7 8 7 8 35 0
Burglar S 5 5 1 5 2 7 20 0
Merchant B 11 2 11 6 11 11 3 3 8 55 0
Rider B 11 2 11 11 4 1 10 5 44 0
Entertainer B 9 5 1 9 9 9 10 43 2
Totals 35 55 52 41 46 56 50 40 50 425
Constitution 142 143 140
Resistances: Cold 20, Poison 4, Pain 5, Disease 1, Acid 2, Mental 1 Skills Novice: General Sewing 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Shadow Mind 1, Sprint 2, Shadow Merge 2 Apprentice: General Pickpocket 9, Trapping 5, Cooking 9, Hearing Aid 9, Adjuster 8, Body Image 8, Agility Riding 7 Syphon Energy 9, Syphon Consitution 8, Shadow Step 5, Fighting Blunt Weapon 9, Knockout Strike 9, Parry 9, Senses Elemental Senses 8, Lore Journeyman: General Bargain 12, Appraise 11, Spatial Pocket 10, Shadow Puppet 11, Performance 12, Tough Hide 10, Lock Pick 10, Detect Traps 10, Sleight of Hand 12, Detect Spiritual Traps 10, Disarm Spiritual Traps 10, Confuse Status 12, Identify 11, Distract 14, Disarm Traps 10, Orcish 11, Dwarvish 13, Lute 12, Coax 11, Mimic 14, Elemental Bond 12, Animal Care 11, Binding Shadows 10, Engulfing Shadows 14, Animal Bond 10 Fighting Intimidating Aura 14, Rampage 10, Small Blades 14, Unarmed Combat 11, Swords 11, Dual Wield 10 Senses Sense Spiritual 12, Spatial Awareness 14, Lore Sapient Lore 10, Master: General Stealth 17, Shadow Manipulation 17, Shadows Embrace 15, Riding 15, Senses Darksight 16, Affinity: Shadow Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Nyx, Shadow Elemental Skills: Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry, Coax, Engulfing Shadows, Sense Spiritual, Body Image, Bond: Dusk, Shadow Charger Skills: Novice: Syphon Energy, Syphon Constitution, Shadow Merge. Apprentice: Sprint, Fast Strike, Power Strike, Intimidating Aura, Binding Shadows, Shadow Step, Journeyman: Speed Boost, Tough Hide, Master: Shadows Embrace, Shadow Manipulation. Darksight Affinity: Shadow 241. Desert: Wiremu

241. Desert: Wiremu

Goodbye, Waiouru. It was fun, but it was painful to leave. Not the city, Kelda. I just feel empty. Dry, like this desert. Kelda left for Hrothgar two days before we left Waiouru. She joined a trade caravan to Hrothgar. Duchess Irena insisted on sending a troop of her personal guards with her for protection. She sent a message home so they would meet a troop of Hrothgar guards at a midway point. It will take her over three months to get home. The skin grafts went well, and her face and neck scars were less noticeable. They even grew some eyelids to keep dust and dirt out of the eye sockets. Rodion and Runa dragged me out to drink the night Kelda left. They had found a small distillery with a dwarven whisky and a Lizardkin ¡­. Something. Wild Bill was not the life of the party. In fact, he got quite morose. I don¡¯t think drinking actually helps my mental state. The next stop for us was a Lizardkin-run city called Almaeadin. It is in the middle of the desert and is a central trading city between the empire and the kingdom. It will be filled with spies from both sides. We decided Quinn needed to disappear, so we spread the rumour he was so love-struck he abandoned us and followed his lady love to Hrothgar. I wish it were true. I almost made it true. I complained about the rumour, but Tabitha and Rodion were adamant about it. ¡°It will also be a fitting end to the Bard''s songs,¡± Rodion said. ¡°I am sorry, what Bard songs?¡± ¡°The Mighty Quinn vs. the Blood Wolf.¡± At least that was a working title the bard had. She was considering shortening it to just Mighty Quinn.¡± Where is the hole I can crawl into? ¡°Don¡¯t forget the ¡°Countess and the Dragon,¡± Runa added. ¡°That promises to be a real foot stomper.¡± Tabitha and I looked at each other then I looked at them suspiciously, ¡°Who is it providing the bards with this information?¡± Rodion glanced at Runa, and they both just grinned. Anyway, the long and the short of it is I am Wild Bill in public from here on. I might take this trip to grow an actual moustache for Bill. That might be fun. It might be a problem when I switch to Dianne, though. Before we left Waiouru, I checked on the bounty on Slave Taskmasters. There had been 215 claims, 198 of which were verified and approved. 195 were from within the Empire. One was from Almaeadin, where we were headed. The other two were in places I had never heard of. The number of claims had dropped significantly, now averaging two a month. The easy targets had been culled, and the Taskmasters were protecting themselves. Or the Empire was protecting them. It should also make people think twice about becoming a Slave Taskmaster. What was more worrying was the sheer eyewatering bounty on one Wiremu Hunter. The Nystad Empire placed it, and the Emperor himself added the promise of a noble title to the person or group verified as responsible. I would really need to keep my head down. This told me two things. Firstly the bounty kills were seriously hurting the empire. Good. Secondly, it confirmed the loyalty of my companions because I was tempted to hand myself in with that reward. The Empire had confirmed that I was travelling with a female thief, probably with a shadow affinity, who was possibly a former imperial Citizen called Tabitha Carter. One of my aliases is possibly Warren Carter, Tabitha¡¯s brother. Warren and Tabitha were reportedly killed in Hrothgar four years ago, but this has been proven false. I had been identified as having a snake bond. I was also a known associate of the Mercenary groups the Mothers Tusks and the Canine Queens. This will bring trouble down on them, I hope they have changed group names. There is nothing I could do about it now. At least a snake bond is not unusual around here. Two of our six guides have them. All the information was patchy but accurate if old. Unfortunately, there seems to be a trail that could be followed, and I know there are bounty Hunters out there with special Skills. The reward for information alone might bring out more connections. They obviously know I got as far as Kirghiz, as the bounty was posted from there. I keep racking my brain as to who else might know my real name. The king does. I am not worried about him unless he needs a political scapegoat, but how far has it spread in his advisors etc? Will they make a connection to Kelda? It is out of my control, but my brain won¡¯t stop churning it over. Right now, we are five days out of Waiouru in the middle of the desert. The desert is hot and dry but more hard, gravelly rock than sand. We did spend two days trudging through the sand, but the trade route to Almaeadin mostly follows a rocky path. The rock is better. The nights are cool, so we travel at night and rest during the day. Tabitha hired a guide and some helpers. We have a small caravan of fifteen camels. No wagons, just pack animals. Half the load are supplies for us, and the other half Tabitha intends to sell in Almaeadin. Our hired helpers treat me as royalty because I have an affinity. I have shown my Granite Affinity because Te?ka needs a cave to hide during the day. Once I built it, Ruku used his Refreshing Mists, and most of us stayed with him. He is so out of place the desert guides don¡¯t know what to make of him. He will be something we can be tracked by because he stands out so much and is hard to hide. This could be a problem after Almaeadin when we head into hostile territory. Every day when we rest, I try to distract myself by pondering my affinity. The desert is one of the ideal places for me as it is all rock and sand. Modrica and Ruku are finding it a real struggle. Modrica because there is little to no soil or earth. Ruku because there is no water. All of Ruku¡¯s skills are costing him much higher energy than normal. Te?ka is the most obvious one struggling, but the one who has it the worst is Ruku¡¯s salamander bond Wai. Wai dries out very easily and quickly, and they are spending a lot of energy just keeping the little guy hydrated. Hot and dry does not affect rock. This place is basically rock. What makes a desert is a lack of moisture. Life is sparse. Rock is plentiful and on the surface. Granite Quake and Granite Wall are my two lowest levelled Skills. I have been a bit smarter in using my skills. Instead of brute forcing a cave with Granite Manipulation, I have been using my Granite Sense to find weak areas and cracks and then enlarging them with Granite Quake. I then use Granite Manipulation to enlarge the cave, but instead of using it to smooth the rough rock, I create Granite Walls for the sides and sometimes the floor. I used my new Skill, Stone Shaping, to smooth the ceiling and make some interesting wall patterns. I then make a soft floor with Granite Sand. Contrary to Ruku, I am finding my skills cost less energy here. I have levelled all of those Skills except the Senses. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Today is different. Five days of travel means we are almost a third of the way to Almaeadin. I got Te?ka and Wai settled in their cave and then went exploring. Our guides had their tents up and were relaxing. Everybody thought I was mad going exploring in the heat of the day. T¨¡oke came with me, but nobody else would. My Granite Senses had located something near the campsite, and I wanted to check it out. I dropped out of sight into a gully and followed it, continually checking the ground. I was pleased with the time I spent at the Quarry in Waiouru. I paid the Stone Mason a fortune to learn Stone Shaping, and even then, I think he only agreed because I was there on Duchess Irena¡¯s recommendation. I managed to do enough to change the Quarry Worker Class into Stone Shaper. It dropped back to Level 10, but I got an extra point in Spiritual Agility per level. My Spiritual Agility jumped ten points. Stone Shaping is pretty much what it says. It uses less energy than how I used to do it with my Manipulation Skill. I am also pretty close to getting the class back up to eleven with all these caves I am making. I stopped in front of the gully slope. This was as close as I was going to get. Now I needed to dig. I used a focused application of Granite Guake to loosen things up and then used manipulation to create a narrow passage. It starts about twenty meters in, taking me a couple of hours. T¨¡oke has wandered off to explore. The Ore is mixed with some highly spiritual metal. It is not Blacksteel, Deep Iron or Cargonite. My Spiritual Metals Lore is only level 3, so I am lacking knowledge. I manipulate a good chunk of ore from the wall, enlarging a working space. I drag it to the entrance and use my stone shaping to carve out a small smelter from the rock. I put the ore in, and Puia very kindly helped me by heating it up. I think Puia is quite excited as this is one of the ways he grows, but he absorbs Spiritual minerals. It is also one of the reasons he chose to bond with me. I don¡¯t mind sharing. I get Puia to heat it slowly using my Thermal Sensing to find the melting point. Eventually, a green-tinged metal starts floating to the surface. Metal has a lower melting point than most rocks. I formed a pure granite bowl and scraped it in to let it cool. The green tinge gives me an idea of what it is, but I can do some more tests once it cools. I have about a teaspoon volume of the metal from that moderate amount of ore. Whatever it is, it will be worth heaps as the Spiritual intensity is extremely high. I go back for more ore while it cools. Four hours later, I have a small ingot of the metal as well as my small teaspoon. I have drunk both of my water skins dry. The Condense Water enchantments on them work very slowly in this dry atmosphere. I covered the entrance to my mine and walked the fifteen minutes back to the camp. I am dressed in the loose-flowing gowns the locals prefer, but mine are now filthy. I gather Tabitha, Mayakku and Runa. Tabitha, for her trading experience, Mayakku has the most knowledge of Spiritual materials, and Runa spent some time at her family¡¯s mines. I pulled out the small sample and went through what I had found and the tests I had run. I figured it was either Orichalcum, Osmium or Necrodermis. I was leaning toward Necrodermis, but it was the rarest of the three. Mayakku ran another test and then almost had a fit in excitement. It was definitely Necrodermis. ¡°How much is there?¡± she asked in a whisper of wonder. I pulled out the small ingot, ¡°I got this from the amount of ore of maybe half the size of Te?ka¡¯s cave. There are maybe a hundred cave sizes of ore there before it goes beyond my senses, although it gets fuzzy at the edges as the density decreases. It is not in a clump but a vein that goes quite deep.¡± ¡°We need to turn back to Waiouru and get a mining team out here!¡± she said, ¡°This is worth a fortune.¡± I figured that already. Necrodermis has an incredible capacity for self-repair if processed properly. It is used in small quantities, and various alloys and self-repair enchantments last an amazing length of time. I looked at Tabitha. I knew she was aware of the size of the fortune sitting on the ground there. ¡°What do you want to do?¡± she asked, ¡°It is your find.¡± Indeed, my Prospecting Class had levelled, and that had not happened in a long time. ¡°I don¡¯t want to turn back,¡± I said. We were finally getting close to solving the Slave Class issue, and I didn¡¯t want to stop now. ¡°We can send a map back to T¨¡tt¨¡ and let him organise or sell the info as we did for the other find,¡± Tabitha suggested. ¡°It would take forever to get this to T¨¡tt¨¡ and then him to organise everything from Kirghiz. What about the people you employed in Waiouru?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t trust them with something of this size. I did make some initial business arrangements with Irena''s family business, but this is magnitudes bigger than what I was thinking at the time. Just the small piece there,¡± she pointed to the teaspoon-sized bit, ¡°would probably buy Irena¡¯s mansion, depending on the purity. That may be an exaggeration.¡± Mayakku was shaking her head. ¡°We can send the map and sample to Irena, and I think she would be fair.¡± I nodded, ¡°let''s do that.¡± ¡°Just to clarify, Wiremu, This is your mine. This is your income.¡± Tabitha stated. Mayakku was looking at her, confused. Tabitha clarified for her, ¡°When Wiremu got his first big payout, he took some money for some armour and weapons and hasn¡¯t looked at it since. I invested it, so he is a half-owner of Elemental Traders, a third now T¨¡tt¨¡ has bought in. He owns twenty percent of a luxury spar in Dohovno along with a farm, a quarry in Obalno and a number of rental buildings throughout the kingdom, and he has no clue.¡± Mayakku looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I am. ¡°He could retire right now as a rich man, especially with this,¡± Tabitha said, pointing to the ingot. ¡°If I own all that, you must be much richer,¡± I told her. ¡°Of course, crime does pay, and it is my job,¡± she replied, ¡°You would be one of the richest men in the kingdom if you weren¡¯t paying the bounty on Slave Taskmasters.¡± ¡°Well, my job is hunting and freeing slaves. Coin only has value for what you can use it for.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I think I need to sit down for a bit,¡± Mayakku said. 242. Personel Skills: Wiremu

242. Personel Skills: Wiremu

Wai is in paradise. Almaeadin is built on the edge of a shallow lake. An underground stream supplies the lake, but its deepest part is only about 4m down. All around the edge, it is muddy, shallow water. Wai disappeared into the mud, and I haven''t seen him since. Ruku is not worried, so neither am I. The city is on the edge of one side of the lake. A tent city surrounds the rest of the lake. Some of those tents look like they have been there for years. The desert is home to many nomadic people, some of whom seem to have set up camp here for good. It is noticeable we are out of the kingdom now. Almaeadin is one of the so-called ¡°Barbarian City States¡±, which are mostly animal kin run. Lizardkin are predominant here. The buildings are predominantly one or two stories high with flat roofs. A lot of the time is spent living on the roof, and you see many a lizard kin sunning themselves. Many different species pass through, and the hills overlooking the lake are built in plateaus as the second most numerous species are Avions. Tabitha went off to explore the markets and sell her goods. Mayakku, Ruku and I were looking for a different market. Next to the livestock and camel yards was the prominent slave market. There were slaves in the city, as there were no laws against owning slaves here. This wasn¡¯t the empire, but it also wasn¡¯t the Kingdom. This was my first chance to examine the variety of slave bonds and perhaps grab a slave taskmaster or at least watch one working for a while. Mayakku and I needed to get the ¡®flavour¡¯ of a Slave taskmaster to try to replicate the flavour to be used in the Ritual to remove the Slave Class. It is the last step we need. It is not a small step, though. ¡°Good day to you gentlemen and to you young lady. How may I help you today?¡± The man greeting us was well-dressed and pleasantly spoken. This was an upscale slave trader, and the place was luxurious and tasteful. We chose this trader for that reason. ¡°Personel Skills¡± had a good reputation and marketed to the upper class, with a generally higher level of Skilled slaves. I was dressed as a rich noble, and Ruku was my guard. Mayakku didn¡¯t have any acting skills, so she was being herself, a well-to-do employee of mine. We didn¡¯t want to advertise she was an enchanter as it may put her at risk of being abducted. Enchanters were in demand, and the law was more flexible outside of the Kingdom and the Empire. ¡°There are a couple of things I need help with. I am told I need more workers. I also have an opportunity that may help with the first problem,¡± I said. ¡°If I may enquire, sir, have you owned slaves before?¡± ¡°No, but my man here has,¡± I indicated to Ruku. ¡°It is good to have experienced advice, but if I may suggest, many of our first-time clients find it helpful to read this guide. You will get the most out of your purchase if you treat the slave well. A well-fed and rested slave with the right tools is much more productive than a starving or abused slave. Please take it; it is free for our customers. Now, we at Personel Skills pride ourselves in placing a slave with the right skills in the right jobs. What tasks are you wanting to be performed, and what is this opportunity?¡± ¡°Mostly basic labour, looking after beasts, housework etc. I am looking for someone with merchant skills to help in our business if possible.¡± ¡°Many are good at basic labour. Some farmers have fallen on hard times and can¡¯t pay their debts. We have a couple of ex-herd masters, but they are in our Janub office. We can have them relocated for the right sale. May I give some advice?¡± he was going to anyway, ¡°Most people buy the young, the recently awakened. It is true they are strong with a long life ahead of them and are usually good-looking, but they are usually without skills. It is virtually impossible to train a slave in new skills. The older person, who has fallen on hard times, often comes with a surprising number of skills and is many times more productive and useful.¡± He paused to make sure I was following. ¡°A discerning customer such as yourself will understand. We have several merchants on our books at the moment. They have failed in business, it is true, so they need oversight, but they still have many skills. We even have two with specialisation classes.¡± This is very interesting. The ones who became slaves later in life might be the easier ones to save if we can remove the class. They have previous life experiences to fall back on. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°That brings me to the opportunity I have. I have been conducting business with this merchant, and she cannot settle her debt to me. She has suggested one or two of the younger family members might work off the debt.¡± ¡°If I might advise, sir, that almost never works out. She will pass the young and most useless members to you, and they will only be a burden rather than productive members of your house. You should take one of our Slave assessors to accurately determine their value before agreeing. We have a small fee for this service.¡± ¡°Is this assessment done by the Slave Taskmaster?¡± ¡°No, we don¡¯t trouble the Taskmaster with this. We have people trained in mental attributes with strong Status viewing Skills. They will be able to make an accurate assessment. Usually, it is best to then sell the slave to us, and we can provide one more suited to you.¡± ¡°When does the Slave Taskmaster get involved?¡± ¡°Only at the point of gifting the Slave Class. This is done in our private rooms, and one of our people will become the first owner. We will then transfer ownership to you.¡± ¡°I can watch the process, though?¡± ¡°I am sorry, sir, we have had to increase our security recently, and only trusted staff are allowed in with the Taskmaster.¡± ¡°But you could give some sort of command to the slave before I take ownership. You could find out all my business.¡± ¡°We will take you through a full reset of the slave to clear all previous commands when you take ownership. This is standard in transferring slaves between owners. There is no risk.¡± It looks like they have really had to increase security. It is looking like this method is hitting a dead end, though it has still been informative. ¡°You said something about an office in Janub?¡± Janub is the southernmost city of the empire, where we are heading next. ¡°Indeed, sir, it is our regional office and has a greater stock selection than we have here. We have offices throughout the southern part of the Empire, with branches further afield like this one.¡± ¡°I am going to have to think about it. Do you have a current stock list I could take with me?¡± ¡°I am sorry we only keep one here in the office, and it is updated regularly. We do hold a weekly auction that you might be interested in. It is in two days'' time there is some excellent stock being presented, including one of the merchants with a specialisation class.¡± ¡°Weekly sounds very frequent. Do you have a lot of stock?¡± ¡°It is a joint auction with all the local traders. A lot of the younger stock has a high turnover, if you know what I mean. You can get some bargains. We test the market with the more highly skilled as prices are on the rise.¡± ¡°Oh? What is causing the prices to rise?¡± ¡°There have been some unpleasant incidences with a number of Taskmasters losing their lives, so the number of fresh slaves entering the market is slowing. This is causing demand and the subsequent price rise.¡± ¡°I think I heard something about that.¡± ¡°Indeed, sir, but I wouldn¡¯t worry. The Empire will have it sorted very shortly, I am sure.¡± ¡°One can only hope.¡± We took our leave after that, not making any promises about being back for the auction. I am unsure I could sit there and look at those people being paraded and sold like animals. Even the slaves in the room with us have bolstered my resolve to get a solution to this horrid class. The ones who became slaves at an older age seem more salvageable. However, young people who are tricked or coerced into slavery have the roughest time. They have no skills. They are always the cheap labour, and if they are even slightly pretty, they are often abused sexually and then cast back into the auction once the master is tired of them. They are treated as worthless playthings. This could have been me. It probably would have been. My anger had been suppressed when I was in the Kingdom and not confronted with the reality of it. Now it is back. I almost feel guilty it has taken me this long. I could have gone straight from Jern to Kirghiz and cut almost two years from the time. Logically, I know there were other circumstances, and I wouldn¡¯t have gotten this far without Tabitha, the bond class, Mayakku etc. I still needed Mayakku, and she had her own learning curve to get the skills she needed. The guilt is still there. How many of my fellow villagers are still alive and living in this hell? How many have died? They are the lucky ones. The past is the past, and I can¡¯t change it. I can only focus on the now and where to go from here. I am here now, and we are very close to cracking the Slave Class. I need a Slave Taskmaster to experiment on. I refocused my thoughts. There were three slaves in the room with us, all owned by the salesman. They were probably company assets. The bonds were strong, and while the salesman''s flavour dominated, there were hints of another flavour in the older Lizardkin slave behind the bar. I need access to a Slave Taskmaster, preferably a Journeyman level one. My bounty has made that more difficult for me. One thing is for certain: I wasn¡¯t going to get there by posing as a customer. 243. Almaeadin: Tabitha.

243. Almaeadin: Tabitha.

I am getting sick and tired of leaving Modrica and Te?ka out in the wilds. I can sneak Te?ka into the city, especially at night, but then what? He is confined to a small back yard so he is not recognised. He is better in the wilds to roam. I have to think of a solution as it will be tough enough for Modrica in empire cities, let alone an instantly recognisable bond. If I can¡¯t hide her, I wonder if I can start rumours about dire bear sightings being an ominous warning or something. I am not sure what benefit that would have. Almaeadin is like Waiouru but wilder, and more lawless. Lizardkin and Avion dominate. I often envy Avion and their ability to travel easily. Being stuck with a pair of wings would be species-limiting when masking my identity. I could probably fake some wings with my Mimic Skill. That¡¯s a thought. Up until I needed to fly. The market wasn¡¯t as large as the Waiouru bazaar, but there were always caravans and nomadic tribes moving through, so things were constantly changing. The smell of exotic spices and the yells from the hawkers was almost relaxing. I moved through the market, selling my goods at different stalls, picking up bits and pieces for resale in Janub. I was mostly trying to pick up gossip both for here and in Janub, and the purchases for Janub were an excuse to ask questions. Janub, being the southernmost city of the empire, had a large army contingent based there. It is situated at the northern tip of the great desert as it transforms into rolling grasslands. This makes the imperial cavalry the largest part of the army in Janub. From what I was hearing, their patrols are spread out wide, and there are frequent random checks on caravans, as well as key static checkpoints. Most of the merchants I talked to dealt in Janub with Empire traders and went no further into the empire, which was ¡®strongly encouraged¡¯ by the empire authorities. Our plan was to basically bypass Janub and head directly to my home town of Yelets. This was going to be very difficult. Open grassland and extensive patrolling, with two Imperial Inquisitors there. One Inquisitor is permanently in the city, and the other patrols. The Empire¡¯s southern army scouts are renowned for tracking down and picking up illegal immigrants. A border city would always be tough, hence the plan to bypass it. From what I am hearing here, bypassing it would not be easy. I put out feelers for ways to ¡®avoid Imperial import duties.¡¯ Contacting the local smuggling operations would take some time. I had Runa and Astrid with me, so I wouldn¡¯t get up to too much mischief with a King¡¯s Guard in tow. Astrid was born and bred adventurer, which is how she came across. Runa was born and bred army, and there ain¡¯t no changing that. I did feel tall beside the two dwarves. Once I had a good feel for the market, we headed out to the races. Runa was keen, and it was another source of information for me. The races were the main form of entertainment here, and there was a good betting system in place. The track we chose was on the edge of the city. There were two main tracks, a shorter one for the lizards and a longer one for the camels. The public stands looked over both, and then there were private viewing areas. It was hot in the afternoon sun, and a light breeze was enough to lift the dust into the air. We were dressed as the locals with long flowing robes and a cloth face mask to keep out the dust. The Horned Lizards were domesticated and favoured by the Lizardkin. Almost everyone else favoured the camels as beasts of burden and for riding. The Horned Lizards were usually only waist high but long with the trademark horn on the forehead. They are wide and have four strong legs with claws. Lizardkin are generally shorter than humans, often no taller than dwarves, depending on the subspecies. Only the smaller Lizardkin ride the horned beasts. Usually, they are loaded with packs like camels taking loads around the city. It is the donkeys that usually pull the carts. All of the beasts of burden in this city are bad-tempered, and the Horned Lizards are the worst. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Camel racing was the biggest sport, with Horned Lizards close behind. Obviously, there are Horned lizards bred for racing, just like the camels. They are quite different from the ones seen carrying loads around the city. They have longer legs and are thinner on average. The Lizards are sprinters, so the races are short. Camels generally race for 10km or more. We arrived for the evening races, and there was a reasonable crowd, even with it being midweek. I discovered there was a smaller section of horse racing happening that weekend. Horse racing was not nearly as popular as Camel and Lizard racing, but I briefly entertained entering Dusk. She shouldn''t really have any competition here as there were significantly fewer horses here than Camels and Lizards. The prize money was less, and the betting was much less, so it would not be worth it. It might be fun, though. I moved around the bookies once the races started, as the bets had to be in by then. I gradually got a picture of who was who. There was one official betting organisation at this track. The city had three main tracks, each with its main operator. The others and independent bookmakers were allowed to operate here as long as they paid their cut to the establishment. The other tracks reciprocated this. There were six or seven main stables, along with a number of smaller breeders entering beasts into the races. It was the jockeys that were the celebrities. Runa and Astrid went off to get food and alcohol and place some bets. I worked the bookies and then tried to get in with the main stables. The owners had their private balconies, which were off-limits to people like me. They were mostly empty anyway, as the mid-week races were nothing important. The stables mostly employed the jockeys, and the beast handlers and trainers were all busy preparing animals and wiping them down after the races. I got to know the main livery of the key stables and where they were. I would go visit later. My aim was to move stock in and out of the empire. I had some uniquely identifiable beasts to move in and out of the empire, and these people had to move animals around, especially breeding stock. I wasn¡¯t sure about Janub, but Yelets, where I grew up, was almost exclusively horse racing. Some of my favourite memories as a young teen were working the crowds at the races, upskilling my pickpocketing, trying scams, running from the guards, etc. Good memories, mostly. One of the ideas that developed that evening was a way of us moving through the empire is to establish Dusk and myself as a racing team. Then moving covered animal wagons is not unexpected. Prized breeding stock is valuable. It is almost a shame Dusk is a mare. If she was a stallion, I could run a stud business. If I buy a few reasonable stallions, I can probably scam something together. I need to know more about the business before I can know if it might work. Horse racing might not be big here, but the horses they breed definitely have stamina. I ran the idea past Runa and Astrid as we exited the races that night. ¡°You just want an excuse to race Dusk,¡± Runa accused. ¡°It is not just an excuse,¡± I said. ¡°I could enter Dusk in the races anyway.¡± ¡°So you want to have fun racing Dusk and make money,¡± Astrid piped in. I think they are picking on me. ¡°I thought you would be too drunk to see through my master plan?¡± ¡°Bah! The weak camel piss they sell couldn¡¯t make us that drunk,¡± Runa said. ¡°How much did you lose?¡± I asked. Runa felt her coin pouch, ¡°Not that much,¡± she said defensively. ¡°If you came away with less than you went in, you are definitely drunk. I only placed a half dozen bets, and I made a tidy profit,¡± I said. ¡°I bet your profit didn¡¯t come from the betting,¡± Astrid piped up. Maybe they are not all that drunk. ¡°I was just reminiscing about my youth,¡± I said. 244. Breeding: Tabitha

244. Breeding: Tabitha

¡°That''s a mighty fine horse,¡± Abdul Basir said as he examined Dusk. ¡°I am more of a camel specialist, but we do stock a small stable of horses. How much to get her in foal? I have a couple of good stallions.¡± ¡°I am not going to be staying in the city long enough,¡± I replied ¡°Pity,¡± He turned to me, ¡°What else can I help you with?¡± ¡°I am looking to transport some precious stock into the empire. Can you help me to do that?¡± Abdul looked at Dusk with an appraising eye, ¡°Possibly. We don¡¯t trade much with the empire as they are horse-mad and blind to the beauty of the camel. They do, on occasion, buy our horses for breeding stock,¡± He grinned, ¡°but we breed strong horses who can last the distance. We have a covered wagon for protection and to transport foals, but it is not good for them.¡± He showed me the wagon. It had a sturdy box frame to transport the animals in. It was also used for shelter at night when there are predators around. There were air vents and storage areas for feed and water. It was quite well designed but would be hot and confining. ¡°Was this custom-made?¡± I asked ¡°Total Transport Solutions in the western district usually have a couple of frames made ready for customising. They have some clever carpenters there.¡± ¡°If I wanted to get this stock past the import inspectors without letting them know the true value, do you have any advice?¡± Abdul shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t send much in that direction, and when I do, it is usually through agents. There are two that I use, Ghasson Trading and Jamil¡¯s Transport. The imperials like their taxes, though,¡± he warned. Yes, I knew it wasn¡¯t going to be easy. Neither Ghasson nor Jamil would do anything to upset their trade with the empire. The minimum consequence of being caught devaluing cargo to avoid taxes was a five-year ban from the city. Being caught smuggling was worse. TTS, as they call themselves, had two wagon frames ready to go. I purchased them both and had one made up into two stalls for horses and another left as one open space. I also had to find something to pull them and settled on two bullocks each. Wagons will slow us down, but I don¡¯t have any other solutions at the moment. It is a partial solution as it will mean we can enter the small towns on the way, but cities are a different story. That meant we needed a third wagon for supplies, as well as the odd trinket I picked up. The wagons would be ready in a week. ¡°I heard you want to get things into the empire discreetly?¡± the voice said. I had watched the small animal kin approach with my Spatial Awareness. We were in a crowded tavern, and the feelers I had put out had led to this meeting. It would be very easy to miss him as he only came as high as my waist. He was used to avoiding oblivious people and must have had very high agility. It is almost like he hopped rather than walked. He was fur-covered, and I sensed a rat-like tail and more powerful legs than you would expect. The desert kangaroo rat was the sudden inspiration I had. I had no idea there were Ratkin like that, but it is a big world. ¡°Have a seat. Can I get you a drink?¡± He hopped up onto a chair, ¡°Mbili¡¯s the name. I¡¯ll have the local brew.¡± ¡°I assume you can help with my problem?¡± ¡°Depends on what it is, how big and to where.¡± ¡°Large animals to past Janub¡± ¡°No hope of success, lady. Give it up.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Too many patrols. I can misdirect or bribe only about half of those I meet.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t sound like you are a very successful smuggler.¡± ¡°I am still here and in business, lady. Small inanimate parcels or large items that can be broken up, and I would never meet a patrol. Live animals are too noisy. Small animals can be drugged and transported. Large animals¡­ just nope.¡± ¡°Fifty per cent success, you say?¡± He narrowed his eyes at me, ¡°Those are not odds I will work with. Coin is no help if you are crushing rocks in a labour camp for five years.¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°I am not interested in spending time in a labour camp either, but with your fifty per cent added to me keeping half the patrols away or distracting them, the odds jump up quite high.¡± ¡°I will need to see some proof.¡± ¡°I have a room booked upstairs. Let me pay for the drinks.¡± I took out a coin purse, dropped a couple on the table, and then tossed him the purse, ¡°You better have that back.¡± ¡°Shit, that was smooth.¡± ¡°You are not the only one with skills. Follow me.¡± I led the way upstairs and entered the double bunk room I had hired for the day. Mbili stopped at the threshold and sniffed. ¡°Cat,¡± he said and looked around. ¡°Indeed, there is a cat in here. Come in and shut the door.¡± He very cautiously entered and closed the door. He was looking carefully around. He was ready to bolt at the first sign of anything. His nose was leading him to the correct side of the room, but my Distract Skill confused him with small sounds from the other side. Fortunately, Nyx and my Engulfing Shadows muffle sound, or I am sure he would have been picking up heartbeats with his Hearing Skills. He stopped and checked under the beds, even though he didn¡¯t believe the cat was there. He refused to advance any further. ¡°OK, you have skills. There is a cat here, and I can¡¯t see it. Where is it?¡± I tapped my leg in a come here way, and the whole bunk beside Mbili moved, causing him to jump back to the door. C¨­mp¨¥?i stretched himself as he lowered his front paws to the ground and then followed with his back paws. The massive lion didn¡¯t even have to jump down from the top bunk. I am surprised it held his weight. ¡°Fucking hell, lady! If you can do that, what the hell do you need me for?¡± ¡°Several reasons. Firstly, you know the land, the trails and the patrol routes. Secondly, you have some skills to know who might be bribable and what might be effective as a bribe.¡± His eyes narrowed at that. That was an assumption on my part, but the stories I had heard put his success rate way above average. From his reaction, I was on the mark. ¡°Further, C¨­mp¨¥?i here is not the only animal I want to transport. There is only one of me and at least three wagons.¡± ¡°Wagons! You might as well run a goblin horde through the place. It is the only way you might go unnoticed.¡± ¡°We did consider a beast swarm, but it is not our preferred option.¡± He was looking at me like I was mad. ¡°You are mad! Crazy! Goblin shit for brains! I won¡¯t be part of it.¡± Just then, the door behind him opened, making him jump out of the way. Wiremu entered as Wild Bill. He looked at Mbili and then at me, ¡°Not going so well, huh?¡± ¡°He didn¡¯t like the beast swarm idea.¡± ¡°Sorry,¡± Wiremu told Mbili, ¡°It wasn¡¯t one of my best ideas, but I am just a simple hunter. They call me Wild Bill, but Bill is fine. I am a hunter, a Monster hunter. It is what I do. I brought more ale.¡± Wiremu handed Mbili a mug, and he took a big gulp. He then handed me a mug, put a bowl on the ground, and filled it from a jug for C¨­mp¨¥?i. He then got his mug out. ¡°C¨­mp¨¥?i has developed a liking for ale,¡± he told Mbili almost apologetically as C¨­mp¨¥?i came forward and started licking from the bowl. ¡°Is he yours?¡± Mbili asked Wiremu shook his head, ¡°No one of our other team members. Here, let me refill your mug.¡± He looked at me, ¡°Have you told him your idea yet?¡± ¡°No, just yours.¡± Wiremu winced. ¡°I have a fine racehorse, and I thought we could pose as a team transporting racing animals.¡± Mbili looked at Tabitha, ¡°Won¡¯t work, lady. Racing animals don¡¯t move from Almaeadin to Janub commonly enough to not stand out. To make that work, you would have to divert to the Free Republic and come in from there. They race horses and dogs. That will add four months just to get to Freeborne.¡± I saw Wiremu¡¯s eyes light up and remembered that he was from the Free Republic. He might want a visit back there. ¡°That is a possibility,¡± I said. Mbili continued, ¡°You would be better off posing as animal trainers or capturing animals for a trainer. You have a hunter¡­¡± he trailed off in thought, ¡°No, that would need to come from the Free Republic too. Not much call for desert animals in the empire.¡± ¡°That could work,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°I could trap animals on the way to Freebourne and then trap or purchase some from there and head into the empire. It would mix things up more.¡± ¡°Right,¡± said Mbili, holding out his hand, ¡°Two gold for the advice, and then I am off.¡± ¡°We still need your skills as a guide and your other skills,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t come cheap, lady, and if you hire me, you hire the Famous Five. My siblings and I work as a team, and you are talking a year-round trip here to Freebourne, to Janub and then back here.¡± ¡°We are not going to Janub, and we are not coming back.¡± I pulled out some papers and made a few changes, then handed them to him. ¡°A one-year contract for the Famous Five. Here to Freebourne and then to Yelets.¡± ¡°Yelets?¡± ¡°After we get to Yelets, the contract ends, and you make your own way back.¡± I nodded to the paperwork, ¡°Read it over, especially the confidentiality agreements.¡± Mbili looked at the first page, ¡°Who are the Black Arts? We need to know who we are working for.¡± ¡°I am one half of the Mercenary team called the Black Arts,¡± I said, ¡°You can call me Black. You can meet the other half in two days if you sign up. We want to be on the road at the beginning of next week.¡± ¡°That''s quick,¡± I saw him flick to the page with the coin amount, ¡°but entirely possible.¡± ¡°Make sure all five of you are at the meeting. We need to make sure of who we are employing.¡± Wiremu passed him a couple of gold coins, ¡°We could work well together,¡± he said. Mbili nodded in thought as he left. 245. Slave: Wiremu

245. Slave: Wiremu

¡°You¡¯re not Baligh.¡± The Slave Taskmaster said when she saw me. She was quite a young human. Quite pretty as well. She had stopped just inside the door when she caught sight of me. Two guards had entered before her, and two more were behind her, waiting to enter. ¡°No, my name is Dianne.¡± ¡°Where is Baligh? I only deal with Baligh.¡± She looked like she was about to bolt. The guards drew their swords at her scared tone. ¡°Baligh is a bit tied up at the moment,¡± what a cliche line that was. That was embarrassing. Never saying that again. I don¡¯t know how Tabitha gets the information before I do. I am supposed to be the Spy. This lady here was the only Slave Taskmaster left in Almaeadin. Her boss was Journeyman Level and was killed several months ago, and I had already paid the bounty. This lady was Barbra, and she was the only mid-apprentice from the information we could find. She was going to run back to Janub, but the city Lord offered her personal protection, and she could stay in the Palace. She also got a big pay rise. ¡°Nope, I am not staying¡­ what the fuck? Where¡¯s the door?¡± The guards glanced back, and I struck. It was only a thin layer of Granite over the door, so a decent effort would bust through. Granite Wall was slowly levelling. The first guard took a knife to the throat, but the second swung his sword at me. I deflected it with a small Granite Shield I created on my forearm. I put a Granite Spike through his foot to distract him and punched him in the side of the head with a small Granite Shield the size of my fist. His steel helmet was dented, and he definitely had a concussion. I didn¡¯t stop there, as he probably had a self-heal Skill. Any decent warrior did or should. My knife went up under his helmet and into his brain. I checked the first guard was down, but he wasn¡¯t, which I found out when he crashed into me. I needed to stop Barbra from running as she had just stopped pounding on the door, or granite, as the case may be. She was an office lady, so she would not have the strength to break it down. I spiked her foot to pin her to the spot. The Guard that crashed into me had blood running down his neck and chest, but he had got rid of the knife and plugged the hole. When he crashed into me, it was just that, as he was not too steady on his feet, but he was doing his job to the best of his ability. His armoured fist connected with my ribs as we went down in a tangle. I brought my knife around, but he grabbed my hand with his hand, and he was quite strong. I was probably stronger, but I was not going to get into a contest of strength. I kneed him in the groin. His groin guard would have blunted the blow, but the knee had sprouted a Granite Spike that pierced up deep into his body. I elbowed his throat and restarted the bleeding. While he was distracted with all that, I ripped my knife hand from his and plunged the knife between the armour joints and chainmail into his heart. I rolled the body off me and stood up. I was covered in his blood. That ended up messier than I thought it would. Barbra was kneeling, trying to get her foot out and screaming. She looked at me and screamed louder. I hit her in the head and knocked her out. I hope. Her Attributes would have gone into the mental and spiritual, not the physical. I am not used to keeping delicate people alive. I bound her wrists and feet in stone but used a cloth to gag her. I removed the Granite Wall, and Tabitha came in, dragging the body of one of the two guards left outside. She looked at my bloody appearance and raised an eyebrow at me. She was spotless. Rodion followed her with the other body. Ruku was also outside, keeping up appearances that the compound is normal. To arrange this, I needed to forge several documents and push my Forger class to 3 and my copier skill to just needing the push to get to apprentice. ¡°She has four active slave bonds,¡± I tell them, ¡°Two are new and weak, while the other two are more established, probably her slaves. The weak bonds are probably recently enslaved.¡± ¡°Do you want to break the bonds?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°That won¡¯t remove the class. I would prefer to bring them with us.¡± ¡°She worked yesterday for ¡°At your Service,¡± so the new ones are probably there. The others are probably at her residence or the palace.¡± ¡°We won¡¯t be able to extract them from the palace, so we will try the others and see.I will recognise the bond if I get close enough.¡± ¡°I will take Barbra out to catch with the wagons on dusk. You only have until this is discovered to get the slaves.¡± I nodded in agreement as I washed the bulk of the blood off in the wash area. Tabitha loaded Barbra across the back of Dusk like a sack and secured her with ropes. I stopped her for a minute and searched Barbra¡¯s pockets for anything useful. Tabitha then mounted up, and suddenly, Barbra looked like a large saddle bag and bedroll. A very handy skill. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. The wagons had left Almaeadin two days ago and were travelling west. They won¡¯t be hard to catch. Tabitha would ride after them while the three of us would try to get the slaves first. The new slaves were the best to try to release first if we could. They would be the least traumatised. I sat down for a bit and altered some documents. I changed my jacket and borrowed Ruku¡¯s horse. Mosey would never pass as a courier''s horse. I raced to Barbra¡¯s official residence. It was well guarded despite her not staying there. I greeted the gate guard and said, ¡°Mistress Barbra wants her slaves at this address as fast as possible,¡± and handed over the paper I forged. ¡°They go nowhere without a guard,¡± he growled back. ¡°Whatever. I just delivered the message. Sign here to say I did my job.¡± The guard reluctantly signed, and I turned around and raced away. I spotted a couple of Rodion¡¯s dogs loitering around so they would have plenty of warning. I then did the same thing at the palace. If the slaves turned up, they did. If not, they would have to be left. Ruku and Rodion should be able to handle any guards. The trickier part was the two new slaves at the traders, ¡°At Your Service.¡± Somebody there would have been given the authority to direct them. They couldn¡¯t be transferred without the Master releasing them, and Barbra was all tied up at the moment. Who said that? If I broke the bond, they could be picked up by anybody. I could break the bond, but then I would have to step in to become their master. That is called theft under the laws of the city. First, I need to find them, and I had to be close to sense the bonds. At Your Service must have a holding area for people in between owners. I had learned that Barbra had a schedule she used to move between the traders, and it was very difficult to insert something into the schedule. It had taken us days and levelled my Forger class and Skills. I am not sure why she still held the slave bonds for these two. Why didn¡¯t she just transfer them to one of the staff at At Your Service? Are they even at this place? They may not be here. It was just where she was scheduled. I circled the compound. They were not near the edges where I could sense the bonds. Were these two ones she was going to keep? I sat down at a nearby eatery to think. I had her schedule for the week that I got from her pouch. She only worked two hours in the morning and then three in the afternoon. She did a full day on auction day, technically working for the auction house, not the traders. She wouldn¡¯t keep slaves in her name unless they were for her or somebody who was not here yet. Could they be rebellious slaves needing a strong Taskmaster in charge to settle them down? Thinking about the slave bond, that could be possible. Tricked into it and was rebellious for a while. Somebody like Modrica would hold a grudge forever, regardless of reduced mental attributes, if she had been tricked into it. How would you be tricked into it? Drugs that make your brain foggy. Hallucinogens. This is all conjecture, but possible. It would take a specialised alchemist. The simple solution is the most likely. The slaves are for her or someone she knows. A gift maybe, after all, she would be able to negotiate a discount. So where would they be? The palace or her residence would be the most likely, in which case they may have got delivered to Ruku and Rodion. I headed back to the palace. As I did, I thought about my attributes. If I became a slave, my mental attributes would only be ten percent of what they are now. They would range between 4-5. A young 18-year-old would have 1-2. That would put them back to the mental ability of a 5-year-old. I would be around 8-10 years old. Someone who specialises in mental abilities would be older. Teenagers can be hard to handle. Making slaves of older people means they have more skills, but they would also be harder to handle. They have a past life they remember, and they have more mental strength. This may be one of the other main jobs of the Slave Taskmaster, managing difficult slaves. They have the organisational base class and the mental attributes for the job. Do older slaves need more time with the taskmaster before they can be passed on? It makes sense. Maybe the two newer bonds are older slaves. The Slave bond is such that the master will always mentally dominate the slave, but the master is not always standing over the slave. The slave is given a task and left to it. This is where the strength and experience of the master carry weight, as well as the level of the Slave Class. The only counter is the mental attributes of the slave, and there is a big difference between the will of a five-year-old and a thirteen-year-old. The palace was busy. Getting behind the public areas would be difficult. Fortunately, T¨¡oke is small enough to scout. He is not interested in learning something like Analyse Bonds, but he knows the Taskmaster¡¯s smell and can trace that. I sit in a tea shop across the road. He located the suite of rooms Barbra uses, but no one was there. One of Rodion¡¯s dogs arrived with a message. They have three slaves captured. They think all three belong to Barbra, but they may have a random. Unfortunately, they have had to vacate the premises and are leaving town rapidly. Searches will be starting. Is the last slave worth it? All the city exits are going to be watched carefully, and patrols will be enhanced and trackers put on the trail. They will not want to lose their last Slave Taskmaster. T¨¡oke was following a promising scent, but it was leading down to a guarded dungeon. At least with our ability to move through stone, he doesn¡¯t have to wait for locked doors to be opened. Extracting this person or people is going to be difficult. If I were the slave and an unwilling one at that, I would want someone to save my ass. A troop of horses with armed soldiers galloped up to the palace gate. It looks like the city Lord is about to be informed. This slave is going to be watched and protected. If the slave becomes unattached, they will assume the Taskmaster has been killed. Usually, only the owner or a Slave Taskmaster can release a slave; in this case, both are the same person. If I don¡¯t break the bond, they will intensify the search as the Taskmaster must still live. I have to get close, and if I can¡¯t save them, I have to break the bond. 246. Plan E: Wiremu

246. Plan E: Wiremu

Time to vacate the tea shop, change the look and scent, and everything else I can change to throw off trackers. I was still dressed as Dianne, but I need an unrecognisable random look for this. I found a lower-class seamstress with a bundle of ready-made work clothes that she could resize easily. I bought two sets and had them sized for me. They were basic work trousers and shirts. I found a cobbler with work boots roughly my size. I left the coins on the counter; he should find them in the morning when he can¡¯t find his boots. I preferred to keep Dianne¡¯s leathers, so I literally stashed them in the outer wall. I left all my gear there, including the bow. Ruku and Rodion should have taken Mosey with them, so I was on foot. By this time, T¨¡oke had located the slave, and I knew I had to try to save or kill him. There were some deep and illegal things happening here. Is it illegal if it is done by the person who makes the laws? There is no way the city Lord was not involved. The man is in his dungeon, and I know he would never have consented to be a slave. It was either drugs or torture, and I am sure if he was tortured, he would have died first. It was probably a combination of both. When this gets out, and success or failure, I will make sure this gets out. I would not want to live in this city. I didn¡¯t know the man or his scent. T¨¡oke didn¡¯t know him. But when word gets out an orc had been enslaved, I would probably be unable to stop Modrica from turning back to level the city. I have read the history. For centuries Orcs were hunted to be made into warrior slaves, primarily by the Empire. A Kirghiz Queen led the fight against it in what is now known as the War of the Orc. She also promoted the first orc to the rank of Duchess in the Kingdom. This is the origin of the Orcs'' blood feud with the empire, although some details are sketchy. We are not in the empire, but I would bet their sticky fingers are all over this. Orcs are incredibly stubborn, meaning they have very high Mental Strength. This is weakened but not removed when they become slaves. From the history I read, the slave orcs were in squads of eight with a dedicated Warmaster, which is either another name for a Slave Taskmaster or a specialised war slave master. It is probably the latter. It was not clear from history how they made slaves of such stubborn people, but it looks like they are trying to relearn. I circled the palace in my new work clothes. I had Granite Sense and Thermal Sensing out as far as they would go. I sensed some of the underground layouts as I leaned on the palace walls, but obscuring runes made things fuzzy further than one room in. I knew where T¨¡oke was, and it was more than twice that in and two basement levels down. I would need to burrow for 50m to get to the other wall of the dungeon to get in, and it was not all rock. The City Lord wanted a garden. Digging by hand is noisy. I would need to leave a tunnel open to get the orc out, which is problematic. What do you do with all the excavated material? That is Plan A, and it has significant issues. Plan B was to get access to the palace-restricted areas by impersonation and forgery. This needed planning and time I didn¡¯t have. Plan C was to pull a Tabitha, use stealth, and burgle the place. I am leaning toward a mixture of Plans C and B. Does that class as plan D? The big question with all these plans is how do I get the orc out? It is much easier to kill him and leave. T¨¡oke could do it now. I am here to learn how to rescue slaves, and this seems like a key slave to try to release. He can also give us insight as to how he was made a slave, which is important. Barbra could also tell us if she was involved. It may have been her boss. The first job is to get into the palace. I am not as small as T¨¡oke, so the hole in the wall needed to be larger to avoid the security runes on the inside of the wall. It is the heat of the afternoon, so there were few people about. I went down just below ground level and then back up. I filled in the hole behind me. It was a cactus garden with many different spiky plants, some of whom were poisonous. I only found that out by brushing past it. Workman shirts do not have the same level of protection as leather armour. My Poison Resistance actually went up. It hasn¡¯t done that for a very long time. I collected some samples. I made it to the shade of the building. This must be a later addition to the palace as the basement didn¡¯t start here yet. I worked through the stone here as well, and I was in. I was in a sitting room of some sort, and I moved to the door. I needed somewhere to hide and scope out the place. Impersonating a servant is the best way to move forward, but I needed information. I have usually spent some time scoping out a place like this, and not having the information and a plan makes me nervous. In fact, I don¡¯t normally infiltrate places like this. A townhouse is usually my size. The first people who went past were a couple of slaves. I examined their bonds carefully. Just normal slaves, and their job was cleaning. They looked to be about my age, maybe a bit older. The feeling or flavour of the bond was of constant labour. I would assume the head Steward or whatever they are called here, would hold the bonds. A servant girl called the slaves to help with the dinner preparation. None of them were suitable for me. I moved deeper into the palace, figuring if the servants and slaves were preparing dinner, there would be less chance of discovery. The people who weren¡¯t prepping for dinner were the palace guards. The two walking toward me were alert, and I was in a corridor with no side doors before they came around the corner. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. I lay down on the corridor floor and sunk into the stone floor. As they came, I assessed them. One was about my size. The other was larger. Maybe big enough for the orc to fit her gear? From their conversation, this patrol was not normal during the day. They had been put on high alert but didn¡¯t know why. They were a bit grumpy about it. As the guards walked over me, the smaller one suddenly stopped and looked down. He said, ¡°Floor is different.¡± He raised his food to stomp, saying, ¡°There''s a heartbeat.¡± It was only a thin layer of stone over me. Fortunately, I was ready. I sat up, breaking the thin layer of stone and threw two lava darts. Their reactions were good, especially the smaller male. The dart only scraped past his cheek, whereas the female took it through the cheek into the mouth. That didn¡¯t stop her from swinging her fist at me, though. My aim was to stop them from sounding the alarm. This was foiled as I ducked the fist, and the guy let out a mighty yell, ¡°Intruder!¡± I clocked the female in the side of the head with a stone-covered fist. Whether she was dead or unconscious would depend on her constitution. This allowed the male to draw his sword, and he came at me, letting out another yell. He was aiming to delay me so reinforcements could get here. I could not be held up, Plan D was already scrapped. Plan E needed me to move because Plan F stood for Failure and possibly Fatal as well. This meant no holding back. He was fast, but I blocked his sword with a Granite-protected arm and punched him with a Granite Spike, which went through his leather armour and into his heart. I wasn¡¯t doing full Granite Armour yet, just Snakeskin and a thin Granite Shield on my chest and back, under my shirt, so it was not obvious. I created a Granite Hammer, put my hand on the wall next to me and did a small Granite Quake to loosen the blocks. I swung with the hammer and barged through the wall into an inner courtyard. There were slaves and servants setting up tables who stared for a moment and then ran. They were why I had chosen to hide in the floor instead of coming this way. I ran across the courtyard and dived through a window. Now I was above the basement area, but I kept moving as guards were starting to swarm into the area, and it was obvious which way I went. I took a left in the corridor and then a right into an empty room. Heavy feet stomped past as I created a small hole in the stone floor and dropped down a level. I took the time to put the Stone back but just enough for someone to walk on. It would break easily with more than that. I moved out to where the next level down would start when I heard multiple heavy footsteps crash into the room above my head. They picked up my scent quickly. Lizardkin are extra sensitive in that area. Hopefully, the scent stopping in that room would confuse them and slow them down. This level was a service level with storage and servant supplies. I grabbed some dirty laundry as I ran past to confuse the scent. I ducked into a pantry and grabbed a small bag of some random spice, and sprinkled it on my shirt as I ran. I passed a couple of servants who scrambled out of my way. Stealth was gone. Plan E required maximum effort as it was a quick smash-and-grab. Speed was more important. I was getting close and chose a cupboard to duck into. The dungeon walls had runes to stop people from spying and to hinder entry. This included the ceiling, which I was standing on. It would take time to burrow through them with Granite Manipulation. Turning them into lava was quicker, and Puia went out of my foot and turned the floor I was standing on to lava. This floor was thicker than the previous one, but it was only a short time before we dropped into a corridor lined with cells. The heat and fumes had obviously alerted the prison guards, who were coming at me behind shields. The corridor was only wide enough for two people side by side, but as soon as the guards saw me, they activated a Shield Charge. There were four guards. The two in front had shields, and the two behind had short swords. I only had time to raise one Granite Spike, which stopped the momentum of one of the guards and ruined his shield. The other shield smashed into me and turned the thin granite vest into pebbles. I was pushed back. several meters, but I rolled and was striking at her as she swiped at me with her claws. My strike was partially deflected off her scales, but her claws shredded some of my Snakeskin. She hissed as my hammer still connected. This is my first time fighting a Lizardkin. Her tongue darted out, tasting the air. It wasn¡¯t just spice she was tasting. It was Venom Vapour. I had been releasing it since I dropped into the room. A closed environment like this was ideal for it. I backed off a step, creating a small shield to go with my hammer. Her two fellow guards were coming up behind her. One of them was coughing badly. He must have inhaled a lung full of vapour. I deflected the sword coming at me. with the shield while striking at the first Lizardkin with the hammer again. This time I cracked her leg bone as well as the scales. The sword sliced through my Snakeskin as I missed deflecting with the shield. The coughing fit behind these two had stopped. I twisted the hammer to alter the swing as I lowered my centre of gravity to counter the shield coming at me. There was much less power behind it now the Lizardkin was favouring a leg. I pushed back, and she had to step back on her bad leg. This put her off balance, and I crushed her skull with the hammer. I don¡¯t think she even realised she was the last one standing as T¨¡oke unwound himself from the swordsman. The shield Lizardkin that my spike had stopped had his neck torn open from a massive fang. The one coughing had a Granite Spike through his chest, and the swordsman I was fighting was crushed. T¨¡oke 3, me 1. It was a team effort as I was the distraction and T¨¡oke the ambush predator. Several cells were occupied, but I moved to the orc¡¯s cell and smashed the lock with the hammer. He was a big lad, probably almost as tall as Modrica but not as muscular. He was wearing a simple shirt and shorts, and I saw scars on his body. He was no stranger to fighting. He looked at us. What would happen next would depend on the instructions he had and how much willpower he could raise. 247. Exit Strategy: Wiremu

247. Exit Strategy: Wiremu

¡°Can you leave with us?¡± I asked in orcish. He was surprised to hear his native tongue. I figured it would help put him at ease. The response I got was a low, rumbling growl that only orcs can produce and a brief shake of the head. At least he wasn¡¯t commanded to attack. I didn¡¯t think it was likely, but it was possible. He had obviously been commanded to stay in the cell. There was only one way I could think of to get us all out of here safely. ¡°I can break your current bond, but I will have to take over as the master till we can get the slave class removed.¡± I got a frustrated growl at that. ¡°Yeah, I am not happy about it either, but we are working on how to get the class removed.¡± I got a grunt and growl at that. Fortunately, I am reasonably fluent in the Grunt language by now. I didn¡¯t see a choice unless he wanted me to kill him. ¡°We will work on it. You have my word,¡± I said, still speaking orcish, and I finished with a low rumble that emphasised a firm commitment in orcish. ¡°We can also transfer you to Modrica¡¯s care when we catch up with her,¡± When I said Modrica¡¯s name, I added the prefix indicating the senior Matriarch of the clan. That got a different growl in response, and I turned my attention to the bond. It was a weak new bond, indicating Barbra had not been the owner long but also that the orc had not been a slave long. I applied pressure to it, and it snapped easily. I was watching the orc carefully, as from his perspective, it would be like his master was killed, and there could be death commands inserted. I didn¡¯t leave him long as I engaged Bond Care and reached out mentally to him. Breaking the bond was not going to be that easy as it flowed from the Slave Taskmaster. This Taskmaster was not that high levelled, so I could probably manage it. I grabbed the bond and squeezed and then stabbed to a mental spike. The bond constricted and flexed but did not break. In fact, there seemed to be a strengthening flow. I changed my squeezing pressure to lava, and that burned through the bond despite the supporting flow. It wasn¡¯t quick. I had to keep up the pressure, and I created small lava spikes to disrupt the bond. I was sweating and chewing through my mental energy. The bond was thinning and weakening. I needed something more. I mentally created a Granite cleaver and slammed it into the weak point, finally severing the bond. A higher levelled taskmaster and I wouldn¡¯t have been able to do this. One who could fight back and make the slave fight back would be worse. This is their area of expertise, and I am an amateur interloper without even the right class or skills. Going head-to-head with a Slave Taskmaster was not a good plan. It was best with just an owner or a low-level one that was far away. Picking up the bond for myself was too easy. There was no resistance. I was used to bonding with animals with a will. Whether it was the to and fro with Taoke or the negotiations with Puia, or guiding others, there was always something from the other end of the bond. Not in this case. There was nothing, and suddenly I was bonded with a slave. It was a singular bond. T¨¡oke and Puia were not part of it. It made me feel unclean, diseased. I was used to two-way bonds, and nothing was coming back through this bond, and it felt wrong to me. I could sense the bond, and if I concentrated on it, I felt his well-being and mental state. That was depressing. He was starved and dehydrated, and his mental state was poor. I didn¡¯t have time to explore it further as the sound of a steel door being slammed open and heavy footsteps coming in our direction. ¡°Consider all previous instructions null and void. First and primary command, You will only respond to instructions given in Orcish.¡± That should hamper any new owner as they can¡¯t counter it unless they speak orcish, and there were few orcs in this area. ¡°What is your name?¡± ¡°Umreti.¡± That wasn¡¯t a normal name. It was more of a death wish. However, if that is what he wants to be called, we don¡¯t have time to argue. ¡°You can call me Quinn. This is my bond T¨¡oke.¡± I introduced them. ¡°Can you use any of those weapons? Grap what you need, and you will defend yourself to the best of your ability. You have permission to kill anyone attacking you or attacking me and my bonds.¡± He grabbed a sword and a shield. My Thermal Sensing told me there were soldiers at the top of the hole I had made, so we weren¡¯t going back that way, and it told them roughly where I was on this level. ¡°Follow me, and we will make a way out.¡± All the exits will be guarded and trapped, so we would have to make our own way out. I headed down the opposite direction to the advancing guards. I turned a corner and halted. ¡°Defend this area for a minute,¡± I said. Granite Sense indicated the small protrusion in the wall was in fact a supporting pillar of the palace. I placed a hand on it, and a small Granite Quake removed the plaster, exposing one side of a large stone pillar. The pillar would take too long to crack and only bring the building down on our heads. However, out from the pillar were supporting beams holding up each floor. Bringing down part of a floor will give us access and crush those below. I created a step in the pillar to enable me to reach a beam, and this time I gave Granite Quake everything I had. My total of 50 Spiritual Strenght wasn¡¯t enough. The whole building shook, and plaster fell from the walls and ceiling, creating a dust cloud. The beam cracked but didn¡¯t break. I heard the clash of weapons below me as Umreti engaged the guards. He was amazing. Lightning fast and stronger than I was, and he knew some sword and shield skills. I was very impressed. Then I realised what I had forgotten. The Slave Class restricts your mental attributes by 90%, but in exchange, it boosts your Physical and Spiritual Attributes. No wonder he was stronger and faster than those below as he cut through the first layer of guards. This was the power of an army of slave warriors. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I brought up my hammer and swung at the cracks in the beam, enlarging them as I readied another Quake. I had a number of free attributes, so I pumped ten into Spiritual Strength. When you need a boost, that is one of the reasons to have them spare. ¡°Move back,¡± I yelled as I let loose with Granite Quake and a full 60 in Spiritual Strength, at the same time as slamming my hammer into it. The beam came loose from the pillar, and the near end crashed down into the corridor. The far end stayed attached to the next pillar, and there was a cross beam halfway that partially held. The result was a whole portion of the floor above sagged down into the dungeon area. I could head scrambling as the guards retreated to a safer area. Umreti emerged from a cloud of dust, coughing. He had some minor wounds. T¨¡oke, in his small form, slithered out from two cracks in the rubble. The floor above was the service area of the first basement level. The sagging floor was mainly two storage rooms and part of a corridor. The wall between the two storage rooms had broken off from the floor and was hanging in mid-air. One of the rooms contained linen, and there were shelves and baskets of linen cascading toward us. I swung my hammer and broke through the shelving coming at me. The other room was less affected, but it was a bath and toilet room, and I had broken the pipes in the floor, and water and shit were spreading. Time to go. T¨¡oke launched himself at me and took up his usual position on my shoulder. I reached a hand down to help Umreti, but he nimbly jumped up without assistance. We headed for the corridor. The guards that had trapped the entry hole I had made were coming. Umreti paused at a broken water pipe to drink. That¡¯s right, he was dehydrated, so we paused. He will fight better to be refreshed as much as possible. I was under no illusions we would be safe for a long while. Rich people get angry when you demolish parts of their expensive palaces, and we weren¡¯t done yet. I tossed Umreti some jerky I had on me for him to chew. While Umreti ate, I found the same support pillar and gave the building another really good shake. Then we were off. We broke into the corridor, and the walls had cracks all through them, and there was broken plaster and window glass lying everywhere. The main reason for the quake though was to make the guards pause, and they had. They were advancing again, but slower and with caution. My Hearing Aid is a great skill. We took off running in the opposite direction to the guards as I searched for the fastest way to get to the ground level and out of here. We were approaching a set of stairs, but a troop of guards were busy barricading them and preparing a defence. Plan E was always going to require maximum effort. ¡°Best to stand back for this,¡± I told Umreti. ¡°Watch our backs.¡± I flicked a drop of lava onto the floor before me, and Puia created a battering ram. Actually, it was more like a boar than a ram. A solid body that came up to my chest and a round thick body. He had a short thick neck with two horns on the head. The legs were short but efficient. The heat from Puia scalded the stone around us. The stairs were stone which was fortunate because wooden stairs would have just collapsed. It is easy to forget Puia is solid stone. Just because it is molten does not lessen the weight. ¡°Follow me,¡± I said to Umreti as I followed Puia. Puia moved around the corner, and a couple of arrows bounced off him. He started picking up momentum as he thundered down the hall. The hastily erected barrier didn¡¯t stand a chance. Puia wasn¡¯t even slowed, and the wooden furniture they had used just burst into flames. Puia pounded up the stairs, brushing aside the guards as well. Umreti and I followed, killing or maiming so they would not be able to chase us. At the top of the stairs, a corridor ran at right angles in both directions. There were guards both ways with shields up. Puia didn¡¯t turn but crashed into the wall, weakening the thin stone wall and creating a shower of lava that sprayed everywhere and over everyone. This corridor was fancier than the servant area¡¯s, and the stone was overlaid with wooden flooring, which started to burn. ¡°Go left,¡± I said to Umreti as I turned right and slammed my hammer into a shield, breaking it and the arm of the Lizardkin holding it. T¨¡oke spat poison from my shoulder into the eyes of the other shield bearer. The squad leader was behind the shields and was only smoking in a few places, but he sliced my midriff with his sword. It was partially blunted by my Snakeskin, but I should have recreated the stone vests. It wouldn¡¯t bleed for long. I bashed him with my shield, and he rolled backwards and then kept retreating. I didn¡¯t want to waste time chasing him. Umreti had killed the two on his side, and I hammered the rest of the wall down, entering a sitting room. There was lush carpet on the floor and soft chairs, and wide-open doors to a sunny courtyard. The carpet was already smouldering from the lava that splashed in when I brought the wall down. It burst into flame when Puia rejoined me through my boot. The room was empty, but there were well-dressed people in the courtyard. A couple of them had swords, but they were there for a social outing, not fighting. I think I had annoyed them when my Quate knocked over their chess board as they were resetting things up. They backed away from us as we ran through the courtyard, and my hammer opened the door on the far side. I think the hinges were supposed to open the other way. Nevermind. I put my shield up and dove through a glass window into a short garden. Damn them and their bloody cactus plants. The external wall of the palace was right there. For all our speed, we were not fast enough, and there were two archers on the wall visible to us. They yelled our position out and shot at us. I saw a triple shot fired at Umreti, who deflected one with his shield and took one to the shoulder, the other missing. I put my shield up, and the arrow cracked the stone, and the shield fell apart. It must have been a power shot or equivalent. I dived to the base of the wall, and I tossed T¨¡oke to the top. As he crested the top, he Grew and crashed into one archer, sending them over the outside edge and spat venom at the other archer. I created handholds and climbed up, Umreti following slowly. The arrow in his shoulder was obviously hampering him. I grabbed the bow and quiver from the downed archer and fired at the next archer simultaneously as I had to dodge incoming arrows. T¨¡oke had gone over the outside wall already, I created two protrusions on the outside wall. ¡°Jump down onto those,¡± I said to Umreti, and he went over without hesitation. The second reason the slave army is so useful is there is no hesitation to obey orders. I took an arrow to the chest, which cracked through my Granite ribs and nicked my lung. These are skilled archers with their Powershots. That is going to slow me down. I fired a triple shot back with two Venom arrows and saw one hit. The ruined muscles in my chest caused massive pain when using the bow. I was finding it harder to breathe. I jumped over the wall. My feet caught the first protrusion, but it was at an awkward angle, so I could only grab the second with my arm to slow my fall, but my smashed ribs and ruined muscles weakened it, so I ended up crashing to the ground in an awkward angle and my ankle twisted and broke making me collapse in a heap. That is a disaster and will slow me down. The easy part where we had the surprise is over. Now we will be hunted. 248. Hunted: Wiremu

248. Hunted: Wiremu

My initial plan was to head out into the desert. Even though we were on foot and would be hunted by mounted troops and desert trackers, the desert was a big place, and I was good at hiding a trail, and it was all rock, which suited me. With my Mapping Skill, I would never be lost. A broken ankle and ribs weren¡¯t that serious. I used Molten Rock and Granite Manipulation to fix the Granite Bones. It was the damaged lung, muscles and tendons in my chest and foot that were the problem. Umreti was also wounded and starved, so he didn¡¯t have a lot of energy either. We would have to hide in the city for at least a few days. It will be almost several days before I am running again. I can¡¯t wait that long. Tabitha and the others are getting further away every day. I focussed my Regeneration on my lung. A lot of my secrets have also been exposed. They know at least I am a rock and/or fire affinity user with a snake bond and something else. They may think the fire comes from another bond, which is partially true. The next time they come, they will be ready to combat fire and rock. T¨¡oke slithered up beside me, and I rolled onto his back as he was still in his big form. An arrow skittered off his scales as he headed away from the wall. Umreti was jogging beside us. The road cleared ahead of us as people scattered. There was only a road width before the city buildings started, so we were outside of the view of the archers quickly, but the mounted troops and trackers wouldn¡¯t be far behind. Both Umreti and I left enough blood behind to give the trackers a good scent. The buildings beside the palace were expensive mansions. I steered T¨¡oke toward the industrial area, because we needed to hide somewhere. First, we needed to get out of sight and change our scent. Rich people have all sorts of things. I picked a mansion that looked empty and steered T¨¡oke toward it. T¨¡oke crashed through the gate, leaving twisted wrought iron where decorative gates used to stand. I created a stone cast for my ankle. I turned to Umreti, ¡°You get two horses ready. I will check out the house.¡± I figured horses would be a task he is familiar with, whereas the mansion will have a lot of variables that could confuse him. T¨¡oke shrunk down but stayed outside. I smashed open the door with my hammer and strode in, my Thermal Sensing telling me there were two servants hurriedly exiting out the back. We wouldn¡¯t have long. I was looking for clothing to hide us, preferably something with a hood for Umreti, as orcs were rare around here. I also wanted something to change our smell, as well as any food, water containers and first aid supplies. I headed straight toward the back, to where the kitchen and laundry were. I grabbed a couple of cloth bags from the kitchen and started throwing in items. Salt and Pepper, fruit, a small bag of dates, some cooked meat etc. I then moved to the laundry. Head and face coverings were common due to the desert winds and sand, and I grabbed several. I found a couple of shirts and a pair of trousers that might be big enough. It was time to leave, but before that, I created two stone bottles and filled them from a barrel of water in the kitchen. I missed dwarven plumbing. On the way out, I triggered Sense Treasure, smashed a wall unit and grabbed the coins. I lit a fire while I was there as it would mask what we took, and smoke would confuse the scent. At least Kelda wouldn¡¯t yell at me for putting innocents in danger seeing as the house was empty. Then it hit me again that Kelda was not here. When I came out, one horse had a saddle, but Umreti was just leading out the other and carrying a saddle. I noticed his hands were shaking. I am not sure what that is about but we didn¡¯t have time right now. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for the saddle. I will ride bareback,¡± I said as T¨¡oke joined me again. My hearing aid was picking up noise that was not normal city noise. I grabbed Umrati and tightly bound his shoulder with cloth strips. I then jumped on the horse and passed Umreti a piece of fruit, a bottle and a head covering after he mounted. I glanced in the direction of the palace. More smoke was rising than I expected. I don¡¯t think they put out the fire yet. ¡°Let''s go.¡± We galloped out the wrecked gate and took the first turn we came to. We kept it up for several blocks, taking random turns. We came to a nice townhouse with a wall, and we were out of sight, so we dismounted, and I grabbed the bags. I then heated my stone finger and lightly burned the horses'' flanks so they galloped off in a panic. Horses can also be tracked by smell if they know where we got them. Dusk was falling, which was good. We went over the wall straight into a cactus garden. What the goblin shit, is up with these people and cactuses? I spread some pepper in case we were scratched, but that would also smell out of place. We went over two more walls before stopping for emergency first aid and a bite to eat. My chest was throbbing, and I was very short of breath with major movements. I had my ankle supported with stone and kept Regeneration on my lung rather than my foot. Umreti¡¯s shoulder was worse. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Do you have any self heal skills?¡± I asked. He shook his head. I had grabbed some ointment in the kitchen I raided that was obviously there to treat minor cuts and burns. I applied that and did a better job on the bandage rags. It would help. He will have a strong constitution, being a fighter. ¡°What Basic classes do you have? Highest to low.¡± ¡°Brawler, Warrior, First Aid.¡± ¡°Specialisations for Brawler?¡± He shook his head. ¡°Warrior?¡± ¡°Jungle Warrior, Weapons Mastery.¡± ¡°First Aid?¡± ¡°Survivalist.¡± ¡°First aid is keeping people alive, right?¡± he nodded. ¡°What specialist skill did Survivalist give you?¡± ¡°Survival Senses.¡± ¡°Is that like a danger sense?¡± He shook his head, ¡°It leads me to things I need to survive.¡± ¡°So you could find water in the desert?¡± He nodded. ¡°Where is the nearest food?¡± He pointed to the bag I was carrying. Fair enough, I broke out the bag of dates, and we started eating. When he reached for the bag I noticed his hand was steady. No sign of the shaking previously. ¡°What Master Skills do you have?¡± ¡°Nightsight, Olfactory, Sword, Spear.¡± ¡°And with Weapon Mastery, you can basically use any weapon?¡± ¡°Weapon Proficiency Skill from the class speeds up learning weapons.¡± ¡°Ok, we need to keep moving. We need somewhere to hide for a few days, but first, I must get my gear from where I stashed it. What is your stealth like?¡± ¡°Journeyman Level.¡± ¡°Do you have any appearance-changing skills?¡± He shook his head. ¡°I am not going to be very stealthy with this,¡± I indicated my stone cast, ¡°but we will do our best. It is not far, then we hide. Wait a minute, you need contingency instructions. If we are separated, keep from getting caught with all you can. This is a survival issue.¡± I framed it that way, hoping his Survival Sense would then help him. It was a guess, but worth a try. ¡°To get help, to survive, go west, and find Modrica, an orc with a Dire Bear bond. You can trust Modrica and her Krvne Sestre, Black. Black has a big black horse as a bond. You can also trust Ruku, who is with them. He has a yellow and black salamander bond. From now on, you only communicate in Orcish. Those three all speak orcish. If I die, your bond will break. If that happens, you must run west to Modrica, Black or Ruku. You will only respond when spoken to in orcish. You will not respond to anything else.¡± This should stop him from being recaptured as the only one who could re-enslave him would be someone who speaks orcish or the Slave Taskmaster who can forcibly pick up a bond. There should be no Slave Taskmasters left in this city. I racked my brain for other instructions he might need if we are separated. ¡°If you are attacked, the person who attacks you is an enemy. You may kill all enemies. The organisation that person belongs to is also an enemy, so anyone belonging to that organisation may be killed so you can escape and find Modrica. The aim is to escape and find Modrica.¡± The organisation bit might be a bit too complicated, but I didn¡¯t want him to wait to be attacked before defending himself every time. That is the worst-case scenario for him. If he is captured and I am not, then I can judge what to do. ¡°If you get captured, your captors are your enemy. You are to keep trying to escape and head west. This is for your survival.¡± I hope that is enough. It is all I could think of right now. ¡°Time to go. Change your head covering, then follow me.¡± I changed my hair colour and added a beard as we left. Two gardens over was a road. The guards were out in force, and we waited for a pair of mounted guards to pass before crossing the road. I felt slow and clumsy as I limped across. We ducked into an alley and then worked our way toward the wall where I stashed my gear. It was slow and painstaking work, and as we got closer to the wall, the patrols got more frequent. It makes sense, as they were trying to stop us from leaving, and that would be where a sensible person would go. The night wore on, and dawn was getting closer. I decided to give up on the gear for now and find a place to hide. We had topped up our supplies during the night and had a good feed. I noticed the Umreti suddenly paused and then developed shaking for a few seconds. It was like a seizure or something. I asked him about it, but he had no idea what caused it. I had marked a couple of hiding spots as we had travelled, so we headed toward one of them. Umreti was sprinting across a street, and I was limping behind him, puffing like a blacksmith''s bellows. I needed rest, and that will get the lung fixed. Suddenly four riders appeared at the end of the street. One of them must have Farsight and some sort of recognition Skill. I guess it doesn¡¯t take much to identify two people acting suspiciously at 4 am in the morning. They galloped toward us, yelling and blowing alert whistles. We rushed into the ally. I was the one holding them all up. I wheezed to Umreti, ¡°You run, get out of the city and head west. T¨¡oke, go with him, please. See him safe with the others and bring back help.¡± The thing that is different with my bond with T¨¡oke is if he doesn''t agree, he won''t do it. Umreti will just obey, but T¨¡oke will decide for himself what he thinks is best. It was a close call, but T¨¡oke did jump to Umreti¡¯s shoulder, and they took off much faster than I could without my injuries. His boosed Physical Attributes are amazing. Now I need to lead the pursuers away. 249. Thirty-Two: Wiremu

249. Thirty-Two: Wiremu

I turned back to the entrance of the alley. The horses were coming fast. I positioned myself on one side in the shadows and tried to catch my breath while I waited. My shield had broken, but I griped my hammer. This had to be quick, or I would be done in. The horses slowed nearing the ally''s entrance, and three turned in. One galloped straight past. I assume they were trying to circle around where they thought we were. The first person into the ally had their chest crushed with a hammer. I let go of the hammer after delivering that blow and sprayed the second with super-heated sand. This also caused the horse to rear and charge, unseating her, and the horse galloped off down the ally. The third person had time to reign in the horse and was reaching for his whistle. I threw a knife into his chest and grabbed the horse''s reins. I also grabbed him and dragged him off the horse, mounted and galloped in the opposite direction to the way the fourth one went. A whistle started blowing from the ally in a short, long, short, long pattern. I don¡¯t know what that told them, but it told me I was in trouble. I changed direction, but I know I was spotted as another whistle started up. This one came from above me. They had Avions searching for me, and now they have found me. I will need to get under cover to lose them. I changed direction again, but my Hearing Aid picked up the sound of other hooves closing in. I turned a corner randomly, and the two guards galloping down this street toward me pulled their horses to a stop as I pounded past. They turned and were soon riding hard, not far behind me. I took another corner, and it was the wrong one. An arrow Power Shot into my horse, and I Tumbled off as he collapsed. As I rose to my feet, another Power Shot hit me in the chest. I had a thicker stone shield on as a vest, but the shot still cracked it and made me stagger back a step. The two riders behind me had grown to six, and they charged at me. The one in front swinging a mace. I dropped to the ground and triggered Granite Armour, so I didn¡¯t get trampled. The horse tripped over me, and horse and rider went tumbling. The rider behind jumped her horse over us, and the others were urgently stopping and drawing weapons. I didn¡¯t have the lung power for a drawn-out fight. I didn¡¯t have the lung power to run either. Granite Armour takes a lot of Spiritual Energy, and that is why I had not used it until now. Running out of Spiritual Energy is a constant fear of mine, as that is how I defeated the original lava man. I have Puia, which helps a lot, but if Puia runs out of energy, he dies. If I run out, I am merely a defenceless, wounded hunter, probably meaning I will die. As I got to my feet, another arrow slammed into me. However, the Granite Armour is on a totally different level from the shields. It also adds a lot of weight, so I didn¡¯t even stagger as the Power Shot slammed into my back. It still took energy to melt the cracks and reform the Granite. I had left my hammer behind at the scene of the last fight, but I was not going to spend the energy to reform one. My armoured fists would be enough. I also don''t want to give them time to form into a group, as Ruku¡¯s training has shown me how dangerous that can be. The one thing I have learned about my enemy tonight is that they are coordinated, and the coordinator is very clever and skilled. I picked the largest bunch and charged them. It was a sort of limping charge, but they were not far. The one with the shield came to meet me, and I punched the shield with my Granite-covered fist, breaking the wood and, I think her arm. She went to one knee from the pressure as she had not had time to brace properly. I followed it with a stomp on her leg that broke it, and I moved on to the next person. I started receiving blows on my armour. I am usually more mobile, but I already suffered from a lack of oxygen and coughing up blood. A piercing thrust from a spear went through the lava joint in my leg armour and drew blood. They were not holding back on their skills. I created small Granite Spikes on my knuckles that easily pierce their light armour. I downed two others, but the spearman was a problem. He knew how to use it and keep his distance. The longer he delayed, the more reinforcements would arrive. I could hear the horses approaching. I cleared the way to the wall of the building next to the road and crashed right through it. It was a stone wall, as most were, so it took a small Quake to loosen it. I through some lava around to start a fire to cause mayhem and obscuring smoke. I needed to get away from the eyes in the sky. I wanted to block the gap but didn¡¯t think the energy cost was worth it for the few seconds. I threw some more darts through the gap as Puia formed a Beetle for me to ride. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. This greatly enlarged the fire as we crash through the building and out the wooden door opposite our entry. We were still taking hits, and some of the reinforcements had circled the building and were inbound. Another arrow struck. This time, my helmet took it, throwing my head sideways and making me spend more energy on repairs. I was continuously throwing darts. Forming them with my high levelled Granite Spike was the cheapest for me, energy-wise. I interspersed them with Lava Dart, which was mid-apprentice. Several pursuers dropped out of the running battle with injuries, I think I killed a couple. We were also taking damage. Puia¡¯s legs were weak in this form, and he had to keep replacing them as they were easy targets. The archer was the biggest problem, and they kept well out of my range. I wasn¡¯t avoiding buildings, as I needed the fire and smoke to hide from the spies in the sky. I had altered my direction as we were moving downwind in the smoke from the previous fires. The smoke wasn¡¯t helping my lungs at all, and we were both getting low on energy. I needed to lose them, but more and more guards were converging on our position. The sky was becoming lighter with the predawn. I don¡¯t know how to get out of this. We crashed out of the glass door of the latest building, a middle-class house, and a dark shape crashed down on us from overhead. I raised an arm to fend it off, and it broke over my arm. I realise it was a wooden barrel, and water cascaded over us both. A lot of it burst into steam, but it also fast-cooled three of Puia¡¯s legs, and they became solid and broke off, and Puia collapsed on one side, throwing me off. He was hurt and in pain, and so was I. I sensed four more Avions coming in, carrying another barrel in a net of some kind and scrambled to my feet. The cold is Puia¡¯s weakness as it hardens his lava and makes him use more energy. I got to my feet, but some of my lava joints had also hardened, making it slow and more effort than usual. Another arrow slammed into my back, and then my pursuers were on me. I told Puia to sink into the ground and hide as the second barrel crashed on him, splashing me as well. All that remained of Puia was a pile of rock and steam as his essence abandoned the beetle form and sunk into the ground. I kept fighting, but the water had made my armour sluggish. Then a horse galloped up, and the rider threw a bladder of water over me, locking my joints momentarily. I was running out of energy fast and would soon get locked into my armour. It could end up being my tomb. Another bladder of water showered me, and I fell onto my face. ¡°Quick, bring the sledge hammers!¡± I heard the yell. Those around me kept pounding on me with their weapons. If I let the armour go, I would die under that rain of blows. If I kept the armour, I couldn¡¯t move. The armour also had to turn to lava for me to absorb it, and water kept being thrown on me. I am not sure I have the energy to remove it. I reached out to T¨¡oke through our bond to see if they were safe. I didn¡¯t expect them to be out of the city yet, but I hoped they were at least hidden for the day. I got the sense they were in a wet underground cavern. That was strange. It was barely an hour and a half since we parted. Ponding started on my armour and my helmet, making it hard to think. I am not sure what I was trying to communicate any more and basically was saying goodbye. What I got back through the link was anger and energy. I used the energy to try to break out by spiking some feet and then heads and hearts as they fell over. The back of the armour was all cracked, and so was my helmet, and I used Granite Manipulation to break it open and get out of the trap my armour had become. T¨¡oke was on his way, and that lifted my spirits as much as the energy he shared. Getting out of the armour was not quick enough, and I took an arrow in the back and a spear in the side. Then, something hard hit the back of my head, and I felt my consciousness starting to fade. ¡°Don¡¯t kill him!¡± said a commanding voice. ¡°He has killed or maimed thirty two of my people and destroyed half my palace. Get that drug into him and send our fastest horses for the Slave Taskmaster. He has to pay for what he cost me.¡± I felt a potion being fed down my throat, and there was pain as my legs were crushed and my arms were broken. It all faded into black. 250. Energy: Wiremu

250. Energy: Wiremu

I awoke to water splashing on my face. I spluttered and tried to wipe it off, but I was tied down. My brain cleared a bit, and I was tied naked in a shallow pool of water. I think almost every bone in my body was broken. ¡°Shit, he¡¯s awake. His Poison Resistance must be massive,¡± the voice was female, and I think Lizardkin. ¡°This is the last batch. He might as well be swimming in the stuff,¡± said a male voice with a stronger Lizardkin accent. A scaled claw holding a mug came into my view, and another claw grabbed my jaw. I tried to move my head, but it was also strapped down. My energy levels were only partially recovered, so I couldn¡¯t have been out that long. Water may make using lava difficult, but it doesn¡¯t affect Granite. I spiked the hand holding me and the hand with the mug. I missed the mug, but it did spill the contents as the owner jerked back with one bleeding hand. ¡°Bloody goblin shit.¡± A club crashed into the side of my head, and it went dark before I could do more than sense where T¨¡oke and Puia were. The bond didn¡¯t seem right, but that may have been my mental state. Water splashed over me again, making me splutter awake and gasp for air. ¡°Pay attention now, you insignificant piece of goblin shit.¡± a voice commanded. I recognised the voice from before, commanding that I not be killed. I ignored it immediately, checking my status, extending my senses, and reaching for my bonds. Poison Resistance, Pain Resistance and Regeneration had risen. Regeneration was almost at the Master Level. The bond link was still fuzzy, and my senses hit a wall. I was in a Spiritually enhanced cell. I could sense T¨¡oke and Puia close, but not like I normally could. I think they were searching for me. Most of my bones were still broken, but that was not a big problem. The problem was the soft tissue. Organs, muscles, and tendons. And my brain. I had some brain bleeding, and I had a perforated liver, which was hampering the processing of the poisons. My lung had been patched up. I focussed Regeneration on my brain and organs. A slap cracked across my face, grinding the bones in my broken jaw and missing teeth. Claws ripped my cheeks. ¡°You weren¡¯t paying attention,¡± a voice scolded as if I were a naughty child. I have no idea how he knew that as I couldn¡¯t move, one of my eyes was swollen shut, and I had left the other closed to concentrate on my other senses. It seemed to annoy him, so I continued to ignore him and checked my energy levels. Only about half, as Regeneration was using a lot. My injuries also reduced my body''s ability to create energy. I needed to make a hole in this prison cell to reconnect to T¨¡oke and Puia, as they can supply me with energy. The door was the weak link. I need to be awake when they open it, preferably damaging it so it doesn¡¯t close properly. Not having a strong link to my bonds was really messing with me. I could sense Umreti¡¯s bond as well, but I only knew it was still there I couldn¡¯t sense anything else about him. Should I break the bond with Umreti? That should put into effect the ¡®death clauses¡¯ I established for him as it will appear to him that I died. I decided to wait. Tabitha is good at getting information from unwilling slaves, especially with her Adjuster Skill, and Umreti should be willing to talk as she was one of the trusted people I gave him. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. There was one fairly low-cost way to get them to open the door. I was only breathing shallowly due to the broken ribs and the strap across my chest, but every breath out, I breathed a lung full of Venom Vapour into the room. It will take a while to become noticeable, but it was a start. A bucket of water splashed over my face, making me splutter and cough it out of my lungs. ¡°Do I have your attention now?¡± the voice was getting angry. ¡°Just for that, I will kill one of those monsters crawling under my palace. One is that snake, and I look forward to getting that monster core. I don¡¯t know what the other one is, but I will find out. My mining teams are good and located them easily enough.¡± He stepped in front of me so I would see him, but I didn¡¯t bother opening my eye. ¡°You think your Poison Resistance is enough to stop you from becoming my slave? The drugs weren¡¯t even enough for the orc. Zikr here will poke so many holes in your mind that you won¡¯t know your own mother. When the Taskmaster gets here, you won¡¯t know what you are agreeing to. I might make you kill the snake and hand me the core.¡± The city lord was a large Lizardkin. I can¡¯t actually remember his name, I don¡¯t ever think I bothered to learn it. I was very concerned for T¨¡oke and Puia. However, I am not just going to believe everything I am told here. I believe they have sensed them, and miners would be the people with the skills. More than that is debatable. He is trying to unsettle me. Yes, it is sort of working, but not in the way he thinks. It takes a lot to get me angry. The first time I was really angry was when the empire raided my village and killed or enslaved everyone I knew. That anger is still there, and as we get closer to the empire, it is getting closer to the surface. The second time was the three years in the quarry, watching the empire make slaves of people and pushing to make me a slave. That anger grew over time, and there was nothing I could do about it but plot to run away. That anger has directed my actions over the last five years or so, but it has been in the background. There has been one person who has been with me through all this and kept me going and sane. I bonded with T¨¡oke early in my time at the quarry, and he kept me going and stopped me from becoming a slave there. Everything I am today I owe to T¨¡oke, and the only thing he has ever asked in return are a few eggs. For this lizard to even make a statement like that has brought that rage back to the surface. I am struggling to control it because although it makes me want to rip this place apart, I am in this situation because I overestimated my capabilities. And this lizard is smart. Sledgehammers to break rock and water to put out the fire, and he got me. Even these words were said to manipulate me. I know that, but that doesn¡¯t stop the anger. The first thing I do is use that anger to strengthen my defences. This Zikr has some sort of mental attack, so I empowered Granite Mind Armour. It is still only in the Novice levels, but I put all my spare Attributes into Mental Strength, pushing it up to 58. I ignore my broken bones for now as I can fix them with one sweep of Lava through my body. It is the soft tissue that needs fixing and shoring up. I prioritise Regeneration to focus on my brain and then the muscles and tendons critical for movement. I will need them soon. However, the Molten Rock Skill combined with Granite Manipulation to fix my bones will suck up a lot of Spiritual Energy. I reach out through my bonds. My bond with T¨¡oke is much stronger than my bond with Puia. I am getting some sense through the fuzzy blockage. I try to communicate a sense of danger and miners coming for them. I boost that with my Bond Care skill and my 58 in Mental Strength. Energy is going to be the key. If I run out of energy, all my defences fail, Mental, Physical and Spiritual. My Mental energy has just had a boost with my new Attributes. My Physical Constitution powered regeneration, i.e. all three Physical Attributes and boosted by Spiritual Strength. My Physical Constitution was severely damaged, but my Spiritual Strength was at 60. This meant my Spiritual energy was important here. I have also changed my mind about the strategy here. I no longer want them to open the door. In fact, I want to keep it closed. Every time I exhale, more Venom Vapour is added to the room. 251. Breathe: Wiremu

251. Breathe: Wiremu

There were four people in the room/cell/cage with me. All of them were Lizardkin. The Lord was the largest. Then there were my two jailers. The fourth person was only about half the size of the lord, obviously a different subspecies. Zikr stepped forward to look me in the eye. My eyes had been closed the entire time, and I was tracking everything with Thermal Sensing. Lizardkin had a greater variation in temperature than other species, being cold-blooded. The two jailers were quite cool, and I think they will be quite sluggish. The lord and Zikr were radiating a lot of heat, not having been down here long. I think Zikr was a bit annoyed I had my eyes closed. I was essentially lying there unmoving, apart from my shallow breaths. Breathe in, breathe out. Concentrating on breathing is supposed to calm your mind, and it did. My rage was breathing focussed, and with every breath out, I would poison them. Breathe in, breathe out. Then I felt a sharp pain in my mind, and I linked Granite Mind Armour to my breathing. It didn¡¯t change the skill, but it focussed my rage, linking my defence with my attack. Rage doesn¡¯t have to be explosive in its expression. Tabitha¡¯s rage is explosively expressed in her Intimidating Aura and her Rampage Skill. My rage is solid and immovable. The inexorable progression of molten rock and poison. Breathe in, breathe out. ¡°He has some sort of Mind barrier,¡± Zikr explained to his boss when I had no reaction to the probe. Breathe in, breathe out. ¡°So break through it,¡± he demanded. I could sense Zikr was not pleased. I guess he was hoping for some reaction from me as a show. Now he was aware it was not going to be easy. He settled himself and focussed. Now the fight would begin in earnest. Breathe in, breathe out. All around my mind, I felt pricks hitting my shield. It is like he surrounded my mind and hit everywhere at once. The pricks were not strong and didn¡¯t even scratch the surface. I guess he was probing for a weakness. This kept up for several minutes, but it was using up his energy, not mine. Granite Mind Armour levelled to 4. Breathe in, breathe out. Zikr was obviously nervous, with his boss looking over his shoulder while he worked. He took a deep breath, and then a solid, sharp point smashed into my mind shield like a spear. It felt like some Granite chipped off the shield. He kept the pressure on the spear point, but my shield was highly resistant to pressure, just like Granite. He relaxed the pressure and slammed it back in at the same position. Another chip of Granite came off, but the continual pressure was easy to keep at bay. He seemed to realise what was happening and stopped for a breather. This gave me time to spend some energy to relayer the Granite. Granite Mind Shield moved into the Apprentice Level. This reduced the mental energy to maintain the Shield, and it was easier to repair or relayer as that case was. The relayering came from the underlying layer of lava under the Granite layer of the shield. Breathe in, breathe out. ¡°What is going on?¡± the boss lizard asked. ¡°It wasn¡¯t like this with the orc.¡± He was obviously expecting more than Zikr staring at me and me laying there unmoving except for the breathing. I had not moved since I was struck. Zikr was breathing harder than before as this was taking effort from him, ¡°I was probing for weakness, and now I am chipping through the shield. It won¡¯t be long now.¡± He was obviously talking it up for his boss, but he had worked out how to get through the shield. Continuous chipping is what will get through, and now it is an endurance battle. The energy he takes to chip vs the energy I have to repair it. Breathe in, breathe out. zikr turned back to me and started chipping away at my shield. He was always working at the same spot, and it was working. I concentrated on strengthening the shield, but adding new layers from the lava to the granite added a layer to the whole shield, not just the damaged area. I got the feeling from the skill that patchwork repairs would only come at the Journeyman level. I think my inefficient repairs were using as much or more energy than his chipping. I sensed he tried different shapes at the point of his attacks to see what worked best. Breathe in, breathe out. He was chipping faster than I could repair. The boss lord was getting impatient at nothing seemingly happening, although zikr was breathing harder. I don¡¯t know whether he was exaggerating for his boss or it was costing him, and either way, it didn¡¯t matter to me. Breathe in, breathe out. Then zikr did something I did not expect. He grabbed a batten from one of the guards and slammed it down on the broken bones of my leg. A spike of pain shot through me, and I lost my concentration momentarily. He accompanied the smash with a particularly strong mental thrust at my shields and broke through the granite. zikr let out a yell which started in triumph but turned into pain and confusion. He had broken through my Granite layer, but instead of striking my mind, he struck my lava layer, which burned him, and he recoiled in pain and exhaustion. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°What happened?¡± the boss lizard said, not sounding pleased. zikr needed a minute to collect himself as I think my lava damaged his mind attack skill. I took the time to reform the granite and start layering it to thicken it again. zikr was panting. I think it was partly at the effort but also that the Venom Vapour was starting to damage his lungs. He was the one breathing the most, although the two guards were getting increasingly unresponsive and slow. Breathe in, breathe out. ¡°He has some sort of second layer to the shield that felt like I was being burned. I can deal with it, I just need to change the type of attack when I get through the hard layer.¡± The boss lord looked at me, ¡°You have surprisingly skilled defences. I look forward to finding out where they came from.¡± he turned to zikr again. ¡°How long will this take?¡± I hope the Boss Lord is not thinking of leaving. I need to keep him here if I want to kill him. While I had some time, I re-looked at the walls and door. The Spiritual layer that was stopping me was sandwiched between two layers of rock, but the door was metal with the spiritual component. I assume the Spiritual metal was the same as that embedded in the walls. I used my new Stone Shaping Skill to shift the normal stone adjacent to the door to cover the edge of the door, including the handle, so they could not turn the handle. Stone Shaping used less energy than Granite Manipulation for this, even with its low level. There were no hinges on this side of the door, so I assume it will open into the hallway, so it can still be opened from the other side. I strengthened the stone around the handle to make it harder to open and harder to break and use the handle. The stone will grip the door like someone is holding it closed if it is attempted to be opened from the outside, but anybody with a warrior¡¯s strength will be able to open it. It is the best I can do, and it will slow them down. ¡°I will have a few minutes rest to recover some energy, then we will break through,¡± zikr told his boss. Don¡¯t try to leave. Don¡¯t try to leave. Breathe in, breathe out. ¡°One more attempt and I had better see some results this time.¡± I also need to gather my energy as this will be it. Everybody just breathe. Venom Vapour levelled again, adding to the potency and reducing the cost. I needed to be able to get out of these straps holding me down. They are spiritually enhanced material, so it will take time if I have to cut them. They had not thought it through as the straps were attached to the table/bath I was lying on, which was ordinary metal. They are outside the water that I am lying in, so my lava should melt without difficulty. I started doing that, leaving just the smallest slither of metal, keeping the straps down. Breathe in, breathe out. Zikr had another coughing fit. Maybe he is allergic to my poison. Thermal Sensing indicated that the body temperatures of the two guards had dropped dangerously low. I suspect their body is trying to fight the venom while low on energy, but I don¡¯t know much about Lizardkin. Maybe my Venom is affecting them differently? Zikr is coughing, and I am sure it is my venom. He is a different subspecies from the others. I am surprised the guards are still standing. It is time to make a move before they are noticed or keel over. I gather the energy I have and start mending my bones with Molten Rock and Granite manipulation. There has to be a better way to do that. At the same time, I focus Regeneration on the muscles and tendons attached to the bones I mend. I feel this type of focus for Regeneration could well push it into the Master levels. I focus on the upper body first. Arms and chest, which will help if I am attacked. I started on the arm of the side away from the boss. The guards were beyond noticing things now. The Granite Bones straightened the arm from the unnatural angle it was in, and Regeneration was basically making new tendons. This was definitely pushing it to the Master Level, which was the level Regeneration started being able to regenerate limbs. I still lay there as unmoving as possible with my eyes closed. Breathe in, breathe out. My lungs were working better now, and my ribs and chest muscles were fixed. ¡°Get on with it,¡± growled the boss. Zikr got up and approached me, coughing again. I saw the boss eye him, and I thought he was catching on. My energy levels were still too low. I was being as economical as possible in fixing my body, but it still used energy. I created a knife in my good hand as one weapon I held onto is more economical than single-use spikes or darts, even if the initial cost is greater. Zikr¡¯s first mental spike was stronger than previously and dug over a third of the way through my Granite Layer. Mental energy is one thing I do have a lot of with all those attribute points, so I used my mental energy to simulate throwing a Granite Spike at Zikr. To my utmost surprise, it worked. I didn¡¯t have control over it like Zikr. It was a one-off thrown spike of Mental energy. It might be infused with my Granite affinity. I didn¡¯t have time to sort it out now as Zikr fell backwards onto the floor, where my Venom Vapour was the strongest. He had a look of surprise on his face. Breathe deeply. The boss reacted fast by throwing a knife into my gut. ¡°Knock him out,¡± he commanded the guards. They took one step forward, and the one on the left tripped the other, and they both went down. It would have been a comedy routine worthy of Tabitha, except I had a knife in my gut and was frantically trying to get my other arm working. The boss grabbed at the door handle and was surprised to find solid stone blocking the door. He snarled at me as I was the obvious culprit even though I lay there unmoving and with my eyes closed. ¡°Guards!¡± he yelled at the top of his voice, calling the ones outside the door. ¡°Break in here!¡± Then he looked at me. I was almost ready to sit up, but I didn¡¯t. I still had not moved, except for my arms straightening. I was lying still, one eye swollen shut and the other still closed, with a knife in my gut. I now had two knives, and I didn¡¯t have to make this one. The boss looked around the cell. The two guards were comatose on the floor, and Zikr was coughing his lungs out, spitting blood. Bossman must have high Poison Resistance. The door rattled as the guards outside tried opening it. 252. Deep Breaths: Wiremu

252. Deep Breaths: Wiremu

I flung one of the mental dart things at the bossman, but it just seemed to bounce off. It made sense he had mental defences. Otherwise, the Zikr would be running the city. Bossman took two steps to the guards and grabbed one of their batons. ¡°That¡¯s thirty-five,¡± he grumbled. He came at me to hit me with the baton. I think he wanted to knock me out again, but he was drawing his sword as well, so I think he might just kill me. I still hadn¡¯t moved this whole time, and the baton came down aimed at my head. If I let it land, I might well die. Just then, the door crashed and shuddered as someone tried to force their way in. Some cracks appeared in the stone I had used to hold it closed. It would not hold long. My legs were still unable to move, even though I had started fixing the right one. With only one leg, I can at least start hopping. I really only had two options here. Block or move out of the way. I moved out of the way by rolling off the table to the opposite side of the bossman. As I rolled, I grabbed the knife in my guts and pulled it out, searing the flesh with heat to stop the bleeding. It was a low priority for my Regeneration at the moment. This was excruciatingly painful to the still broken bones combined with the searing flesh, but it got me out of the pool of water and a second knife. His baton smashed down, denting the table and splashing the water. The power in the strike made me wonder if I could have blocked it. I have saved myself time by at least severely wounding Zikr. Hopefully, he will die, and I will do what I can to help him with that. However, the boss looks to be in a killing mood, so I need to stay alive first. Knee joints are bloody tricky to fix. My first thought was to burn everything in the room as I knew I would survive it, and it should hamper the boss and kill those already down. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of flammable material in this room, and I don¡¯t have Puia with me to turn the floor into lava. I need to conserve energy. To get mobile is my first priority. Bossman was coming around the table with his sword out in one hand and the baton in the other. My Highest levelled skills are also my most economical. Granite Spike is ready to be pushed to the Master level and has always been my primary go-to skill. I was lying on the stone floor, and the boss man was close all of which made it easier. I aimed six Granite Spikes, two at his feet, two at his legs from the floor and two at his chest from the wall and table. The first spike went through the left foot, but he raised the right foot, twisting himself. This caused one leg spike to scrape off his scales. The other only pierced a short way into his left thigh. I think he has a skill to harden the scales. One chest spike skittered off his leather vest, and while the other pierced through, I don¡¯t think it got far with his vest and hard scales. Suddenly, I breathed in a lung full of dust and had an uncontrollable coughing fit. Where did the dust come from? The water should have kept any dust dampened. I weakly deflected the baton strike, so it missed my head but struck my shoulder hard. I tried getting a fresh breath but just got another lungful of dust. I felt like I would suffocate if I couldn¡¯t get some air. I needed to breathe. In the back of my mind, I recognised it was ironic I had incapacitated and probably killed three people by breathing Venom Vapour, and now I couldn¡¯t breathe. I was not fending off the bossman very well as I was trying to get my coughing under control, and I took a cut to my chest. My plan had been to finish him decisively, but I am losing here. He was limping, but I was rolling on the ground. Ankles are more difficult than knees to fix. The door was violently yanked from outside, and the stone cracked. One more, and it would open, and the guards would be on me as well. The dust must come from the bossman. Did he carry it, or was it an affinity? I hadn¡¯t sensed him throw anything. If it was an affinity, was it an air affinity blowing the dust or a straight dust affinity? If it was air, he only had a limited amount of dust. If it were air, it would be more efficient to suck it out of my lungs than bow dust. A dust affinity in the desert does make sense. I took a baton to the ribs that cracked my new bones. He was strong and fast. I couldn¡¯t breathe, and I was about to lose without air. What can I do? I suddenly also had dust in my one good eye. It didn¡¯t affect me much as I wasn¡¯t using it. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I have Granite Bones. Can I have Granite Lungs? Lungs need to move to pump air, and Granite is solid. Granite Lungs won¡¯t work, but Lava Lungs might. I tried to infuse my lungs with Molten Rock to burn the dust out. I took a baton that cracked my arm as I was only half paying attention to the boss man. With Thermal Sensing, I can sense my lungs as well as what is around me, but concentrating is hard. The Molten Rock melted the dust in my lungs, and I absorbed it. It was made from Spiritual Energy, so was definitely an affinity, but my lungs absorbed that energy, and it mitigated some of the energy this required. But I could breathe again. I breathed in another lungful of dust and gained energy and oxygen. I could tell the oxygen absorption was not nearly as good as flesh lungs, but it worked. I rolled again, but this time, it was not away from the bossman but toward him, knocking his leg from under him, and he came down on top of me. Swords and batons are too long for this close work. Knives are the best in grapple range. One of my knives deflected his sword away from me, and the other punched into his chest. Bossman smothered my face in dust, and I took a deep breath. I kneed him in the stomach, slamming a spike from my knee into his guts. It left a gaping wound but then turned to dust. The wound also seemed to be packed with dust, as no blood came out. Did he even have blood? The knife that went into his chest was his own steel knife, not my stone one. I suspect my stone one may turn to dust and empower him as his dust empowers me. He elbowed me in the head, knocking it back against the floor as I pulled the knife and stabbed him again, trying to hit something vital. He fended off my stone knife, letting go of his baton but trying to get his sword in a position to cut me. I used my one good leg against his wounded leg and rolled, elbowing his head against the floor. It didn¡¯t hurt him, and a cloud of dust billowed out, cushioning his head. He struck me with the sword''s pommel, and I stabbed him again with his knife. This time, I also used a lava dart to light his clothes on fire and burn his flesh. The fire was quickly extinguished in a cloud of dust. I think I got his lung this time because he had trouble breathing. He slammed the pommel back into my head as he tried to push me away, but he was against the floor, and Granite spikes punched into his skull, heart and lungs. This time, they stayed, and he stopped moving. I rolled out from the dust cloud as I still needed oxygen. I let my lungs turn back to flesh and took several deep breaths. That was very close. I turned my attention to the door. I had expected the guards to have broken in by now, but the door was still closed. It shone in my Thermal Sensing and then suddenly smashed down in a shower of lava as T¨¡oke¡¯s huge tail came through it in a Power Strike. Suddenly, my bond cleared up, and I could sense them clearly again as the spiritual cage was broken. I crawled over to them and hauled myself up onto T¨¡oke as Puia rejoined me, and they both were supplying me with energy. I focussed on getting my other leg back working as T¨¡oke carried me down the corridor we were in. We passed a lot of bodies, but I didn¡¯t count them. They should not have got in T¨¡oke and Puia¡¯s way. Every time we passed a room, I tossed in a Lava Dart. This place was going to burn to the ground if I had my way. I had a moment of reflection. Kelda would not want the place to burn. She is very conscious of not hurting innocents with her fire. The servants here and probably a number of others were innocent of the crimes of the city lord. Kelda is not here, but she did have a huge effect on me. The flames behind me were rising, and the smoke was getting thicker. Kelda, with her Fire Affinity, could control the flames. I could not with my Lava Affinity. The place would burn anyway, and T¨¡oke wasn¡¯t holding back. I heard alarm bells start ringing. We came to a set of wooden stairs, and I set those alight behind us. We came across our first opposition at the top of the Stairs, and T¨¡oke spat lava and shook the building with a Granite Quake. I didn¡¯t even realise he had learned Granite Quake from me. The guards retreated, and we continued to set the place alight. Alarm bells were ringing continuously now, and there were yells of ¡°Fire!¡± as servants and guards scrambled to try to escape or extinguish the fire. Good luck with that. We came out into a courtyard adjacent to the palace wall, and there didn¡¯t seem to be guards in sight. I guess they were scrambling to put out the fires and find out what was happening. Their organisation would be lacking without the bossman. It was night, but I don¡¯t really know how many nights it was since I was captured. T¨¡oke didn¡¯t even slow down as he slithered up the wall. I could sense the subtle uses of Granite Manipulation he was using. My bones were fixed by now again, and I was working on the muscles and tendons. Ankles are a lot trickier, but my Regeneration was now Master Level, which made it easier. Molten Rock was now Journeyman Level as well. T¨¡oke headed to the other wall, and I collected my gear, but he didn¡¯t go over it. He travelled along it for a while, causing a commotion with the late-night party crowd. We came to one of the public wells, and I got the impression T¨¡oke wanted me to go down it. This was where Umreti had insisted on going, so I climbed down, and T¨¡oke shrunk, and we went back to me carrying him. 253. Not Breathing: Wiremu

253. Not Breathing: Wiremu

The well was deep, and I climbed down, forming handholds from the stone walls. The water was cold, and I could feel a flow. I reached out with my Granite Senses and mapped the underground river as far as possible. The lake around which Almaeadin was built was fed from underground rivers getting near the surface, and this well had tapped into one of them. Why did Umreti go this way? Was it his survival skill leading him? I hope so. I felt for the slave bond, and he was still alive and moving west as I had instructed, so that was good. My Mapping skill updated from my Granite Sense, and the river downstream opened into the wider cave at the edge of my sensing range. I got the impression from T¨¡oke that it was the right direction, but I had a problem. It was entirely underwater to that point. Umreti could swim, and with his enhanced Physical Attributes, he would have no problem. I would sink. The higher my Granite Bones levelled, the denser they got and the heavier I got. I would have to walk and crawl along the bottom. I couldn¡¯t hold my breath for that long. I lowered myself so I was chest-deep in the cool water and thought about what I could do. Turning my lungs into lava slowed my need for oxygen, but I still needed oxygen. Oxygen seemed to be a basic need to stay alive. But not all forms of life need oxygen. Puia didn¡¯t need oxygen to live. He lived on Spiritual Energy. If I could make my lungs into lava, what about my whole body? Then I wouldn¡¯t need oxygen, but I would die if I ran out of Spiritual Energy. Let''s see if it is possible. I concentrated on my bond with Puia and changed my lungs to lava. He seemed to get what I wanted to do, and energy and direction flooded back down the bond. From my lungs, the lava spread down my arteries and through my whole body. Muscles turned to feel like jelly. Searing heat spread, devouring everything in its path. My brain was suddenly on fire, and then my heart stopped beating. I was still aware, and I could think and perceive, although my eyes were orbs of lava. I was shining bright in my Thermal Senses. I was still in the shape of a man because my Granite Bones provided the structure on which the lava was formed. My clothes had burned off. Again. I could sense heat rising and realised there would be billows of steam rising from the well as the water was literally boiling off my lava body. Keeping a lava body from hardening in the water would eat through my Spiritual Energy fast. The thought from Puia was to let an outer layer harden as a buffer, but that would mean I would not really be able to move, and I had to walk and crawl through the river cave. I tried another approach. My Snakeskin was in the high Journeyman levels, so I layered that over the lava. Snakeskin was not a good insulator. In fact, it was weak to temperature changes. This had improved as it levelled, and using it now slowed the water boiling off me but didn¡¯t stop it. The Snakeskin glowed with heat, and I could tell it was putting pressure on the skill. I tried to empower the skill with my Physical Attributes, and it worked a small amount. Then, it was like it went over a bump, and it was easier. Then, there was a bigger bump, and it worked a lot more effectively. The water was no longer boiling off the snakeskin, and it was no longer glowing. With things settling down, I checked my status. Snakeskin had levelled twice and was now Master Level. I had a new Skill called Lava Body. I am sure it was due to Puia¡¯s influence and guidance that the Skill was already Apprentice level. I could sense the energy usage for it was reducing as it levelled, but the water was still making it higher than it would be. This meant I needed to move as my energy levels were still low. I let go of the wall of the well and let myself sink. I sunk two body lengths before I landed on the stone bottom. Moving in this laval body would take some getting used to as my muscles weren¡¯t actually muscles any more. I took Spiritual Energy to use them rather than the Physical energy it normally would. While I was low on energy, Puia had plenty. T¨¡oke had a moderate amount, and we all shared through our bond. As I was crawling along the riverbed, it occurred to me that this might have been similar to how the blood bond worked for Krov¡¯ and his Blood Bitches. Maybe, maybe not. Then I realised T¨¡oke had also learned Lava Body, and when all three of us had the same lava form, the Spiritual Energy flowed more easily. It did take me a while to crawl through to the cave. I could have smoothed the way with Granite Manipulation or Stone Shaper, but I didn¡¯t want to waste the energy. I eventually crawled up out of the river onto a stone shelf and released the Lava Body Skill. I took my first breath in over twenty minutes. The air was stale, but I was fortunate there was breathable air. I decided I was safe enough for a while, and I would rest there. I dragged my water-logged pack up, which had my bow tied to it and found my last pair of trousers. I smoother the stone shelf a bit while I ate some soggy beef jerky, and then I lay down and slept. I couldn¡¯t tell how long I slept. The cave was pitch black, and I had no other way to judge the time. I reached out to the slave bond with Umreti, but he had also stopped moving. I pondered the difference between the slave bond and my bonds with T¨¡oke and Puia. Mutual two-way bonds were superior in every way. I could reach out to Umreti and have a sense of his well-being, but there was no communication, no energy flow, no sense sharing and no skill sharing. The slave bond was one way where the master imposed their will on the slave. I rechecked my status, and I had the Slave Master Bond Skill in the Novice levels. I got the impression that as it levelled, I would be stronger at enforcing my will as well as being able to work with more slaves. Enforcing my will was a function of Mental Strength, and the number of slaves was a function of Mental Agility. That made sense, as my other bonds were also based on Mental Attributes. I really didn¡¯t like having that in my Status. It felt unclean, but it would always be there now. I checked myself out physically. My leg was fully healed, and my energy reserves were full. I was very lucky to survive that ordeal. The only reason they kept me alive was to enslave me. Otherwise, I would not be breathing. It didn¡¯t even take someone with an affinity to defeat me, just a smart commander and coordination. They had seen my abilities and thought how to counter them. I must be more careful about displaying my abilities and ensuring those who see them cannot report back. Usually, that would mean they are permanently no longer breathing. I investigated my Lava Body Skills. I would need to test things, but I suspected that the wounds I might have when I turned to lava would still be there when I turned back. It would stop the bleeding, though. Could I change shape like Puia? My Lava Body was formed around my Granite Bones, which were me shaped and turning back would require me to be in that shape. I removed my trousers and tested them. The lava was in the shape of muscles and organs. I could tell the shape of my heart even if it didn¡¯t beat. Being able to pour myself through narrow gaps sounded very useful but not workable yet. Maybe as the Skill leveled, it would become more flexible. The Skill was based on the Spiritual Attributes, which was predictable. Spiritual Strength governed how long I could stay in that form, but it was also affected by the environment I was in. Spiritual Agility governed the changes I could make to the form, but my Granite Bones limited this. My Granite Bones was very nearly at the Master Level, so that might open opportunities. While I was physically fine, I was very hungry. My pack had mostly dried out, but the jerky, nuts and dates I had were edible, but not as they were. I also didn¡¯t have much. I expended my senses to see what lived down here. There were some moss and fungi and some small insects that ate them. Then I sensed something swimming in the river. It wasn¡¯t a fish, more like an eel. I made a slim spear from the rock and tracked it as it swam upstream. I struck true and lifted it from the river. It was smallish, but I skinned it and cooked it over heated rocks. It could do with some salt and herbs, but it filled a spot. I had more spots that needed filling, but I did need to start moving. I repacked my pack, knowing it would get soaked again. After a moment of consideration, I packed my pants, and I would travel naked in case I needed to use my Lava Body. T¨¡oke rejoined me. He had found some food somewhere. I was not going to ask where. Downstream was the direction, and I lowered myself into the river, keeping a grip on the edge, and we set out.
Wiremu Hunter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 9 12 11 10 8 10 92
Earned Attributes 11 5 2 12 3 1 3 2 5 44
Hunter B 12 2 14 24 5 2 2 6 5 60 0
Monster Hunter S 5 5 5 5 5 5 25 0
Scout S 6 6 3 6 1 6 8 30 0
Assassin S 4 1 4 5 5 1 16 0
Bond Master S 3 2 3 3 3 1 12 0
Stone Shaper B 10 20 10 10 40 0
Prospecting S 5 5 1 2 3 3 6 20 0
Spy B 11 1 4 3 11 15 10 11 55 0
Forger S 3 3 3 3 3 12 0
Warrior B 7 14 8 11 2 35 0
Metal Shaper B 5 5 2 5 3 5 20 0
Totals 70 44 51 58 49 44 60 43 42 461
Constitution 165 151 145
Resistances: Poison +25, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +35, Heat +34, Fire +13, Disease 1, Acid 1, Mental 2 The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Skills: Novice: General Lock Pick 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap3, Copier 4 Spiritual Trapping 4, Stone Shaping 4, Slave Master Bond 3 Fighting Heavy Armour 4. Senses Lore Metal Alloy Lore 4, Gem Lore 3, Spiritual Metals Lore 3 Apprentice: General Sewing 9, Cooking 8, Animal Care 8, Sprint 5, Butchering 7, Weapon Repair 7, Repair Leather Armour 8 Dwarvish 9, Slight of Hand 5, Granite Mind Armour 5, Elemental Bond 7, Hunters Mark 7, Disarm Traps 5, Detect Traps 5, Detect Spiritual Trap 6 Metal Shaping 5, Bond Care 8, Interrogate Status 6, Lava body 5 Fighting Granite Quake 8, Granite Wall 7, Petrification 7, Triple Shot 8, Marksman 6, Granite Sand 9 Sudden Strike 8, Lava Dart 6, Granite Armour 8 Venom Vapour 7, Senses Thermal Sensing 7, Telescopic Sight 7 Lore Plant Lore 9, Mineral Lore 8, Monster Lore 9, Sapient Lore 8, Elemental Lore 7, Metal Lore 8, Journeyman: General Mapping 14, Tutor 13, Identify 14, Map Making 10 Manipulate Status 12, Analyse Bonds 10, Trapping 14, Tracking 11, Skinning 11, Hide Armourer 12, Riding 11, Veneer 12, Roleplay 11, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 10 Molten Rock 10 Orcish 13, Camouflage 12, Fishing 10 Fighting Hammer 14, Granite Spike 14, Granite Bones 14, Granite Shield 13, Granite Manipulation 13 Bow 12, Small Blades 14, Unarmed Combat 12, Throw Weapons 12, Spear 13, Quick Strike 12, Power Strike 12, Imbue Venom 12, Venom Arrow 10 Senses Darksight 14, Sense Treasure 10, Bond Senses 12, Truth Sensing 10, Sense Spiritual 12 Lore Animal Lore 12 Master: General Stealth 17, Animal Bond 17, Far Sight 16, Hearing Aid 16, Deceive 15, Regeneration 15, Snakeskin 15 Senses Granite Sense 15 Affinity: Granite, Lava Monster Kills: 9 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +22, Cold +30, Heat +34, Fire +13, Pain +22, Acid 1 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 4, Venom Vapour 4, Granite Quake 4 Apprentice: Granite Shield 7, Granite Sense 7, Granite Manipulation 9, Molten Rock 6, Sudden Strike 8, Hunters Mark 6, Lava Spit 5, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 5, Thermal Senses 5, Lava Body 5 Journeyman: Strength Boost 12, Power Strike 12, Venom Spit 11, Regeneration 14, Granite Bone 14, Granite Spike 10, Grow 12 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 17, Camouflage 15 Affinity: Granite, Lava Bond: Puia, Lava Elemental Resistances: Cold +30, Skills: Novice: Granite Spike 3, Regeneration 1 Apprentice: Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 9, Thermal Senses 5, Granite Manipulation 5, Journeyman: Master: Molten Rock 11 Affinity: Lava, Granite 254. Looking for Trouble: Tabitha.

254. Looking for Trouble: Tabitha

Wiremu is late. I got the Slaver locked in a cage in the covered wagon for our captured animals. Te?ka snoozed on the other side of the bars so she would not be going anywhere. Our small caravan was two days out of Almaeadin, but that was an overnight ride for Dusk, even carrying an extra person. We had three animal wagons and a supply wagon. I think Te?ka is already getting lazy and riding in the wagon when he doesn¡¯t need to. Mayakku had enchanted the walls of the wagon, so it was a cool area, so I didn¡¯t really blame him. I had caught up with the caravan just as it was making a camp for the day. Mbili greeted me and sniffed, smelling the slaver even if he couldn¡¯t see her. ¡°Do I want to know?¡± he asked. I shook my head, and he went back to help his siblings raise a tent to shelter them from the sun. Mbili was second in charge of the so-called Famous Five, from what I could gather. His Sister Moja seemed to boss them around the most. Their brother Tatu was helping with the tent, but we barely ever saw the other two as they were out scouting all the time. I have only met their sister, Nne, once at the meet and greet, but the youngest brother, Tano, popped in once. Modrica, Runa, Astrid, and Mayakku are all driving wagons, so the only strangers in our group are the Famous Five. I deposited my floppy sack in the cage next to Te?ka and went to catch up with the others. That evening, we got underway again. It was in the early hours of the morning when Rodion¡¯s dogs heralded his imminent arrival. He and Ruku arrived with three slaves they were sure belonged to the slaver. This was a problem. Without Wiremu, we couldn¡¯t break the bonds, and we couldn¡¯t let them near Barbra as she could give them intrusions that could sabotage us. We had been keeping Barbra in the front wagon, so we kept the slaves in the rear wagon. She seemed to have some realisation they were close and tried yelling to them. Te?ka¡¯s roar drowned it out, and I went for a chat. ¡°If you want to ride in comfort, you will need to release your slaves.¡± Barbra spat at me, ¡°They are mine. They have been with me for years.¡± ¡°We know two of them are new. We would prefer to keep them alive, but we could kill them if necessary.¡± ¡°You have already killed one. What do you want with me? You are obviously not planning to collect the bounty.¡± Barbra said. ¡°You have lost a slave? You don¡¯t seem upset about it.¡± This must be the other slave Wiremu went to get. They may not be dead if he broke the bond. She doesn¡¯t need to know that. ¡°They are only slaves. Why would I be upset?¡± ¡°But you are concerned about the ones that have been with you for years,¡± I prompted. ¡°They have become very useful, and it would be a waste if they died.¡± ¡°So you won''t release them from your service?¡± ¡°I see no reason to.¡± And that is how Barbra ended up spending her time in the cage bound and gaged. She might see a reason now, but she can not communicate through the gag. I know I am happier she is bound and gaged. Her whining was getting to me. Wiremu didn¡¯t turn up the next night. I expected him to be less than a day behind Ruku and Rodion, even with him being on foot. I approached Mbili to get Nne and Tano to keep a close eye out for him or any pursuit. ¡°I should go and look for him,¡± Rodion said. ¡°My pack can spread wide and cover a large area.¡± ¡°He has the Mapping Skill. He won¡¯t be lost.¡± I replied. ¡°True, but he may not be on the road.¡± he countered. ¡°Dusk and I are the fastest,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Ruku said, ¡°and Nyx can communicate with the caravan, but if he is this late, it has got to be trouble that has held him up. I think we need fighters. Me and Rodion, you and Modrica. We four should be able to handle most things. I suggest we leave Te?ka with the caravan as we will be away for several days if we have to go all the way back to the city. Runa, C¨­mp¨¥?i and Te?ka should be enough to defend the caravan with the others here. Runa can be in charge.¡± We armoured up but packed light. I rode Dusk back down the road. The others were on foot. Rodion and Modrica went to the left and Ruku to the right, with most of Rodion''s pack. The dogs could tell us if there was trouble. We spread wide and moved fast. We met at dawn on the road, and Ruku refilled our water bottles. Dusk and Rodion were carrying a larger bladder of water each for her and the dogs. It was also why Modrica was near Rodion. Ruku didn¡¯t need to carry more than a small bottle, which is why he was out on his own. We would carry on during the day and meet again at lunch. As the sun rose, the heat of the desert rose with it. Barely an hour into the day and there was heat shimmer off the road. I was pleased with the loose-flowing garments that were worn in this part of the world. Mid-morning, the wind picked up, which made everything worse. The hot air just seemed to suck the moisture from our bodies, and it brought the dust. I fixed the face mask, which is also a normal part of desert attire. Travelling during the day was not pleasant. We did make good progress despite the frequent stops to give Dusk a drink and the various dogs that came and went. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. At lunchtime, one of Rodion''s dogs led me off the road to the leeward side of a hill out of the wind, and we ate and rested for an hour before carrying on. Just after lunch, I passed a camp of merchants resting for the day. Their guards were alert, but they had no news of a lone traveller. They did have news that there was a street fight or riot the night they left the city. Several buildings were ablaze, but they didn¡¯t know why and felt it prudent to hasten their departure. That totally sounded like Wiremu getting into trouble. It was mid-afternoon, and the wind had really picked up. Seeing any distance was difficult, and I had tied a light cloth over Dusk¡¯s eyes and nose to help keep out the dust. Then one of Rodion¡¯s dogs ran up barking, wanting me to follow. I turned Dusk off the road and followed. Five minutes later, a figure stumbled out of the dust. They were staggering and not clothed for the desert. He was dragging a sword behind him but otherwise seemed unarmed. When he came within my spatial Awareness, I could tell it was an Orc, and he was thin, like he had been starved and was clearly dehydrated and perhaps delusional. He was mumbling a phrase over and over, and even with my Hearing Aid, I couldn¡¯t work it out. He was mumbling, and the wind was blowing. ¡°Hello, friend,¡± I yelled, getting his attention. ¡°I have water if you need it.¡± and I raised my canteen so he could see it. It is like the words washed over him, and he couldn¡¯t understand them. He was past thinking straight with hunger and dehydration, so I repeated the greeting in orcish, thinking that might get through. Boy, that did get through. He straightened up and locked onto me like I was a target. I continued to speak orcish and said, ¡°Water,¡± and tossed the canteen at his feet. He reached down and picked it up, and took a long drink. ¡°Easy, take it slow.¡± I said, although orcs generally have a stronger constitution than humans. He mumbled something again. It was like a mantra he was repeating to keep him going. I almost caught it. He took another drink from the canteen and then mumbled his mantra again. This time I did catch it and it was clear why I didn¡¯t before. He was speaking orcish and he was mumbling something totally unexpected. ¡°Kill enemies. Find Modrica.¡± ¡°Get everybody here,¡± I said to the dogs and sent Nyx directly to summon Modrica. I turned back to the orc, ¡°I can take you to Modrica. You can call me Black.¡± I introduced myself. ¡°Black, with black horse. Trust.¡± he said. He sounded like he might be a bit on the simple side, or maybe there is brain damage. ¡°I need to find the person who sent you. He is probably called Quinn with a snake bond.¡± I can¡¯t describe Wiremu as he changes what he looks like so often. ¡°Quinn master. Trust Modrica. Trust Black, Trust Ruku.¡± It hit me like a troll fist. This is the missing slave. Modrica is going to go murdering rage over this. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t have called her. I dismounted, grabbed the second canteen and a bag of nuts and dates and approached the orc. ¡°I need to find Quinn. Why is he not with you?¡± I handed the canteen and bag of food to him. Dusk moved to shelter us from the wind with her body. He dug a handful of nuts from the bag and started eating. ¡°Told to run. Go west. Swam river.¡± A river in the desert? Maybe he is delusional. ¡°Is your bond still active?¡± He nodded. That means Wiremu is alive. If it wasn¡¯t active, it doesn¡¯t mean he died, just that he released the orc. Which reminds me, ¡°What is your name?¡± ¡°Umreti.¡± That wasn¡¯t a regular orc name. It is more like a phrase meaning ¡°to die¡±. My Spatial Awareness picked up Ruku running in with several dogs. Umreti seemed to be coming back more to his normal self with some water and food. ¡°Umreti, this is Ruku.¡± I introduced them. ¡°Ruku trust. Salamander.¡± Umreti stated. ¡°Yes, Wai is a salamander,¡± and Wai crawled out of Ruku¡¯s jacket to show himself. Then Ruku had to repeat himself in Orcish as Umreti seemed not to understand any other language. ¡°Can you lead us back to Quinn?¡± I asked. Umreti nodded. The dogs all perked up, and shortly after that, Rodion and Modrica entered my senses range. I turned to the newcomers, ¡°This is the fourth slave,¡± I said straight up. Modrica let out a very low, menacing growl. ¡°His name is Umreti, and Quinn took charge of him and sent him to find Modrica. He can lead us back to Quinn. That''s all I know so far.¡± Umreti had heard Modrica¡¯s rumble and queried, ¡°Modrica?¡± She stepped toward him and grunted. ¡°Who?¡± it was more a statement than a question. ¡°Master Quinn.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°Slaver Barbra,¡± Modrica grunted him to continue, ¡°Slaver Jives, City Lord, Mentalist Zikr.¡± he paused, knowing he was listing soon to be dead people, ¡°Guard Captain Hussain.¡± I assume this was Modrica¡¯s kill list, hopefully except for Wiremu. Barbra may not live long enough for us to learn from. The addition of a mentalist was a worry. ¡°But first to find Quinn.¡± Modrica nodded. We let Umreti ride Dusk as we backtracked his path to a tiny muddy pond. It was the only thing that grew anything around here, and on the edge of the pond were two tents and a number of bodies. I asked Umreti, ¡°Did you do this?¡± He said, ¡°Enemies attack, kill enemies.¡± Ruku looked at the pond, ¡°You swam out of that?¡± Umreti nodded. Ruku knelt down, and I saw Wai skitter across the mud and disappear into the deepest part of the pond. People tend to forget Ruku¡¯s salamander bond, and they both have water affinities. Ruku looked ready to follow him. ¡°Wai says the water tastes of Wiri¡­ Quinn and T¨¡oke. They are upstream. I will go and help guide them out. We might be a couple of hours.¡± Ruku stripped off his clothes, waded through the mud and dived into the hole. I actually think he just wanted an excuse to go for a swim. ¡°We might as well make use of the tent and see if they left anything of value,¡± I said as we walked over. There were half a dozen camels tied behind the tents, so at least we could ride back to the caravan. If Modrica wants to go on a murder spree back in the city first, I will go with her. That is what a Krvne Sestre is for. 255. Killing Mood: Tabitha.

255. Killing Mood: Tabitha.

I don¡¯t know who the people were who had these tents, but the most valuable thing they owned was the camels. If they were bandits, they were not very good ones. If they were simple nomads, they were merely subsisting. Modrica seems to have taken over the management of Umreti and instructed him to sleep in one of the tents. He seems willing to follow her instructions even though she is not his master. I guess it was part of the instructions Wirimu gave him. I was also resting in a tent when my Spatial Awareness detected something strange with Umreti. He was asleep by then and started shaking like he was having a seizure. I grabbed Modrica, and we went to check on him. It seemed to be a bad one, and he bit on his tongue. My spatial awareness could see right through his body, but I didn¡¯t have healer training, so I had no real knowledge, but there didn¡¯t seem to be anything physically wrong that I could tell. We would need to get him back to Astrid to check over. Modrica stayed with him to check he didn¡¯t choke on anything, but the seizure didn¡¯t last that long. Ruku¡¯s two hours came and went, so I sent Nyx to go and check on them. They were probably another hour or more away. I guess Ruku underestimated how slow and useless Wiremu is at swimming. When Ruku and Wiremu finally emerged from the pond, I could tell something was wrong with Wiremu. He was fine physically, but something wasn¡¯t right. We had spent years together by this time, and I knew him better than anyone. ¡°Don¡¯t saddle the camels yet,¡± Ruku told Rodion. ¡°We will rest her for a while first.¡± Something is not right, and Ruku has also picked up on it. Ruku has decades of experience leading warriors. His experience is invaluable. ¡°Are you OK, bro?¡± I asked him. He nodded, but I didn¡¯t believe him. ¡°That tent is free if you want to rest a bit, and there is food in the saddlebag.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± I also got a hiss and a nod from T¨¡oke in greeting. Wiremu went into the tent. My senses followed him as he took some bits of food and lay down. I raised an eyebrow at Ruku, and he nodded away from the tent. We walked away, and then I engaged Shadows Embrace. We all know how strong Wirimu¡¯s Hearing Aid is. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with him?¡± I asked without hesitation. ¡°Mental trauma and mental fatigue, I think. He told me a bit about what happened, and he was tortured and attacked Mentally. He thinks he rebuffed the attacks, but I am not so sure.¡± ¡°I will fucking level that city.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t. He already levelled the palace and killed the city lord and a lot of other people, from what I gather. He is conflicted about how many innocents he killed. I heard him mutter about Kelda not being happy with him. I think his connection to Umreti is also part of the issue. He has resisted slavery so many times, including just now, and now he is a slave master. It is something he is going to have to work through.¡± ¡°Can you help? How do we help?¡± ¡°I have some experience with battle fatigue and trauma but a lot he will just need time to work through I think.¡± ¡°Does the Free Republic have Mental Healers?¡± ¡°Probably, but we are three weeks away at our pace. I think the travel will be good for him if we can keep it restful.¡± ¡°He likes to go hunting,¡± I said. Ruku nodded. ¡°Umreti has problems as well. Seizures. I think it is Mental Trauma.¡± ¡°We are not equipped for this.¡± ¡°No,¡± I agreed, ¡°and Modrica is in a murdering mood as well.¡± ¡°You look after Modrica. Getting eyes on Wiremu¡¯s destruction might help calm her. Rodion and I will take Wiremu back to the wagons. We will slow the wagon speed down.¡± ¡°What about Umreti?¡± ¡°It is up to Wiremu whether he keeps the bond or not. I could take it. I had to have slaves getting away from Northport.¡± ¡°I wonder if Modrica would take the bond. She has taken charge of his care in the role of Matriarch.¡± ¡°That is way outside my experience,¡± Ruku said. ¡°Yeah, mine too. It is really up to Modrica.¡± I shut down the Shadow skill, and we headed back. I needed to talk to Modrica. I sat down beside Modrica, who was still with a sleeping Umreti. ¡°We don¡¯t think Wiremu should keep holding Umreti¡¯s slave bond, but somebody has to have it until we can get the class off. You are the Matriarch. The decision is yours. Wiremu will keep it if you want him to.¡± There was a prolonged silence as she thought, then she grunted, ¡°You?¡± ¡°If you want me to. Ruku might be the better choice as he has a lot of experience in leading people.¡± There was more silence before she nodded and grunted ascent. ¡°I will talk to Ruku and arrange it when Wiremu awakes.¡± That turned out easier than it could have. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. A couple of hours later, Wiremu released Umreti¡¯s bond, and Ruku picked it up. The difference was subtle, but it was as if some of the weight had left Wiremu. Then Modrica mounted one of the Camels, and I mounted Dusk, and we headed back to Almaeadin. The four boys would head for the Caravan with the remaining Camels and the tents. It was mid-afternoon the next day when we came over a rise and saw the smoke mixed with a heat haze hanging over the city. We approached the gate, and the guards asked some routine questions, obviously not really caring. ¡°What is all the smoke?¡± I asked. ¡°The City Lord was attacked and killed by raiders. They burned the palace down. Hundreds are dead or missing.¡± ¡°Wow, so who is in charge?¡± The guards looked around to see who was near, then said, ¡°The Lord¡¯s first hatchling is claiming to be in charge, but,¡± he paused, ¡°The guard captain is backing the third hatchling, so things are undecided. The Avions are not supporting either hatchling, and the ¨¢oxi¨¢ng Nest is making a play to rule.¡± ¡°I see. The Guard captain is¡­? ¡°Captain Hussain.¡± ¡°Ah yes, I remember him. Is there a quiet place we can stay? Away from the trouble.¡± ¡°Merchant district should be fine. Just stay out of the city centre.¡± I thanked him and gave him a large thank-you gift as we moved into the city. We found a stable for the mounts and headed to the city centre on foot. Many shops were closed, and some were boarded up as well. It was late afternoon, but this was usually a busy time as the main heat of the day had passed. Foot traffic was reduced to armend and intimidating thugs¡ªsome of them in guard uniforms. I also noted a lot of archers on the rooftops. An Avion nest vying for the throne will mean air defences. We were stopped before long. They approached me as Modrica towered over me, and everybody assumed she was my bodyguard. It is useful as it has let me be underestimated a lot. One of the uniform-wearing thugs stepped forward and addressed me. ¡°You are in Lady Asra¡¯s territory. What is your business here.¡± Modrica stepped forward and got in his face. ¡°Looking for Hussain and Zikr,¡± she growled. The guard stepped back and looked at me as if to say, ¡°Control your bodyguard.¡± I ignored him and let Modrica do what she wanted. She was in charge, I was the bodyguard. The other thugs in uniform stepped up beside the leader. He rallied himself and said, ¡°State your business!¡± ¡°Hussain and Zikr,¡± repeated Modrica. ¡°Zikr is dead, but I will definitely take you to see Guard Captain Hussain.¡± He drew his sword, and the others followed his lead. He then commanded, ¡°Get down on the ground and put your hands behind your back.¡± Modrica looked at him like he was a bug, then simply said, ¡°No.¡± I looked around. The shadows were lengthening as the sun went down. We were standing on a paved road. That is not good for Modrica and her Earth affinity. This whole desert is not great for her, being all rock and sand. We have been working on some skills together. I guess we are about to see how they work. The guard was momentarily confused at the simple answer he got, but the thug to the left stepped in to strike Modrica on the head with his baton. The impression I got was that he was an over-enthusiastic junior who was trying to impress his senior. Modrica just raised her arm to block the strike and then punched him in the face. I don¡¯t think the baton even left a bruise from her Armoured Skin and Earth Bones. She also didn¡¯t use any skills in her punch, so the kid was probably still alive. I have seen Modrica kill with one punch. They were much higher level than this kid as well, and it was before she got her affinity. She was a Master of Unarmed Combat and a veteran of the Jern fighting pits. The kid going down triggered all the others to attack. As they moved forward, they all stumbled, and then Modrica was in the middle of them. It was a very precise application of Earthquake. I was very pleased as we had worked on precision rather than brute strength. Modrica was making short work of them. She hadn¡¯t even drawn a weapon, just demonstrating one of her Master level skills. Being her bodyguard is a boring job. Two of the thugs came for me. One of them tripped over his own trousers. The other missed her strike as she couldn¡¯t see where she was going. I clouted her with the hilt of my Blacksteel knife, and she was out. I went to the other and put him to sleep as well. How embarrassing to have a wardrobe malfunction in the middle of a fight. His belt was sliced clean through. I was pleased to see my Shadow Puppet Skill level to mid-Journeyman. I used to use it extensively in our performances, but there are many other uses for the skill. The Puppet was best operating within my Spaitial Awareness range, but that was quite large now. It was also strong enough to wield sharp objects, and the small glass knife I had since Obalno was ideal. The Puppet handed me two coin purses and went to search the others that were down. I moved fast, activating a new skill. The arrow heading for Modrica was a Powershot. There was no way Shadow Shield would stop it, but combined with my Skill Parry, I can deflect it slightly. The arrow slammed into the building wall rather than Modrica. It wasn¡¯t as difficult to deflect as Wiremu¡¯s arrows. I figured shadows were strong enough to stand on briefly with Shadow Step, then they can act to stop other things as well. Diving birds were the inspiration, and deflection is the key to using Shadow Shield. I didn¡¯t have a ranged option to strike back at archers, but Nyx poked their eyes out for me. Maybe I did have a Ranged option. I walked toward Modrica, who wasn¡¯t even breathing hard. She had a thug pinned against a wall. ¡°Where, Hussain,¡± she demanded. ¡°Ah ¡­ at Asra¡¯s estate.¡± ¡°Where!¡± she shook him again and slammed him back against the wall. ¡°Ah¡­ corner of Fifth and Noble.¡± ¡°I know where that is,¡± I interjected. Modrica grunted and slammed her fist into his stomach, then let him go, and he dropped to the ground retching. She kicked him in the head, and he lay still. We set off toward Fifth Avenue. The route took us past the palace gate, which was open. We stopped for a look, and it was a smouldering heap of rubble. Wiremu, T¨¡oke and Puia certainly didn¡¯t hold back. Modrica just grunted in satisfaction. Maybe Ruku was right, and this is good for Modrica. Noble Boulevard was a wide street that basically circled the Palace. Fifth Avenue was like one of the wheel spokes that radiated out from the palace at the centre. Barricades were blocking both streets. While Modrica stomped up to the barricade, I slipped through the shadows around it. ¡°State your business.¡± was yelled at Modrica. She growled, ¡°Hussain.¡± ¡°What is your business with Guard Captain Hussain?¡± Modrica growled that low, rumbling growl that only orcs could do, and then she yelled, ¡°Hussain!¡± and it shook window panes. There was movement from the mansion, and a guard lieutenant came out. ¡°What is the problem here,¡± she asked. Modrica repeated her request, and I think it was louder than before. Hussain looked at Modrica and then said, ¡°Kill her.¡± 256. Clan: Tabitha.

256. Clan: Tabitha.

I learned a lot from Kelda. She was always so cautious with her affinity. Scared of setting things alight by accident. There were many things you would not think would burn until a stray flame would ignite it. She was so careful. I learned so much. I used to keep oils, poisons and ground pepper in my Spaitial Pocket, and I still do. But now I also keep common things like flour dust. I don¡¯t have a wind affinity, but my Shadow Manipulation can sprinkle dust overhead, and there is usually a fire nearby that a puppet can flick coals or a branch to the appropriate place. If not, the shadows can create sparks from a tinder box. It doesn¡¯t take a lot of flour dust to cause havoc and, of course, injury. The dust exploded. Most of those manning the barricade were lizard kin, so were not as susceptible to burns as a human. They still had vulnerable eyes, ears and noses. I might have overdone it a bit as the wooden carts they were using as a barricade caught alight, several guards had burning clothes, and, of course, there was the confusion of the unexpected. This allowed Modrica to leap their barricade, and she had her mace out this time and was breaking bones and crushing skulls. She had also created an earthen shield on her other arm. That is one of the benefits of army training. She decided she liked using a shield. She used it as an offensive weapon. Her Earthern Shield was not as strong as a metal shield, but she could repair it on the go or recreate it if necessary. Wiremu had also taught her that the shield''s surface does not have to be flat, and hers were now always covered in Earthen Spikes. This group of soldiers, however, contained some specialised Veterans, and two of them had engaged Modrica and stopped her progress. The lieutenant was moving up to help them. I moved to intervene when Nyx¡¯s Shadow Shield deflected a knife that was thrown at me. Somebody had a sight ability to get through my Shadow¡¯s Embrace or, more likely, a different sense. Two rogues converged on my position, although I am pretty sure only one could sense me. Spatial Awareness pierced their Stealth Skills without trouble. I have been holding back as showing too many cards gave the game away for Wiremu, and he wasn¡¯t sure who the clever commander was. It was as likely to be the captain as the City Lord. I moved in the shadows toward the mansion while my Shadow Puppet scrambled up to the roof. I was using my Distract Skill with the puppet to get their attention. We need to draw the Captain out or get in there. Drawing him out seemed to be the easier option. Modrica bellowed his name again. The two rogues were distracted by my puppet, but the more experienced one only briefly. It was enough that she lost me in her senses. She was searching, and it wasn¡¯t with her eyes. I was close to the mansion and thinking how to up the stakes when the gates opened, and five Lizardkin came out. Modrica was sporting some wounds but had downed one of the three she was fighting. At least in melee range, the archers held back to avoid friendly fire. ¡°Stop!¡± one of them yelled. The two fighting Modrica disengaged and stepped back. That wasn¡¯t good, as the archers would have a free shot when talks broke down. ¡°I am Captain Hussain. Who are you?¡± Modrica removed her desert head covering, revealing her orc features. If you hadn¡¯t already worked out she was an orc by her speech and fighting style, you had to be pretty dumb. ¡°You enslaved an orc,¡± she stated. My Hearing Aid caught Hussain swearing under his breath, but it was the female next to him who spoke next. ¡°That was my father, and he has paid for his crime. I am the Lady in charge of the city now,¡± That was a huge exaggeration as there were at least two other contenders, if not more. ¡°If you were the one to level the palace, you killed him and hundreds of innocents.¡± She definitely liked her exaggeration. ¡°That is a crime which you must answer for.¡± Modrica pointed her mace at Hussain. ¡°You must die.¡± She was always a woman of few words. ¡°Who are you to be Judge and Executioner? This is my city. I will judge!¡± It could only be Asra speaking. I was surprised when Modrica answered her. ¡°I am Modrica the Merciless, Matriarch of Clan ?rna.¡± ?rna is orcish for Black. ¡°Umreti is Clan ?rna. Hussain must die.¡± The sequential timing of events is not that important to orcs. Umreti was now Clan ?rna. Therefore, the clan must avenge what was done to him. The fact he wasn¡¯t clan when it was done is irrelevant. I heard Hussain mutter, ¡°Bloody single-minded orcs,¡± as he gave the hand signal to the archers to shoot her. Nothing happened, and he looked around, surprised. The archers were there and ready to shoot. It is just that none of them saw his hand move. My Body Image Skill was almost at Journeyman Level, and once it is there, I will be free to use it on bodies other than mine, but for now, I was limited to small body parts, like an arm. He opened his mouth to yell and found it full of shadows. He tried to lift his arm to his throat, but it was bound tightly as dark shadows appeared around him, binding his arms and feet together. He fell forward onto the ground and started to struggle for breath. The four other people around him had different reactions. Asra stepped away as if he was contagious, and two of the others were clearly her guards and stepped with her. The last lizardkin was obviously loyal to the captain and bent down to use his claws on the shadows to free him. Hussain was a warrior and, therefore, physically strong. It took both Nyx and I to hold him with our Binding Shadows. Both Nyx and I were Syphoning Energy from him to speed things up as well. His main attributes would be in Physical Constitution, so syphoning his Spiritual Energy is going for his weak area. His loyal soldier would be successful at clawing our shadows apart if he was allowed to continue. Shadow manipulation is a Master level Skill, and it doesn¡¯t take a lot of effort to create two needles and remove his sight. Unfortunately, I was too slow. Modrica¡¯s mace smashed into his head, knocking him to the ground and leaving him lying still. She had thrown it from by the barricade, and she could put a lot of power in a throw. Another guard made to approach and was stopped by Modrica¡¯s low growl. Asra tried to negotiate, ¡°We must be able to come to an arrangement. Hussain is useful to me. What can I offer you?¡± She had obviously never dealt with orcs before. I know Modrica was not interested in talking, so I sent my puppet. She stepped out of Modrica¡¯s Shadow and took the form of an 8-10-year-old orc girl. She was completely black. Asra stopped talking, and everybody stared. The puppet skipped forward like she was going to play with friends. Everybody stepped back, especially when a nervous archer put an arrow through the puppet-orc-girl, and nothing happened. Well, nothing happened to the puppet-orc-girl. The archer screamed as I made use of the two needles I had created. The puppet spoke using a child¡¯s singsong voice, ¡°Naughty, naughty, naughty.¡± Hussain was getting more desperate in trying to breathe and thrashing around on the ground. The puppet-orc-girl skipped right up to him and said, ¡°Naughty, naughty.¡± and stabbed him in the eye with the glass knife. If the puppet were stronger, I would have had her slit his throat, but he would have some sort of tough scale skill for certain. The puppet-orc-girl stood back up and looked at Asra and cocked her head to the side as if not sure what she was looking at. I was juggling a lot here, but I was used to it in our performances. Puppet-orc-girl said in a voice that indicated Asra was a bit simple, ¡°You have been introduced to Modrica the Merciless, and yet you ask for mercy?¡± She bent down to Hussain again and worked her knife into the eye socket until it broke through into his brain. Hussain had a seizure and then lay still, dead. The Shadows binding him faded away. Puppet-orc-girl stood again, looked at Asra and said, ¡°There will be no mercy for those who try to enslave orcs.¡± She then turned her back on them and skipped back to Modrica. Together, they looked very much like a mother and daughter. Then Dusk screamed from just beyond the broken barricade, announcing her arrival. I had been holding her back until her entrance into the fight would make the biggest difference, but the fight ended too quickly. However, every good performance needs a good exit. She brushed past the barricade, and Modrica mounted her while the puppet faded away. Dusk reared and screamed again, and they were off galloping away down the road. Asra shook off the silence first, ¡°Everybody back to your posts. Get that barricade fixed.¡± Then she escaped into her mansion while trying to make it look like she wasn¡¯t running to safety. The Lieutenant took charge and got people moving, although, by morning, I think they would have a number desert them. I stayed where I was watching for almost an hour. Then, I moved away toward the stable. I found a quiet ally. I said, ¡°Well, you obviously don¡¯t plan on trying to kill me. What do you want?¡± The rogue with the extra sense dropped down from a nearby roof. ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°Clan ?rna.¡± ¡°You are not an orc.¡± ¡°I am not interested in you wasting my time by stating the obvious. What do you want.¡± ¡°I want to be your apprentice.¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°No? Just like that without asking anything about me?¡± ¡°Just like that.¡± The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because you are not clan, and you don¡¯t even know what that means.¡± Dusk trotted around the corner behind me. She was no longer carrying Modrica. I mounted. ¡°If you follow, you will be caught.¡± I rode away on Dusk, leaving her standing there.
Tabitha Carter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 8 12 10 9 10 10 91
Earned Attributes 2 3 5 3 2 1 1 1 4 22
Thief B 13 3 13 13 4 1 13 6 5 7 65 0
Shadow Predator S 11 7 11 2 12 12 9 53 2
Racketeer S 7 5 7 8 7 8 35 0
Life Thief S 2 3 2 2 7 1
Burglar S 5 5 1 5 2 7 20 0
Merchant B 11 2 11 6 11 11 3 3 8 55 0
Rider B 11 2 11 11 4 1 10 5 44 0
Entertainer B 9 5 1 9 9 9 10 43 2
Totals 35 59 52 41 46 56 53 43 50 435
Constitution 146 143 146
Resistances: Cold 20, Poison 4, Pain 5, Disease 1, Acid 2, Mental 1 Skills Novice: General Sewing 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Shadow Mind 1, Sprint 2, Shadow Merge 2 Apprentice: General Pickpocket 9, Trapping 5, Cooking 9, Hearing Aid 9, Adjuster 8, Body Image 9, Agility Riding 7 Syphon Energy 9, Syphon Consitution 8, Shadow Step 5 Fighting Blunt Weapon 9, Knockout Strike 9, Shadow Shield 5 Senses Elemental Senses 8, Lore Journeyman: General Bargain 12, Appraise 11, Spatial Pocket 10, Shadow Puppet 12, Performance 12, Tough Hide 10, Lock Pick 10, Detect Traps 10, Sleight of Hand 12, Detect Spiritual Traps 10, Disarm Spiritual Traps 10, Confuse Status 12, Identify 11, Distract 14, Disarm Traps 10, Orcish 11, Dwarvish 13, Lute 12, Coax 11, Mimic 14, Elemental Bond 12, Animal Care 11, Binding Shadows 10, Engulfing Shadows 14, Animal Bond 10 Fighting Intimidating Aura 14, Rampage 10, Parry 10, Small Blades 14, Unarmed Combat 11, Swords 11, Dual Wield 10 Senses Sense Spiritual 12, Spatial Awareness 14, Lore Sapient Lore 10, Master: General Stealth 17, Shadow Manipulation 17, Shadows Embrace 15, Riding 15, Senses Darksight 16, Affinity: Shadow Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Nyx, Shadow Elemental Skills: Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Mimicry, Coax, Engulfing Shadows, Sense Spiritual, Body Image, Shadow Shield Bond: Dusk, Shadow Charger Skills: Novice: Syphon Energy, Syphon Constitution, Shadow Merge. Shadow Shield Apprentice: Sprint, Fast Strike, Power Strike, Intimidating Aura, Binding Shadows, Shadow Step, Journeyman: Speed Boost, Tough Hide, Master: Shadows Embrace, Shadow Manipulation. Darksight Affinity: Shadow 257. Mental Health: Wiremu.

257. Mental Health: Wiremu.

I felt a lot better when Ruku took over Umreti¡¯s Slave bond. I hadn¡¯t realised that it had bothered me so much. We caught up to the caravan easily enough. I will need to start capturing some animals to fill these cages. We now also have several Camels, but we will probably sell them in the next town. I joined Mayakku, driving one of the wagons. This wagon carried Te?ka, C¨­mp¨¥?i and the Slaver. It would only be a couple of hours before we found a place to camp for the day. ¡°Has everything been going well?¡± I asked. Mayakku nodded. ¡°Barbra tried a number of her skills, and I have been here getting a feel for her spiritual flavours.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. She may not have long to live when Modrica gets back here.¡± Mayakku looked at me sharply, so I went on to explain, ¡°She was part of forcefully enslaving an orc. Umreti is here, and he may want to kill her even sooner.¡± ¡°We need to get her into a ritual circle and test her quickly then. We won¡¯t get another chance for a long time.¡± ¡°Yes, we will do it as soon as we stop for the day. Meanwhile, I want to get a sense of her flavours from her existing bonds. What do we know about her?¡± ¡°Tabitha interrogated her and her slaves. That Skill she has that twists the meaning is tricky. The oldest slave was given to her by her father back when she was a teen. Her father was running logging teams for the Empire, and she started out keeping the books and doing the administration. She has two basic classes, Administration and Bookkeeping. She was pretty good, apparently, and had a choice of becoming a full Accountant and then specialising, but chose to work with the local Slave Taskmaster instead.¡± ¡°She is probably regretting that choice now.¡± ¡°I suspect so. Ever since the bounty came out and Slave Taskmasters were dying, she has regretted it.¡± ¡°Good. It might stop others from making the same choice.¡± ¡°She is fairly new to the Slave Taskmaster role. It has only been about five years. The Class is only in the early Apprentice Levels.¡± ¡°That is a good start.¡± Mayakku nodded, and we rode in silence while I explored her slave bonds. I focussed on my Analyse Bonds Skill and examined the three slave bonds she had. One was much weaker than the others, the new slave with a low Slave Class. All the bonds were dominated by Barbra. The flavours were strongly around numbers and tracking numbers and records and supply of resources. This was Barbra and her higher-level Classes dominating the bond. These would influence the slave, but they are not the Slave Taskmaster Class. This influence would be there in the bond, but it would be weaker due to the lower level. I am going to have to filter the flavours to a much finer degree to identify the flavour we need. I settled down to concentrate. ¡°We are making camp now,¡± Mayakku said a little louder than normal. Indeed, the wagons were circling, and the scouts were marking the tent area. I didn¡¯t fall asleep, did I? Maybe briefly. I looked at Mayakku, and she raised an eyebrow at me. Maybe a little longer than briefly. I helped set up the camp for the day. I picked a tent, lay down, and let my thoughts drift. As usual, they drifted to Kelda. She should almost be back in Hrothgar by now. I wonder how she is going to fit into the noble life again. As I understood it, she wasn''t a great fit before, and now she has physical scars and is blind. She should be here with me. Except she would be very angry at me for burning down the palace and the innocents that were killed or injured. I didn¡¯t have to burn it down. Maybe she is too good for me. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Why did I burn it? I had already killed the two key people and many of his guards. Why did I burn the palace? It seemed satisfying. That is not quite the right word. Was it revenge? On who? I had already killed the City Lord. Not forgetting that Zikr. This was the first time I had to defend against a Mental attack. It was a very sharp and direct attack. The purpose seemed to be to weaken me mentally. That, combined with the drugs, would open me to accept the Slave Class. Umreti was attacked the same way without the defences I had. How has it affected him? I remember his hands shaking uncontrollably several times, and Ruku mentioned a seizure. What other mental damage might he have suffered? Can it be repaired? There are Mental Healer Specialisations, but it is not as easy as a physical wound, and Kelda found the limits to physical healing. The first thing I have to do is get him free of that slave class. Shit, my mind is rambling. This is worse than usual. I forcibly took control of my thoughts and took several deep breaths. T¨¡oke slithered into the tent. He must be getting unsettled feelings from me through the bond, or he would have stayed with Te?ka. He curled up on my chest. I did appreciate it. I awoke hot and thirsty. The sun was high, probably. It was early afternoon. I found a water bladder and drank deeply. The water was warm and had a stale taste. T¨¡oke had left at some point. I went out to find some food, and the heat outside hit me like a physical thing. My Heat Resistance was way up there, but that didn¡¯t mean I didn¡¯t feel it. The heat shimmer plays havoc with my Thermal Sensing. Three of our five guides were relaxing under a lean-to. There was a small fire going, cooking some type of meat. ¡°Moja, Mbili, Tatu.¡± I nodded to each in turn. They were small and covered in fur. The Mousekin had particularly powerful legs. ¡°What is there to hunt in this desert? I need to start filling the cages with animals that will sell well.¡± ¡°Only a few crazy lizards and snakes at this time of day,¡± Mbili replied. ¡°They can make good companions.¡± He shrugged. ¡°People often like the cuter animals.¡± ¡°I will be sure to let T¨¡oke know that.¡± ¡°The Fennec Fox is usually a good seller as it is small, trainable and will hunt rodents. The Roadrunner birds look good and stick to the ground mostly. They are fast. Over the next week, we will be moving more into the grassland areas with associated dogs, deer, cougars and lions. Predators sell well as they double as guard animals,¡± Mbili said. ¡°There are many hawks, owls, ravens and doves if you know where to look,¡± Moja added. ¡°Don¡¯t forget the spiders and scorpions,¡± Tatu said quietly. ¡°Tatu likes his spiders,¡± Moja shuddered. I looked at Tatu thoughtfully, ¡°Spiders can make good bonds. Better bonds than pets. Have you seen any nearby?¡± He nodded. ¡°I will grab a cage, and we can go and take a look.¡± He nodded again. We ventured out into the heat of the afternoon. Tatu was quick, and his fur blended in well with the desert landscape. Very quickly, we came across a crevice that was lined with spider webbing. Tatu enticed the spider to emerge by manipulating the web. He had obviously done it before many times. The spider darted out to catch its prey, finding itself caught instead. It was large and hairy and tan-coloured. ¡°Desert Tarantula,¡± he identified it for me. ¡°Easy to train,¡± ¡°You have trained some?¡± He nodded, ¡°Moja won¡¯t let me keep them.¡± ¡°You can help me train them while we are travelling,¡± I said. ¡°Do you have an Animal Trainer class?¡± He shook his head, ¡°Animal Handler.¡± I remember he always helped with the animals and their care. It was his role on the team. ¡°Let¡¯s see if we can find some more. Four or five is a good start. Have you ever thought about bonding with one?¡± He shook his head, ¡°Don¡¯t know how.¡± ¡°Do you want me to teach you?¡± His eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously. It ended up being a pleasant afternoon despite the heat. I taught Tatu some mental exercises that would help him prepare for a bond. I was taught this during my Hunter training, but most people would not know this. A lack of knowledge does hinder growth. We arrived back at the caravan with four Tarantulas, two Brown Widow spiders and three scorpions. Even if they don¡¯t make good pets, they are in demand by various alchemists and healers. It is how they make anti-venom potions and Spidersilk, among other things. Then it hit me. Shit, Tabitha is going to be grumpy with me. I never negotiated a price for training Tatu. 258. Sharp: Wiremu.

258. Sharp: Wiremu.

The next few days were relaxed travelling with the Caravan. I would spend most of the night with Mayakku, exploring the slave bond. Early morning and late evening, I would go out hunting with Tatu, and his sister, the elusive Nne, joined us. Nne also wants me to teach her how to bond. Her role was as a scout, and she had the class. She is looking for a bond to help her in that role. Our wagons are filling up. Spiders, snakes, scorpions and I even dug up a fire ant nest. My Pain and Poison Resistance were the key there. We did find a Fennec Fox, and they are cute. I haven¡¯t found any Desert Vipers like T¨¡oke, but we did get a Copperhead and a couple of King Cobras. I have stayed away from birds for now, but a bird might be good for Nne. Tatu has been the key to helping me keep them fed, I think his Animal Handling Class is benefitting greatly from this. Tabitha and Modrica should have been back last night. Te?ka is not upset, so I shouldn¡¯t worry. Mayakku and I think we have narrowed down the flavour of the Slave Taskmaster. There are three main flavours. Toil and exertion. Dominance and control. Submission and obedience. Our problem is we have no idea how to enchant to create those flavours. ¡°Walk me through the Sharp Enchantment and how it works,¡± I asked Mayakku, trying to get some understanding. ¡°Enchantments by nature change the flavour of Spiritual energy.¡± She grabbed a piece of wood and, with practised claws, sketched what seemed to me to be a complicated diagram. ¡°This is where the Enchanter inputs Spiritual energy, and this is where it is stored.¡± I understood that much, ¡°And the amount it stores depends on the spiritual material used here.¡± ¡°Yes, but the material also affects the efficiency of the spiritual flow.¡± ¡°So from this part on, it is where the enchantment starts changing the energy,¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, but it is also affected by the Spiritual Material used. This is just a piece of wood, so the enchantment will break it, but if we were to use some of your Granite, it would affect the enchantment with the properties and weaknesses of the material.¡± ¡°But isn¡¯t the purpose of the enchantment to change the spiritual flavour?¡± ¡°Yes, but it is using the enchantment material to do that. Therefore, your granite would make the object we want to sharpen harder but more brittle than if we used other materials. Liquids won¡¯t work at all with this enchantment.¡± ¡°So we need the right Spiritual material as well.¡± ¡°Yes and no. These flavours are very different to any I have used before. I don¡¯t know what the right material is, but I do know the wrong material won¡¯t work.¡± ¡°Ok. What is the next part?¡± I was trying to puzzle out the rune. ¡°This is where the enchantment shapes the spiritual energy into the flavour we want. These parts add a cutting or slicing aspect.¡± ¡°So what are these then?¡± ¡°They define where the sharpness, or cutting energy, is to go. They control the flow and amount of energy. The energy will always be stronger near the rune so that a longer blade will have these spaced along it. It is affected by the efficiency of the material. Tabitha¡¯s Blacksteel knife is the most efficient material for this type of enchantment I have ever seen.¡± ¡°So we just need to concentrate on the material and this part where it changes the energy?¡± ¡°No. You want the energy from your enchantment to empower a ritual. To imitate the energy of a journeyman-level Slave taskmaster, we are going to need efficiency, power and direction. You have ritual diagrams on the hands and feet of the slave, a different diagram on the head, and a third diagram on the heart. Those are where the energy has to be directed. Six different points and doing it through an enchantment means you don¡¯t have the control the Slave taskmaster would have. You might need six different enchantments all powered together. And I have no idea about the control and flow requirements.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°They might be sequential rather than all at the same time.¡± ¡°They might, but we don¡¯t know that yet.¡± ¡°Would Barbra know?¡± ¡°Probably, even though she is not at that level yet. Would she tell us?¡± ¡°We will see what Tabitha can get out of her when she returns.¡± I suddenly reached out and grabbed her hand. I looked at the tiny rune on each knuckle. ¡°These are different.¡± ¡°Yes, Flesh Enchanting has some significant differences from normal enchanting. When I first enchanted the sharp rune on C¨­mp¨¥?i and myself, I did it on the claw itself. This sharpened the claw, but nothing else and claws grow and get damaged and break. Now, I do it on the knuckle, which gives the strength of the bone to the claw. It is a more complicated rune in a small space but doesn¡¯t break or wear off. The energy input is from us, the living person so that simplifies that part.¡± I compared the rune on the wood to the one on her knuckle. I had to use my Telescopic Sight to magnify it, I have no idea how she carved it. The first part was simpler. The changing runes were the same, but the flow, control and shape differed. Control. Dominance and Control. ¡°Could we use the Control symbols somehow as one of the three flavours?¡± Mayakku stopped in thought. ¡°Maybe?¡± She thought some more. ¡°Not that one,¡± she mumbled. Then she looked at me, ¡°I am going to need to try some different runes,¡± That was my cue to exit. Time to go hunting. Hunting is when I let things mull in the back of my mind and ferment. I should have opened a brewery. Hunting is good for me. Today, we will hunt for food rather than capture, and this open desert is good for my archery. T¨¡oke joined me. We left Tatu behind and loaded with hunting gear and water canteens. Water canteens were actually optional since T¨¡oke and I got Lava Bodies. Drinking water doesn¡¯t consume Spiritual Energy, and it is very satisfying. It''s time to stretch our legs. We set out at a run. The sunset was about two hours away, and the caravan would get back on the road. We would catch up eventually. I am never lost with my Mapping Skill. As I ran and T¨¡oke sat curled on my shoulder, I examined the landscape with my Telescopic Sight. There is a trick to using it on the move, as you mustn¡¯t lose a sense of your close surroundings. It took a number of falls and collisions before I got the hang of it. Evening is a time for the larger animals to emerge to forage and feed. We had just passed a line of cliffs, and they rose into steep hills, so that was where I headed. The vegetation was dry grasses and cacti. The larger animals travelled long distances looking for water. I think there will be cougar and bobcats in the hills feeding off the antelope herds. I am not there for them, I aim to hunt what they hunt. I am mainly going to the cliffs for the views. My Telescopic Sight is great, and I am really enjoying using it in this area. The sunsets are fantastic as well. Monsters are rare here as finding food is difficult. There are rumours of Sand Elementals in the deeper desert that span kilometres. The rumours indicate a number of Rock Elementals had also been seen. My Granite Sense tells me Rock Elementals are more common than the rumours say. Rock Elementals are not always large and bulky, although I did sense one, which was basically a mountain. Some Rock elementals were small. The one we killed north of jern was not large, but it focused on Spiritual jewels and materials. Our portion of that formed the starting coin for our fortune. Mine anyway. Tabitha stole hers. After an hour''s run, I found a shady spot just below the lip of the cliff and sat down to watch the landscape and enjoy the peace. T¨¡oke slithered off. I could sense some other snakes nearby, but I was not particularly interested. What I wanted to look for was a different type of elemental that you rarely see. The main source of energy in the desert is the sun. This gives birth to Light Elementals, and the best time to see them is at dawn or dusk when the light changes. Apparently, they can be quite spectacular as they move between their forms. I don¡¯t know if I would see anything from here, but it was a good spot and worth a try. That makes me wonder why I haven¡¯t encountered any light affinity users here. These would be Tabitha¡¯s nemesis. This would be the place for them, both people and monsters. I wonder what abilities such a monster would develop. Possibly opposite abilities to Tabitha. Shining instead of hiding. Sight abilities, and I know you can focus light into a weapon, but I don¡¯t know how. That is the extent of my Lore knowledge. Tabitha would find it difficult fighting one during the day, and the reverse would be true at night. I need to keep that in mind. The sun was setting, and T¨¡oke¡¯s bond energised. I concentrated on what he was doing. Huh! He is mating with that Desert Viper. Now, that could make for some interesting offspring. Should I capture her and see what sort of snakes are produced? I am tempted to just leave her in the wild and let nature take its course. A flash caught my attention. It was like a rainbow exploding in the sky. That was amazing. This is a very rare sight. There were smaller bursts of exploding rainbows as the Light Elementals changed forms for the night. Wow. I sat back to just enjoy this light show. So worth it. 259. Problems: Wiremu.

259. Problems: Wiremu.

It was almost dawn when I finally caught up to the caravan, which was parking for the day. I was limping, which slowed me down a lot. I was carrying another set of destroyed leathers. I spied Dusk, so at least Tabitha and Modrica were back. Then I heard the shouting. I sped up my limp walk to a hobble run. I should have put Regeneration on my leg, but I figured my eye was more important. I wanted to get there because it was Mayakku who was yelling, and she was in full tantrum mode, sometimes slipping into her native language. I have never known her even to lose her temper. She was yelling at Modrica. She barely came up to Modrica¡¯s ribcage in height, yet she was furious with her. I could sense who was there before I saw them and knew both Tabitha and Umreti were there as well. C¨­mp¨¥?i was there, and he was growling and pacing behind Mayakku, obviously affected by her temper. Te?ka wasn¡¯t around. I stretched out my senses, and he was out in the desert and was eating something. Tabitha was looking at me as I came around the wagon, and when she saw me, there was a pulse of Intimidating Aura which brought sudden silence. ¡°What happened to you?¡± she asked in a semi-worried tone. I was up and walking, so she knew I would be fine. ¡°Long story,¡± I replied wearily, ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡± That set Mayakku off again, ¡°These thick-skulled, goblin-shit-eating idiots destroyed our best chance of removing the slave class!¡± Modrica just growled her rumbling growl. ¡°What? How?¡± ¡°Umreti killed Barbra,¡± Tabitha explained. ¡°Oh, shit. That is a problem.¡± ¡°We were just starting to make real progress, and now we have nothing to compare our trials with. Bloody, short-sighted idiots!¡± Mayakku declared, and then jumped on C¨­mp¨¥?i and rode off into the desert, hopefully to cool down. ¡°Barbra made an attempt to take back Umreti¡¯s bond. Umreti interpreted it as being attacked and followed instructions about killing his attacker.¡± Tabitha clarified. I just leaned wearily against the wagon. Tabitha looked closer at me and then yelled, ¡°Astrid, bring your med kit!¡± She grabbed my arm and helped me to a seat, where they started putting up the tents. I saw Astrid¡¯s bond, Trassig, appear first. The little stoat scampered over and sniffed at me, and then Astrid came from a wagon carrying a bag. ¡°What the hell got into you, lad?¡± she asked. ¡°Lots and lots of things,¡± I replied tiredly. ¡°Details, lad, details.¡± ¡°Poison needles. Lots and lots of poison needles.¡± I pulled out a handful of needles and a small cactus branch from my bag, stabbing myself again. ¡°Have you still got the poison in your system?¡± she asked, and I nodded. The poison might be affecting me more than I thought, as it was hard to think. ¡°Here, drink this,¡± she said, handing me a potion. I downed it, and things cleared up a bit. Tabitha picked up a needle, ¡°It must be potent if it got past his resistance.¡± ¡°I think it was also the number of them,¡± Astrid said. She was right. Both shes were right. I don¡¯t think I am going anywhere near a cactus plant again. I felt a pulse of Astrid¡¯s Poison Cleansing Skill go through me, and things became a bit clearer still. Her Revitalising Aura was helping as well. ¡°Look at me, lad, let me see the eye.¡± She pulled the eyelid up and looked deep into my eye. ¡°The top layers are punctured but already half repaired. Put your Regeneration onto regenerating some blood, lad. It will help clear the poison and help most other things. Tabitha said you were limping?¡± I tapped my right knee, and she went to work. Maybe I was more injured than I thought. Tabitha squatted down beside me, ¡°What happened? Where¡¯s T¨¡oke?¡± I reached out to my bond with T¨¡oke, ¡°Ah, he¡¯s almost here.¡± I could see Ruku, Runa, and Rodion were now nearby, with Tatu, Moja, and Mbili. ¡°Right, what happened? I shot a buck from a long way away,¡± I had enough presence of mind not to give exact details of my range in front of the three contractors. It was a great shot, and I levelled my Marksman Skill. ¡°I went to find it but got ambushed.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°By a cactus?¡± Ruku asked, picking up a spike. ¡°Yes, by a cactus!¡± I said grumpily, ¡°A monster Cactus that shoots poisonous spikes! The buck had died near it, and it ambushed me. Hundreds of bloody spikes were sticking out of me, and it wasn¡¯t just one cactus. It was a whole bloody grove of cacti.¡± ¡°Alsabaar,¡± whispered Mbili in awe. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°Alsabaar. One of the few plant monsters in this region. You were lucky to make it back to the healer. Most become fertilisers for it. You were wise to run back.¡± ¡°Yeah, I didn¡¯t know that. The spikes went straight through my leathers, and one got in my eye before I could even react. My Snakeskin stopped most of the next wave, although some still got through, but I started hacking and burning the bloody thing. Actually, I think I was the bloody one. It was big. A lot of Cacti in the grove, about the size of the wagons in this circle.¡± ¡°How on earth are you alive?¡± muttered Tatu in awe. ¡°Here.¡± I pushed my bag to Ruku. ¡°Careful, there are more spikes in there.¡± Ruku had the highest Poison Resistance here, and I noticed he engaged his Tough Hide skill before reaching into the bag. ¡°Ouch!¡± he said as it was not enough. But he pulled out the large head-sized monster core. Moja, Mbili and Tatu all had their mouths open in amazement. You can tell they are siblings. ¡°That took some digging to get,¡± I said. ¡°The grove is burned to the ground.¡± ¡°Where was T¨¡oke?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°He was off getting laid,¡± I said. I got a few puzzled looks at that, but Tabitha understood and laughed. ¡°He was mating,¡± she said. I nodded. ¡°You took out a large Alsabaar by yourself?¡± I think Tatu was having trouble with the language or something, and I had Puia with me, so I wasn¡¯t alone. I was about to say that, but ¡°Ouch!¡± Astrid did something with my knee. I looked down, and she had pulled out a very large spike. ¡°Alright, everybody, you have had your story. He needs to rest now. Ruku, help me get him into the tent.¡± Astrid could be bossy when she wanted to be. I was helped onto a bed roll, and Astrid poured another potion down me, and that is the last I remember for a while. When I woke, Tabitha was sitting beside me. ¡°Afternoon,¡± she said. ¡°Afternoon. I was hurt worse than thought, wasn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Astrid spent some time swearing at you after you were out.¡± she said. ¡°Apparently, that is a common problem with people with high Pain Resistance. It keeps you going, but you do more damage to yourself because it doesn¡¯t feel that bad. Your knee is going to take more time even with your regeneration.¡± I winced. ¡°The poison was particularly bad as well.¡± I checked, and my Poison Resistance had jumped up. She nodded. ¡°I heard the Famous Five talking, and I think some of them are about ready to worship you. It would normally take a whole village of warriors to kill an Alsabaar of that size. They would advance behind shields, burning it one section at a time, and still, they would lose people. Tatu and Mbili think you are a god. Moja thinks you are crazy.¡± ¡°Definitely crazy,¡± I said. ¡°Definitely crazy,¡± she agreed. She grinned, ¡°The Legend of the Mighty Quinn grows.¡± I groaned. We paused while I took a drink from a bottle beside me, and there was a potion left as well, with instructions to take it when I woke. Then Tabitha said something that poured cold water on the Mighty Quinn. ¡°Can I ask why you didn¡¯t use your Lava Body?¡± I stopped. Shit. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t have healed the leg or eye, but it would have burned out the spike and the poison,¡± I admitted. ¡°I didn¡¯t think of it,¡± I said sheepishly. Tabitha grinned. ¡°Astrid did some tests on the poison on the spikes, and they do incite confusion in the mind, but your Poison Resistance should have overcome that.¡± ¡°I am not the brightest some days,¡± I admitted. ¡°Nor are you invincible.¡± ¡°No, you would think the last few fights would have drilled that into my thick skull.¡± ¡°Your hard-headed Granite Skull?¡± Tabitha said in a teasing tone. I nodded, tapping my knuckles against my skull. She became serious, ¡°How much of a setback is it that Barbra died?¡± ¡°It is not good. We can keep experimenting with what we remember of the flavour, but we need to compare it against the real thing.¡± She winced, ¡°Modrica was convinced it was something Umreti needed to do and that added to Umreti¡¯s response.¡± I held back on further comments because when Modrica is convinced about something, not even Tabitha can change her mind. It is part of who she is, and her high Mental Strength not being balanced with Mental Agility. It is a big setback, though. Tabitha got what I was thinking from my silence. ¡°So she can sense bonds around her like I can and can break them without talking. We need to know the range that can work at. What happened to her other slaves?¡± I asked. ¡°I asked Ruku to take them over. At least they can help with the caravan now.¡± I winced because they still didn¡¯t have a choice. ¡°We will need to find another Taskmaster.¡± Tabitha nodded in agreement. 260. Thinking: Tabitha.

260. Thinking: Tabitha.

The only Slave Taskmaster anywhere close to us was the one who was called to turn Wiremu into a slave. They were riding from Janub. If they got to Almaeadin and the chaos there, they would just turn around and ride straight back to Janub. Janub has Imperial Inquisitors and an army base, which is why we are avoiding it. Can I catch them on the road? Dusk is fast. The caravan passed the turn-off to Janub a week ago, which is a bit over two days gallop for Dusk. We saw no sign of them when Modrica and I left Almaeadin. We did cut overland off the road. I think it is worth an attempt. However, I am not as dumb as Wiremu. Okay, maybe it is just I need to learn from his mistakes. If you go it alone, you are more vulnerable than if you go with backup. The main problem is that no one here can keep up with Dusk, and we will need to move fast. The fastest people here are Wiremu, Ruku, Rodion and maybe C¨­mp¨¥?i, although C¨­mp¨¥?i is more of a sprinter, and this will be a marathon. Wiremu has not healed yet, so he is out. I called them together and told them what I was thinking. ¡°You are not thinking properly,¡± Ruku said. ¡°You have missed the one person here who can keep up with you.¡± I looked at him, puzzled. ¡°Umreti has enhanced Physical and Spiritual Attributes from his slave class. Dusk wouldn¡¯t have to slow very much for him to keep up. He is a Jungle Warrior, and he has movement Skills and the enhanced Spiritual Energy to keep them up. He is a tracker. He is also a survivalist and is the best person to keep you alive if you run into trouble.¡± I looked to Modrica. She nodded. Then I looked at Umreti. He looked at Ruku, his master, who nodded and said in Orcish, ¡°She is my representative, the same as Modrica, and they are Krvne Sestre. Treat her the same as you would treat Modrica.¡± Umreti looked at Modrica, who nodded again. Umreti looked at me and nodded with an affirmative grunt. I am lost as to Umreti¡¯s relationships, but I can¡¯t sort it out now. Ruku said, ¡°Rodion and I will follow as closely as possible.¡± Rodion nodded. ¡°Send Nyx if you need to guide us. If we are lucky, Mercenaries will be protecting him. If we are not lucky, he will have at least one troop of Imperial soldiers, probably more.¡± I nodded and looked at Umreti, ¡°Gear for fast travel and a fight. We leave in five minutes.¡± Ruku said, ¡°I have some gear you can use. Come with me.¡± I went to get Dusk saddled and filled all the water bladders I could find. I popped in to see Wiremu before I left and he said, ¡°I have been thinking you need more back up. It is easy enough for you to carry T¨¡oke. He can change a fight quickly.¡± We took some time to eat, and then all of us hit the road. Rodion and Ruku ran at the pace Rodion''s pack could comfortably handle while Umreti and I soon pulled away. We travelled at speed through the night with few stops. Riding fast on a formed road leaves a lot of time to think. I am not the only one who was not thinking things through. Umreti may be able to keep up with us and keep me alive if I get into trouble, but he is also a big risk. In fact, I can¡¯t have him fight beside me. He can not even come close. We are going up against a Slave Taskmaster who can snatch his bond away and override any instructions, including the language fail-safe. Then we want to take him or her with us, alive. Umreti should not be here. I can bind and gag them, but they can probably still feel and manipulate the bonds around them. Barbra only had her slaves, and when Umreti arrived, bonded to another, he killed her before she could do anything. She tried, though, and what is the range of the skill? It is probably a function of one of the mental attributes which Slave Taskmaster focuses on. Bloody Goblin Shit. I should have just come alone. Do I send him back? Our chances of finding the Taskmaster are not good anyway. I instructed Umreti not to approach people until I had checked them out. And we travelled on through the day''s heat, only stopping for a few hours sleep in the afternoon. We turned off and cut overland instead of following the road all the way back to the turnoff. The plan was to keep going and ask people as we passed them if they had seen a body of troops pass them. I very much doubt we are in front of them. The first caravan we came to on the Janub road was a long line of laden camels. I sent Umreti way out into the desert to circle around them as I approached. ¡°Good evening,¡± I greeted. I got nods in return, and everybody had a hand close to a weapon. The only solo riders out here were couriers, and they didn¡¯t stop to chat. I had changed my looks to be similar to a private courier. ¡°I have a message,¡± I said loudly, ¡°for the Slave Taskmaster travelling this way. Does anyone know where they might be? Should be with a troop of guards.¡± I got a lot of negative shakes in my head. I kept asking all the way up the line of camels, then let Dusk move forward at a gallop at the completely negative response. It was late afternoon the next day when I approached a small oasis, which was a popular stop for travellers. I had passed a small caravan heading south to Almaeadin, which said they passed a heavily armed group, so I hoped to catch up either here or tonight. I had Umreti wait well back for Ruku and Rodion as I approached the camp. There were two groups camped there with a clear separation between them. I was watched carefully as I approached the well that had been dug, drew water for Dusk and myself and refilled the bladders and drink bottles. As I did, I was carefully watching the armed group. Some were clearly imperial Soldiers, and some were clearly not. I wasn¡¯t sure if they were personal guards or mercenaries hired for the trip. Their loyalties will make a difference. There was a full troop of Imperials under a Lieutenant or whatever the Imperials called them. I am not a military person. Ten troopers plus the lieutenant, then there were another ten guards. Six slaves were doing the camp work. I am pretty sure one belonged to the lieutenant, but I am unsure about the others. I am not like Wiremu and can trace the bonds, or taste the bonds or whatever the shit is that he does. This is going to be a tough nut to crack. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The Slave Taskmaster¡¯s identity was clear. His Status was impervious to my Spatial Awareness. I didn¡¯t want to poke it and give any warning, but he clearly had the strongest Mental attributes here. It was a human male who was quite elderly, well over the century mark, possibly nearing a century and a half. He was resting in a spacious tent, reading a scroll. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I approached the senior guard on duty and said, ¡°I am looking for the Slave Taskmaster. I want to hire him for a job.¡± ¡°He doesn¡¯t do private contracts these days. You will need to put a request through the right channels at Janub.¡± was the reply, as all the guards paid attention to me, even those not on duty. Assassins were a tricky bunch, and these would have been chosen to counter assassins. The non-imperials anyway. ¡°We pay very well, and the job is not far from here rather than travelling all the way to Janub and back.¡± I could sense the Slaver listening as tents are not soundproof. ¡°Piss off before you find yourself broke. After all, that is a fine horse you have there.¡± ¡°And touching the horse will get you killed,¡± the Slave Taskmaster said as he came out of the tent. ¡°It is a bond to the young woman here. It is not an old bond but is quite strong.¡± Shit, this Taskmaster is like Wiremu and can sense bonds. More guards formed up as a protection detail. ¡°You are a curious one, young lady, as you have two bonds, and there is a third here that is not yours. I am Lord Nelson. How may I address you?¡± ¡°I am known as Black.¡± ¡°Black? That is obviously an alias, but it is also true. Yes, Miss Black, I have a Skill to detect when someone lies, so don¡¯t bother.¡± Shit. This is going to test my acting. I don¡¯t have a straight-up deception Skill like Wiremu, so this will test my Mimic, Distract, Adjuster and Performance Skills. I need to put on quite the performance here. My initial approach as a messenger is not going to work. Lowly messengers don¡¯t have multiple bonds. Sticking as close to the truth as possible is required. ¡°I have a job for you. I am the co-owner of a Trading House, and we can afford to pay well.¡± ¡°You are assuming I am interested in Coins at my age. I have enough coins. What brought me out of my tent was sensing something different. It is not often you find new things the older you get. I am interested in your bonds and the bond that is not yours. These bonds have a different aspect to them than others. Tell me about yourself.¡± ¡°All knowledge has a price.¡± ¡°Ah yes, this job. Tell me about this job.¡± ¡°We want the Slave Class removed from someone. I assume you are high enough levelled to do that?¡± ¡°And thus, you reveal knowledge that is not common. Yes, I can remove the class, but being a slave affects people, and it is often not a kindness to remove it. It also costs a lot of energy.¡± Now was not the time to argue over the kindness of slavery. ¡°This person has only been a slave for a few months, and sometimes what is necessary takes precedence over kindness.¡± ¡°That is true. I can sense you and the horse and the third bond, but the third bond also appears to be you. That is the first mystery. Then there is the aspect of the bond that is something I have never sensed. Then, there is the bond that is not yours. That is completely different again. Whatever skill they are using to hide themselves is also limiting my ability to locate the bond. That is a high-level skill.¡± ¡°Master level is my understanding. He is an ambush predator. It is in his nature.¡± ¡°And he is in a position to ambush me.¡± That was a statement, and the guards were looking much closer at their surroundings now. ¡°I would assume so, but as you say, he is not my bond.¡± ¡°Are you here to kill me, Miss Black?¡± ¡°No. If I were here to kill you, you would never see me.¡± ¡°That was definitely no lie. I understand the threat. If I got these men to kill you, I would not survive.¡± ¡°Neither would most of them.¡± ¡°And that is also no lie, which is quite a claim. It also makes me extremely reluctant to go anywhere with you..¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you curious?¡± ¡°Yes, but at what cost? I don¡¯t believe these secrets will be revealed for the price of releasing one slave.¡± ¡°That would be true.¡± ¡°I also believe one miss-step will cost me my life.¡± ¡°That would also be true, but if it is any consolation, we are not interested in collecting the bounty.¡± ¡°And there we have another mystery, as it is quite the bounty.¡± he indicated the number of troops he had with him, and I knew the daily cost of that. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you are seriously considering going with this self-confessed killer.¡± the Lieutenant piped up. ¡°I am considering it, Patrol Leader.¡± Right, they are called Patrol Leaders, not Lieutenants. ¡°However, there appear to be no guarantees I would survive, and Miss Black here seems to have no problem attacking imperial troops, so the threat of the empire hunting them is not going to carry a lot of weight.¡± He looked at me, ¡°Can you offer any guarantees, Miss Black?¡± ¡°I can only guarantee that your life or death will depend on your actions.¡± ¡°But will I know what actions will trigger my death in advance?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t give you a list if that is what you are asking. I can tell you interfering with any bond, including slaves, will result in death. If you interfere with any person in any way without permission, it will end in your death.¡± ¡°You are seriously going to take her word for all this?¡± The Patrol Leader asked. ¡°She hasn¡¯t directly lied yet, although I believe she has not told the whole truth in some parts. Are you a person of authority in your group, Miss Black? Will your word stand?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°And will I have the opportunity to leave with the knowledge I gain?¡± ¡°Yes, but if you leave in a negative way, my brother will hunt you down, and I am not talking about an incompetent empire here. My brother is a Master Level Hunter, Bounty Hunter, Monster Hunter and Assassin. He is also the other half of this third bond here who has demonstrated master-level Skills.¡± It sounded good, even if there was some exaggeration there. There were unhappy people there when I said incompetent imperials, but too bad. ¡°If you come, you are welcome to bring your guards, but Imperial Troopers are not welcome.¡± ¡°And what will you do if I don¡¯t come?¡± This guy might be too smart. ¡°I am not sure yet,¡± I said truthfully. This conversation had not gone anything like I expected. It was worse than dealing with the king. This Lord Nelson is smart, and I know he has some hidden Skills, or he wouldn¡¯t even be thinking about this. He will have an escape plan. ¡°I am going to ride out that way for an hour and find a camping spot. I will stay there until midnight. If you want to come, then come and find me.¡± ¡°Miss Black.¡± he called, ¡°make sure you take all the bonds with you.¡± I nodded, ¡°If those two archers hidden behind the tents try to shoot me in the back, they will be the first to die.¡± I mounted and rode out without being shot. The second camp at the oasis was all up and listened to everything. rumours will spread. 261. Example: Tabitha.

261. Example: Tabitha.

I found a spot to wait and lit a small fire to make it easier for them to find me. Then, I sat down on a nearby hill and thought through what happened. Lord Nelson is dangerous. He definitely has Skills he is keeping secrets to escape or kill us. He is too dangerous to force him to come with us. He comes voluntarily, or he doesn¡¯t come. It would be like trying to force Wiremu or myself, and it won¡¯t work for long. The next question is, do we want him to come voluntarily? He will learn things just by being with us that we don¡¯t want the empire to know. He already has a sense of our bonds and the ¡®aspect¡¯, which I assume is what Wiremu calls flavour. He is going to work out what it is even if we don¡¯t tell him. He will already have theories. The answer to this question is, I don¡¯t know. If he doesn¡¯t come with us and we can''t force him, do we let him leave, or do we kill him? When Ruku and Rodion get here, we can definitely wipe them out with little risk of injuries. Some of those fighters, The Patrol Leader and two in mercenary gear would not be easy. They are why I was not confident in taking them all down in the confrontation. I don¡¯t work well in a direct fight. I may not have the Assassin Class, but that is what I am. A Shadow Predator. T¨¡oke slithered in to join me. It was fully dark now, and I sent Nyx out to watch for them. Dusk grazed the dry grass by the campfire as I watched from the hill. If they don¡¯t come, they will make top speed back to Janub, and I would have to take them out alone with them alert for an ambush. If they don¡¯t come, I am not going to try to kill them. They can have a free run back to Janub. If he and his goons do turn up, what am I going to do? They outnumber us. I am not counting the Famous Five in our numbers. We are the better fighters, but they could ambush one or two and try to whittle us down. There is going to be tension, and the nature of Mercenaries, or even just fighters, is to push the boundaries to see who is stronger. Should we set a sparring match to show who is better? It might help, it might not. I need to consult. If they come, I will take them back to at least meet Ruku and Rodion, and we can discuss it. They are probably two days behind me, so we should meet them with a day¡¯s travel back in their direction. Ruku has much more experience dealing with meathead fighters. Even Rodion has more experience in leading a group of fighters. I am only good with criminals. And Nobles, apparently. What does that say? It was an hour before midnight when horses road up to the campfire, and I made my way down toward them cloaked in Shadows Embrace. ¡°Hello, the camp! Are you their Miss Black?¡± Lord Nelson yelled. I counted nine riders. T¨¡oke stayed with me this time. With me empowering the Shadows Embrace, I was testing to see if he could sense me or the bonds. Nyx blanketed them lightly, which also would confuse his senses. Dusk should be shining bright to draw attention. I got to within ten meters and then dropped the shadows. His eyes snapped to where I suddenly appeared in his senses. Two other pairs of eyes did the same. Those were the ones to watch. ¡°Hello. You decided to come, I see.¡± ¡°Yes, but this has caused a rift between me and the Imperial Army, and when the Force Leader gets back to Janub, my reputation is not going to be worth much.¡± Lord Nelson said. ¡°Did you work for them?¡± ¡°Just on Contract, but with the bounty and the deaths, there is a mandatory guard for all Taskmasters.¡± ¡°And they let you go just like that?¡± Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°No, it was quite a vigorous discussion. We are not currently in Empire territory, and I formally broke my military contract with one of the exit clauses, which didn¡¯t give her any legal standing. Even then, I think that if I had not had my personal guards here, she would have tried to abduct me and force me back.¡± ¡°A rift indeed.¡± ¡°I hope it is worth it.¡± I shrugged, ¡°Who can tell?¡± I made a show of looking over them, ¡°Why are we two short?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t miss much, do you? They are our scouts. One is making sure the Imperials don¡¯t try to ambush us, and the other is making sure you didn¡¯t have an ambush set up.¡± I gave a small smile, ¡°Did he find me?¡± ¡°No.¡± I could tell Nelson was unsettled as he kept glancing around and looking at the sky. I think he was sensing Nyx but couldn¡¯t work it out. Interesting. ¡°Right let''s ride for a few hours south and then get everybody in to lay some ground rules. Before we go, please remember I am in charge, despite there being eleven of you. I will kill without hesitation at the wrong twitch. I expect to have to make an example of someone, hopefully not more than one.¡± One of the two better fighters stepped forward. He was a big man but seemed intelligent. ¡°I am the Boss, call me Todd. They have been told to not start trouble. I will deal with any trouble.¡± ¡°I appreciate that, Todd. As long as they know any trouble is probably fatal. Let''s get out of here.¡± I mounted Dusk, and we started south. We stopped just before dawn. ¡°Call your scouts in and let¡¯s talk.¡± Lord Nelson nodded, and we made breakfast while we waited. ¡°Don¡¯t make camp, we are moving until the sun gets too hot.¡± When we were all together, I stood. ¡°You are here for one purpose, and that is to keep Lord Nelson alive. If you do anything else, you are probably going to die. You will keep a separate camp. If you are caught poking through our things, you will die. Later today or tonight, we will be meeting two other members of our team. One of them is named Ruku. He is our equivalent of Todd here. He will be organising everything and what he says goes. You will not leave camp without his permission. You will not hunt without his permission. The reason for this is we have a lot of bonded animals and if you were to even wound the wrong animal you would be ripped to shreds and possibly eaten by them. You are here because of him,¡± I pointed to Nelson. ¡°Yes we wanted his services but he chose to come because he was curious. The danger is very real.¡± ¡°I will keep them in line,¡± Todd said. ¡°I hope so. Let me introduce you to T¨¡oke.¡± He slithered out of my jacket and up on my shoulder. Nelson was trying to figure him out already. ¡°T¨¡oke is one of our bonds, but he is not my bond. None of you would survive a bite from him. As mentioned back at the camp he has a master Level hiding skill. He is watching you.¡± ¡°Are you going to introduce us to your other bond?¡± Nelson asked. ¡°This is my horse Dusk, and no I am not going to introduce you to my other bond.¡± One of the guards said, ¡°But,...¡± I threw a knife into the questioner''s arm. ¡°What was that for, lady?¡± she complained. ¡°I am not interested in your questions. Take them to Todd. Bind the arm and we are back on the road.¡± I was getting dirty looks from a couple of them but Todd got them moving. I heard him say, ¡°Be thankful it was not lethal.¡± I was watching the questioner and the friend of the questioner. I stopped everyone for a break when the knife came for my arm. I swayed out of the way as the questioner¡¯s friend was engulfed in shadow and Nyx bound him and shrouded him so no one could see. His horse galloped out in a panic as T¨¡oke threw himself into the shadows. Everybody backed off. You could hear muffled screaming. The shadows then disbursed in the sunlight leaving T¨¡oke and a burned husk. I just sat on Dusk and watched everybody as T¨¡oke slithered back to me and launched himself up. I caught him, and he slithered up onto my shoulder. I just sat there and let them process what happened. Then I said, ¡°We will need to ride a bit further and find another campsite.¡± I turned Dusk and headed away, leaving them behind. I found a spot, dismounted and grabbed a drink. About fifteen minutes later the others rode up rather subdued and leading the riderless horse. I wasn¡¯t sure they wouldn¡¯t turn back. 262. Introductions: Tabitha.

262. Introductions: Tabitha.

"Lady Black," Lord Nelson approached. I have been promoted from a ¡°Mss¡±. ¡°My guards are here to see to my safety, but my agreement is for information. That is why I came.¡± ¡°You have not yet done anything to earn that information.¡± He nodded in agreement, ¡°However, I believe some information is necessary at this point.¡± ¡°I would have thought the example we just had provided you with a lot of information.¡± He nodded again. ¡°Well, tell us what you have learned.¡± ¡°The cloud was your second bond, and it is an elemental bond, either cloud, darkness or shadow. It is probably one of the latter two, but it is a very powerful dark or shadow elemental to operate at that strength in the bright desert sun. It would be easier for a Cloud Elemental.¡± I realised I had not been helping Ny as much as I expected to, maybe she was getting stronger. He continued, ¡°From the sense of the bond the fire came from the snake, T¨¡oke. However, I don¡¯t know how the body burned so quickly.¡± Again I was not going to clarify that it was from Puia, another elemental. T¨¡oke could have done it, but not so quickly. ¡°The Elemental is your bond, so you also have that affinity. Somebody with an affinity is always known, but with an elemental bond, you should be famous, but I have not heard of anyone with an elemental bond outside of the elves or the Emperor.¡± ¡°You have gained plenty of information,¡± I said. ¡°Lady Black, bonds are my speciality and affinities are an offshoot of that. This has clarified what I sensed back at the camp. This is what I want to study more of. I should know if you have an elemental bond, you would be famous.¡± So it is this passion to learn, particularly about bonds, that is why they are still here. That is good information and Nelson may have a similar class to Wiremu. Wiremu can make use of that. ¡°So you want to know who I am?¡± He nodded. ¡°Knowing won¡¯t help you feel more secure if that is what you are wanting for your people.¡± ¡°Who are you and why have I not heard of you?¡± ¡°Very well. You have heard of me. I am famous.¡± He looked puzzled. ¡°Do you not listen to the bard¡¯s stories?¡± ¡°Oh, fuck no!¡± exclaimed the second good fighter of the group. I pulled out the Blacksteel war knife and pointed to her ¡°Fuck yes. She¡¯s worked it out.¡± A lot of them were looking at the knife I pulled out of thin air. ¡°For those of you who are too slow, you have heard of me because I am the Black Butcher of Jern.¡± I looked at Nelson, ¡°Does that make you feel more comfortable?¡± ¡°Ah¡­¡± He was speechless. ¡°I have decided we won¡¯t camp but will push through the day. Be ready to ride out in fifteen minutes. I will be back then.¡± I mounted Dusk, and we rode out of sight. I wasn¡¯t going to be able to relax around them anyway, so we might as well keep riding. The sooner I get to Ruku and Rodion, the easier I will feel. This is a very stressful ride. This guy had better turn out to be useful. When we appeared on the top of the hill after fifteen minutes, they were mounted and ready to ride. There was a lot of nervousness there. I led them back onto the road, and we rode in silence. Nobody approached me or challenged me. Maybe I should have started with proper introductions. Some of the weaker members of the group were struggling by early afternoon when we stopped for a few hour''s rest, getting ready for a strong push through the night. I was resting but staying alert when I heard. ¡°Lookout, that wild dog is trying to steal our food.¡± I jumped up and saw one of Rodion''s pack trying to sneak into camp. The one who shouted had a spear he was going to hit him with to chase him away. The discovered dog was crouched, growling at him but not retreating. Several others were looking their way, thinking this was some sport. I pulsed, Intimidating Aura to make everyone pause. When they were looking at me, I said, ¡°What were the first rules I gave about animals?¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°You fool,¡± Lord Nelson said, ¡°That dog is a bond.¡± ¡°You were very nearly dog food. And maybe I should have let that happen.¡± I said as I crouched down, and the dog came to me. I patted it and gave it some water. The spear guy did not believe the dog was that dangerous. What he didn''t know was that T¨¡oke was poised to strike. What a bunch of idiots. Some people need more than one example to be made. I turned my back on them as Todd and Nelson tore into the offender verbally. I hope everybody learned something. Once things settled down and the dog was resting in Dusk¡¯s shade, I sensed Nelson watching the dog. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked. ¡°I have read about pack bonds but never sensed one, but that is the only thing this could be. He has multiple thin bond connections, which add to a stronger overall bond. I didn¡¯t think Pack bonds were possible for humans.¡± Bloody racist assumptions by this old fart. I didn¡¯t bother answering him, I just turned away. He will learn soon enough that Rodion is Wolfkin. The sun was still up when we set out again. The dog trotted happily beside Dusk. We had only been going for an hour, and the sun was setting when the dog started barking. There were answering barks around us and then a wolfkin howl. Then, three figures appeared on a nearby hill. Ruku has Umreti with him. It is good to know Umreti found his way to them. I will be interested to see whether Nelson survives this introduction. Rodion was the third figure with several dogs at his feet. He was obviously wolfkin from his outline, even from this distance, and I heard the racist old fart mutter, ¡°Ah! That makes sense.¡± I stopped everybody as they came toward us. I pointed to Nelson and Todd, ¡°You two come with me.¡± Todd said, ¡°Sandra, as well.¡± The group¡¯s second good fighter came forward. So that was her name. I guess they were supposedly here to protect the old fart, so I didn¡¯t protest. We rode forward slowly. What was not obvious from a distance was that Umreti was an orc or that he was a slave. I picked up the subtle movements in Nelson when he sensed those things. So that was his range. Good to know. I could sense Ruku and Rodion''s puzzlement at the group with us. ¡°Ruku, Rodion, Umreti,¡± I pointed to each in turn, ¡°This is Lord Nelson, a high-level Slave Taskmaster and I suspect a Bond Master.¡± He looked at me in surprise, confirming my guess. He really should have spent some time playing cards so he didn¡¯t give things away so easily, but I was glad he hadn¡¯t. ¡°These are Todd and Sandra, the best of his protection detail, the rest of whom are down there.¡± Rodion crouched down to greet his dogs and muttered, ¡°Nothing ever goes according to plan, does it.¡± Everybody nearby heard him. ¡°Ruku, I said you would be the key liaison between the groups. Nelson has been warned any interference with bonds or people without permission will result in his death. That includes mentally.¡± I caught the subtle surprise from him, but only because his body was an open book to my Spatial Awareness. His clothes hid it from everyone else. He again confirmed what I suspected, that he had some mental skills. Introductions are, in fact, very useful. Ruku stepped forward, ¡°I will indeed be the key point of contact here. Let me introduce myself properly. I am Ruku, formally Major Ruku of the Royal Kirghiz Marine Corp.¡± I saw Todd and Nelson both recognise that name. He was well known and known to have an affinity. ¡°If anybody has a problem with that, now is the time to speak up.¡± He was making a point as these will be people with loyalties leaning toward the empire. Todd spoke up, ¡°Is this a Kingdom-sponsored group?¡± ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°This group is sponsored and run entirely by myself and my brother. Several ex-Kirghiz military members have been recruited from there, as that is where we have come from. The group is entirely independent.¡± I am not sure I was totally believed, but Nelson could tell I was not lying. Todd spoke again, ¡°I will make sure there are no problems, Major.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just Ruku, now.¡± ¡°Is this the slave you want freeing?¡± Nelson asked, indicating Umreti. ¡°Yes,¡± I said, ¡°but we will wait until we are back with the main group.¡± ¡°And what is a Kirghiz Major doing with four slaves?¡± he added. ¡°This is not the only slave we want freed,¡± Ruku said. ¡°Hmmm.¡± was the only reply. Ruku continued, ¡°Let me introduce you to my bond, Wai.¡± Wai crawled out from under his sleeve, then turned around and went back. The dry air is a problem for him. I spoke up again, ¡°Lord Nelson has not yet introduced us to his bond.¡± He looked sharply at me. Seriously, you don¡¯t get so good at bonds without having one yourself. Even I could figure that out. ¡°She is not close at the moment.¡± was the reply. I know that, or I would have sensed her. I am fairly sure it will be a bird that is scouting around¡ªone of his hidden cards. Introductions are very useful things. ¡°Just make sure you let us know when she is coming. As you have seen, some of our bonds are quite protective of us.¡± ¡°I am surprised there is only one empty saddle,¡± muttered Rodion in a voice we all heard. 263. Negotiations: Tabitha.

263. Negotiations: Tabitha.

We essentially rode in two separate groups. We took a more leisurely pace than previously, and now that I had extra support, I sent Nyx on to warn Wiremu what was coming. When we caught the caravan, we were moving out of the desert and more into the rolling grasslands. Freebourne was now only two weeks travel for the caravan. We started to travel through the day and camp at night. Streams were more frequent, and it very nearly rained one day. When we came within sight of the caravan, there was a reception committee waiting for us. Wiremu was out in front with his bow and knives. Runa was beside him, fully armoured with her shield out front. Her bond Horny was nearby grazing and acting like a normal goat. Modrica was behind Wiremu, mounted on Te?ka. Next to her was Mayakku, mounted on C¨­mp¨¥?i. I saw Astrid back by the wagons watching. Moja, Mbili and Tatu were also watching. I am sure Nne and Tano were around. They''ve probably been following us for a while. Everybody¡¯s eyes widened at the sight, but for different reasons. Te?ka and C¨­mp¨¥?i obviously dominated the guard''s attention. Lord Nelson saw the number and variety of bonds. Horny¡¯s innocent grazing didn¡¯t fool him, and I am sure he also spotted Trassig hiding in the grass. Wiremu stepped forward, and I rode to meet him as Rodion¡¯s dogs spread out. Ruku kept Umreti beside him and stayed near Rodion. ¡°Lord Nelson, come and meet my brother. You can bring your two tag-alongs.¡± I dismounted, and Dusk wandered over to graze by Horny. I had warned Wiremu about Nelson¡¯s lie detecting Skill, but Nelson had no idea about Wiremu¡¯s Truth Sensing Skill or his bond Skills, although he probably guessed the latter. Nelson dismounted and walked forward, flanked by Todd and Sandra. The others stayed mounted and watched. I am sure Nelson was trying to make sense of all the connections. He will have identified Wiremu as T¨¡oke¡¯s partner. T¨¡oke has slipped away and is hidden in the grass nearby as well. They are all wary of T¨¡oke but have no idea of what he can really do or that he can change size. When Nelson got near, Wiremu said, ¡°I don¡¯t like slavery, and I particularly don¡¯t like Slave Taskmasters.¡± Everybody was in hearing range. ¡°Yes, I got that impression from your companions. But you have need of my services.¡± ¡°Yes. Your ability to free slaves.¡± ¡°My price for that is to examine the bonds here, particularly the elemental bond.¡± ¡°Your price for that should be remaining alive.¡± Wiremu shot me an angry glance as if my negotiating more than that was too much. His Roleplay Skill is getting good, and it is close enough to the truth to slip through. Probably. ¡°Nonetheless, that is what we have agreed.¡± ¡°You obviously have some sort of bond class as well. You are not just a slaver.¡± ¡°No, but that is where I started to learn about bonds. There is good coin delving back into it at the moment. That will change when the idiot who posted the bounty runs out of coins.¡± ¡°That idiot is my kind of idiot. You obviously have a bond and slaves, yet I see neither.¡± ¡°I sent the slaves back to Janub. My bond will arrive in due course.¡± ¡°What should we be on the lookout for? Te?ka and C¨­mp¨¥?i are almost always hungry, and I wouldn¡¯t want them to eat the wrong thing.¡± ¡°It is a Kit fox; she is not the smallest fox, but the grasslands are her natural territory. I have not been introduced to everybody yet. I don¡¯t even know what to call you.¡± ¡°You can call me Quinn. Behind me is Modrica on Te?ka, her Dire Bear bond. If you try talking to her, you will not survive. The only reason you are still alive is you can free her clan mate. Next to me is Runa. Behind her is Mayakku on her bond, C¨­mp¨¥?i. The dwarf by the wagons is Astrid. The others are hired trail guides.¡± ¡°You left a couple out. We wouldn¡¯t want to have goat stew accidentally.¡± Wiremu¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Seeing as you know that, it would not be an accident. That is, in fact, Horny, Runa¡¯s bond, and in the grass somewhere is Trassig, Astrid¡¯s stoat bond.¡± ¡°You have already been warned about killing animals,¡± I said coldly. ¡°That has not changed. In fact, let me give you a piece of free information. Modrica was with me during the Month of the Black Butcher. She was my chief enforcer. She is waiting for you to step out of line.¡± Ruku stepped forward, ¡°We will travel in separate groups, and you will make a separate camp.¡± Runa spoke up, ¡°Tonight, we will be camping by a stream. There is a small trading post there and a courier waystation. They will have some limited supplies.¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°We will have a longer meeting tonight and remove the class from Umreti,¡± I said. ¡°It occurs to me that once the slave class is removed from Umreti, that will remove my main bargaining piece.¡± ¡°That is the only reason you are alive right now.¡± I said, ¡°If you refuse to do it, there is no longer a reason to keep you alive.¡± ¡°You gave me your word that I would survive on my own actions.¡± ¡°You would accept the word of an infamous crime lord?¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t lied to me yet.¡± ¡°Are you sure about that?¡± ¡°What would happen if we rode away now? ¡°I don¡¯t actually know. I do know that you are the closest person able to remove the slave class from Umreti. I will pay you to do the job, and you can ride away without being attacked afterwards.¡± ¡°So I am to accept the word of an infamous crime lord?¡± I pulled out a Cargonite Coin that would buy a medium size house in most cities. I flipped it to him, making sure it went high enough for everybody to see what it was. ¡°Half payment now, the other half when it is done.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t come here for coin, although this alone is more than I ever expected to be paid. I came for knowledge about your bonds, and he,¡± he pointed to Wiremu, ¡°is like you.¡± Wiremu said, ¡°I am not part of your agreement. And if you want us to trust you with our secrets, you shouldn¡¯t have lied to us.¡± It was Nelson''s turn to narrow his eyes at Wiremu. I spoke up, ¡°I am going to assume Quinn is referring to your contingency plan to get you out of here safely or at least alive. We won¡¯t interfere with that plan, and you have the downpayment. We complete the transaction tonight, and you can leave without enacting it.¡± ¡°It is interesting there is no mention of the other slaves you want freeing.¡± ¡°If tonight goes well, we can negotiate a separate agreement.¡± He nodded, ¡°Fair enough. Until then, we will keep our distance.¡± ¡°And not kill anything,¡± I said. ¡°And not kill anything.¡± They rode away, and we went to join the caravan for the day''s journey. Wiremu, Ruku, Modrica, Mayakku and I went into the wagon, which Mayakku used for her enchanting because it was the most secure place. ¡°What was he lying about?¡± I asked Wiremu. ¡°His slaves, he didn¡¯t send them back to Janub.¡± ¡°There were five slaves at the camp where I found him. I thought one belonged to the Patrol Leader.¡± ¡°The others are close by, and I am sure they are part of his protection detail. He actually has six slave bonds in total. He also lied about his animal bond.¡± ¡°Not a fox?¡± ¡°I think he has a fox, but he has three animal bonds, one of which will be a fox. From the feel of the bonds, I think one might be a bird. The third is definitely a large, strong creature going from the flavour of the bond, but I don¡¯t think it survives well in the desert, which would be a reason it was not with him. He is probably going to try to stall to let it catch up. If he has to run, he will run to it.¡± ¡°Sacrificing the slaves?¡± ¡°Probably.¡± ¡°How can he have three bonds?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°He must have a class for it. I would be interested to know what it is and if it can be taught,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Like Gwaed?¡± Ruku asked.¡± Wiremu nodded, ¡°But elves have an advantage there. "How is he communicating?" Ruku asked. "Probably through the bird. That''s why he told us about the fox, to distract us from the bird," Wiremu said. "Keep an eye out for the bird, but don''t do anything about it yet." ¡°Does he have an affinity?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°Not as far as I can tell from his bonds. If he does it is very unusual, but I don¡¯t think he does.¡± "So he is working for the empire," Ruku stated. ¡°Not necessarily,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°He has obviously travelled a lot. You don''t get a multi-bond class in the Empire. That means that he has probably visited the Elven Forests for several years, possibly several decades." ¡°Let''s see whether he tries to send a message from this courier station,¡± I said. ¡°The empire will pay a lot for what he already knows, though.¡± ¡°There are only a few options I can think of that means we let him live." Wiremu said, "I am sure he is also thinking about this. Let''s wait and see what his ¡®offer we can¡¯t refuse¡¯ is. For now, what we have, thanks to Tabitha, is a chance to see the ritual in action.¡± He looked at Mayakku. ¡°How can we maximise learning from this?¡± ¡°What I am going to do,¡± she replied, ¡°is to spend the day enchanting storage runes to capture the spiritual energy. They won¡¯t hold the energy for more than a day or so. For that, we would need enchanted Spiritual Gems. What I have here will hold it for a while, and we can spend the night and the next day experimenting.¡± I thought aloud, ¡°We could let him convince us to stay there for a second night. He would feel safer with Umreti, ¡®weakened physically¡¯ by removing the Slave Class, and his bond getting closer.¡± Wiremu nodded, ¡°We could stay several nights and free the other slaves.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see how tonight goes and if we can negotiate for more.¡± I said, ¡°I will be interested in what he tries to get from us, especially when he thinks he is in a stronger position. For now, let us get out of this wagon and let Mayakku work.¡± There was a knock at the door of the wagon. It was Runa, ¡°I was approached by Moja, who overheard your discussion with the slaver. They are very concerned that you claimed to be the Black Butcher.¡± Shit. 264. Freedoms End: Wiremu

264. Freedoms End: Wiremu

We finished the day¡¯s travel with minimal issues. I don¡¯t know how Tabitha got Moja back in line, but I assume it was her usual half-truths combined with bribery. She might have pulled out the Countess card. Nelson kept his people in line. It would be extremely difficult for him to do anything unnoticed with Rodion''s dogs roaming everywhere. They are also watching our comings and goings carefully. I did catch sight of a bird I thought might be his bond, but it was too quick and too far away to confirm. I think we are looking for a common Raven. It is a very intelligent and versatile bird, and they are worldwide, so that they wouldn¡¯t stand out anywhere. I am missing Kelda again. Liten would be ideal for scouting and discovering where these slaves are, but she is not here. I wonder how she is and whether she has got her sight back. I hope so. The Trading Post and Courier Waystation are one and the same. It is a log building with a stable out the back and a bunkhouse. The owner/manager and family live upstairs, and several courier horses are grazing in a paddock. There is a well out front and several marked spaces for Wagons and camps for the passing caravans. The sign says, ¡°Freedoms End: Last stop before the desert.¡± I guess this is also the border to the Free Republic. I didn¡¯t know that. We were the only caravan there at this time, so we picked a camp area and set up. A courier came through at speed, but she didn¡¯t stop for more than a drink and to swap horses before galloping on. I caught Tabitha eyeing her enviously. Carefree riding. Personally, I think she would be bored after the first week. Or less. Once both camps were set up, everybody gathered at a central spot ready for the removal of the Slave Class. Nelson was adamant he had his full protection detail present. Ruku was Umreti¡¯s Master, so he had to be there as we refused to transfer him to Nelson to fulfil both roles, even though he claimed it was easier. Everybody was gathered around from both groups. Mayakku and I had discussed this. She is best with Sprirtal flows and will concentrate on the strength, flow and flavour that Nelson uses in the ritual. I am the Bond specialist and will concentrate on what happens to the Slave Bond and, with my Apprentice Interrogate Status Skill, what happens with the Slave Class. Mayakku had four Spiritual collectors ready. We spread them around the area discreetly. Umreti stripped to a loin cloth and donated a bowl of blood under the watchful eye of Astrid. Nelson stepped forward and had Umreti sit on a stump, and he produced a small paintbrush and writing stick that he dipped in the blood and started drawing the runes on Umreti¡¯s hands and feet. The runes were quite simple. The basic pattern is a spiral where the centre would be pierced during the ritual. T¨¡oke was patrolling the perimeter with Rodion¡¯s pack when he smelled something unusual. I felt him head off to investigate. It was late afternoon, and the sun was about to set, and the shadows were long. We had the ritual area well-lit with lanterns and a fire. The runes over the head and heart were much more complicated. Nelson started on the heart. He was about halfway through when he was interrupted. ¡°That¡¯s wrong!¡± Mayakku announced. Nelson stopped and looked at her, ¡°What would a Catkin know about this ritual for Slave Taskmasters?¡± Shit, he did it on purpose to test how much we know. ¡°This catkin knows enough.¡± she flicked up a very sharp claw at him. ¡°There is a knowledge absorption skill I use, which you are obviously unaware of. It is called reading.¡± ¡°Those books are not available to most people.¡± ¡°Open your eyes, idiot. Do they look like ¡®most people¡¯ to you?¡± Mayakku pointed to Tabitha and me. ¡°I don¡¯t know what book you read, but this is a common variation used in the Empire. We are the experts here.¡± My Truth Sensing Skill was telling me he was straight-up lying. Do I challenge him and, therefore, confirm I have the skill? He will definitely already expect it. ¡°You¡¯re a liar,¡± Mayakku said, beating me to it. ¡°What did you call me?¡± Nelson said threateningly. ¡°I said you are a liar,¡± she repeated. ¡°I expected your hearing to be better with you having a fox bond in all. Maybe you lied about that, too.¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°I am not¡­¡± ¡°Oh shut up, old man. Any apprentice rune crafting practitioner knows orienting that part of the rune in that direction will disburse the spiritual flow over the outside of the body instead of going into the active part of the rune and into the body as it is supposed to.¡± Nelson stood up and looked at me and Tabitha. ¡°So what is actually going on here?¡± Tabitha said, ¡°You are removing the slave class from Umreti.¡± ¡°But that is not really what is going on here, is it? Nobody pays two Cargonite to free one slave. This catkin has intimate knowledge of the Release Ritual, and she is obviously an expert at runes and spiritual flow. And don¡¯t think I can''t sense the items sucking in Spiritual Energy. What is really happening here?¡± Tabitha stepped forward and placed the second Cargonite next to Umreti. ¡°People do pay two Cargonite to release a slave, especially if they want it done without annoying questions.¡± She emphasised the last three words pointedly. ¡°But I am here for information.¡± ¡°Not this information, and you are being paid.¡± Tabitha pointed to the coin. ¡°And yet you get nothing unless I perform the Ritual.¡± We won¡¯t tell him we are already getting a feel for his Spirituality, and comparing it to Barbra¡¯s has clarified our initial conclusions. ¡°And you think we will let you walk away with the information you have and not perform the task given to you?¡± Tabitha asked in a flat tone. ¡°Oh, I will definitely perform the Ritual for you, but I want to know why.¡± My Truth Sensing came out strongly that he was being truthful and doing what he said. I gave a very subtle hand signal that this was true. Tabitha was standing in front of me, and I had my hand behind my back, knowing Tabitha and her Spatial Awareness would see it. ¡°And if we don¡¯t want you to know why?¡± Tabitha was unrelenting. ¡°All of this,¡± and he indicated all of us and our caravan, ¡°is unique. Two elemental bonds, at least three affinity users. You are up to something.¡± ¡°Of course, we are up to something,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°But that does not mean we trust you, or your guards, with that knowledge. A very strong argument has been made for not letting you live with what you already know.¡± That stirred up the guards. ¡°Our agreement was that I do the job and be able to ride away afterwards.¡± ¡°That was our agreement, but you appear to be in the middle of renegotiating it. How about you do the job, and we can then discuss an additional agreement, or you can ride away without being attacked.¡± ¡°Fair enough. I will do this now, and tomorrow morning, we will see if we can re-negotiate, or I will ride away.¡± At Tabitha¡¯s nod, he turned back to Umreti, wiped the partially drawn rune off and started again. T¨¡oke had located his slaves, and they had come quite close in anticipation of trouble. There were obviously no trackers amongst them, or they would have approached from downwind. They were all geared up for a fight. T¨¡oke would track them, and he marked them with his Hunters Marks. Because our bond was at the Master level, I had a general idea of their direction but not distance. The Raven was close, and I could sense the bond. I assume it was waiting for a signal from Nelson. I had already pointed it out to Tabitha, and she was ready to grab it with her shadows if necessary. There was no sign of the fox; had he lied about it? My Truth Sensing didn¡¯t think so. Nelson was just finishing when Umreti started a mild seizure. Nelson stepped back quickly. ¡°What is happening?¡± he asked. Ruku replied, ¡°He has been having seizures. We think it is a result of the mental attacks and drugs he was subjected to make him accept the slave class.¡± I saw Nelson frown slightly. He stepped forward, placed a hand on Umreti¡¯s head and concentrated for a minute. He frowned again, ¡°Who?¡± I wonder what Skill that was. I glanced at Ruku, being the Slave Master, and he just shrugged. I decided to speak, ¡°It was the person you were rushing to Almaeadin to work for.¡± ¡°Lord Ibrahim?¡± ¡°If he is the City Lord, yes. More specifically, one of his lackeys. They were both there when I killed them.¡± ¡°You killed them? Half the city is burned to the ground!¡± He sounded shocked. He looked at Tabitha and then back to me. ¡°Definitely, brother and sister.¡± ¡°Can you do anything to help him?¡± I asked. ¡°Wait a minute,¡± he said and put his hand on Umreti¡¯s head again. The seizure was ending. ¡°I might be able to help better if I took over the slave bond,¡± then he glanced at the reception that received and continued, ¡°But that is not happening, and there is probably little I can do anyway. The damage is probably permanent. In addition to the seizures, there is probably some memory loss. To be honest, the best thing for him is what we are doing. Removing the Slave Class will restore his Mental Attributes, reduce the seizures and start the healing process. Even with a Mental Healer Specialist, there will always be damage.¡± ¡°You are not a specialist, but you have some skills in the area,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°No comment.¡± ¡°There is no true freedom from slavery,¡± I said. ¡°The effects will always be with you.¡± 265. Freedom鈥檚 Beginning: Wiremu.

265. Freedom¡¯s Beginning: Wiremu.

Once Umreti had settled, Nelson checked the runes under the watchful eyes of Mayakku and myself. Then he started the ritual. He started by rotating his spiritual energy in the direction of the spiral runes he had drawn. If this is required, it will be difficult to replicate with enchanting. He started with a hand, filling the rune with energy and then pricking the centre of the rune with a needle, which mixed Umreti¡¯s blood with the rune. He did each hand and then each foot. From what I read, the order didn¡¯t matter as long as you first did the four external ones. Then it is the head and then the heart. As Nelson worked around each limb, he kept the energy flowing to each of the previous runes. I trust Mayakku to understand better the intensity and flavour required, as she has the Spiritual Sensitivity Skill. I focused on the Bond to see if any changes were happening. I could sense changes to the bond already as it seemed to be in flux. The changes seemed to be only on the physical at the moment. The Class hasn¡¯t made any changes yet. Once Nelson had completed the four external runes, he stopped. I got the impression he was checking things. He probably has not done this for several decades. He called Ruku over as the Slave Master and had him add a drop of his blood to each of the four Runes he had empowered. I guess this is why it is easier for the Stave Taskmaster to take over as the Slave Master. Ruku¡¯s blood definitely increased the fluctuation in the bond. Nelson went for the head rune next. This rune was more complicated, and he didn¡¯t rotate his energy here. He empowered it the same way, and once the rune was full, he pricked the centre and had Ruku add a drop of his blood. This caused more fluctuations in the bond, which was Mental and Physical. There was still no effect on the class. He moved onto the Heart rune while keeping the energy flowing to the other five runes. This is where I need to concentrate. Once he had filled that rune, he pricked the centre, and Ruku did his thing. All six runes being empowered was causing massive fluctuation in the bond, but I had a sense that Nelson was not pumping energy into all six bonds at an increased rate. The Class felt funny and different in a way I had no experience with. My Interogate Status Skill was only Apprentice Level. Maybe I am missing something. Maybe it was like he was flooding the class with his energy. Rituals direct Spiritual Energy. That is their whole purpose. I had to trust Mayakku to sense what was going on outside because I did not want to miss anything with the bond or Class. I was scared the bond would break with the amount of disturbance to it, but maybe it is supposed to. The Class was filling up like a lung filled with air or a bladder filled with water and expanded until I was scared it would break as well. I don¡¯t think it is supposed to. Nothing I have read indicates that is what happens. Then Nelson changed what he was doing. Instead of pushing energy in, he was drawing it out. I don¡¯t know how he could sense when to make the change, but as he sucked out the Spiritual Energy, the Slave Class and the Bond both started reducing in size. I don¡¯t know which disappeared first. Maybe that both happened together, all of a sudden, they were both gone, sucked out as it were. Umreti collapsed in a heap, but he maintained consciousness and was soon picking himself up. Modrica was there giving him a hand. Ruku did not seem affected. Nelson seemed worn out, but I felt he appeared more tired than he was. ¡°There you go,¡± Nelson said as he stepped forward and picked up the coin Tabitha had left there. ¡°I need to rest now.¡± ¡°How much rest do you need before you can do another one?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°His Slave Class was only Novice Level. If we negotiate to do another one, I will need a day¡¯s rest for Novice, two days for Apprentice and three for Journeyman Level or higher,¡± he replied. She looked at Ruku, ¡°One is a Novice. The other two are Journeyman.¡± he said regarding the other three slaves. ¡°We will discuss it in the morning,¡± Tabitha said, and the two groups moved away to their camps. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Mayakku collected her enchanted items. We left Umreti in Modrica¡¯s care, grabbed Ruku and went into Mayakku¡¯s wagon. ¡°Mayakku?¡± I asked. ¡°The flavour was strong. The energy flow was simple enough.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t he spiral the energy?¡± I asked, ¡°Yes, but it is not required. He is very experienced in Spiritual Energy, I think he was trying to make it look more difficult than it is. The only tricky part was keeping the flow consistent over all six positions.¡± ¡°How much energy?¡± ¡°Very little to fill the runes. Once the runes were filled, he then pumped in a lot. It sounds like the higher the Class Level, the more energy is required.¡± ¡°The Class filled with the energy until I thought it might explode.¡± ¡°Being able to judge that point is going to be key,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°It is going to change per Class level. If it explodes, their classes are crippled for life.¡± ¡°Or they die,¡± I said. ¡°What happened to the energy when he drew the energy out? Did he collect it, as that could be difficult?¡± ¡°The energy was just disbursed. I think anyone with reasonable skill could do that.¡± ¡°What happened at your end, Ruku?¡± I asked. ¡°It felt very weird. The bond almost broke. I am not sure how serious it would be if it broke. It would be harder on Umreti and me, but would it still have worked?¡± ¡°Hard to say,¡± I replied, ¡°It would probably be OK. I hope we don¡¯t have to test it.¡± I turned to Mayakku, ¡°What about the flavours?¡± ¡°They were crystal clear, and I had ideas to try for all of them. We were on the right track with the first one.¡± ¡°OK, we will give you some space to work on that while it is fresh.¡± Ruku and I left the wagon. I checked the bond with T¨¡oke, and he was still out by the slaves. We approached Tabitha, Modrica and Umreti. ¡°What did you think?¡± I asked Tabitha. ¡°He is definitely stalling for time. I am pretty sure he could have done both novices, one straight after the other.¡± ¡°I thought he was overplaying it.¡± I looked at Umreti. ¡°How are you?¡± He nodded, ¡°Good.¡± I noticed his hands were shaking a bit, so he wasn¡¯t that good. It appears to have been successful. Tabitha said, ¡°He will need time to recover. And get used to life again.¡± Modrica grunted her agreement. ¡°Take your time,¡± I said, ¡°Has Astrid looked you over?¡± ¡°Briefly,¡± Tabitha replied for him. ¡°Rest first and then a full health check. If you need anything, just ask.¡± Umreti just nodded his thanks. Not all orcs are this terse. Some are actually verbose. Does Modrica affect their speech or something? Does she have an aura that turns grunts into a language? T¨¡oke was moving as he followed the slaves back to their camp. I started to ask Tabitha something, then shut my mouth and concentrated. ¡°The bird is still here. Has it left and come back?¡± ¡°No, it has been watching us the whole time,¡± Tabitha replied. ¡°The Slaves are moving back to their camp. If the bird didn''t take the message, who did? Have you seen the fox?¡± Tabitha shook her head. ¡°No fox yet.¡± ¡°They didn¡¯t make a judgement call. That is not what slaves do. How did they know?¡± ¡°Are you sure that is the right bird?¡± ¡°Absolutely.¡± ¡°Could he have a second bird rather than a fox?¡± ¡°Possible. Unlikely, but possible.¡± ¡°Do you think the bird can hear us?¡± ¡°Possible, which means he knows that we know about the bonds and the slaves.¡± ¡°Tomorrow¡¯s meeting could be interesting then.¡± I nodded, ¡°I will pop back and help Mayakku. Let me know if there are any issues.¡± Tabitha nodded at me as I left. It will be a long night. 266. Free Thinking: Tabitha.

266. Free Thinking: Tabitha.

¡°I won¡¯t do it. I won¡¯t release the Slave Class from the two Journeyman-level slaves. The Novice, yes. But freeing the Journeyman Level slaves without the proper support is inhumane. It is a death sentence. You might as well just kill them. It will save them a lot of suffering.¡± Lord Nelson was adamant about this. ¡°We can discuss the Journeyman level ones later. We want to free the Novice kid now.¡± I was getting frustrated. Wiremu had been up all night with Mayakku and was also tired and grumpy. ¡°And I want to meet and examine your elemental bonds.¡± ¡°But you have a skill that can manipulate and sever bonds. We don¡¯t trust you with our bonds.¡± Wiremu just came out and stated what we have been working around. Nelson didn¡¯t seem that surprised at his revelation about the skill. ¡°It is called Bond Manipulation and comes from the Bond Overseer Specialisation. I am willing to reciprocate in an information exchange.¡± That sounded like it came from the Overseer base Class. Wiremu¡¯s comes from his Hunter base Class. I had an internal chat with Nyx, and she manifested as a large sabre-tooth cat next to me. I was impressed that neither Nelson nor Todd or Sandra, who were flanking him, stepped back, although Todd and Sandra had their hands on their weapons. Nelson looked fascinated. ¡°Again, during the day, impressive.¡± It was morning, and the sun was rising. ¡°May I come for a closer look? It is the first Elemental I have seen this close.¡± ¡°She does bite.¡± ¡°She can affect the Physical that much?¡± he said in wonder. ¡°I understood elementals focussed on the Spiritual.¡± I didn¡¯t bother answering him. I will not reveal things that can be used against us if possible. ¡°Shall we proceed to remove the Slave Class from the other novice?¡± ¡°I need to recover energy until this evening.¡± ¡°I know that is a lie,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°And you wouldn¡¯t know that without a skill for it,¡± said Nelson. ¡°Or being familiar with how much energy it takes and how much a person like you should have.¡± Wiremu countered with a lie. Nelson¡¯s eyes narrowed a bit. I wonder what his lie detector is telling him. Are Wiremu¡¯s Deceive and Roleplay Skills high enough to get past it? On the other hand, after last night, Wiremu and Mayakku may have an idea of the energy costs. ¡°You are a Hunter Base Class. What would you know about such things?¡± ¡°What would an Overseer know of Mental Healing?¡± ¡°Yes, but you are too young.¡± ¡°Circumstances sometimes mean you have to grow up very fast,¡± Wiremu responded. There was silence for a few moments as they looked at each other. Then Nelson said, ¡°Very well, let''s sort out the kid, then I will need to rest.¡± The ritual went the same as Umreti¡¯s, without the interruptions. The girl barely had her first class, and performing the ritual was easier. Seeing it for a second time meant I noted things I missed the first time, and I am sure Wiremu and Mayakku gained even more insight. Mayakku got to recharge her enchantments as they had been used up over the night. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Once the ritual was completed, the girl broke down in tears and was inconsolable. Astrid came and took her under her care and led her away to help her in private. I kept track of Nelson as Todd and Sandra escorted him to his bedroll, and he lay down. The bird was there, but still no sign of any fox. Wiremu had signalled the slaves had not approached this time we had our discussion with him or during the ritual. Did Nelson feel safer, or was it too quick for him to organise them? How is he communicating with them? That is a puzzling question. The bird sticks around. It seems to be more watching us than carrying communications between the groups. Wiremu thinks Nelson is dropping notes for the bird to pick up and carry to the slaves, but we haven¡¯t seen him write any or drop any. I have been keeping an eye on Todd and Sandra in case they are doing it for him, but there is no sign of it. Yet. I still don¡¯t know Nelson¡¯s game. What does he want? Curiosity about elemental bonds is not enough. Yes, they are rare, but would you risk your life to see them as Nelson has? Would you follow an infamous crime lord and killer for it? I don¡¯t think so. Does it have something to do with the bond he is waiting for? Did he need to get out of the clutches of the imperial troopers? Is he running from something? The nearest town is three days away, and Freebourne City is 10-12 days away. If I can get Nelson¡¯s guard into a tavern, I can probably get some answers from them. Probably only Todd and Sandra have real knowledge. They would be harder to crack. Nelson is confusing me, and it is not just his motivations. He is a Slave Taskmaster and has no problem making slaves and using slaves, yet he is concerned about people and their Mental Health. Where does that come from, and how does he reconcile the damage slavery causes with this? If he heard our conversation yesterday, he didn¡¯t mention it. What is he planning? He didn¡¯t even ask for payment to release the novice girl. One look at Nyx is not worth that. Actually, maybe Nyx is worth that and more. She is awesome. We are staying the rest of the day, and hopefully, we will move on tomorrow, especially if he refuses to release the two journeyman-level slaves. Getting to a town would be nice and a city even better. My thoughts were interrupted by the clash of weapons. I walk toward the noise in the open field out the back, and Modrica and Umreti are sparring. Is this a good idea? It is attracting attention from the other camp as well. I see Ruku and Runa approaching, looking like they might also spar. Then, I saw Todd and Sandra approach Ruku. They talked for a few minutes, and then Ruku and Sandra split off. Todd and Runa also paired up and they all started sparring. This could be an opening for them to get information, although Todd and Sandra are probably trying to do the same. Todd and Sandra seem more committed to Nelson than the average paid mercenary. I wonder what the connection is. I am more interested in Modrica and Umreti at this time. Modrica had a mace and shield, and Umreti had a sword and shield. Umreti seems the more skilled. Modrica looks stronger. Modrica can certainly take much more punishment than anyone I have ever seen. I moved around the edge of the field, sat down next to Te?ka, leaned back against him and watched. This will take a while as they both have a lot of endurance, although I suspect Umreti is still recovering. It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. It was even more interesting when they put aside their weapons and went to Unarmed Combat. Modrica was definitely the master here. Umreti has not mentioned his history or his previous clan. Maybe he has to Modrica, but she was cast out of her clan, so she wouldn¡¯t care much. Umreti seems content to leave his past and join Clan ?rna. It might be partly a debt he feels he owes. Modrica seems to be enjoying having him. They only had to pause the sparring once while he had a minor seizure. Umreti needs to start our Mental training urgently. It might help his recovery, and he definitely needs a mental shield. I am sure Ruku will start our group training as soon as we part from Nelson and crowd. After all, we have lost Kelda and gained Umreti so we need to rework some of the group scenarios. We are back down to Wiremu being our only ranged warrior. Modrica is good with her javelins, but she is better in the thick of the fighting and giving the enemy someone to focus on. Kelda¡¯s Liten would have been our best-ranged attacker. She would be unmatched as a Wyvern Sparrow. It is a shame they left, and not just because Wiremu is lovesick. Having a relaxing afternoon has refreshed my mind. It occurs to me there is one thing we should have done before now. We need to check out these slaves that Nelson has trailing us. Wiremu knows where they are, as T¨¡oke is keeping an eye on them. We need to check them out in person. It might give some clues as to Nelson''s motivations. I might drag Wiremu away from the enchanter, and we can go together. We don¡¯t do much together. It might be quite hard to drag him away. They are closer to working this out now than they have ever been. 267. Too Smart: Tabitha

267. Too Smart: Tabitha

It wasn¡¯t that hard to drag Wiremu away for a few hours. He gets a bit stir-crazy being cooped up too long. He would be out hunting if Nelson and his crew were not here. The night was overcast, which dimmed the light of the half-moon. The big one. I could probably drag its name from my memory if I cared. The small one was probably about to rise. This meant it was nice and dark. I was following Wiremu as we made our way to the slave camp. It was about an hour and a half from the trading post. We were swinging around to come from another direction, so it was about two hours for us. We were close, and Wiremu wanted me to stay close and shroud us both in my Shadows Embrace. He is a smart lad. It hadn¡¯t occurred to me that Slaves had enhanced Physical Attributes, which included enhanced Physical Perception. It should have. We crested the small rise, squatted down below the crest and observed the camp. It was a simple camp. Four bedrolls, an extinguished cooking fire, and four packs. There were no riding animals. No animals at all. Not even a fox. I expected the fox to be here. Three of the bed rolls were occupied while the fourth was on watch. The one on watch was a female Lizardkin. Two of the others were Human, one male and one female. The fourth was a surprise as it was a male Avion, one of the smaller sub-species. It was about the height of a dwarf but built much lighter. That wouldn¡¯t be sneaking in and out of camp, but it might travel long-range, guiding the incoming bond to him. Their equipment was good quality but well-worn. The short bow was almost certainly the Avions, and my Spatial Awareness sensed the knives handily tucked into his bedroll. The Lizardkin was armed with a short spear, and a small round shield was sitting near her. The human male was a large man. There was plate armour stacked next to his bedroll, and a heavy shield and mace were nearby. The human female¡­ wait a minute, she is not human. She¡¯s an elf. She was almost as tall as the human but thin and wiry. There was an elven-made bow nearby and twin swords. It is a very strange collection of slaves. They were all certainly warriors and would be very hard to take down with their enhanced attributes. The trick would be to do the unexpected and take advantage of their Mental weaknesses. ¡°They are all slaves, right?¡± I whispered the question, barely breathing the words. Wiremu was right next to me, and his Hearing Aid was Master Level. Wiremu nodded. We stayed and watched for a while, but nothing happened. I had seen enough and signalled Wiremu that it was time to go, but he signalled to wait longer. Why does he want to watch these people sleep? Nothing is happening. There is nothing here except the slaves we expected to see. Another fifteen minutes went by. I was starting to get annoyed now. I signalled to go, but again, Wiremu signalled to wait. Wiremu could tell I was starting to get grumpy. Does he expect something to happen? Wiremu held up a finger indicating to wait more, and then gave the signal to scan the area again. I did and did so carefully, as Wiremu was not usually wrong. Nothing had changed. I signalled, ¡°What?¡± I might have done it a bit aggressively, showing my annoyance. Wiremu signalled back, ¡°Something is not right.¡± It was fairly obvious that he thought something was wrong; otherwise, we would be back at the camp by now. I carefully scanned again. Nothing. I signalled, ¡°You can wait. I will head back.¡± Wiremu shook his head. ¡°Stay together.¡± I will admit if the four there attacked one of us, it would be a difficult fight. Wiremu could possibly prevail, but it is not guaranteed. I should be able to run, although the Avion would also make that hard. It is best we stay together. I don¡¯t understand what he senses. My Spatial Awareness might barely reach the camp from here, but it will sense anything in range, especially as I have concentrated on using it to examine the area several times. I don¡¯t see the point in staying. Wiremu is being unreasonable now. I tugged at his sleeve to indicate my annoyance, and I still got the wait signal. Why? Surely, he would want to get back to his enchanting. We had been here for over an hour, and we had watched three people sleep, and the Lizardkin on watch would do normal things, like get a drink, walk a perimeter, etc. What is Wiremu¡¯s problem? Suddenly, I sensed the muscles in Wiremu change as if he finally understood something. His head came up, and he looked around again, I did another scan to be sure, but nothing had changed. Maybe it is finally time to go. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. The Wiremu signalled to me two words I had never seen combined. ¡°Mental Attack.¡± What the fuck? Has he lost it? I should just leave him here. I put some Mental energy into my Shadow Mind Skill just because it was Wiremu, and my desire to leave the area went away. What the fuck? A mental skill was making us want to leave? Who did that? Was it the Lizardkin on Watch? I scanned the area again, still only sensing the four bodies. It must be her, although she seemed oblivious to our presence. Wiremu sensed I was alert and had, therefore, thrown off the skill and signalled, ¡°Fifth Person.¡± ¡°Where?¡± I signalled back. He shrugged his shoulders. If neither of us could sense them, that was a worry, especially as they had Mental Skills. ¡°Nelson?¡± I signalled the question to Wiremu. He shook his head. ¡°Close but wrong feel.¡± Whatever that meant. Then Wiremu did something I did not expect. He spoke. It was quiet but clear. He obviously expected this fifth person to hear him, even though my Embracing Shadows. It wasn¡¯t loud enough for the Lizardkin to hear, so he must think they were close. I scanned the area carefully. again. Wiremu said, ¡°You won¡¯t kill us both with one strike, which means you will die. This game is over. We will meet you with Nelson tomorrow at dawn. Don¡¯t make me regret not killing everybody.¡± Then Wiremu signalled to me to lead the way out. I started to move as the response to Wiremu¡¯s speech came. It was a wave of mental pressure indicating we should leave now or very bad things would happen. At the same time, the four slaves moved, coming up armed. They did not attack but were facing us in an aggressive stance, and two bows had arrows drawn. We were over the crest of the hill and out of sight in the time it took for them to get ready, and nobody chased us. We made our way back to the wagons silently and very tense. We alerted the others about incoming. Dawn was only a couple of hours away. It was very unnerving to know there was someone there, but I could not sense them. I am aware this is what I do to others all the time. Being on the receiving end is not nice and something I never thought would happen. My faith in my Spatial Awareness has taken a hit. It is at level 14 and almost Master level. I really need to get it over the hump to Masters. We alerted Rodion and Runa on guard with all the bonds. Wiremu, Ruku, Modrica and I all crowded into Mayakku¡¯s wagon, waking her. She had fallen asleep at her enchanting table. At Wiremu¡¯s signal, I enhanced the enchantments with my Shadow¡¯s Embrace. ¡°Tell us what is going on, Wiremu,¡± Ruku said. ¡°Tabitha and I went out to check out the four slaves Nelson has trailing us. We got there, and everything was as I expected.¡± ¡°Not quite,¡± I said, ¡°from his racist comments and attitude, I expected them to be human. The slaves I saw back at the original camp were human, so these are not the same slaves.¡± ¡°What are they?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°A Lizardkin, an Avion, a Human and an Elf. He has led us to wrong conclusions all along.¡± ¡°They were definitely all his slaves and were warriors.¡± Wiremu continued. ¡°I had a number of questions that I couldn¡¯t answer, Firstly, how did he communicate with them? It wasn¡¯t with the bird. Secondly, when I saw the camp, it was a normal camp. A normal camp for people with full mental attributes, but these were slaves. They needed more direction than non-slaves. Thirdly, we have two excellent scouts in Nne and Tano. Why did they never find the slaves and inform us? I was squatting watching the camp with these questions keeping me focussed on finding answers.¡± I added, ¡°As Wiremu was watching, I kept scanning, but there was nothing there, and I was getting impatient and wanting to leave.¡± ¡°I was feeling the same,¡± said Wiremu, ¡°but the questions wouldn¡¯t go away. Eventually, it clicked, and I realised we were under a Mental Influence. I doubt I would have realised without having two levels of Mental Resistance from Harry. I gained another two levels tonight.¡± I checked my status, and I had also gained two levels. ¡°It was very insidious,¡± Wiremu continued, ¡°but once I strengthened my mental shields, the feeling went away.¡± ¡°Same,¡± I added. ¡°Was it one of the slaves?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°No, it is worse than that.¡± Wiremu went on. ¡°There was a fifth person there and neither Tabitha nor I could sense them.¡± That got a reaction. ¡°I got a very brief whiff of Spiritual energy, which I probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed if I wasn¡¯t concentrating so hard. Some aspects were like Nelson but some were very different, and I am sure it is not him.¡± ¡°So,¡± Ruku summed up, ¡±Nelson has been leading us to believe he is just a retired imperial Slave Taskmaster pulled out of retirement because of the shortage, but he is nothing of the sort. Who is he?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know yet, but I intend to find out at our dawn meeting,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°How could they escape our senses?¡± I asked. ¡°Their Stealth type skill, or more likely several skills, must be way above our detection skills. At least five levels if I remember my reading correctly. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they have a skill beyond Masters Level.¡± ¡°Is that possible?¡± ¡°It is definitely possible. Why would your levelling stop at any random number? Nearly impossible? Yes, but I think we might have just met somebody. Having said that, we also know they are not infallible with their senses.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°They totally overlooked T¨¡oke.¡± 268. Troll Shit: Wiremu.

268. Troll Shit: Wiremu.

We kept anyone with weak mental shields away from the meeting. Mainly, this meant Umreti, Mayakku and Astrid. Rodion stayed with them in case of a backstab along with their bonds. Tabitha, Ruku, Runa, Modrica and I met them at our campsite''s edge. Te?ka was behind us, and Dusk and Horny were just off to the side. T¨¡oke was following the Slaves as they approached. There was no sign of the extra person. Nelson only came with Todd and Sandra. All the others were packing up the camp. We were planning to move on today, but that now depends. The four slaves joined them, and the seven walked toward us. They were all dressed for a fight. The way they formed a group indicated they had been together a long time. It was like everybody just slotted into place around Nelson. Looking at them, I realised that none of them were young. Nelson was pushing 150, but I would be surprised if any of them were younger than middle-aged at around 80. The elf was probably older, but who can tell with elves? Todd and Sandra were probably the youngest. What this meant was this was a very experienced and highly skilled fighting team who were very much used to working together. If this turned into a fight, I think we would be on the losing side. Mutual destruction was probably the best outcome. And their stealth expert wasn¡¯t even here yet. Except that the stealth expert was suddenly there. It was like she stepped out from behind Nelson and had always been there. When I saw her, my jaw dropped open in surprise. She was an elderly Foxkin. This was the fox bond, but it wasn¡¯t a fox. Nelson had a partnership bond with a sapient being! I didn¡¯t even know that was possible. How? Why? The bond was clear and strong in my senses, and it was definitely a healthy bond. When I thought about it, bonding with another sapient is possible. That is what the slave bond is. A full partnership bond, though? Would that come from a Class? I don¡¯t understand. ¡°I thought you had some sort of bond class,¡± Nelson said as he approached and saw my astonished face. ¡°She,¡± he pointed to Tabitha, ¡°was too knowledgable about bonds but obviously lacked the skills.¡± ¡°How?¡± I asked. ¡°Si¨´saidh and I have been bonded for almost a century now, and we only have a few years left in this life. We are not going to spend our last years in a war. I will tell you this. You won¡¯t find answers about Sapient Bonds on this continent.¡± ¡°War?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°You really don¡¯t see it, do you? I thought you were agents from the kingdom here to stir things up, but you are not agents. You are just being played. I don¡¯t know why the kingdom wanted to poke this dragon, but the dragon is now awake and very unhappy. The Emperor is marching south with a good portion of his main army.¡± ¡°You think the Kingdom is doing this?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°Over the last five years, there have been three main skirmishes and the deaths of five Empire affinity users. The Kirghiz Navy and paid private operators continually hampered empire shipping. A plague is ravishing the northern regions, and it came from the Kingdom. As I understand it, the last straw is this attack on Slave Taskmasters, which also came from the Kingdom. No individual is going to finance a contract of that size alone. It has to have Kingdom support, probably this Wiremu Hunter is just a frontman. This is undermining and reducing the basic workforce of the empire. There is going to be a war like we haven¡¯t seen since the Orc Rebellion centuries ago.¡± ¡°You are not staying to fight?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Absolutely not. When we met, I was in the middle of being drafted, and you enabled me to extract myself with minimal bloodshed. Those mercenaries were with the Imperial troopers, but with some influence and appropriate bribery, I was able to split them off, and the Patrol Leader was out-maneuvered. It was less bloodshed than my team coming to get me, which was the last resort option.¡± Then it clicked for me. The Mental attack at the camp. His ¡®influence¡¯ on the mercenaries. Bonds share affinities. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°You have an affinity,¡± I said. ¡°A Mental Affinity.¡± ¡°It is the reason I was being drafted,¡± Nelson replied. ¡°I agreed to the trip to Almaeadin as a way I could get out. The Provincial Commander wanted me to make a slave army.¡± I looked at the slaves here. The highly skilled slaves who have been with him for years. Slaves don''t grow in skills because of the reduced mental attributes. ¡°Your affinity can counteract the reduced Mental Attributes of the slave class. You can help them grow in their skills,¡± I said. Nelson nodded. ¡°But you could also free them.¡± ¡°It is not always kindness to free slaves, especially long-term slaves,¡± he said with sadness. ¡°They don¡¯t cope with life, and many have been abused.¡± I frowned. I am not sure I agree with him, but I have seen some of the effects, and he has a point. I have no answer to the rehabilitation of long-term slaves. Nelson interrupted my thoughts, ¡°We are leaving now. Eiko,¡± he indicates the Avion, ¡°tells me the rest of my household are only two days away. We will go and meet them. I have released the mercenaries from service, and we will be getting far away from the empire. We will probably leave the continent.¡± ¡°I have a request,¡± Ruku said. Nelson raised an eyebrow at him, so he continued, ¡°I want you to take the last two slaves with you.¡± ¡°Really?¡± I said. ¡°We have no way to rehabilitate them, even if we can free them,¡± Ruku said to me. ¡°At least with him, they have a chance to grow, and with his other bonds, especially her,¡± he pointed to the Foxkin, ¡°they are not likely to be abused.¡± I frowned. Nelson frowned, ¡°They will slow us down.¡± ¡°Not by much once we join with the others,¡± the Foxkin, Si¨´saidh, said. Nelson frowned again. I got the feeling he didn¡¯t want to stop and pick up strays. ¡°OK, but then we are gone.¡± It didn¡¯t take much for Ruku to transfer the slaves to Nelson. He didn¡¯t say, but I think keeping the slaves was bothering him. I still wasn¡¯t sure I trusted Nelson, although he didn¡¯t lie in the conversation. I glanced at Runa. She hadn¡¯t reacted in the conversations. Was the King using us? Was she here to keep us on track? I am pretty sure Ruku is a true part of the Clan, but the King, her grandfather, assigned Runa. We are going to need to talk about this after Nelson has gone. For now, we need to show no dissension. What would be the purpose for the King to arrange a war? The recent skirmish was Noble run as far as I could tell, possibly Empire initiated, but that information also came from the king. Nelson believed what he said, but that didn¡¯t make it true. The plague was Gwaed¡¯s doing. The Kingdom didn¡¯t even know she was in Obalno until she helped Tabitha chase out the Empire assassins. The kingdom has certainly made use of the plague, from what I hear, but they are not responsible for sending it. I guess from the Empire¡¯s view, it is all far too convenient, so they must have orchestrated it. Now that I thought about it, the King knew some of the blame from my contract on the Slave Taskmasters would fall on the Kingdom. He could have stopped me, but he didn¡¯t. He had a warning from Tabitha of what I was going to do, and he let it happen. We have been used. His making Tabitha a Countess was probably all part of it. Bloody goblin shit I hate politics. Then it hit me. Kelda worked for Military Intelligence. Was she involved? I don¡¯t think so. I don¡¯t want to think so. She was the one who took me to see the Mental Healer and slaves in Kirghiz. Was she manipulating me? Shit, this sort of thinking can undermine everything. I refuse to believe so. I got to know her very well. That doesn¡¯t mean she wasn¡¯t manipulated to being a string to tie me to the Kingdom. Like Tabitha being promoted to Countess, but much more effective. Bloody Troll Shit on politics. I just want to set people free from slavery. That is it. Now, I am being used to start a war? Really? Tabitha is better at this shit than I am. I need to talk to her, but I am feeling used. I need to pull in my emotions until I talk to Tabitha and we talk to Runa. Just because Nelson believes it does not make it true. Just because I can see connections that support it also does not make it true. Will I ever know what the truth is? I need to centre my mind. I will spend some time out hunting as soon as I can, but for now, my mission has not changed regardless of who is trying to use me. I will find a way to remove the slave class, and Tabitha can deal with the rest of the troll shit. 269. Freeing Ourselves: Wiremu

269. Freeing Ourselves: Wiremu

Nelson would not help any more, and they were the first to leave, heading north out into the wilds away from known routes. The mercenaries left soon after heading back to Janub. We decided to stay another night at Fredom¡¯s End Trading Post. This would require a full meeting, so we cooked up a big lunch and brought everybody up to date. ¡°Nelson certainly believed the Emperor was on the move to war with the Kingdom, and I wouldn¡¯t doubt him in this,¡± I said. I looked at Runa, ¡°What instructions did the King give you when you joined us?¡± ¡°He just wanted regular reports.¡± ¡°What have you given him?¡± I asked. ¡°I sent him reports from Skog, Waiouru and Almaeadin. The report from Almaeadin was sent when we arrived, and we were still planning to head to Janub, and the city was still standing at that point.¡± Runa was speaking very frankly and honestly. She is not dumb. She was there for Nelson''s information and knows she is the top suspect for manipulating us. ¡°How do you send the reports?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Military Messanger Service while we were in the Kingdom. Now it goes by regular courier to the military base in Waiouru, then MMS.¡± ¡°So he doesn¡¯t know we are diverting through the Free Republic?¡± Tabitha clarified. Runa shook her head, ¡°The next report is half-written. I was debating leaving it at the trading post for the next courier or waiting until Freeboune. Do you think Gramps is manipulating a war?¡± ¡°He is a manipulative bastard,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°The second thing to note is the reports are not private, regardless of how many times you write confidential on them,¡± I said. ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°We know you write in code.¡± Tabitha interrupted. ¡°That just means the readers are limited to the entire Military Intelligence Division.¡± ¡°And the entire Empire¡¯s Secret Service Section,¡± Ruku added. ¡°We don¡¯t want any more reports going out,¡± I said. Runa pursed her lips. ¡°Are you a trained Spy?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°No.¡± ¡°Which is not completely true, is it?¡± I said. Runa huffed. ¡°All Kings Guards go through counter-espionage training.¡± ¡°Where do your loyalties lie?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°I am primarily loyal to Gramps.¡± ¡°Even above the kingdom?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°At the moment, they are one and the same as he is the king.¡± ¡°Not necessarily,¡± Ruku said. ¡°So you are asking me not to tell him the Emperor is personally marching to war against him?¡± ¡°That is exactly what we are asking,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°He will know through the regular spy network about major troop and affinity user''s movements,¡± Ruku said. ¡°If you can''t agree to not reporting, then your time with us is over,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°This is the Emperor we are talking about! He travels with a full squad of experienced warriors who are all affinity users, and that is on top of the army. You know there are only two places they will hit, right? It will be either Hrothgar, which is harder for the army but easier for them to supply or it will be Waiouru, with open ground for the army but further from their resupply. Kelda is in Hrothgar. You don¡¯t want her warned of what is coming?¡± Runa said. ¡°Your time with us is definitely over,¡± I said. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°What, why?¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have brought Kelda into it,¡± Tabitha said. I turned and looked at Rodion, ¡°And you are definitely a trained spy, aren¡¯t you?¡± Rodion came with Kelda from Military Intelligence and was essentially babysitting her. This was obvious looking back. I was really sad, as I got on well with Rodion. He was a good drinking buddy. I would miss him. Rodion didn¡¯t try to deny it. He said, ¡°You know you could use both our skills. We are on the same side here.¡± That is not technically true. Both Tabitha and I are technically illegal immigrants into the Kingdom. We are just entering my home country now in the Free Republic. Ruku replied, ¡°I think it would be best if you escorted the King''s granddaughter back home.¡± Rodion responded, ¡°And where do your loyalties lie, Major Ruku?¡± Ruku smiled at the attempt to cast doubt on him, ¡°Clan ?rna, of course.¡± The next few hours were spent getting Runa and Rodion on the road. I was quite sad at losing them; we could use their skills regardless. Ruku put his arm on my shoulder, ¡°This is better,¡± he said. ¡°Is it?¡± I wasn¡¯t so sure. Runa rode away on Horny with Rodion trotting beside her and his pack roaming around them. Ruku nodded. ¡°A mission where some members have hidden agendas is a recipe for disaster.¡± ¡°That sounded like it came from experience.¡± Ruku nodded again, ¡°More than once. It is also important to note that it was Military Intelligence on all but one occasion. Do you know the main reason I chose to join you?¡± I shook my head. ¡°It was your singular focus. Your drive to remove the Slave class was all you really cared about. I was worried about Tabitha. It seemed like she would get sidetracked easily and run after the next shiny coin that appeared.¡± I smiled a bit when I heard that. He continued, ¡°It was you and Modrica that I was trusting to keep Tabitha in line and on task. That trust was not misplaced. I was worried when she was made a Countess. I thought it would go to her head and turn her away. It just shows how far she has come. She handled it well.¡± ¡°What about Gwaed?¡± ¡°Gwaed fooled everybody. Going to Northport was not wrong, but I went to try to get Gwaed on board. That was a big mistake. That woman is so messed up. It clearly shows that I am not above making mistakes. We must trust we can keep each other on task, and together, we will hopefully make fewer mistakes.¡± Ruku thought for a minute, ¡°From what Nelson said, it doesn¡¯t sound like the empire has caught Gwaed. My biggest worry was that they would recruit her.¡± ¡°They would keep it quiet if they had recruited her, though,¡± I said. ¡°True. Let''s hope she has gone to ground somewhere.¡± ¡°And watch the sky for vultures.¡± ¡°And watch the sky,¡± he agreed. We had another team meeting over dinner. ¡°Should we change our plans?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Runa said her last report said we were heading to Janub, and they are weeks away from getting another report through,¡± Astrid said. ¡°I would anticipate Rodion¡¯s reports being much more accurate,¡± I said. ¡°Do we have another plan to get into the Empire?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°Nothing as good as this live animal transport,¡± I said. ¡°The Free Republic have a number of unique animals that bring a good price, and it is a good cover for Te?ka and C¨­mp¨¥?i.¡± ¡°The Kirghiz Kingdom are not our enemies. I don¡¯t think they would sabotage us as what we do does benefit them. We should regard them as allies, maybe a bit unreliable with their own agenda, but allies.¡± Ruku said. ¡°It would probably stop the Empire going to war if they gave Wiremu up to them,¡± Tabitha said. That made everybody stop and think. We were in Mayakku¡¯s wagon, so I was not worried that Moja would hear us. Tabitha had learned that lesson. If the Famous Five knew my real name ¡­ well, the reward is pretty amazing. ¡°Do they want to stop the war?¡± I asked. ¡°What do they gain from a war?¡± ¡°The essential thing they must stop is the empire gaining a stronghold east of the mountain range,¡± Ruku said. ¡°A defensive war is always easier to fight because you are behind fortifications and prepared positions. This may be why they were provoking the Empire. Wars always have multiple reasons for being fought. In war, anything can be a weapon if wielded correctly.¡± ¡°So they would give me up if the gain outweighed the loss,¡± I said. Ruku nodded. ¡°Should we even go into the empire at this time? Why not wait out the war and go in the confusing aftermath.¡± Astrid said. ¡°Wars take years to fight. The two-year war of two decades ago was extremely short. We are a five to ten-year minimum. History recorded a hundred-year war.¡± Ruku said. ¡°Then there is this part about building a slave army. Umreti was almost certainly destined for that, and there will be others. Hundreds, maybe thousands of slaves made to fight.¡± I said. ¡°That is not right and something we should try to change.¡± ¡°That may be why the King allowed you to set the bounty and let us leave the kingdom,¡± Ruku said. ¡°We are the king¡¯s weapon against a slave army he knew was building?¡± I questioned. ¡°Possible.¡± ¡°We won¡¯t be his only weapon, merely an arrow in his quiver,¡± Ruku said. ¡°He is a devious bastard, even more than I originally thought,¡± Tabitha stated. ¡°This is all still speculation,¡± I said. ¡°I suggest we head to Freeborne, try to crack this enchanting and pick up some independent intelligence.¡± ¡°Sounds like a good plan.¡± 270. Freebourne: Wiremu

270. Freebourne: Wiremu

With war on the horizon, Ruku has got serious with our training. We thought he was serious before, but now this is a whole different level. We have lost Kelda, Runa and Rodion but gained Umreti. Kelda was the only other ranged attacker, so that role is almost totally on me now. I say almost because Umreti is a Weapons Master. This gives him bonuses in learning any weapon, and he is Apprentice level in just about any weapon I could name and several I had never heard of. He is Apprentice in the bow, but also Journeyman Level in Slingshot. Umreti can basically fill any role we need to a moderate level. He is a master of the sword and spear, so those are his best roles, but Ruku is shifting him around in the formations to give him a taste of different roles. This would not have worked nearly so well if he had still been a slave. However, Umreti seemed quite comfortable switching between roles. It might even be possible to do mid-fight. This is going to give us a lot of flexibility. Umreti found the mental training difficult, which might be made harder by the damage to his mind. His seizures are becoming further apart, which is good. He went a whole day without one. The Famous Five were keen to take part in the training. Moja, Mbili and Tatu were regulars and Nne and Tano alternated on which day they joined. They got word that Ruku was an Army-qualified Trainer and didn¡¯t want to pass on that. Tabitha didn¡¯t even charge them. I think it was in compensation for the risks to date. It was probably Ruku¡¯s idea. I decided that I needed to get to know Umreti better. We had not met in the best of circumstances, and he was now clan, according to Modrica. I don¡¯t really understand Orc Clan stuff yet. We are now a Clan of five: Modrica, Tabitha, me, Ruku and Umreti. Astrid and Mayakku are sort of an outer layer of members, not that anyone is describing it like that or describing it at all. Somehow, it just is. Obviously, the best way to get to know someone is to take them out hunting. Umreti was a Jungle Warrior. It turned out he was from one of the southern orc clans. He didn¡¯t elaborate on his clan or why he is not with them. He is a warrior, not a hunter. He was part of a larger Mercenary Group and had seen action in a number of skirmishes between different city-states. He was used to a Jungle environment, whereas we were moving into a grass and woodland area. I grew up in forests like these and felt more and more like I was coming home. Hunting was becoming more and more important as we had a wagon of live animals to feed, most of them at least omnivores. Umreti had Journeyman-level Stealth and Camouflage so he could get around quietly. His nose was almost as good as T¨¡oke¡¯s, but he only had apprentice-level tracking. I pointed to the marks in the ground, ¡°Those are Western Timber Wolves. They might be on the hunt, so the game around here will be scarce.¡± ¡°I have a request.¡± Umreti was coming out of his shell. He was very reluctant to ask anything at the start, I think he was weighted down by the perceived debt he owed me for saving him. I didn¡¯t just save him, but it cost me pain and torture. This has eased as he settled into the clan. Clan members just do things for each other, and there are no debts. The second thing that got him thawing was when I made two leather slings and asked him to teach me the Slingshot. Then he showed me how a sling should really work, and I had to remake them, but that was fine. Me throwing rocks with the sling''s power sounded really good. Now, I have to find a material to throw lava in the sling. Or Puia. I nodded for Umreti to proceed. ¡°Ruku mentioned that the right bond can sometimes help heal someone''s mental state. He said you were the one to talk to about bonds.¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°That is true, and in some way, that is how Wai helps Ruku, but a bond is about sharing, which goes both ways. Bonding with something just for your benefit is not healthy. Both bond partners need to be compatible Mentally, Spiritually and Physically. Bonding with a quiet, placid animal when you are active is a recipe for disaster. The animal also has a say in the bond, and I know somebody who was rejected by several bonds because she was too aggressive. She eventually found and bonded with a Yak bull, which suited her perfectly.¡± ¡°Can you help me?¡± ¡°Yes, but it may take some time. I have been helping Tatu and Nne look for bonds since leaving Almaeadin, and they still haven¡¯t found suitable bonds. What you need to do to start are these Mental Exercises.¡± I went on to show him what to do. We found a small group of wild Hogs and brought a medium-sized male back for dinner. It would have lasted several days if Te?ka and C¨­mp¨¥?i hadn¡¯t been there. Usually, I make them hunt for themselves, but the hogs are good. I think Te?ka might sneak out to find himself some seconds later. The roasting pig and the forest that made me feel like home made me think back to the day I got the Hunter Class and the feast we had as a village. Back then, we put down a hangi rather than roasting it. The food cooked in a hangi tastes different when you cook it in the ground with heated stones. It takes a while to cook, but the taste is fantastic. I am looking forward to having a Hangi again. Kelda had never had a Hangi. If only she could have been here with me. Three days later, we entered Freebourne. I didn¡¯t really recognise the place as I didn¡¯t come here much as a kid. I preferred the forest. The people, culture, and language were all familiar. We rented a short-term yard for the wagons and could let some of the animals out. We would sell some here and, maybe, buy a few for the trip into the Empire. We booked into a nearby Inn, and Tabitha went to make business contacts. I think she is also looking to get us some new Identity documents for entering the Empire. Modrica and Umreti are a problem. Orcs have a known Blood feud against the Empire, and the Empire responds with discrimination at best and torture and murder at worst. Nowadays, the worst is probably enslavement and forced to fight their kin. When Tabitha and I first escaped the Empire almost 7 years ago, we joined Branik and the Mother¡¯s Tusks. They hid from the common people under full-faced helmets and only dealt with guards at the gates. It helped they were working with a smuggler who definitely had some misdirection and bribery skills. I was young back then and couldn¡¯t sense things I can now. There were definitely things going on I missed. Nowadays, with tensions high, a full-faced helmet is not going to be enough. Even then, when I first met Branik, they were almost killed on the road by a patrol. Modrica and Umreti can easily play the silent guards in full armour, but that won¡¯t fool anyone with decent senses. Orcs smell different, their heartbeat is different, and they are at a different body temperature. Hearing Aid, Olfactory and Thermal Sensing are three easy ways to detect an orc, even if they are in full plate armour. There are also many other types of senses that are less common, like Tabitha¡¯s Spatial Awareness and Kelda¡¯s Eyes of Fire. I don¡¯t want to pretend they are slaves. That is asking for trouble, and we will probably be forced to sell them to the empire, as they are short on slaves. If they are building a slave army, there is even more demand. We can¡¯t transfer a slave bond that does not exist. Modrica and Umreti would never stand for it either. I will forge some purchase documentation for them as slaves as misdirection, but we don¡¯t expect ever to use them. Tabitha and Nyx have illusion abilities in their Body Image and Mimic Skills. The original plan was for Nyx to stay with Modrica and use those skills as needed. Now, there is Umreti as well. One of them having to stay close to Tabitha all the time is risky. We are going to be in Freebourne for a while. Getting a new set of identities for everybody in a new town takes work. My Forgery is far from the level required for Identity Documents. When Tabitha left to start making contacts, she gave me a dirty look when I asked her to ¡°please don''t take over the entire criminal underworld. We only need some documents.¡± She will probably do it to spite me now. 271. Perfect: Tabitha

271. Perfect: Tabitha

I don¡¯t think this place has a criminal underworld. Just about everything here is legal. The things that are not legal are the things that impinge on personal freedom¡ªslavery, of course, and various forms of coercion. However, as an adult, if you want to take that mind-altering drug and ruin your life, then you are an adult, and you can do that. There are restrictions on what children can do; don¡¯t feed them mind-altering drugs, but you are an adult at twenty for a human. Pay your taxes, and don¡¯t be an asshole to others. That is about it. Once you get off the main streets, there is a lot of evidence of people who can¡¯t handle the freedoms that being an adult brings and have stuffed their lives up. Forging government documentation is illegal, and there are smugglers who avoid paying taxes. Then I looked a bit deeper; there is coercion, and money does buy you the advantage. There are the haves and the have-nots, and the Have-nots want what the Haves have got. No system is perfect, and people are people. That is perfect for me. I will be running the place in no time. I watched the young lad trip, and he crashed into me. His hands were quick as he palmed a knife and went for the obviously full coin pouch. I debated letting him have it for a moment, but that would probably mean a chase. Seeing as he had tripped, I helped him complete his fall and put my foot on him to stop him from rolling away and escaping. ¡°Not bad kid,¡± I said, ¡°Possibly even better than I was at your age. Are you part of a gang?¡± He shook his head. ¡°Not sure I believe that. Who is training you? You don¡¯t get that good without a trainer.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not telling you nut¡¯ing.¡± ¡°Generally a good policy kid.¡± I pulled a coin out of the purse he had tried to steal, ¡°Unless it is worth your while.¡± I flipped the coin to him but didn¡¯t let him up. He was a skinny kid, maybe thirteen or so. He was a bit malnourished, probably hungry. ¡°Master? Gang boss? Who do you pay protection to?¡± ¡°Waddiya want lady? You obviously not a guard snitch.¡± ¡°But are you?¡± I had Body Image running, so I was not worried about being identified. ¡°I am looking for a new Govt ID.¡± ¡°Whoa, lady, you don¡¯t think small.¡± Yes, I was. I am not thinking about taking over the city. I really am not. I just wanted some documents. ¡°Can you help?¡± ¡°It will cost you, lady.¡± ¡°Of course, it will,¡± I said. I got out two more coins and dropped them on his chest. ¡°There are two more if you get me a contact tonight. Where will I meet you?¡± ¡°Old mill on the corner of Ring Road and Baker Lane at midnight.¡± I had no idea where that was, but I would find it. I nodded and let him up. He scooted away out of reach, then dashed for the nearest alley. I debated having Nyx follow him but decided against it. I wasn¡¯t aiming to take over here. Somebody would be at the old mill at midnight if only to rob me of the rest of my coin. I carried on down the street. I was looking for a business or a premises we can use as a fallback. The Land Merchant¡¯s office had a selection of available premises. Next door was a Business Merchant with various business opportunities. There were several opportunities to explore. I miss T¨¡tt¨¡, who used to do all this for me. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. The key here is to get a couple of businesses that just need an injection of coins but can basically run themselves. A craftsman and a retailer are a good combination. It is too far for caravans from the kingdom, so we must be self-sufficient. Maybe one day, we will connect across the continent. With the Empire and the Kingdom going to war, operating out of somewhere different sounds like a good idea to me. War causes inconvenient things like restrictions on Coins leaving the country, so setting up another source of income is wise. War can be a source of good profit, too. Armies need feeding and clothing, and weapons and armour are in demand. There are often restrictions on the populace as so many resources are pumped into the army. It is a good time for Smugglers to operate. The pending war is yet to be common knowledge, so getting some key businesses now for a cheap price is a good plan. The Famous Five are essentially smuggling us into the Empire. I wonder if they want to go into the smuggling business with me. They are still a bit hung up over the whole Black Butcher thing. We will have to see. Well, fancy that. The Old Mill on the corner of Ring Road and Baker Lane is for sale. I guess I could class tonight as a pre-purchase inspection. The merchant carefully didn¡¯t mention the current illegal occupants. Performing evictions is no problem for me. If they refuse to be evicted, then extermination is an option. I can¡¯t buy anything until I get my new ID, so maybe I will just charge them rent. Whoa! Slow down there, Tabitha. We are not supposed to be taking over the city. I just need some low-key businesses. Like a mill? It was a full moon and a clear sky, making the rundown state of the mill rather obvious. I was feeling a bit dwarfed here. Modrica and Umreti towered over me as we approached our midnight meeting. I was sure I didn¡¯t need the orcs except as an obvious deterrent. I was just going to bring Modrica, but she wanted Umreti to come. I approached the entrance, already knowing how many were inside. There were only eight. Seriously, didn¡¯t the lad tell them how easily I took him down? Thinking about it, he probably didn¡¯t, as teenage boys don¡¯t like to be seen as weak. There were three out in the open waiting for me. The boss was obvious. He was the strongest there and the type who ensured everybody knew he was the strongest. Next to him was his chief enforcer. They looked related. Big, ugly, scarred and bald. Next to him was the young boy, looking like he didn¡¯t want to be there. The other five were hidden around the mill. Seriously, this is looking too easy. Kill the only two powerful people in the gang and take over. They will be the only two powerful people as they will not tolerate rivals. But I am not here to take over. I am not here to take over. I¡¯m not. ¡°I hope the kid told you what I am here for,¡± I announced, taking charge of the conversation. I hoped this would cut short some of the blustering that is normal. ¡°I am in charge here bitch,¡± The boss stepped forward. He stopped after a single step. That is the advantage of having obvious bodyguards. If Modrica and Umreti were not here, I would already have decapitated the leadership and taken over. ¡°We want to see the coin first.¡± ¡°And how much coin would that be?¡± That stumped him a bit. I think he was just planning to rob me of everything. He probably does not even have a contact for the ID¡¯s. ¡°That would be all your coin.¡± He made a signal, and all the others stepped out and surrounded us. They all stepped out. How dumb is that? They didn¡¯t even keep a hidden ace to surprise us or anything. ¡°You don¡¯t even have a contact for me, do you?¡± ¡°Do I look like a paper boy to you bitch?¡± He was trying to be scary. I was trying not to laugh in his face because that would make him angry, and then I would have to take over. I could probably take down all eight without breaking out my affinity or bonds. The thing is, I can see all their statuses. Only the two top dogs had some sort of status-blocking skill, and I think it might have just been their thick skulls, as it didn¡¯t take much to push through with my Spatial Awareness. Boss Idiot and his offsider are Journeyman Brawlers. All the rest were thieves, pickpockets and burglars. Not a fighting class among them. Wait up. The older woman by the door has the Miller class and a Novice Merchant. Did she own or work in this place? How can I not take over here? This is perfect. Everything is on a platter for the taking. I sighed. Wiremu was going to be so grumpy with me. 272. Hero: Wiremu

272. Hero: Wiremu

We have a big problem, and progress has stopped. Mayakku and I have made great progress on the right flavours of Spiritual energy and the mechanics of controlling the flow of the Spiritual energy through to six places at once from one Monster Core. We have thin Spiritual silk made from the cactus fibres from the plant monster I mostly burned in the desert. We use the needles to prick the holes in the centre of the runes and leave them in. connected with the silk fibre to the control runes, which are then connected to a monster core. It looks insanely complicated to me. Mayakku thinks if she can crack this, it will make her a Master Enchanter. The problem is we can¡¯t test it to see if it works as we have no slaves, and there are no slaves available here. It is the Free Republic, after all. I tried to find out if they have some refuges like the Kingdom does. I was told no, but I don¡¯t believe it. The Free Republic takes a hard line against slavery. Even if you are a travelling merchant and just passing through with personal slaves, they will be confiscated, and there is no compensation provided. You do not bring slaves into the Free Republic. From that perspective, Ruku giving away the two slaves was good. My question was, what happens to these confiscated slaves? I hit a solid wall of silence. Nobody could get answers, not Quinn, Bill, or Dianne. In fact, Bill had to slip away from the guards that were called. There is one person who could get answers as he is a major celebrity here. That is Wiremu Hunter. Ever since the contract on Slave Taskmasters became known in the Free Republic, Wiremu Hunter has become the hometown hero. He is the local boy who made it big and became a hero in the fight against slavery. Birth records have identified him as possibly coming from the destroyed village of Kohekohe, a week''s ride north of Freebourne. At least a Wiremu was recorded as an apprentice to the local Hunter there before slavers raided the village. This is generally discredited as it only happened eight years ago, and more time is needed to become so rich. There are three other possible claims for him as well. A Wiremu Hunter went missing twenty years ago from Rawene Township. Another Wiremu was known to have been taken by slavers from Kaitaia, but he was probably a Forrester, not a Hunter, as he worked for a logging company. The company is pushing that one and using it for marketing. A Wiremu Hunter went missing in a fight against the Empire eighteen years ago. This one was a Free Republic Defense Force (FRDF) Scout and was born in Whangarei City. The arguments to claim him can get quite heated. Wiremu has become a popular name for new babies. The problem with identifying myself as Wiremu Hunter is that it cannot be kept quiet. It will announce to the empire exactly where I am. I would not survive that, and it might bring the Emperor himself down on the Free Republic. There is no way the FRDF could stand against the Empire Troops if they came in force. ¡°I think we should approach his problem through the Enchanting Guild,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°Will you get very high in the guild? I asked. ¡°I am a journeyman-level member of the Kirghiz Enchanters Association, so I have some standing with the local guild as a visiting enchanter. To be honest, I would like a second professional opinion on this enchantment sequence before we try it on a person.¡± ¡°Do you think there is someone in this city that could review it?¡± ¡°Parts of it. There is bound to be a Monster Core Enchanter here and a Formations Specialist. I doubt we will find a Ritualist Enchanter, but all enchanters deal with the Spiritual Flavour. We might find someone who has been experimenting with them.¡± ¡°What if they try to take your work as their own or worse, try to take you to work for them?¡± ¡°C¨­mp¨¥?i is a big deterrent for the latter. As for taking my work as their own, I would only demonstrate parts of it at a time. Plus, not everyone is greedy and power-hungry. Wasn¡¯t your plan to release this to the enchanters free of charge anyway?¡± ¡°Free, yes, but you need the recognition as the creator.¡± ¡°And what about your recognition? This couldn¡¯t have happened without you. Shall we call it the Hunter-Maya Formation? ¡°Mayakku-Hunter, if it has to be anything. We have to get it working first, and while the design might be free, it is not cheap to build or use.¡± ¡°No, but it can be used by anyone with a Journeyman Level of Sense Spiritual. At least, that is what I hope.¡± ¡°Go ahead and make contact, but I think I would like to be at any meeting.¡± Mayakku nodded and collected C¨­mp¨¥?i to go and make contacts. Two days later, Tabitha came and asked me for a couple of names for new identities. She seemed a bit cagey about the details, but that is her area of expertise. I would love to watch them being made as it would level my Forgery Class a lot, but there is no chance of that happening. I wanted to use Bryan Forrester after my father, but Tabitha thought it was too close to the truth. I chose Tama Forrester and Mata Toa. The second was not a traditional village name, but nontraditional names were common in the cities. I would use Tama Forrester as my main ID. It was a way to honour my father, which is a big thing in our culture. Tabitha suggested Dianne was a great disguise while in the Free Republic, and I agreed. Dianne would become Maia T¨¡rore. My mother was from a small village just outside the capital of Freeport, so Maia would be from Freeport. Tabitha was also starting a new Merchant organisation called ¡°Essential Traders.¡¯ as soon as she had a new identity. Apparently, we are going to be trading in the basics, like food and clothing. All the things an army might need. We would also start a new Mercenary team called the Black Rock. The next day, Mayakku had an appointment with an enchanter. The Guild arranged it, but we were meeting at her workshop. I accompanied her as Dianne while C¨­mp¨¥?i found a sunny spot to sleep outside. Laura was a solid, no-nonsense woman with a small workshop and four or five staff. She is apparently the city''s leading Monster Enchanter and is known to experiment and come up with different solutions to tricky problems. It was this experimentation that Mayakku was interested in. We were paying for this consultation, but Mayakku hoped to develop a mutual working relationship with the lady. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Once the preliminary introductions were made, Laura said, ¡°You wish me to look over some runes?¡± Mayakku pulled out a thin Granite slate from her bag and put it on the table in front of her. I had actually created the slate and copied the runes Mayakku wanted. With my Forgery specialisation, I got the Skill Copier, where I could copy documents and signatures. Runes were a stretch for it, but it pushed it into the Apprentice levels. The first thing Laura said was, ¡°Where did you get this rock slate? Its Spiritual potential is amazing.¡± I smirked because I had told Mayakku that using the Granite would create questions. ¡°We ran into the spiritually enhanced rock out in the desert and managed to carve out some useable pieces.¡± ¡°Do you have any for sale? I can pay a good price.¡± ¡°There might be a few pieces I can spare,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°We can discuss it after.¡± They put their heads down and started to discuss the Runes. Mayakku had brought the Monster Core section and the Runes that changed the flavour of the energy. Their discussion mostly went over my head, as I had no idea why she had used the Rosenburg variation rather than the standard Thompson Rune, etc. The Monster core part was fairly standard, but they came to the flavour. ¡°I don¡¯t understand what Spiritual Expression you are aiming for here.¡± Laura was puzzled. The expression must be the local way of explaining flavours. ¡°There are three. See where I have split the energy here into three streams?¡± ¡°Yes, but these are not expressions I have ever used. In fact, those runes look more like they would control the flow rather than become an expression of it. But you have changed them.¡± ¡°Indeed. What is not included here is that I combine the streams again after this. I am looking for you to check that the runes will create an expression in the spiritual energy and nothing else.¡± Laura spent some time looking carefully at the runes. There was a lot of, ¡°That¡¯s clever,¡± and ¡°I don¡¯t understand why you did that,¡± and similar. They were bent over that slate way past the time we had paid for. Laura did have an inquisitive mind. Once they came to the end of the rune sequence, Laura said, ¡°I have no idea what this would be used for. This is unique, and I levelled my Enchanting just from this discussion. I haven¡¯t levelled in two decades, and here I am in one afternoon, and I still have no idea what I am looking at. What is it for?¡± Mayakku glanced at me, then said, ¡°It is part of a formation that will empower a ritual.¡± Laura just stared at her as if she didn¡¯t comprehend, ¡°a what?¡± ¡°It is part of a ¡­¡± ¡°I know what you said,¡± Laura interrupted. ¡°I have barely even heard of rituals, let alone how you can empower one with enchanting. I am barely a Level 1 Formation Specialist, and you created all this? I should be coming to you for advice, not you coming to me.¡± ¡°You have been very helpful,¡± Mayakku said, ¡°I know can tweak these things to improve it.¡± ¡°You must be a Master Enchanter.¡± ¡°I am hoping if I complete this, it will bump me up to master level.¡± ¡°What specialisation do you have, if you don¡¯t mind me asking.¡± Mayakku thought for a moment, ¡°Monster, Formation, Ritual,¡± she listed them. Laura reached out and grabbed Mayakku''s hand, ¡°There is more because I have never seen that before,¡± and she pointed to her enchanted claw. ¡°That is new, and I am still learning¡­¡± she stopped suddenly and looked at me, obviously with an idea. I glanced at Laura, but Mayakku was about to burst, so I nodded. ¡°I could possibly convert this,¡± she indicated the slate meaning the whole formation, ¡°into Flesh Enchanting. It would give so much more control and no need for a monster core.¡± ¡°You have Flesh Enchanting?¡± Laura exclaimed at the same time as I said, ¡°That sounds great. We probably need to make sure this works first.¡± Mayakku nodded at me as if that was obvious. She was going to be working on it from now regardless. Laura came around the table and said, ¡°Master Mayakku, would you please teach me if you can? I am willing to sign a contract.¡± That¡¯s right, most Enchanters are under contract to protect knowledge and for the big Trading Houses to have a monopoly. Mayakku was self-taught, except for her basic Enchanting Class. She has done this because she has had access to resources most enchanters couldn¡¯t afford and will only get through contracts to the Trading Houses. She is really the hero of this story. She is amazing. Mayakku looked at me, so I said, ¡°We will need a contract in the short term. Whether Mayakku decides to teach you is up to her. If you want to know more, here is a basic confidentiality contract with Black Rock Mercenaries.¡± I don¡¯t think Black Rock Mercenaries legally existed yet, but minor details like that can be corrected through my Forgery or Tabitha¡¯s Adjuster Skills. Laura read the document, ¡°That''s all?¡± she asked. I nodded, ¡°For now.¡± I was getting good feelings from her through the Truth Sensing Skill, so I was not too worried. She signed. ¡°So what is this for?¡± she asked Mayakku. ¡°This is the first half of a formation that should remove the Slave Class from those trapped in slavery.¡± Laura steadied herself against the table, her eyes growing wide, ¡°This will change everything!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°Indeed,¡± I said, ¡°But it hasn¡¯t been proven to work yet.¡± ¡°You need to let the government know about this. This is big.¡± ¡°This is why you will not say anything without permission from Essential Traders.¡± I tapped the agreement, ¡°Do you want to be a target for every Empire assassin in the county? I don¡¯t, so you will not say anything for now. But we came here for your help because we want to test this and make it available without becoming a target.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± I put more force into my voice, ¡°The other thing you should know is that I am a registered assassin with the Mercenary Guild.¡± The threat was clear. ¡°Right,¡± she deflated. She turned to Mayakku, ¡°How did you work this out?¡± ¡°With a lot of help. The initial inspiration came from Wiremu Hunter.¡± Mayakku smirked at me. ¡°You met Wiremu Hunter? In person?¡± ¡°I travelled with him for months in the kingdom, although I didn¡¯t know who he was, initially, as he was travelling under a different name. He is the only reason I am so close to finishing this.¡± I interrupted, as the direction of the conversation was making me uncomfortable. ¡°We were hoping the Enchanting Guild could be the go-between to enable testing. The reward for the guild would be free access to the finished product.¡± Her eyes went wide again, ¡°Free access?¡± Mayakku spoke up again, ¡°I have worked on this for years, but Wiremu has provided all the funding and resources. If this works, he wants this distributed everywhere so nobody has to rely on Slave Taskmasters to remove the class.¡± ¡°Wiremu is my hero. He is incredible. Was he really a Defense Force Scout?¡± 273. Chairperson: Wiremu

273. Chairperson: Wiremu

Mayakku and Laura spent the next week reviewing the formation rune by rune and line by line. Essential Traders was up and running, and Maia, Tama and Mata became legal persons. Tabitha was incredible, although I suspect she might be on her way to owning half of Freebourne. I started some new accounts at the Republic Treasury. A committee ran the Enchanters Guild. Laura was a member of the committee, but they only met monthly. She arranged a meeting with the Chairperson, and I went with them as Maia. Maia was a bit different to Dianne in features and hair. The Chair was a portly, elderly man called Matua, who had retired from his business, which his son now ran. The advantage of getting Matua on board was that he knew everybody important in the city. I got the feeling he was someone very important in the city. ¡°Laura, darling! It''s lovely to see you. Come in. We have put the kettle on.¡± We went in. He had a nice house, but it wasn¡¯t like the Mansions in Kirghiz. It was a nice house. He led us into a sitting room, and a young girl brought in the tea. ¡°My granddaughter, Anahira.¡± he introduced her with pride in his voice. This was making me homesick. This was the culture I was used to. Tea and biscuits and family. No mansions, no bowing and fancy performances. Just tea, homemade biscuits and extended family in a normal house. This is what I lost when my village was raided. We chatted. Matua was fascinated with Mayakku. I think she was the first Catkin he had met. Animalkin were rare in this part of the Republic. There were more in the southern areas. Mayakku talked a bit about her travels; of course, they all had Enchanting in common. Matua carefully included me in the conversation, and I could relax my accent to talk. Laura brought the conversation around by saying, ¡°Mayakku says she spent some months travelling with Wiremu Hunter.¡± ¡°Really, dear? What is he like?¡± ¡°He is just a normal person. He likes his hunting. He is easy to get on with. He is a very generous person. I was just a new Journeyman Enchanter when we met, and through his generosity and help, I am now one step from being a Master with five Specialisations.¡± ¡°You say he helped you, but he is not an enchanter?¡± Matua queried. ¡°No, but he is very intelligent and insightful. He is also a Monster Hunter, so he provided monster cores and spiritual materials.¡± ¡°The man grows every time I hear more, and this is not just a rumour. Are you under contract to him for all his help?¡± ¡°Not directly. His sister employed my family for a while, but I left them to help finish his dream.¡± ¡°He has a sister?¡± Matua looked at me, ¡°Are you his sister?¡± I shook my head with a small laugh, ¡°No, I am not his sister.¡± ¡°But you are a lot more than you seem. My senses are still sharp; don¡¯t think I missed the snake in your jacket. I assume it is a bond. Would they like something to drink?¡± I shook my head, ¡°He is fine for now, thanks,¡± Matua looked back at Mayakku, ¡°Tell me about this dream, Wiremu Hunter has and about his sister, please.¡± ¡°I think Wiremu and his sister adopted each other in difficult times. They are not blood-related, and no, I am not going to tell you who she is. Wiremu¡¯s dream is to be able to remove the slave class from people without using Slave Taskmasters. He thought this could be done through enchanting, powered by monster cores.¡± ¡°That sounds,¡± he paused in thought, ¡°I was going to say impossible, but you are here for a reason.¡± Laura interjected, ¡°She has done it. I have seen it. Just going over it with her levelled my Class and several Skills. She is a genius.¡± This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. It was Mayakku¡¯s turn to be embarrassed. Good. She also deserves the recognition. I think she is a genius as well. Matua was looking at her, amazed as well. ¡°It hasn¡¯t been tested yet. We don¡¯t know if it even works,¡± Mayakku tried to calm everybody down. Matua was still sharp, ¡°And to test it, you need slaves. I see why you have come to me. I know who we can talk to, but it will take some convincing.¡± I decided to interject, ¡°We need more than access to slaves. We need protection from the Empire.¡± ¡°Ah, that is why you are here,¡± Matua said, looking at me, ¡°You are protection. Yes, this genius will need protection.¡± ¡°We were hoping this could be presented as coming from the Enchanters Guild rather than from me,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°Hmm. That is possible. It would require a resolution from the committee and some of the members are more aggressive in their business practice than others. There are two other problems. Once you present this to a committee, it will leak. It will spread like wildfire. The other issue is you, Mayakku. You stand out. You are a foreigner, and this is new and appears suddenly. It is always going to come back as being from you.¡± He thought for a moment, ¡°plus, you need recognition for it.¡± He paused, ¡°I can see the problem. If this works, you will become a bigger target for the empire than Wiremu himself.¡± He thought some more, ¡°If this works, what is your plan for it?¡± ¡°Wiremu wants it distributed as widely as possible. He wants everybody to have access to it. If it works, it should be easy to operate, but it is not easy or cheap to build, and it won¡¯t be cheap to operate.¡± ¡°No, it won¡¯t if it runs on Monster cores.¡± Laura spoke again, ¡°Mayakku had an idea she might get around that with something called Flesh Enchanting.¡± I shouldn¡¯t have let her speak in front of her. ¡°Flesh Enchanting? I thought that was a myth.¡± ¡°Mayakku and I would like that to stop here. In fact, Laura, that is a breach of contract.¡± Laura paled. The contract did not specify death as a penalty, but she knew my threat and now knew the stakes. ¡°I am sorry, I¡­¡± ¡°If it helps, I could sign a confidentiality contract,¡± Matua offered. ¡°I really want to be a part of the history being made here.¡± I looked at him carefully. Everything my senses told me was he was being straight up, but he had a lifetime of experience in business. These older people are likely to have skills I have never heard of, let alone the level of the skills I have heard of. Our recent run-in with Lord Nelson has given me a new sense of caution around old folk. I didn¡¯t see much choice here. We wanted to move forward. We had to start working with somebody. ¡°I have a standard Enchanters Contract here we could use,¡± Matua said. I read it through and changed some parts. I then filled in my details. ¡°The agreement is with the Black Rock Mercenaries? Who are they?¡± ¡°A recently formed Mercenary group of whom I am a member.¡± Matua signed without further question. We then went over how much he could share to get us access, and if that wasn¡¯t enough, he needed to contact us. ¡°I imagine we will be arranging a meeting at best anyway,¡± he said. Two days later, Mayakku was contacted about a meeting the following day with the Mayor and Chief of the city Patrollers and colonel of the Defence Force Garrison. Matua has certainly pushed all his weight around to get those three together. They would have support staff. This was going public, and we don¡¯t even know if it works. I first copied the latest version onto thin Granite Tablets and couriered one to T¨¡tt¨¡ at the Elemental Traders, one to the King of Kirghiz and one to Kelda in Hrothgar. I added a note to say it was untested, but others can pick up where we left off if we don''t survive. Mayakku decided on a name she wanted for it. She wanted it called the Ilaiya Formation after her younger brother, who died trying to protect her from becoming a slave. I almost cried when I heard that. He had been my first apprentice and would have made a gifted Hunter. I made sure Mayakku was noted as the sole creator. After that, we prepared for the meeting. I would go as Maia, as Matua already knows me as that. Ruku would come as a second guard. He now has the name Wai Paihana, which is the same name as his bond. I thought it could get confusing, but he was fine with it. He is also an official member of the Black Rock Mercenaries under that name. Tabitha said she would be close by. We haven¡¯t seen much of her over the last two weeks, but she has come through with everything we needed. Mayakku will ride C¨­mp¨¥?i, so he is an obvious backup. Astrid will park one of our wagons containing Modrica, Umreti and Te?ka in a nearby street in case we need some heavy persuasion. I am expecting trouble. I fully expect them to try and ¡°detain us for our own protection.¡± How aggressively they try is the only variation I expect. There will be rewards and enchanting laboratories and materials offered, all intending to put us, Mayakku in particular, in a cage. I desperately hope that the first combined operation of the Black Rock Mercenaries is not killing the leaders of Freebourne. 274. The Bosses: Wiremu

274. The Bosses: Wiremu

The meeting was scheduled for the early afternoon, so we met Laura and Matua for lunch. From there, it was a short walk to the Defense Force Headquarters, where the meeting was to be held. Just the choice of location did not inspire confidence in the outcome of the meeting. A positive thing was that the City Administration buildings, including the Mayoral Office, were next door, and Dusk was tied out front to a hitching post. Tabitha is nearby, and hopefully, none of this is needed. There were two soldiers at the door, ¡°I am sorry, ma¡¯am. Large animals need to go around the side and wait in the yard.¡± C¨­mp¨¥?i sniffed him, found a sunny spot in front of the building, and lay down for a snooze. The guard tried again, ¡°I am sorry he will need to move to the yard around the side, ma¡¯am.¡± Mayakku looked at him and then at C¨­mp¨¥?i, ¡°He looks comfortable. I am not going to move him. You can try¡­ but I wouldn¡¯t recommend it,¡± and she walked into the building, and we followed. Step one complete, C¨­mp¨¥?i guard the front door. When we got inside, Matua approached the desk and said, ¡°The Enchanters are here for the meeting with the Mayor and the Colonel. ¡±Yes sir, please come this way,¡± He led us behind the desk to a side room. I already knew it wasn¡¯t the meeting room because they were waiting upstairs for us. My senses had covered the building already. I knew exactly who was in the building and where each squad of soldiers were. I moved to the front and stopped everybody from entering, Ruku was at the rear, ¡°Why don''t you just take us to the meeting, private.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, ma¡¯am, we need you to leave your weapons here before we go to the meeting.¡± I heard Ruku mutter fairly loudly, ¡°This army sure does apologise a lot.¡± Everybody heard him. I looked at the Private and said, ¡°It is my turn to apologise to my fellow mercenary. It is not long since he was discharged from the Royal Kirghiz Marine Corp. You know how crass those Commandos can be.¡± The private had no idea, but the Kirghiz Commandos had an extremely tough reputation worldwide. This was the point of this exchange. They wanted information about us and how easily we could be manipulated. ¡°We are not going to leave anything, Private. You can either take us to the meeting, or we will just leave.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do that, Ma¡¯am.¡± ¡°Then you need to find someone who can, or we will leave.¡± ¡°Wait here, please.¡± The Private disappeared into the room, but it is not like they didn¡¯t hear everything that happened. A Sergeant soon appeared, ¡°Follow me, please.¡± It is a nice, polite army. It is also too easy. We were led up the stairs to the actual meeting room. The Colonel was the one with all the medals. He was introduced as Colonel Roberts, and his aide was Lieutenant P¨±riri. The Police Chief was Chief Waiata; her aide was a civilian who was introduced as Administrator Harris. Mayor Ratana had an aide. I don¡¯t know how she did it in two weeks, but Tabitha was introduced as Secretary Te Kanawa. She didn¡¯t look like Tabitha, but my Thermal Sensing had picked her out, and as we got closer to the room, it pierced her Body Image. Ruku entered last, and I could tell when his Sonar picked out the difference. Tabitha just smirked. Once the pleasantries were over, the Colonel said, ¡°I believe you have a weapon against slavery, Master Matua. Please enlighten us.¡± ¡°It is not us, but this young genius here. Mayakku has enchanted a formation that uses a monster core and changes its aspect to imitate a Slave Taskemaaster¡¯s Spiritual signature and then distribute it to the six feed point that the ritual apparently requires but not only that, she can vary the intensity and flow of each of the six until the ritual is complete.¡± ¡°That sounds impressive.¡± ¡°Impressive! Colonel, you are not an enchanter, but it is absolutely incredible. She has taken enchanting to a whole new level and uses Specialisations I have never heard of.¡± Mayakku stood up, ¡°Colonel, despite Master Matua¡¯s enthusiasm, the formation is untested. We think it will work, and I have appreciated Master Matua and Enchanter Laura¡¯s input over the last week, but we need to test it on a slave.¡± ¡°I see.¡± The Colonel seemed to be the key person here. That was not a great sign. ¡°Let''s go back a bit. You said it uses Specialisations you have never heard of,¡± he was speaking to Matua, ¡°You do not really understand what it does then? Both of you?¡± He included Laura. Laura shook her head, ¡°only partially.¡± Matua said, ¡°Not fully, but the principles of enchanting and energy flow are the same.¡± ¡°No offence, miss,¡± he spoke to Mayakku, ¡°but you understand how this coming suddenly from a travelling stranger sounds strongly like it is a hoax.¡± ¡°We are not asking for coin.¡± Mayakku replied, ¡°We are not even asking for materials, neither from you nor the local enchanters. All we are asking is access to some slaves to try to set them free.¡± ¡°You see, that raises even more questions. Who is this ¡°we¡± you are talking about?¡± The Colonel was showing he deserved his position, unfortunately. ¡°I am travelling with the Black Rock Mercenaries,¡° Mayakku indicated to me and Ruku. ¡°But mercenaries work for coin. You don¡¯t look like you are rich.¡± ¡°You said a lot of the resources came from Wiremu Hunter, Mayakku?¡± Matua said. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Mayakku nodded. ¡°And that makes it sound even more like a scam, Playing on the reputation of a local hero is typical.¡± The Colonel accused. ¡°We are not here for coin or materials, Colonel.¡± Mayakku reiterated. ¡°No. You are here to collect the bounty on our Slave Taskmaster.¡± he accused. ¡°You have a Slave Taskmaster?¡± I said, surprised. ¡°You sound surprised at that,¡± the Colonel said. ¡°We used to have two who travelled around the country working off their debt to society, but somebody decided to collect an easy bounty.¡± Seeing as I injected myself into the conversation, I decided to keep going. ¡°We do not even need to meet this Taskmaster Colonel.¡± ¡°And who are you?¡± ¡°Maia T¨¡rore, Black Rock Mercenaries.¡± ¡°You are the hired muscle.¡± the Colonel accused. ¡°We are only hired muscle in the same way you are the government''s hired muscle. It takes more than muscle to complete a contract.¡± ¡°So what are the terms of your contract, and who is paying your bill?¡± ¡°The contract is confidential information between us and our employer.¡± ¡°Who is this employer, or is that confidential as well?¡± ¡°On the contrary, I am happy to tell you who employed us. Wiremu Hunter employed us back in the Kirghiz Kingdom. ¡°The general terms of our contract are to make sure Mayakku can complete her work. Specific details are confidential, I am afraid.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you have proof of this?¡± ¡°Would you carry around proof you worked for the most wanted man on this continent?¡± All I got from that was a grunt. The Mayor spoke up as there was a pause in the discussion. ¡°I have a question. I am going to assume what you have is legitimate. I have known Master Matua since he was an apprentice, and he is not easily fooled. From what I understand, you have an untested enchantment formation you want to use on a slave.¡± Mayakku nodded. ¡°What happens if it doesn¡¯t work as you anticipate? Will there be any risk of damage for the person you are testing it on?¡± Mayakku took a breath, ¡°There is always a risk. The formation can be shut down with one switch by design, as there is a point in the ritual you must stop injecting Spiritual energy or you will cause irreparable harm. I have very good spiritual senses, and there are few who are better. Master Matua is one of those. If it is not working as planned, there should be no harm in shutting off the energy early. The second part of the ritual is extracting the energy from the person along with the class. If the energy is dissipated slowly rather than actively drawn out, the person should not be damaged.¡± ¡°There are a lot of ¡°ifs¡¯ and ¡®shoulds¡¯ in that sentence.¡± the Mayor said. ¡°It is experimental work. We are doing our best for these people, but it is also complicated.¡± ¡°What will you do if we don¡¯t provide access to a slave,¡± the Colonel asked. ¡°We will leave,¡± I said. That got a raised eyebrow, so I clarified, ¡°There are a lot of slaves available in the Empire just to the north of you.¡± The Colonel¡¯s voice was full of disbelief, ¡°You are going to just walk into the empire and snatch some slaves to experiment on?¡± ¡°Essentially, yes,¡± I replied. Mayakku added, ¡°The experiments would be a lot safer for everyone if they were done here, especially if I have Master Matua¡¯s Senses to help. If we can get it to work, there will also be a lot of recognition and fame to be shared.¡± The Mayor liked the sound of that, but it was the Patroller Chief who spoke up, ¡°If you are working on something this important, you are potentially attracting, almost inviting, enemies to attack you. That is a huge security risk for the whole city.¡± Here it comes, I thought. Behind the Chief, her aide had been furiously writing notes the whole time. None of the other aides were doing this, but I guess she brought the administrator in order to take notes. We might have to make those notes disappear later. I marked them with my Hunters Mark so I can track them down easily tonight. I decided to respond to the Chief, even though she hadn¡¯t actually asked a question. ¡°The security of Mayakku and the project is one of the prime responsibilities of the Black Rock Mercenaries.¡± ¡°That may be all well and good, but my concern is for the rest of the city. Some assassins don¡¯t care if they destroy half the city and kill, maim and make homeless thousands of innocent people as long as they kill that one person. The recent events in Almaeadin are a prime example.¡± Ouch. That hit home. The Chief had no idea she was talking to the person responsible for that mess. I still lie awake at night, thinking about what I could have done differently. I didn¡¯t have to bring the whole palace down. Ruku spoke up before anyone noticed I was distracted, ¡°We could base ourselves outside of the city.¡± ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡± The Colonel was obviously getting a bit frustrated here at not having one boss to talk to. ¡°Wai Paihana of the Black Rock Mercenaries, Colonel¡± ¡°None of you are just muscle, are you?¡± he said. He was catching on. ¡°No, Colonel, The Black Rock Mercenaries do not hire for muscles. We hire for brains. Where I was trained, we were taught, Dumb Muscle is Dead Muscle.¡± ¡°That is a Royal Marine saying,¡± he said. ¡°That is probably where my trainer got it from,¡± Ruku said, trying to muddy the waters. Tabitha leaned toward the Mayor and said to him, ¡°The city does have an unused quarry just outside the city that could be leased or sold to them.¡± ¡°That is a great idea, Thanks Kerry.¡± He looked at us, ¡°Would you be interested in a quarry?¡± How on earth does Tabitha do that? ¡°I believe we would Mr. Mayor. I believe we can offer you ten per cent above market price for a quick sale.¡± I offered. ¡°You can make those decisions for that price, sight unseen?¡± The Colonel was re-evaluating me. He didn¡¯t know that if Tabitha was suggesting it, it was hardly a sight unseen. ¡°Yes, Colonel, but all this is irrelevant if there are no slaves here that we can try to help,¡± I replied. The Patroller Chief said, ¡°There are a couple waiting for the Taskmaster¡¯s next visit. If they operated outside of the city, that would satisfy my biggest concern.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t mine,¡± the Colonel said. ¡°If this is not a hoax, and if it is, you are going to wish you had never been born,¡± he threatened, ¡°then this is the biggest thing since the Fight for Freedom five centuries ago. You will also attract empire assassins like a carcass attracts flies. You would be the safest on a Defence Force Base.¡± Here we go. 275. The Boss: Wiremu

275. The Boss: Wiremu

¡°I beg to differ, Colonel,¡± I said, ¡°The Black Rock Mercenaries are responsible for security, and we are better in a disused quarry where few know about us and where we can deploy our full set of security measures than being restricted in an army base with everybody knowing about us.¡± ¡°The Free Republic Defence Force can offer you a level of protection that you can''t get anywhere else. Lieutenant P¨±riri here would be assigned as full-time protection. She has an Affinity for a local hardwood called a P¨±riri and is very proficient and experienced in personal protection.¡± I was about to respond to that when Master Matua spoke up. ¡°Colonel and Lieutenant, I feel I need to interrupt. The one thing I am known for in my long career is my sensitivity to Spiritual Energy. This means I know what is going on in this room better than anybody. There are currently five affinity users in the room right now and two bonds with affinities. There is another bond lying in the sun by the front door.¡± Never trust old people. The Colonel looked shocked, but he was quick, looking at the three strangers in front of him, and his Lieutenant made four. ¡°Shit,¡± said Tabitha, and there was a flash of movement, and the Chief¡¯s Administrator slumped to his desk with a dagger through his back and into his heart. ¡°Kerry!¡± the mayor said, surprised, but Tabitha had kept moving. She collected the papers he was writing on, and I saw them disappear into her Spatial Pocket. My Hunter Marks were cut off as the papers went into the pocket. I hadn¡¯t realised the pocket would do that. That was very useful information. Tabitha kept moving around the table. The Lieutenant had created a solid wooden shield and drawn her sword. The Patroller Chief was standing and checking on her assistant. As Tabitha moved, her Body Image changed, and she was no longer looking like Kerry Te Kanawa but closer to her normal look in supple, tight-fitting leathers. ¡°Sorry for the violence, but your assistant was selling information to the Mad Mongrels, Chief Waiata. They are a street gang/crime lord wannabe. I was going to follow him later to get to their boss, but I couldn¡¯t take the chance of the affinity information getting out.¡± ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡± demanded the Colonel. ¡°And what happened to Kerry?¡± said the Mayor. ¡°Kerry¡¯s fine. She is sleeping off a particularly fun night on the town last night. I got to know her more intimately than strictly necessary, but she is a very fine woman. I would hire her away from you, but I doubt she will ever trust me again. I am Putia Mangu of the Black Rock Mercenaries.¡± ¡°I hope you have proof of that accusation.¡± Chief Waiata said menacingly. ¡°Check the locked drawer in his desk. He wasn¡¯t that careful.¡± Which means he either wasn¡¯t that careful or she planted it. ¡°What is this about you all having affinities?¡± the Colonel asked. I spoke, ¡°How about we all sit down again, nobody else is going to get killed,¡± I looked at Tabitha, ¡°Right?¡± ¡°He is the only leak I found so far.¡± ¡°But we can¡¯t just sit down and talk, there is a man lying dead there!¡± said the Mayor. ¡°He¡¯s not going to mind,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I think it is the Mayor that minds,¡± I said. ¡°I can dispose of the body, but you won¡¯t get it back.¡± ¡°That body is evidence,¡° the Chief said. ¡°Of what? Surely you have enough reliable witnesses as to what happened. The Mayor, The Patroller Chief, a Colonel, a Lieutenant as well as two respected enchanters. I would rather finish this conversation now.¡± ¡°He might have family,¡± the Chief said. ¡°Not particularly,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°He was trying to make the Mad Mongrels into his family. Any way they can hold a memorial service without a body. I have done that for two people I was very close to.¡± Really Tabitha? Modrica and my memorial services don¡¯t really count. ¡°I will dispose of the body. It will be a good demonstration of our ability to protect our own.¡± I walked around the table as everybody parted for me. The Lieutenant still had her shield at the ready. They parted, but they made sure they were where they could see. I grabbed the body, pulled out the knife and tossed it to Tabitha. I then lay the body on the floor. I noted Tabitha had already taken his coin pouch. I hadn¡¯t seen that. She was getting good. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Before I proceeded I said, ¡°It is obvious we don¡¯t want our affinities to be known.¡± I looked pointedly at Matua who had spilled the beans. ¡°However, Master Enchanter, you are not to blame for this man¡¯s death. He had a terminal illness and would have passed away within 24 hours anyway.¡± Well, he would have unless Tabitha found a use for him but they don¡¯t need to know that. ¡°You people all have access to information, so it is going to occur to you that the four Affinity users here are not the only affinity users in the Black Rock Mercenaries.¡± The Colonel said, ¡°The Orc with the Dire Bear. Who the hell are you people?¡± ¡°We are the Black Rock Mercenaries, currently on contract to Wiremu Hunter. If that doesn¡¯t tell you about the importance of Mayakku¡¯s work, then you should retire from your positions immediately. We don¡¯t want this known and we will find out if it is leaked. Putia,¡± I pointed to Tabitha, ¡°is not even our main assassin, she doesn¡¯t even have the class. The eight people in this room who are not Black Rock are the only people who know all this.¡± I knelt down and encased the body in a stone coffin. They couldn¡¯t see it but I made it very thick stone, especially at the bottom. Then I let Puia pass through into the coffin. Despite the thickness of the stone heat started radiating from it. Intense heat. I lifted the coffin slightly on short legs to try to avoid marking the wooden floor. It might already be too late. After about five minutes Puia passed back into me and I put my hand on the stone, which had a bit of a glow to it. The coffin changed shape, reducing in size and shape to resemble a traditional urn. My Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) reduced the heat to a manageable level and I placed the urn in front of the Chief. ¡°His ashes, for any family members,¡± I said and went back around and took my seat. Matua opened his mouth to say something, but I interrupted, ¡°Matua, I do believe you signed a confidentiality agreement. Please think carefully about what you might say.¡± He shut his mouth. Mayakku spoke up, ¡°Lieutenant, may I have a look at your shield?¡± The Lieutenant looked at the Colonel who nodded, and she passed it over. Mayakku looked at it carefully, then said, ¡°This is fantastic material for enchanting. If you want some coin on the side you could make us some.¡± Matua and Laura perked up at that, obviously interested as well. ¡°I will think about it,¡± she said. ¡°If you want to keep this shield, I could add a few enchantments to enhance it for you.¡± The Lieutenant made a hand wave that indicated the was OK by her. Mayakku then laid the shield down on the table, flicked out a claw and then calmly and carefully started carving runes into the back of the shield. The hardwood shield, by just using her claw. It took her about ten minutes and everybody just watched. I think she was doing it partly to let everybody calm down and process what had just happened. When she had finished she showed the Lieutenant what she had done. ¡°This is the standard Recharging rune that any enchanter can use, but the wood is so saturated in Spiritual energy you won¡¯t need it. If you have a hardening or strengthening Skill to go with the wood, just applying that would recharge the wood and therefore the enchantments. This is a Toughening Rune, This is fire resistance and a cold resistance rune. This last one has to be activated. I am assuming you have a Shield Bash-type Skill?¡± She nodded, ¡°This gives it a bit of extra power.¡± Laura was flabbergasted, ¡°You did all that without any tools or reference material! That is incredible.¡± Mayakku shrugged, ¡°I am the Black Rock Mercenaries¡¯ Enchanter. That is all standard stuff.¡± She handed the shield back to the Lieutenant. Time to get this meeting back on track. ¡°As you can see Colonel, we are more capable than you of guarding Mayakku and the work she is doing.¡± I looked at the mayor, ¡°And a quarry is a good defensive position for us to work from. ¡°I will have the city gift it to you. You can take possession immediately.¡± the Mayor said. I would be surprised if Tabitha wasn¡¯t already in possession of it. I nodded at the Mayor, ¡°Thank you.¡± I turned back to the Colonel. ¡°Colonel, you were going to offer to have the Lieutenant be personal protection for Mayakku. As she is one of the eight people in the know, we would be happy to have her work with us.¡± There was no way he was going to let us operate without some eyes and ears in our group, so I extended the branch to have her join us. We can manage one person. The Colonel nodded, ¡°That is acceptable for now, but we will need to regularly review the security needs.¡± Yes, you will keep trying to get more people inside our group. I know that. ¡°Very well, we will need a few days to get the place set up, but it will be faster with a wood affinity user, as long as you are willing to help?¡± She nodded. I looked at the Chief, ¡°We will let you know when we are ready to make our first attempt and you can arrange to arrange to have the slave come to us. It would be better for the slave to come to us, but if you want us to go to the slave that can be done as well. I am sure we will be ready within a week.¡± The Chief nodded, ¡°We will be investigating this,¡± she pointed to the urn. ¡°You know where we will be,¡± I replied. Not that Putia Mangu may ever make an appearance again, but we will see. With that, the meeting broke up and we were escorted from the premises. When we got out front C¨­mp¨¥?i joined us and then Dusk trotted over to Tabitha. Matua could sense exactly what type of horse Dusk was. I am very glad senses like Matua are incredibly rare as it is one reliable way to track us. I will have to work on ways to hide better. We parted ways with Matua and Laura. They would come out and help in a couple of days. I think they were in shock a bit. Go home and have a cuppa tea and a biscuit, but don¡¯t forget the confidentiality agreement. 276 New Digs: Wiremu.

276 New Digs: Wiremu.

¡°Stop right there! This is private property, and you are not authorised to be here. Leave now!¡± Lieutenant P¨±riri was being very aggressive. ¡°That''s right, we haven''t met yet. I am Tama Forrester of the Black Rock Mercenaries.¡± ¡°I am not going to take your word for that. Where is Maia? She will need to confirm that.¡± P¨±riri had almost drawn her sword. ¡°Maia is away right now. Wai or Mayakku could vouch for me.¡± That got her sword drawn and pointed at me. ¡°You are not going any further without verification.¡± I guess it was good she was not going to let strangers anywhere near Mayakku. This was awkward as every time I had dealt with P¨±riri, I had been Maia. Now, nobody is around to verify that I belonged. I am pleased that she is being this careful, but it is also annoying. The Famous Five have been given a month''s leave before we set out again, and they don¡¯t know this identity yet. It is a new look, but very close to my natural appearance. Very different to Maia. ¡°Nobody has mentioned me to you? I am the Black Rock¡¯s bond specialist. Animal bonds, that is, not slave. I collected most of the animals here we have that are for trade, so I am out a lot trapping them.¡± ¡°Not letting you through without verification.¡± ¡°I am the reason we have so many bonds here. Haven''t you wondered about that?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t move.¡± I could sense Te?ka nearby, ¡°Would you accept verification from Te?ka? He is just around the corner.¡± ¡°How did you know that?¡± ¡°Fairly high-level Hearing Aid,¡± I said, tapping my ear. ¡°Te?ka knows me, and if he doesn¡¯t, he would probably eat me.¡± Te?ka is a much greater gate security guard and deterrent than anyone else anyway. C¨­mp¨¥?i comes close, but the sheer bulk of Te?ka is intimidating on its own. P¨±riri was hesitating to call Te?ka, and I think it was partly because she was also intimidated. He takes a bit of getting used to. I called him, and he got to his feet and ambled over. He looked, took a sniff and settled back down in a sunny patch. ¡°Happy now?¡± I could see she wasn¡¯t totally happy, but she moved out of the way and put her sword back in its scabbard. ¡°I¡¯ll escort you until somebody else can verify you,¡± she said. At least I am in the gate. I grabbed Mosey¡¯s reins and led him in. I was leading him because he was carrying all the carcasses. Te?ka looked up with interest as Mosey entered. I think this was the only reason he came over when I called him. They were already skinned and cleaned, so I said, ¡°Do you want deer or hog? No, you can''t have both.¡± I untied and dropped the carcass of a young buck in front of him. ¡°A thank you would be nice.¡± He ignored me as he started ripping the carcass apart. I looked at P¨±riri and said, ¡°He has been hanging around Mo too long.¡± Modrica was not much into different identities, so we just shortened her name a little. Umreti is unknown until recently, so he is still Umreti. I am sure the Colonel is sending to the Kingdom for information about us, and I am sure the Kingdom wants to know what we are up to. Our advantage is the length of time communication takes, even by fast Avion. It is one of the reasons we are limiting our time here to another month. That would be six weeks total from when we arrived, a month from when the Colonel found out about us. My easy familiarity with Te?ka had eased P¨±riri¡¯s attitude a bit, but she still followed me around to the side where I had built a small slaughter yard and drying racks for the hides. Correction, where Maia had built me a slaughteryard. She is the one with the stone affinity. A lot of the buildings were stone as it was quick and easy for me to¡­ for Maia to manipulate. I don¡¯t know if P¨±riri thought it strange that I knew my way around so well. I chatted to her as I unloaded Mosey and hung up the hides to dry, ¡°I will need to introduce you to my bond, T¨¡o. He stayed out hunting on his own, so it will have to be later. Have you ever thought about getting a bond? There are a lot of advantages.¡± She shook her head, ¡°I thought I couldn¡¯t except for Monster plants.¡± ¡°No, that is not the case, and you want to stay away from monster plants. I have seen two. One was this huge acid moss, and the other was a field of bloody cactus.¡± I shivered, ¡°The worst monster fights I have had. But no, many animals will lean toward plant affinities, mostly herbivores. Tree-type affinities can be found in a lot of tree dwellers, squirrels, some birds, monkeys, beetles, snakes, etc.¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. She shivered, so I said, ¡°You don¡¯t like snakes?¡± she shook her head. ¡°Well, fair warning then, T¨¡o is a snake.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mean¡­.¡± ¡°No, no, that is fine. We all have our likes and dislikes. No snake bonds for you. Have you had a look through the Menagerie we have in the shop in town?¡± she shook her head. ¡°I caught most of them myself. We can walk through to get some idea of what might be compatible as a bond. Has anyone taught you the mental exercises for bonding?¡± P¨±riri was about to reply when a shout angrily rang out, ¡°What¡¯s he doing here? He shouldn¡¯t be here!¡± P¨±riri immediately went on her guard against me as Ruku/Wai came around the corner. ¡°He¡¯s not part of the group?¡± P¨±riri questioned. ¡°He shouldn¡¯t be here! Not while I am here, anyway,¡± P¨±riri was looking very confused. Ruku/Wai went on, ¡°All he ever wants me to do is hose down his slaughteryard.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one with the water affinity. Who else is going to do it?¡± ¡°Your affinity is water?¡± P¨±riri clarified. She knew we had affinities, but she only knew Maia had stone and Mo had Earth, as we had done most of the construction. They had probably deduced Mayakku¡¯s from her enchanting demonstration, but hers is pretty rare. I leaned toward P¨±riri and stage whispered, ¡°I actually think he lost control of his bladder in his old age and passed it off as having an affinity.¡± ¡°I am not that old, you young upstart. Has he tried to find you a bond yet?¡± he asked P¨±riri. She nodded. ¡°The boy is obsessed with bonds. At least I got mine without him.¡± ¡°Here he goes. You are going to get the story of the elven princess who found the perfect bond for him and led him away to foreign lands, only to poison him and leave him stranded in the middle of Empire territory. The story grows every time he tells it.¡± ¡°It was me who left her stranded, you young idiot. You can''t even get your facts straight.¡± ¡°So you say, old man, I think you might be getting dementia along with your weak bladder. Hey, any chance you can hose down the¡­¡± I dove behind the stone wall as he tried to hose me down. Then we both cracked up laughing. P¨±riri was standing there dripping wet, looking confused and like she had just walked into a madhouse. We cracked up laughing again. ¡°I see you have met Tama,¡± Ruku said to P¨±riri. ¡°He thinks he is the regular funny man here. Just a hint, You will never see him and Maia together as she hates his guts and beats his ass, so he keeps well clear.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not¡­ Well, not totally true.¡± I said. ¡°Just a reminder, then Maia will be here tomorrow to help Mayakku with her first trial, so maybe you ought to go hunting again or something.¡± ¡°Well, maybe. It is nice weather for it.¡± ¡°You are putting down that hangi for us, right?¡± Ruku asked. I nodded, ¡°That is what most of this is for,¡± indicating the meat pile. ¡°You know how to cook a hangi?¡± P¨±riri asked, ¡°I thought you were all foreigners?¡± ¡°Most of us are foreigners,¡± Ruku replied, ¡°Tama here is not. He is our guide to all things local.¡± ¡°You are local? Where are you from?¡± P¨±riri asked. ¡°Just a small village,¡± I pointed at the meat, ¡°I had better get this to C¨­mp¨¥?i. He gets jealous when I feed Te?ka, but not him. Do you know where he is?¡± ¡°Outside Mayakku¡¯s new workshop last I saw.¡± ¡°Can you guys put the rest in storage, please? Otherwise, Te?ka might come looking for seconds then there won¡¯t be a hangi.¡± I hoisted another carcass on my shoulder and headed off. We only had a few visible buildings. The cookhouse was the closest to the slaughterhouse, and the original site office was now a bunkroom. We fixed the old stable area and created a new stone workshop for Mayakku. There was a buried safe room as well. Across the quarry were some hidden storage areas that Tabitha wanted to facilitate some goods she was moving. I spent a lot of my time setting up traps and warning alarms. I could make some very deadly traps these days, and with a little bit of enchanting from Mayakku, they were even deadlier and better hidden. Combining the enchanting and being creative pushed my trapping skill to the Master level. This was my ninth master-level skill, which was way more than I should have at my age. I am pretty sure Ruku only has eight master-level skills, and he is old enough to be my father and has lived an active life in the Marines. Tabitha just calls me a freak. I guess the easy life is not for me, and it has been a very eventful decade. When I poked my head in, Mayakku was head down with Laura, so I didn¡¯t disturb them. She wanted everything to be perfect tomorrow. We all know the chances of it working the first time are extremely remote. I went around the corner of the quarry and manipulated myself through the stone wall into my own little piece of paradise. Well, it was just a stone room with air vents and some home comforts. T¨¡oke was there curled up on a Bison fur rug. A short corridor and another wall would take me outside the perimeter fence for the quarry. I had no need of doors in this place. It was Granite Quarry. Thank you, Tabitha. I am not the only freak. 277. First Attempt: Wiremu.

277. First Attempt: Wiremu.

The hangi was delicious. It was actually my first attempt at doing it myself. A lot of the work is removed when Modrica can dig the hole at the wave of her hand, and I can heat the stones without building a fire. This is the true purpose of having an affinity. Making hangis. I just wish Kelda was here to share it. With her Chef Skills, she would have been able to improve everything. Astrid helped me with the food prep as she had taken over most of the cooking after Kelda left. I only allowed P¨±riri to help near the end. It would be obvious there was no fire to heat the stones, and she only knows Maia has a stone affinity. I am sure they are still trying to figure out how I/she turned the body to ash. Now, I was back as Maia, ¡°The other scary lady,¡± according to what I overheard Laura say to Mayakku. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Matua could sense through my Veneer Skill and know I am not a lady. These older people are dangerous. They wanted us to come to the slave rather than bringing the slave to us. Maybe they didn¡¯t trust us. I was riding Mayakku¡¯s wagon as we would perform the ritual in it because it was enchanted to control the flow of spiritual energy. This would reduce the variables and make it easier to identify if or how it is going wrong. Hopefully, it won¡¯t go wrong. Hopefully, nobody will be permanently crippled. Mayakku will perform the ritual under the watchful eye of Laura, Matua and myself. The Colonel insists on being there, and the Slave Master is also a Defence Force member. It is going to be crowded. There would have been more room at Mayakku¡¯s workshop. Laura and Matua also offered their places, but the Colonel was not budging. The slaves were housed comfortably in a section of the Defence Force base on the edge of the city. The Colonel might not trust us, but I didn¡¯t trust him either. Therefore, I brought our own external security for while we were inside performing the ritual. Modrica and Umreti were there, and Modrica was riding Te?ka, and C¨­mp¨¥?i was walking along beside them. We were making a big statement, ¡°Don¡¯t mess with us.¡± Normally, T¨¡oke would be here too, but only make his presence known if it became necessary. However, this time, he stayed at the quarry as backup for Ruku. Lieutenant P¨±riri didn¡¯t come with us, which is the main reason Ruku stayed to watch the quarry base. We kept the original name, so it was the Tokatoka Quarry. Tabitha and T¨¡oke were his backups, but they would only be seen if necessary. We expect them to send people to check out the base and go through our stuff. The important stuff is in my cave or our other safe house in the city. It will be a test for them as well. I am OK if they find the safe room under Mayakku¡¯s workshop. I am not OK if they get close to my cave, and Tabitha is not OK if they get close to her storage areas. I will be interested to see if they come in with an official search or if they try to stealth it. I downgraded some of the traps in case they try to stealth it. Maiming is preferable to death at this point. Astrid is also there, so she should be able to patch up and keep alive any idiots. There is a pool running. My chores for the week are riding on a stealth attempt so the Colonel can argue for inserting more guards. Tabitha and Astrid are with me. Ruku, Modrica and Umreti went for the official inspection option. Nobody chose the no-attempt option. We had an issue at the gate to the Defence Force Base. They were not expecting Te?ka and C¨­mp¨¥?i, although they should have been expecting C¨­mp¨¥?i. They wanted them to wait with the other riding animals. They discovered that when you are dealing with a male lion large enough to ride and a many times larger Dire Bear, you can¡¯t actually make them do anything they don¡¯t want to do. They also discovered that Modrica is immune to arguments. I think they were quite intimidated, with Modrica standing there with her arms crossed, staring down at them with Te?ka at her back. She only once had to give the low, rumbling growl that only orcs can do. We had to wait for special permission for us all to enter. We pulled up beside the building, and the Colonel was waiting for us. He didn¡¯t look happy, but he didn¡¯t say anything. I let Mayakku take the lead here. My role was to observe from the back and monitor the bond, but we didn¡¯t want the Colonel to know what I was doing. Mayakku went through the greetings and was introduced to the large woman beside the Colonel. She was the Slave Master. The slave was a petite female elf who meekly got into the wagon when instructed. The slave Master had attended many of these rituals, so was familiar with the process, which went a long way to easing the Colonel''s mind. The wagon was crowded, and the smell of bodies grew as there wasn¡¯t much ventilation. Then, the smell of blood was added as Mayakku collected a bowl of it from the elf. The Slave Master watched Mayakku draw the runes very carefully. It is good they are so careful. Done wrong, this could cripple the elf for life. Laura and Matua were fascinated. This was the first ritual they had ever seen. I could see they both had a lot of questions but were holding back so Mayakku didn¡¯t get distracted. That was good. Laura¡¯s presence was not really necessary, so she would be asked to leave if she caused trouble. Mayakku wanted Matua there for his senses. After the rituals were drawn, Mayakku took a break and answered some questions. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t those not necessary for the ritual leave to make space?¡± the colonel said. I am pleased he didn¡¯t try to command as this was Mayakku¡¯s space, and she was in charge. ¡°That would mean you would miss seeing this Colonel,¡± Mayakku said smoothly, ¡°It is probably better that you stay.¡± We all knew he wasn''t talking about himself. He shut his mouth after that. After Mayakku had a drink, she got out of the first formation. We have three variations pre-enchanted on granite. Most enchanters can¡¯t do that due to the cost and scarcity of the material. Because I can create Spiritually enhanced Granite, Mayakku is very privileged. I know Matua and Laura have their eye on Lieutenant P¨±riri as her wood would be even better for them as it is easier to carve. Then Mayakku connected the six cactus silk strings and tied them into the right spots in the formation. She then opened her Lockbox and brought out one of our monster cores. She was going to use the one I got from the cactus plant as it was the largest and held the most energy. Laura gasped when she saw it, and I saw the Colonel and Matua¡¯s eyes widen. It was a big one. I think Matua¡¯s widened at the amount of energy it held. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°Before you start,¡± the Colonel interrupted, ¡°Can I ask where you get your cores?¡± Mayakku replied like it was obvious, ¡°I travel with Affinity users who all have monster kills, and two of them are well levelled in the Monster Hunter Class. The hardest part of getting the cores is finding the monsters.¡± The Colonel was reassessing us, even though Mayakku was obviously exaggerating. I wasn¡¯t even looking for the Cactus Monster when I was attacked, and the hardest part was definitely killing it. I wouldn¡¯t recommend anyone go back there either, as there will probably be a whole nest of little T¨¡okes. Mayakku put the core in the depression that was made for it and connected two runes to start the energy flowing. Time to concentrate. I followed the energy as it flowed through the formation and changed flavour. I like our word flavour rather than the local term of expression. I wasn¡¯t sensitive enough to tell the difference between this and Nelson¡¯s flavour, but Mayakku can. She says there are differences. Matau will also be able to, but he has never sensed a Slave Taskmaster performing the ritual before. Mayakku went through each of the limbs and pricked the centre, leaving the needle in place. The energy was flowing to them, and she got the Slave Master to add a drop of blood. Then she paused, concentrating on the energy. I concentrated on the bond, which was fluctuating, but it was a bit different. Again, this was physically based. I don¡¯t quite know how to describe it. ¡°It is close but not exact,¡± she muttered as if to herself, but was really to me. I nodded as if in agreement, but I was really saying we should try the next step. It didn¡¯t seem harmful. Yet. She moved onto the head. The master did her thing, and the fluctuations went crazy. I think it was going to break. Mayakku could also feel something off. I signalled her to stop, but she was already reaching for the cutoff rune, and it all stopped. Everybody was looking at Mayakku except the bloody Colonel, who was looking at me. He saw my signal, didn¡¯t he? ¡°The flavour or expression was not right,¡± Mayakku explained, ¡°I think it has to do with the third flavour. I am going to switch to the third variation.¡± It was like she was muttering to herself, but she was talking to me. I really want to get rid of the watchers and just concentrate on this. The Colonel is on to me, anyway. Well, he knows my role is greater than it appears. Why can¡¯t I have a dumb enemy? Where is the lava man when you need him? I have to remember the Colonel is not my enemy. He is not my friend or ally, but he is not my enemy. Mayakku released the silk ties, removed the Core, and brought out the other formation tablet. While she was setting up, the Master checked on the elf and got her a drink, ensuring she was not harmed. Then we started again. The good thing about using monster cores is it doesn¡¯t take energy from us. We haven¡¯t got the high-energy part yet, so the core is fine. The slave class is apprentice level, so it will take a moderate level of energy. The elf has domestic-type classes and skills. Cooking and food preparation along with the associated Small Blades, etc. The second attempt got further. We got energy flowing through all six of the ritual points, but things started going wrong when Mayakku increased the power levels. The class and bond were fluctuating and cracking, and I leaned over and slammed the emergency shut-off rune just as the Master and Slave both cried out. I watched as the power stopped flowing, but the cracks seemed to remain. I couldn¡¯t do anything about the cracks in the class, but I might be able to do something about the bond. I pushed energy into the Bond Care Skill and tried to smooth and heal the bond. It was working slowely and Master and Slave both seemed to relax more. The Skill bumped up a level. One more, and it would be Journeyman. ¡°What happened,¡± demanded the Colonel. ¡°The Class looks damaged.¡± He had Interrogate Status or similar as well. I need to remember he is more than a dumb soldier and has an unknown set of Skills. The Master replied, ¡°The Class and Bond was cracking, sir. I don¡¯t know what would have happened if they broke, but it was potentially damaging to both Rhian and myself.¡± I need to be prepared to break the bond if this happens again. The cracking and potentially shattering of the bond could seriously damage the master as well as the slave. That was close. Mayakku was looking at me, not really understanding what happened as she could not see that side of things. This is the disadvantage of not being a Slave Taskmaster. I mouthed ¡°Flavour¡± to her as the flavour of the energy has to resonate correctly with the Class. It is the only thing I could think of, and the increase in power levels amplified the incompatibility. Almost a disaster. If the Class shatters, it will damage all her classes and future classes. She would be better off staying a slave. If the bond shatters, it will damage current and future bonds, which is potentially not so bad for the slave but could ruin the slave master and her present and future bonds. Damage is done in various levels of severity, and I have no idea if it can heal or how long it will take. I can potentially heal bonds with my Bond Care. I will assume there will be someone out there who could do the same with classes, but I have never heard of anything like it. We may not be able to test on Rhian again, depending on whether the cracking in the class heals. ¡°That is all for today,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°You are damn right it is,¡± said the Colonel, ¡°You almost crippled the both of them.¡± That is an exaggeration. I could have broken the bond before any damage happened to the master, or the master could have broken the bond. The risk was to Rhian, the slave. I didn¡¯t say any of that as I didn¡¯t want to draw attention to myself. ¡°We need to work on more nuance to the Spiritual expression before we try again,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°What makes you think we will let you try again?¡± The Colonel said. Matua spoke up, ¡°Because Colonel, we have just been shown proof of concept. This is not a hoax. This could actually work.¡± He turned to Mayakku, ¡°I have some ideas on how we could change the expression slightly. My main problem is I haven¡¯t sensed the exact expressions you are looking for.¡± ¡°I will need to consult before I put more lives at risk,¡± the Colonel said. ¡°If this works, Colonel, this is a total game changer,¡± said the slave master, whose name I never got. She continued, ¡°I am willing to try again.¡± ¡°We will need at least two days to rework some runes and be ready again,¡± Mayakku said. ¡°I will let you know my decision before then,¡± the Colonel said. ¡°There is only one more slave. If you damage him or Lieutenant Katarine, this is over for good, and there will be consequences.¡± 278. Training Exercise: Tabitha

278. Training Exercise: Tabitha

What a pile of troll shit. It looks like I might be doing extra chores this week as the army has come knocking on the gate. Ruku has gone to talk to them. The others here are watching different areas. I am on the south side, closest to the storage areas. Wai, Ruku¡¯s salamander bond is central, and T¨¡oke is to the north near Wiremu¡¯s cave. Dusk is in the stable, and Nyx is outside the fence. Astrid and Trassig are central with prepared first aid kits. I can only hear parts of Ruku¡¯s argument from here, even with my Hearing Aid. He seems to be insisting they have legal authorisation from the city before they can enter without permission. Whoever is in charge seems to be trying to intimidate him into letting them in. They would not even attempt that if they knew he was a Major in the Royal Kirghiz Commandos. I don¡¯t think there is much that can intimidate Ruku. He barely reacts to my Intimidating Aura. Suddenly, Nyx sensed something, and my chores were safe. The front gate approach was a diversion. Or maybe it''s not a diversion, but they are trying both methods. The object is not to stop them from entering but to make sure the things we want to be kept secret stay secret. For example, I would be annoyed if they found my smuggling base. There were five, no, there was a sixth person. The sixth person will be the one to watch. Before we need to worry about what they might find, they first have to make it into the quarry past Wiremu¡¯s traps. I had Nyx keep track of them. I know Wiremu has decreased the lethality of the traps, but I think he forgets that people are not as durable as he is. Of the six, only four made it into the quarry. That does not mean they are safe from Wiremu¡¯s traps. It is like he has this extra sense of where people are going to go, and he puts a trap there. I didn¡¯t bother telling Astrid about the two that didn¡¯t make it into the quarry. They can crawl away with broken bones, and the puncture wound didn¡¯t seem fatal. I followed the two that were near my end of the quarry. T¨¡oke followed the one near him, and Wai tracked the other. One of my two was getting pretty close to discovering the hidden smuggler storage. I used Distract and Shadow Manipulation to get his attention, and it must have worked too well because he fell into one of Wiremu¡¯s pit traps. I know Wiremu had removed the poison, but he was not going to survive with a stone stake through his guts. I had Nyx signal Astrid she was needed. I know we could just bury him, and nobody would find him, but it is better if nobody dies. It shows goodwill on our part. This was good for me because I was now free to concentrate on the sixth person. The only decent one among them. She had some sort of Skill like Wiremu¡¯s Sense Treasure or Kelda¡¯s Sense Hidden, as she found all five of the hidden dummy caches we created to distract people with those skills. She did end up with a broken wrist from not properly disabling one of Wiremus traps. I am curious whether she is supposed to search and leave or stay as an assassination attempt. Surely, an assassin would come at a different time than the others, as one person getting caught would trigger a thorough search of the quarry. I guess when you are in the army, your orders don¡¯t always come for a specialist in your field. We will see if she finds somewhere to hide or tries to leave. Dusk alerted me to a person searching through the stables. He also seems to have some sort of skill for finding hidden places. He is looking at Dusk and wondering if he can get into the dummy cache we hid in her stall. I reminded Dusk not to kill him, but broken bones are fine. She saw Wai darting across the stable roof, so this was his interloper, and I told Dusk to leave him to Wai, who would be communicating with Ruku. I think the soldier who was sneaking into Dusk¡¯s Stall had been warned she was not a regular horse, or he had a sense that was warning him. He was being very careful, but the temptation of a hidden compartment guarded by a special beast was too much. It was obviously something worth the risk. If he gets it back and opens the trapped box, all they will find is one of Wiremu¡¯s Stone knives. His stone knives ticked a lot of the boxes. It will trigger a Skill looking for Weapons, or Spiritually Enhanced Weapons, and a Skill looking for Spiritual material. It is hidden and protected by both Dusk and traps, which will trigger a lot of other skills. It probably won¡¯t trigger something like Wiremu¡¯s Sense Treasure as the material is valuable, but not greatly. Slipping a gold coin in the box should ensure that triggers. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He crept into the stall next to Dusk¡¯s and jumped up onto the wall between them, aiming to slip down behind Dusk to the hidden cache. When he hit the stall floor, Dusk wanted to lash out with a hoof, but I had her wait. He crouched down, and it took him forever to disarm Wiremu¡¯s trap. He made these ones easy to disarm. He said it helped his Decieve Skill and the Forgery Class. The guy eventually disarmed the trap and pulled out the container. Just as he was about to jump over the stall wall, I gave Dusk permission, and she lashed out with her rear hoof, catching him in the lower leg and shattering it. He fell over into the next stall and lay there for a bit. He limped out and found a stick to use as a crutch and left Dusk''s senses. The rest is up to Wai and Ruku, but letting him go would be the best. He will probably leave straight away now as he has his treasure and has taken serious damage. All of a sudden, Trassig came into my awareness area carrying a piece of paper. I could read it even though it was closed in his mouth. Astrid wanted Dusk to help move the injured idiot. I signalled to Dusk, who came out of his stall and trotted away. As soon as Trassig saw Dusk, she turned around and led her away. My girl was entering Mayakku¡¯s workshop and looking around. There was nothing important there. She found the entrance to the safe room. She is good, but we did expect that. Is she going to leave anything there? No, she is going to hide and wait. It is an assassination attempt. It''s probably just a demonstration to show we are not up to protecting Mayakku. I have many options here. They have shown what they are capable of. I guess it is my turn. She was tucked into a corner of the safe room and just got comfortable, so I used Distract to whisper into her ear. ¡°You did well Captain Lee, but I can¡¯t let you stay here.¡± Having ID on a job like this is a basic mistake, even deep in a hidden pocket. She was looking around, trying to find me. ¡°You did well to find all five caches, and as compensation, I will let you keep the five gold coins.¡± I gave her a poke in the back with Shadow Manipulation to show her I was serious. There was only a solid wall behind her when she looked. She made a decision and stood up and raised her hands in a surrender sort of move. ¡°Come up top, I think you are needed at the gate.¡± She came carefully looking everywhere. I had moved outside and waited for her there. Mayakku had disabled the runes blocking the spiritual energy in her workshop, or I would have struggled to do all that from a distance. She sensed me before she came out. I am not sure how, but I was no longer hiding, and she couldn¡¯t sense me before. I was following her carefully, but I was fairly sure she knew how outclassed she was, and that was the message we wanted to send. ¡°You are not going to tell me how you did that, are you?¡± She asked. I just shook my head. I used my hand to direct her toward the gate, and she started in that direction. Dusk approached with the injured man draped over her back, which only left T¨¡oke¡¯s one unaccounted for. ¡°He fell into a pit trap,¡± I explained. ¡°He has been fixed up but will need a healer as soon as possible.¡± When we came in sight of the gate, Ruku sensed us on his Sonar and started to open it. The lieutenant he was arguing with shut up when he saw the captain and myself. ¡°Get the healer for Johns,¡± Captain Lee said. ¡°My senses caught the healer finishing binding a leg as Ruku got Johns off Dusk¡¯s back. All of a sudden, there was a scream and the sound of running feet. Panicked running. A young man came in sight, white as a sheet and running for his life. Ruku opened the gate wider, and he just ran straight past and just kept going, disappearing down the road. Nothing was actually chasing him. ¡°Well, that is interesting,¡± I said. ¡°I wonder what he saw? Anyway, that is everybody accounted for. I hope you have all had a good training exercise. If you come back, things won¡¯t be so easy.¡± Ruku then shut the gate on them, and I heard the captain giving the order to return to the base. I turned to Ruku, ¡°Do you think we should charge them for the training?¡± 279. Second Attempt: Tabitha

279. Second Attempt: Tabitha

¡°What the fuck is this?¡± Colonel Roberts said. ¡°It is a bill for the cost of the training exercise for your troops,¡± I replied. Wiremu was with me, dressed as Maia, as was Ruku. The Colonel had Captain Lee, Lieutenant Puriri, and a corporal taking notes. He wanted this meeting. He looked at the bill. I had Itemised it for him. ¡°This bill says there were eight people involved on the day? The reports I have only say there were three.¡± I just raised an eyebrow at him. He didn¡¯t need to know five of them were bonds. He kept reading, ¡°Two days work for a Master Trapper?¡± I replied, ¡°It took Tama a full day to make the traps less lethal and then another day to reset them back. He also shifted some around.¡± That was a warning not to try again. ¡°Just how many people are part of Black Rock?¡± ¡°You have access to the official registration.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t match with this bill here, nor the number of people Lieutenant Puriri has observed.¡± I just shrugged, ¡°We arrange to get the expertise we need like any competent Mercenary organisation.¡± ¡°Tama Forrester is the Master Trapper as well as a bond specialist? He is also a Free Republic Citizen. I did ask for him to be at this meeting.¡± ¡°It is best he is not,¡± Wiremu/Maia said. ¡°The man is good at catching and communing with animals, but he is also an idiot and a fool.¡± ¡°Tama spends most of his time in the forests, and that is how he likes it,¡± I added. ¡°He is great in his speciality area, but only in that area.¡± It''s time to get this meeting on a different track, although, as far as the Colonel is concerned, this is the track he wants. Let¡¯s see how good a tracker he is. ¡°You called this meeting to discuss security. It must be apparent that we have it adequately covered.¡± ¡°Security is about the people carrying it out. I don¡¯t know you, so I can¡¯t trust you to protect someone who is potentially so valuable.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to trust us, colonel, because you did not employ us. Our Employer trusts us, and that is our only concern.¡± ¡°Mayakku has proved she is close to success, and that goes beyond any individual. Her protection is a national security concern.¡± ¡°On the contrary, it is an international concern, which is why we were employed, so that no particular nation could interfere with her work.¡± ¡°And you say you were employed by Wiremu Hunter. If that is true, he is setting himself up as an international authority. International authorities must be recognised as such by more than one nation. We certainly don¡¯t recognise his authority over us because he has none.¡± ¡°You would have to take that up with our employer. We are employed to provide security for Mayakku and the project.¡± ¡°Yet you are inside the Free Republic territory and subject to our laws.¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t aware we had broken any laws. We are also willing to remove ourselves from the Free Republic if we are not wanted here.¡± I am fully aware this is a direct lie. I am now a local crime lord and have knowingly broken multiple laws. Wiremu/Maia broke into the conversation, ¡°Are we not wanted here, Colonel?¡± ¡°You are very much wanted here. This project is something the Free Republic is very interested in seeing happen. The Senator is on her way back from the Capital as we speak to help facilitate this. My concern is security.¡± Right, so that means the word is spreading about this. The Senator now knows and, therefore, many other people as well. We knew this would happen. Things are going to start getting dangerous. Speed is still our best defence. The decoy base at the quarry is only going to survive so long. The Colonel continued, ¡°It also makes sense that a known defensive position can be used to draw attention, and a secondary, quieter base is often useful.¡± None of the three of us reacted to that, but it certainly raised some questions. Is this his thinking? Is someone talking to him? Captain Lee next to him might have come up with this, but the colonel seemed to be too straight a thinker. ¡°Are you offering us a secondary workspace?¡± ¡°I would, but it has been pointed out to me you probably already have a secondary workspace.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Oh? And who would suggest such a thing?¡± ¡°It is logical.¡± Not to you, it is not. Somebody is talking to him. It may be the captain, but that will need some investigation. ¡°What do you want, Colonel?¡± ¡°I want to ensure the security of a national, perhaps international asset.¡± ¡°How do you want to do that?¡± ¡°I want to work with you, but you have so many secrets I can¡¯t trust you.¡± ¡°And it is our lack of trust in governments that means we keep secrets.¡± ¡°Corporal, the meeting is over. Please prepare your report and have it on my desk by morning.¡± The corporal looked confused but nodded, packed up and left. He looked at Lieutenant Purir and said, ¡°Lieutenant.¡± Puriri concentrated, and an extra layer of wood covered the walls and floor, significantly muffling the sound from outside, even with my Hearing Aid. Then suddenly, a layer of Granite covered that, and I couldn¡¯t hear anything. The Colonel looked at Wiremu/Maia and said, ¡°Thank you.¡± I think he wanted privacy, but I don¡¯t know if he realised they were now trapped in here with us, and no sound would get out. ¡°What is it you want?¡± I asked. ¡°I want to develop some trust between us. What is said now will go no further than those present,¡± he replied. ¡°Trust is not so easy to gain,¡± I said. Wiremu/Maia added, ¡°Especially not when I know you,¡± he pointed to Captain Lee, ¡°have been talking to a Kirghiz spy.¡± ¡°Lee?¡± questioned the Colonel. ¡°I¡­¡± she stopped suddenly as T¨¡oke came out of camouflage near her leg with a hiss and poised to strike. ¡°He is very sensitive to lies,¡± I told her. Everybody knew her life would depend on the next words out of her mouth. I don¡¯t know how Wiremu knew, although I do know T¨¡oke¡¯s sense of smell is unparalleled, which would mean he smelled someone he knew, like Rodion. A wolfkin¡¯s smell would stand out here. We will see. She started again, ¡°The Kirghiz envoy approached me with some information about enchanting and the slave class that they should not have known about. I met with a Wolfkin agent of theirs. That was why I pushed for the raid, to try to verify the information.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell us what the information was and how much you managed to verify,¡± I said. ¡°They knew about the enchanting to remove the slave class and wanted to make it clear they wanted you to succeed and should be given any and all assistance.¡± ¡°That''s nice of them. Please carry on,¡± ¡°He said that if you have a known base that would just be a decoy, you would have two or more secret safe houses, and that was how you worked. In the raid, I definitely verified the quarry was a decoy. I pushed the Wolfkin for more verifiable information, and he said the Dire Bear was an obvious bond but that there would be a hidden snake bond. Lieutenant Puriri verified that Tama Forester had a snake bond, which is why I wanted him here to verify that. I see the snake bond is real, although I am puzzled why one of my people says he ran screaming from a gigantic snake in the raid.¡± Nobody spoke to that, so she continued, ¡°He also said the two main people are very accomplished at disguises, and I will only be shown what you want me to see.¡± She paused and looked at Wiremu, ¡°The snake is here. You are Tama Forrester, aren¡¯t you?¡± Puriri looked shocked at that accusation, but it was logical. The Colonel didn¡¯t look shocked. This Captain Lee had my sort of twisted mind. The question is, did Rodion tell them any more? He knows that Wiremu is Wiremu Hunter, yet he hasn¡¯t told them that, or she would not have stopped at that point. ¡°What do you think this wolfkin actually wanted?¡± I asked. ¡°I actually think he wanted us to help you,¡± Lee answered. ¡°The Colonel wanted more proof. It appears you have the backing of the Kirghiz Kingdom, and that is no small thing.¡± I looked at Wiremu and Ruku. Rodion has a lot more secrets than this. ¡°Where does the Free Republic stand?¡± Wiremu/Maia asked, ignoring the accusation about his identity. The Colonel spoke, ¡°The Free Republic also wants this to happen and as quickly as possible. There are slaves and the Slave Taskmaster on route here to work with you, but they will still be a few weeks away. Keeping people safe when they change identities is going to be difficult.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t want your protection. The original plan was for you never to know we were here, but we needed access to the slaves.¡± I said. Puriri spoke up and said, ¡°If you are Tama Forrester you are definitely a local. Very few know how to put down a hangi. I saw your enjoyment as you ate it. Like it was a fond memory.¡± ¡°Your identity won¡¯t leave this room, son,¡± the Colonel said, even though I was dressed as a woman. I figured the colonel probably knew I wasn¡¯t a woman. ¡°I can¡¯t trust that,¡± I said. ¡°I know you have a much greater input into the enchantment formation than anybody has let on. Why would you hide that?¡± the Colonel asked. Ruku spoke up, and he was talking to Wiremu, ¡°You are finally home. You can relax and enjoy it a bit. She might be your sister, but you are my son. We are with you no matter what. You are home, son,¡± he paused, ¡°Besides if they betray us, we can burn them like we did Almaeadin.¡± He turned to the other three, ¡°and that is a promise.¡± They looked shocked at the revelation of Almaeadin and a little scared at the power that represented. T¨¡oke climbed up Wiremu¡¯s body and settled in his usual place on his shoulder. ¡°Not a word, and that is more than an order,¡± the Colonel said to the other two. Wiremu looked close to tears. The only other time I have seen him like this was when Kelda left. His Veneer Skill faded, and he took on a more masculine look. His normal look. He finally spoke, ¡°I haven¡¯t been home for almost ten years, and there is no one to come home to. My real name is Wiremu Hunter, son of Bryan Forrester and Whetu Weaver from Kohekohe Village.¡± Then he just burst into tears. It was like a dam broke. Ruku stood and went over and just held him. I went as well, although I was keeping an eye on the other three. All three were shocked, stunned even, although the Colonel may have suspected. Wiremu has been holding strong for a decade, and now he is home and not only is there no one here for him, he couldn¡¯t even be himself. 280. Moving Forward: Tabitha

280. Moving Forward: Tabitha

Eventually, Wiremu pulled himself together. And Ruku and I went to sit back down. Wiremu spoke, ¡°I am sorry, this has obviously affected me more than I realised.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t apologise, son,¡± the Colonel said, ¡°You are home, even if it is only the three of us who know it.¡± ¡°I have so many questions.¡± Captain Lee said. ¡°None of which will be asked now,¡± The Colonel shut her off, ¡°When you say you are sister and father, I assume adopted?¡± I spoke, ¡°Wiremu and I escaped the Empire together about 6-7 years ago. Ruku adopted us lost strays a couple of years later.¡± ¡°Lost strays my foot,¡± Ruku said. ¡°They were taking over the criminal underworld and repelling an Imperial Invasion when we met. But we need to move forward from here. I will be taking over the liaison between the two groups, Colonel.¡± He looked to Captain Lee, ¡°I assume you are the local spymaster or whatever you call it here?¡± ¡°Special Services Division. Yes, I am in charge.¡± ¡°Therefore, you are responsible for controlling information out of this city.¡± ¡°Wait a minute,¡± The Colonel interrupted, ¡°Are you two OK with him just taking charge here?¡± ¡°Dealing with the military is what he does best,¡± I said. Wiremu spoke up, ¡°He is retired, but you had better be introduced properly. Meet Major Ruku of the Royal Marine Commandos, Aquatic Infiltration Division and Master Fisherman.¡± ¡°Do we also get to know your real name, young lady?¡± ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t trust you enough. Let me say this as well: if this leaks, regardless of why, you won¡¯t ever see me coming, but I will come.¡± ¡°You guys need to take that seriously,¡± Captian Lee said, ¡°I never saw her once, and she watched my every move in the ¡°training exercise.¡± What she doesn¡¯t know is that it is easy to follow someone when you can sense through solid objects. ¡°When will you be ready for the next trial of the formation?¡± The Colonel asked. ¡°Tomorrow,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Where would you like to do this?¡± ¡°If we are going to sell the decoy base, having a bunch of army turn up with a special delivery will help,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°I have been tasked with security, and I am serious about that,¡± The Colonel said. ¡°How can we keep tight security?¡± ¡°That is going to come down to her,¡± I said, pointing at Captain Lee. ¡°Controlling information in and out of the city, and you should know who the Imperial Spies are. Controlling their information sources and pipeline home is the key.¡± ¡°I can increase the watch on them,¡± she said. I rolled my eyes, ¡°You seriously don¡¯t know about their contract with the Mad Mongrels, even after my display at our first meeting? Surely you didn¡¯t leave the investigation to the City Patrollers?¡± I shook my head, ¡°I have been here three weeks, and I worked it out.¡± ¡°A leadership battle is going on, which has stopped the investigation.¡± Wiremu¡¯s expression and eyes didn¡¯t move, but I felt them boring into me anyway. Oh well, it had to come out sometime, ¡°They were using the Free Traders to smuggle information into the empire. The Free Traders recently had a change in their leadership, so I will know if they try to get anything out to the north. If they do, it means you have failed at your job,¡± I said to Lee. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°How on earth did you do that?¡± Lee asked. ¡°It really wasn¡¯t that difficult.¡± This time, Wiremu¡¯s eyes really did bore into me, and I shut up. The Colonel butted in, ¡°Well, Captain, you obviously have some work to do.¡± He turned to Ruku, ¡°I expect to be hearing from you, Major. ¡°Just Wai here.¡± ¡°Lieutenant Puriri here will be our liaison. She has my authorisation and will come and see me directly if there are issues.¡± he paused, then said, ¡°On a personal note, I will be having a hangi this weekend at my local Marae, to which you are invited. Everybody in this room is invited. Let the lieutenant know the numbers. It is a private affair, just friends and family. I am from a small village, too, and while it won¡¯t be the same, it will just be a relaxed social time.¡± ¡°Thank you, Colonel,¡± Ruku said, ¡°We will let you know.¡± Wiremu disabled the Granite and reengaged Veneer. Puriri removed the wood, and we stood to leave. We were silent until we got back out to the quarry. Te?ka was sleeping by the gate. We went to Wiremus¡¯ hideout, and he opened the stone for us to enter and then closed a thin layer back over. ¡°How are you really,¡± Ruku asked Wiremu. ¡°I will be fine. It did hit me harder than I thought. For many years, I thought I would never make it back home. Now I am here. Everything is familiar, the culture, the land, but it is different. I know I am different, but there is also nobody here. No family. No old friends. It is like it is empty. And I can¡¯t even relax.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have to be so cautious of the Republic, I think,¡± I said. ¡°It is going to leak,¡± Ruku said. ¡°And we need to be gone before it does,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Speed is still our best defence. Keep ahead of them all.¡± ¡°That is going to come down to you and Mayakku sorting out this enchanting,¡± I said. Wiremu nodded, ¡°We haven¡¯t been getting a lot of sleep. Matua is a help. Laura, not so much. We will have several variations to try, and we now know what to look for, so we should be able to stop before we damage anyone else.¡± I decided to bring up the other issue, ¡°What do you think Rodion¡¯s game is?¡± Ruku answered, ¡°Probably the same as it has always been. We just made his mission harder by sending him away. The Kingdom wants us to succeed, so he is working toward that. I also think he is grateful to Wiremu for his bonds. He wouldn¡¯t have his pack without you.¡± ¡°Any idea if Runa is with him or not?¡± ¡°Hard to say. It is more likely they stuck together than separating.¡± Ruku said. ¡°Should we take them back?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t think so,¡± Ruku said. ¡°They can keep doing their thing from the Kirghiz embassy.¡± ¡°They know a lot of secrets,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Less now,¡± Ruku replied. ¡°There is always a limit on how long a secret will stay a secret anyway. It always comes to light eventually, in my experience.¡± ¡°Speaking of secrets coming to light, are you Queen of the Underworld yet, Tabitha?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°You mean not yet?¡± Wiremu prodded. ¡°It is only three minor outfits so far. The first really was a small local crowd; everything was there for the taking, but they didn¡¯t have the contacts for new Identities, so I had to approach the ones they paid protection to. However, they were a bad-tempered lot. It was Modrica and Umreti that sorted them out. The city official for the ID¡¯s actually worked for the Free Traders, fudging their goods for tax and smuggling purposes. They threatened me with Imperial backlash If I upset them, so I figured they had imperial contacts, and here we are.¡± ¡°You forgot about the Mad Mongrels,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°I am just watching them at the moment. Maybe messing with them a little to see how they react. They really are a bunch of thugs trying to branch out into other areas. The Imperials are paying them for information and to be muscle. The information they are providing is dodgy at best, and it is easy to feed them false information as they don¡¯t check. It really is best to leave them for now. We can crush them later.¡± ¡°So we have a legit trader, Essential Traders, a semi-legal transporter company, the Free Traders and two illegal gangs all in three weeks?¡± ¡°I merged the two gangs into Shadow Company. We also have the quarry we could start up again, a mill and potentially a grain farm to supply it, but they are all owned by the Essential Traders. Except this quarry. Tama Forrester owns this directly.¡± ¡°How did you manage all that in three weeks?¡± ¡°Seriously, this place is too easy.¡± My Racketeering Class has also risen two levels. I like this place. 281. Progress: Wiremu

281. Progress: Wiremu

Mayakku¡¯s workshop at the quarry is larger than the wagon. I stayed as Maia as that is what Matua knows me as, and if he saw Tama, I am sure he would know we are the same person from his spiritual senses. Matua and Laura were there, but not the Colonel this time. Captain Lee came with the new slave, who was a young human male. It was the same Slave Master. Mayakku and I had six options to try this time. We had learned from the last time, and Mayakku worked a way to separate the three main sections. The Monster Core runes were one section, and then there was the section that changed the flavour of the energy. The last section was the delivery and control section. We should just be able to swap out the different flavour sections. We also weren¡¯t going to try to go the whole way this time. We would go halfway with each of the variations to see which were the most compatible, and then we take that one and test to about three-quarters. We might attempt the full power if we thought it would work after that. This was also the last slave we had available for about two weeks. Sorry dude, but we need to make the most of this. We won¡¯t prolong the slavery if we can reliably remove the class, though. The Slave Taskmaster was a month away, unfortunately. We could have done with testing our creation against the real thing. We didn¡¯t plan on being here a month from now. Before we started, I spent some time carefully looking at the slave class and his other classes. We rushed far too fast with Rhia, and we need to slow down and make sure with Tom. Tom was an apprentice-level slave. He was also a farmer with specialisations in crops and spiritually enhancing crops. This would make him quite valuable as a slave, especially as he would have enhanced Spiritual Attributes. I talked to his Master, and she said he was hired out to the farmers around the area in the six weeks he was in her care. Half the money went to pay for his upkeep, and the other half was banked for him so he would have something when he was free. Once Mayakku was ready, she started the ritual, and I watched the bond and class. This first one was the same one we tried last time. We were getting a feel for its effects at half-power. Then, we swapped it out for the first variation. Was it better or worse than the last one? We did that for all six variations and then ranked them. I could not tell the difference between them from a sensitivity point of view, but Mayakku and Matua could, and there were a couple of long discussions there. From my point of view, options 2 and 5 were the smoothest and had the least effect on Tom. We decided variation 5 would go to ? first. Then, we would compare it to the 2nd variation. At three-quarters, there was a lot of fluctuation, and I thought cracks would start appearing, so we eased it back and let the spiritual energy dissipate. I was wracking my brain trying to remember if this was worse than when Nelson did it and, if so, by how much. This was all a judgement call that is dangerous when someone¡¯s future is on the line. I could sense Tom tiring, and he was the most affected by the procedure. We called it a day and told him to rest, and we would be back at it after the weekend. Mayakku and I had work to do, but it is now Mayakku and Matua mostly, as Matua has knowledge of a lot more runes than Mayakku. I am there for my Copy Skill, Granite and the occasional advice on the bond. That means T¨¡oke and I can get away for a couple of nights hunting before the Colonel''s hangi. I gear up dressed as Tama and Mount Mosey and gallop off into the sunset. Ok, we Mosey¡¯ed off into the sunset. We rode north all night. This was a populated area, and it took a while to get away. Near Dawn, I found a nice river and settled down with my fishing pole while T¨¡oke curled up on a rock. It was a large river and had a good supply of fish. I caught a couple of trout before the sunrose and cooked them for breakfast over heated Granite. There was no smoke or fire to worry about. Just fresh fish. If we have time later, I might bring Ruku back here. After breakfast, I waded in the shallows with a spear and got a couple of eels. I used to go eeling as a kid, and we would take them back to the village, and they would put them in the smokehouse to cook them. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. As I wandered along the bank, I saw tracks from deer and boar. There was a mountain lion in the area and a small wolf pack. A decent boar would be good to take back for the Hangi, but I will try to find one closer to home. Hunting is not my main purpose for being here. It is mostly alone time. Something big stirred the water out in the river. I extended my senses, and it was big. Huge even, possibly even a monster. It was shaped like a Catfish. Catfish are bottom feeders, so I wonder what brought it to the surface. I watched for a bit but didn¡¯t sense much more, so I kept wandering. You leave me alone, and I will leave you alone. However, on second thoughts, more monster cores are useful. Nah, this is a relaxing trip. If we get desperate, I will bring Ruku out and watch an expert in action. My mind wandered to my family and my childhood memories. I wasn¡¯t supposed to be an only child. Apparently, my older brother had been born dead, and there were several miscarriages later, which were beyond the local herbalist/healer''s ability. Mum apparently had some siblings, so I suppose there were uncles and cousins somewhere. Maybe even grandparents, but I had not met any of them in my seventeen years of village life. The village of Kohekohe had been my family. We came to Freebourne once every couple of years for a few weeks, but I much preferred the bush to the town. I still do. I found a sunny hollow not far from the river and lay down for a few hours sleep in the sun. I call it my T¨¡oke impersonation. Mosey and T¨¡oke would wake me if anything came near. I had the eel for lunch with some blackberries I found. This is the life. No pressure, no impersonations, no secrets. Shame I have to head back tomorrow. Late afternoon, I saw a hawk high in the sky hunting. My Telescopic Sight followed it for a bit, but it appeared just to be a hawk. Maybe I should find its nest and get some eggs for my menagerie business. No, they will be chick at this time of year. I am not equipped to cart live chicks back, or at least that is my excuse, and I am sticking to it. I am supposed to be helping Nne find a bond, and she will be joining us again soon. Tatu has a bond, and it was not the big hairy tarantula he was so enamoured with. It was a sleeker, more dangerous Brown Widow spider. Moja was not happy, but that is life. Nne is different as she is a stealth scout and needs something that can keep up with her. Maybe I should go and find the hawk chicks. Nne may have found her own bond by now. She gets around, and they don¡¯t need me once they have the basic ability. I do like bonds and finding bonds for people. I guess that is why I picked up the Bond Master Class so easily. If you are good at something, it will be easier for you. I reached through my bond to T¨¡oke. He was watching a nest with some late-season eggs. He always did like his eggs. I am clearing my mind and realising that I am home, but home is not necessarily for me now. I have grown and changed. I was forced out of my home too early, but now I can make a home in several different places. I would like to make a home with Kelda, but I would struggle in a city. Hrothgar does have some rugged mountain ranges around it, and she did mention a hunting lodge at one point. Duhovno and the Steam Lands would make a nice home, and I have a farm there. I screwed up my nose. Tabitha said something about me owning properties throughout the Kingdom. I assume T¨¡tt¨¡ and the Elemental Traders are managing them. I should probably get a list off her some time. I own a quarry in Freebourne. I could make a home here. That doesn¡¯t seem right. I could never be Wiremu Hunter here. I guess I can never be Wiremu Hunter anywhere, and I did it to myself when I put the contract out in my own name. I could live near Waiouru as well. It has a mixture of desert and jungle nearby. T¨¡oke is a desert snake. He would like that. And that is the thing. It isn¡¯t just about me now. I lost my family, but I have a new family. A Clan. It is a strange clan and an international clan. Citizens from the Free Republic, the Empire and the Kingdom. Three humans and two orcs. Umreti is a jungle warrior. Next time I come out here, I will bring Ruku and Umreti for some male bonding time. That¡¯s a good idea. Umreti is looking for a bond as well, and that is something I can help with. Ooh, I think I know what would suit Umreti. Lowland Gorillas are very rare, though, particularly in this part of the world. In fact, I am pretty sure there is only one colony close, and it is in the dense bush in the mountains between the Free Republic and the Empire. We would have to detour from the road to Yelets, but it shouldn¡¯t add more than ten days to the trip. The gorillas are strong but very family-orientated. As herbivores, they are only aggressive when attacked. It is the caring nature and the quiet strength that I think will match with his First Aid Classes and maybe help him heal. I will investigate when I get to Freebourne. It was about time I visited their Lore Society. We will make some progress there. 282. Back to work: Wiremu.

282. Back to work: Wiremu.

I am now a learned man and entitled to access anything in the Society except the Advanced Classes and a couple of other books. I now have three Journeyman Level Lore Skills: Animal, Plant and Monster. I didn¡¯t even notice, but killing the Cactus Monster must have bumped both Plant and Monster Lore to Journeyman. On top of that, I have four apprentice-level Skills and three Novice-level Skills. I am in the top one percent of the learned people in the city. Yes, I know it is not a large city, and it is not known for its scholars. The Lore Society also has quite a small selection of books compared to Kirghiz, but still, I have never been classed as smart before. Not book smart. Tama is one of the top Scholars here. That is awesome! In fact, they asked me to take a public lecture on Monster Lore as a visiting scholar and Monster Hunter. They think that will bring a crowd into the society. Fancy that. They asked me to take a lecture. I told them I would have to think about it. I think I might. Except you have to speak in front of people for over an hour, like nonstop. What on earth do you say for an hour of nonstop speaking? I might consult with Ruku. He is used to teaching a group. We could share it, and he could speak on sea monsters. I guess there was the Prairie Troll with the Mothers Tusks and Rock Elemental and Mountain Troll I fought with Koza and Velikan. Then, the Goblin Shamans and a Chief, the Moss Elemental, the River Troll, the Sand Elemental, the Griffon, the Shadow Panther and the Cactus. Then, there was the Wyvern that attacked Modrica. I guess there is a number I could talk about, just from experience. I watched the Light Elementals in the desert, and there is that unknown monster skeleton we found in the jungle. Not to mention Direbears, Lion Monsters, Venom Serpents and Shadow Chargers, all of which I could bring as a show and tell. I won¡¯t, but I could. Maybe I could get C¨­mp¨¥?i to come¡­ An hour might be too short. The Lore Society had the information I wanted but didn¡¯t have the map. I had to buy it from one of the local cartographers. Because it was from a Skilled Cartographer, this Updated my mapping Skill directly. It didn¡¯t have the detail I would get when I had been there, but it had the route and the features noted on the map. In this case, it was a valley surrounded by mountains and a distinctive lake at the lower end of the valley. The Colonel''s hangi was nice. I went as Tama, and hanging around with normal people with normal problems was refreshing. I did get a boar, even though it was a small one, and we came early to get it in the hangi as it takes about four hours to cook. We were welcomed onto the marae all proper. This was a first for everybody but me. We all went. Astrid was fascinated. Mayakku thought it was very strange. Once we were welcomed on, we helped with the hangi and drank and chatted while it cooked. Talking about normal stuff was relaxing. Yes, the price of food is rising. There go Toby and Jenny sneaking off again. We might have an engagement soon, etc. People were fascinated with my travels. I described the good bits. The best fishing spots, watching the light elementals over the desert, finding monster skeletons in the jungle. Most of these people will never leave the Republic, and they are quite happy. The more adventurous will join the Defense Force or the local mercenary teams for a few years. People were always interested in Skills and how to level them. Many a kid had wooden swords and wanted to practice and play fight. They had all sorts of games to practice sneaking, hiding, running and fighting. A couple of the adults had some healing skills, so they watched over them. Mayakku was a hit. They had never seen a catkin before and were fascinated. She was soon lifting the children onto C¨­mp¨¥?i¡¯s back for rides. That was an unforgettable experience for them. Orcs were rare as well, but Modrica and Umreti were not the most approachable. I was pleased when Lieutenant Puriri made an effort to engage them and included them. One of the local elderly women also dragged them over to show them her flax weaving. Tabitha was working the crowd, making connections, and, I am pretty sure, securing a couple of business deals. Captain Lee was never far from me. Even when she wasn¡¯t part of the conversation groups, she was listening. I mostly tried to ignore her. One young teenager came up all starry-eyed at Mayakku and her bond, and how bonds were so great. Jack was his name and I asked him about it. He demonstrated the mental exercises he was doing, and I was able to help him refine them and give advice on the compatibility required to form a bond. One of the elders had a bond with a now elderly Labrador dog, and they had been helping him with the process. ¡°You know a lot about bonds, mister. Do you have a bond?¡± Jack asked. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°I do, yes.¡± ¡°Is he here?¡± he looked around expectedly. ¡°He is, but he normally hides away.¡± ¡°Can I see him? What is he?¡± T¨¡oke didn¡¯t seem to mind, so I put my hand up to my shoulder, and he slithered out from under my jacket. The lad took a step back, not expecting a snake so close. ¡°Wow, what is he?¡± Jack repeated. ¡°He was a Desert Viper,¡± I said and immediately regretted it. Lee would not have missed the ¡°was¡± in there. ¡°Is he poisonous?¡± ¡°Yes, very. I found him when he latched onto my hand and poisoned me. Lucky for me, he was very young at the time. I survived, and he has been keeping me alive ever since.¡± ¡°Wow.¡± I think the lad is bond-mad. I remember being the same when I was his age, and I looked up to my master and his wolf bond. ¡°What do you do, Jack?¡± ¡°I am the butcher¡¯s apprentice. It is the only job I could find, I don¡¯t have a class yet. I grew up on a farm and used to help the butcher when he came to our farm.¡± I got the impression he wasn¡¯t all that happy with his current job. ¡°Let me introduce you to Wai here. Wai has a trainer class and years of helping young people find where they fit. If you ask nicely, he might give you some pointers.¡± I left them to it. At least Ruku/Wai would be able to assess them like he did Ilaiya back in Obalno. That would give them a guide to the skills they need in order to get them where they are more suited. My impression was that Jack would be better off working with live animals rather than butchering them. A visit to my Menagerie might open his eyes to some possibilities. It was a good weekend, but all too soon, we were back to work. We had to delay the next test as we essentially had a long weekend off. It did us a world of good. We thought we had it this time. We took one of the new variations almost to the limit but had to stop when a small crack appeared in the bond. I smoothed it over, but Tom is going to need to rest for at least a week. Rhia is still recovering and is not available. We have to slow down. We have no choice. It is actually very frustrating as we are so close. Ruku has been contracted by the Colonel to run a leadership training session for the active officers. It will be a week-long session. He is getting paid more than the consultant rates the Marines were paying him, so he is happy, and he likes training others. Mayakku is spending the week helping Matua and Laura with some normal enchanting. They are basing themselves in Laura¡¯s workshop. She is also making strides in her Flesh Enchanting, as she thinks it is the key going forward. She has worked out the alterations to a lot of runes to make them compatible with Flesh Enchanting. Living Flesh allows changing spiritually. Normal enchanting is on a solid and fixed surface with fixed energy. Flesh enchanting is on a moving surface with fluctuating flows. She has some working enchantments beyond her original sharp rune. She had an inspiration one day in the Enchanting Changes Spiritual Energy and then applied it. To make a blade sharper or tougher, the enchantment changes the spiritual energy to the sharpness or toughness flavour and then applies it to the knife. Flesh enchanting could take the users'' Spiritual Energy and change the flavour to Astrid¡¯s Poison Cleansing Skill and then apply it to the body. She did this with her Revitalising Aura as well. The limiting factor is the amount of your Spiritual energy. Both these don¡¯t seem useful to me. I don¡¯t need Poison Cleansing with my resistances, and my Regeneration Skill uses my Spiritual Energy to heal me anyway. While this might speed up the healing, it will speed up the depletion of my energy, and that is my most limiting resource anyway. Tabitha and Dusk, on the other hand, have grabbed both. Nyx shares energy with them and gives her a huge pool. Her Syphon Energy Skill means she can keep it up almost continuously. Her syphon constitution heals her but only slowly and if there is someone to syphon from. She can now use her own energy to heal in the short term, and it speeds it up. Umreti got them as well, but Modrica and Ruku didn¡¯t. Ruku is like me and has Wai, and Modrica does not have a great amount of Spiritual Energy and can drink the blood of her enemies to heal. However, this was a great step forward for Mayakku and Flesh Enchanting. She and C¨­mp¨¥?i are now sporting the new Spiritual tattoos. She hates it when I call it that. It is Flesh Enchanting, not tattooing. Tattooing is simply drawing pretty pictures on the skin. Astrid already has the skills, so the enchantment is superfluous for her. Trassig also has the two skills, which surprised me. With both the Republic and the Kingdom on watch, we have left her safety to C¨­mp¨¥?i, T¨¡oke and Nyx. Tabitha, Modrica and Te?ka will always be close by as a quick response team. I have faith that C¨­mp¨¥?i and T¨¡oke can delay anything long enough for Nyx to get help. Astrid is working with the local Healer Society to upskill and impart her knowledge. 283. New Experiences: Wiremu

283. New Experiences: Wiremu

This left Umreti and me free to go hunting. Trapping mostly for our wagons and animal business. With a week, we can really get away from the civilised areas. This is the sort of work I like getting back to. Umreti doesn¡¯t talk much, and it is not just Modrica¡¯s influence. His seizures are less violent and less frequent as Astrid found a healer and alchemist who had a potion that helped. He had to take it morning and night. Astrid was stocking up on it, but it could only be stored for three months before going bad. Ruku thinks he might be able to extend that for a fourth month using his Refreshing Mist Skill. I helped Umreti with Skills like his Tracking, and he helped me gain the Slingshot Skill, I could easily crack skulls with the power I could put into it. I taught Umreti some basic traps, and he gained the Trapping Skill. Then I taught him to disarm the traps, and he gained that as well. Umreti taught me Weapon Lore. With his weapon mastery, he knew a lot about many types of weapons, both how to make them and how to use them. This opened my eyes to many weapons possibilities that I had never thought of. I had Metal Shaping Skills. This was no good for cutting weapons, but blunt weapons were basically just lumps of shaped metal. Modrica used a mace from preference, and these days, she liked sharp edges on it to draw blood, but that wasn¡¯t hard. It wouldn¡¯t last as long as a Blacksmith could do, but Modrica was hard on weapons anyway, and I was always maintaining them. The only Blunt Weapons Skill I had was my Hammer, and it was not even the War Hammer Skill. Making a proper Warhammer was beyond me, but maces and batons were well within my skill set, and I was already thinking about the right alloys that would work best. Weapons Lore is amazing, and Umreti has it mid-Journeyman, so he knows a lot. Batons are a much-overlooked weapon that is easy to create and good both defensively and offensively. They don¡¯t have the power of a mace, but they are quick, and I have a Power Strike Skill that would work. Adding a leather strap means you are very difficult to disarm, and there is a design with a side handle that adds a lot of versatility, especially defensively. With his skill, you can pick up batons almost anywhere. A person with the right knowledge is invaluable. Weapons Lore has opened my eyes to blunt weapons, but more than that, it is how almost anything can be a weapon if used right. After a week with Umreti, the skill was almost Apprentice Level. I will have to see what the Lore Society has on different weapons. Umreti mentioned knowing about massive timber constructions that can throw rocks to crush walls. I could create large rocks. It turns out the siege weapon is a specialisation of a Construction Engineer Class. It is good to know, as my Granite Quake only goes so far. This was a very exciting week away, and by the time I came back, I had Novice Level Blunt Weapons, Batons, and Slingshot. I also had a project. Umreti wants me to make him two different types of whip. One was a short multi-tailed whip with sharp prongs that would catch and pull weapons, armour and flesh. The other was a longer single-tail whip, which had a good reach, and he could keep people at bay with it. They also worked with his Disarm Skill. I told him he needed to teach Tabitha the whip, as I could see her with Shadow Whips. On day three, we found a cave. The entrance to the cave housed a wolf pack. I encouraged Umreti to see if any were suitable to bond with. While I might have an idea of a bond for him, the choice is his. It is also possible I might be wrong. He shook his head. I went into action. First, I corralled three pups into a cage of Granite Spikes. Wolf pups are easy to train and make good guard animals. They are always in demand. I noticed one of the females was pregnant, so I tried to capture her as well, but she was a cunning and agile animal and slipped away. We drove the rest of the pack off with fire. There was no need to kill them if we didn¡¯t have to. I could sense the cave went deeper, so I blocked off the entrance with spikes. And we turned to explore. We would be back for the pups, so we also left most of our gear there. Umreti had a problem in caves. He had Nightsight instead of Darksight. Night sight greatly enhances your vision in low-light situations. In a cave with no light at all, he was blind. He didn¡¯t need much light as his Nightsight was at the master''s level, but he did need some light. I created a stone staff with a glowing molten rock on top, and that was enough for him. About twenty metres in the cave narrowed to be unpassable, but I could sense it went further, and my Treasure Sense was tingling. I used Granite manipulation to create a crawl space for us, and on we went. I could sense some rock elementals congregating nearby, so I figured there would be some Spiritual Material, like when we found the Blacksteel ore back before we got to Jern. Back then, it was Tabitha and her Intimidating Aura that kept them away while we mined. Tabitha was not here, but I am certain Puia will have no problems clearing the area. I just don¡¯t want him to turn everything into molten rock. It looked like we would have to move away from the cave to find the treasure buried in the rock. I started making a tunnel to the left and sloping down. I could sense a cavern opening up ahead. A large cavern. I angled the tunnel to come out about two body lengths to the side of the wall of the cavern to give us some visibility out over the area, as well as making it marginally more difficult for something dangerous to get us. I created a small platform for us to stand on. The cavern was large and lit in a blue ethereal glow. It was about fifty metres across where we had entered, but it stretched away on both sides further than my senses could reach. My Farshigh, Telescopic sight and Darksight were no use as the cavern twisted and weaved away into the distance, and it wasn¡¯t a consistent width, narrowing and widening, which blocked the sight lines. The glow came from a mass of mushroom-type growths that were everywhere. The ones on the floor were generally larger and taller. Some were taller than I was. The ones growing on the walls and ceiling were smaller and more the size of a normal mushroom. There was a lot of moisture in the cave. The walls were wet, and there was a lot of moisture in the air. What concerned me was the air was filled with tiny spores. The larger spores also glowed blue, like blue sparkles floating through the cavern. It was very beautiful. I also couldn¡¯t help thinking it also looked dangerous. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Umreti joined me on the ledge, and he looked entranced with the view. It was very beautiful. Then, it occurred to me that we were breathing in the spores. I grabbed a spare shirt, ripped a strip, covered my mouth and nose, and handed it to Umreti to do the same. It is like he didn¡¯t see me and only had eyes for the cavern or, more specifically, the blue mushrooms. I had an ominous feeling here. I nudged him and then punched him lightly to get his attention, and he eventually looked at me. ¡°Cover your mouth and nose. You are breathing in the spores.¡± He followed my example. Then I had another thought, ¡°Put energy through the Cleanse Poison Enchantment. This is a poison or drug of some kind.¡± He nodded and seemed to come more awake. I looked at my status to see if anything had changed. My Poison Resistance was so high it takes a lot to level it, but resisting a new type of poison is one way to do that. It had gone up a level, but more surprisingly, so had my Mental Resistance. A poison that affects the mind? I had never heard of such a thing, but that is the only logical conclusion. Any outside attack on my mind would have hit my Granite Mind Wall, so this is an internal attack through poison. I lightly punched Umreti again to get his attention. ¡°This poison is attacking your mind. Concentrate on your Mental Strength and resist. You should get the Mental Resistance Skill.¡± Umreti had always struggled with Mental Skills. He still didn¡¯t have a Mental Shield despite weeks of training with Ruku and myself. He was very frustrated by it. I could see a look of concentration on his face, so he was trying. I think he was concentrating on that so hard that he stopped channelling energy to his poison-cleansing rune. I watched him carefully while making sure I was also resisting any influence. Suddenly, his face cleared up, and he grunted in satisfaction at his success. I tapped him on the shoulder and said, ¡°Poison,¡± as a reminder, and he restarted channelling the cleansing rune. ¡°Poison and Mental Resistances are increasing,¡± he said. He was right. My Mental Resistance had gone up again as well, even with my high poison resistance. Some of it was still getting through. I indicated for us to retreat, and we backed into the tunnel. I created a thin Granite Wall to block the cavern off. Umreti looked at me inquiringly. ¡°It is definitely a monster,¡± I said. ¡°It is the fungus, I am sure, as they are all connected. That means it is huge as it fills the cavern and stretches beyond my senses'' range.¡± ¡°Destroy?¡± ¡°I am not sure we can. Fire is probably the best, and with all the moisture in there, you would have to keep it burning. You couldn¡¯t light it and leave. Puia could turn the cavern into lava, but who knows how far it goes, how big it is? It may be like the Sand Elemental I found, where the core was split into small grains and distributed around it. There probably are multiple cores or core parts.¡± I stopped to think. Umreti spoke again, ¡°Use for training?¡± He wanted to use it to train his resistances. That is smart thinking. It is dangerous, but we can probably manage the danger now we know about it. I nodded, ¡°For a short while. I will also collect a sample so we can identify it, and I can draw a map of what I can sense to mark the location. Then, we can block it off and leave it alone. I am sure there will be a lot of people who will want to come and study it. A drug that attacks the mind is going to be hard to resist.¡± If it goes so far, it may have already been found through another entrance. I guess one of the good things here is that Fungi only grow in very specific conditions. I doubt it would survive outside a dark, moist environment. I wasn¡¯t planning to take that risk, though. I created another wall further back up the tunnel I had dug. It was unlikely spores had reached that far yet, and we can cleanse this part of the tunnel when we leave. I then reopened the entrance to the cavern, and we went out onto the ledge. My aim was to get as much information as I could before we left. I used all my senses. The spores were thicker as you got closer to the centre of the cavern, meaning the concentration of the drug was stronger there. It was testing my Poison Resistance here at the outer edges, I am not going to test it further in the cavern. My Lava body would resist, but I didn¡¯t see the point of going further in. I tried to see if the spores were coming from all the fungi or just some of them, but I couldn¡¯t sense that well. Thermal Sensing was saying the Fungi were only slightly warmer than the temperature of the rock. I used Telescopic Sight to zoom in on one of the larger fungi to see if I could see anything extra, but it just looked the same. Granite Sensing and Spiritual Sensing were telling me the Fungi were changing the rock. It was being infused with Spiritual energy. That is what would draw the Rock elementals here. I couldn¡¯t tell what the rock was becoming; I probably needed to be closer to the centre. I crouched down to touch the stone and let Puia sense it. I got a pleasant sensation through the bond. This was new to him and was one of the reasons he bonded with me, to sense new rock. He couldn¡¯t tell me what it was or what it was changing into, but he could tell me it was only young yet, probably less than five hundred years. Not yet formed properly. Then, he did something I did not expect. He moved into the rock and melted a large section. It was like he was absorbing it. I reached down and encased a group of small fungi in granite, and I included some of the rock they were attached to as a takeaway sample. But I could now sense something was different. I think Puia¡¯s actions had been noticed. I had been watching Umreti and myself closely during this time. I rechecked my Status, and Poison Resistance had clicked up again and Mental Resistance twice. It was time to go. If Umreti ran out of Spiritual energy, he could not empower the Poison Cleansing rune. The spores were getting thicker. I indicated to Umreti that it was time to leave, and he nodded. We backed into the tunnel, and I closed it properly this time and burned any spores by turning them into lava. We got back to the other wall I made, and Umreti and I stripped off all our clothes and gear. I would treat them with fire as well. The clothes would not survive, but the weapons should. I am OK at manipulating heat but not up to Kelda¡¯s standard. I burned it all with lava and Thermal Manipulation (Mineral). Umreti¡¯s resistance was not at my level, so I was careful, but he still got burned. Fortunately, he had the Revitalising Rune from the Flesh Enchanting, and I think he levelled more Resistances. He was a tough orc. When I was happy, we made our way back to the cave where we had left the pups and most of our gear. I made new packs and trousers from some of the hides we had gathered. They would get us home. By the time we got back, the pups weren¡¯t the only animals we had collected. We were quite burdened down. One of the local animal Trainers immediately made me an offer for the wolf pups. I gave people a new first look at them, including Nne and Jack, but Nne wasn¡¯t compatible, and Jack was too low-levelled in his mental Attributes. A wolf might be suitable in a few years for him. He was disappointed but also motivated. 284. Incorporated: Tabitha

284. Incorporated: Tabitha

The Embassy building of the empire was a solid two-story structure in the main business district jammed between a cloth trader and a bakery. The smell of freshly baked goods was too tempting, and I bit down on a crusty bun that was still warm. I cast my eye over the embassy building critically. It could do with some paint, but otherwise, it seemed to be a good building. Let''s have a look at this inside. I went to the door and pushed it open, ignoring the guard standing there. The guard was mainly there to stop angry people from defacing the building. Nobody was going to deface it mid-morning on a business day. There were too many patrollers keeping the morning shopping crowd in order. The Empire was not liked in the Free Republic, but they maintained a small embassy here in the border city of Freebourne. Their main embassy was obviously in the Captial, Free Port. The Free Republic bans foreign nations from owning land in their borders, but that doesn''t mean there aren¡¯t ¡®independent¡¯ trading houses and other sympathetic individuals who will buy property and then lease it to foreign entities like the Empire. Two additional slaves arrived in the city today. Wiremu and Mayakku are on the verge of success. They were so close to freeing Tom. They have depleted the monster Cactus core and are using a smaller Griffon core. The problem was the Imperial spies had found out about it. Captain Lee had failed. They had tried to send a message to Janub about an enchanter experimenting with slaves via the Free Traders. It was a vague heads-up that something was going on here. However, that meant they would be watching these slaves closely and trying to work out what was happening. I would like to kill them. The trouble is the ones we know about will only be the first layer. This is a border city with the empire, and there will be more than one set of spies. As Wiremu had said, our best bet is to move on from here. Keep ahead of the information. Keep ahead of the truth. We need time. Probably only one or two weeks. On our original timetable, we would be moving on about now. The Slave Taskmaster working for the republic is about two weeks away. If they were here to compare signatures or flavours or whatever the fuck they call it, this would be done now. This is why I am paying the embassy a visit during business hours. I am here to do business. I was dressed in smart business attire and was holding a wad of papers, and I approached the smartly dressed man at the front desk. Noting the other trooper standing just inside the door. ¡°Welcome to the Nystad Empire embassy. How can I help you, Ma¡¯am?¡± he said. ¡°I need to speak to the person in charge, please. I have a business proposal.¡± ¡°I can certainly make you an appointment, ma¡¯am. May I see some identification, please?¡± I passed over one of my IDs. I had been tempted to use my birth ID, but that would be silly as I apparently died in Hrothgar six or seven years ago. I wasn¡¯t even present for the event, let alone the memorial service. The man continued, ¡°If this is about importing or exporting into the empire, here is a list of the information we require,¡± he said, passing over a sheet. ¡°If it is about immigration, you will need to meet with the Personnel Secretary, and I can arrange that for you.¡± I smiled at him, ¡°You misunderstand.¡± I slipped a piece of paper over the counter, ¡°I am your new landlord. I am here for a surprise property inspection as per clause 34b of the lease. If everything is not up to my standard, I will be issuing a two-week eviction notice under clause 42a.¡± I smiled again, although I noticed he had lost his smile. ¡°Secretary Jones is in charge of the property, I will summon her immediately.¡± ¡°Please do so. If I am waiting longer than ten minutes, I will consider it an inspection denial and act accordingly.¡± I wandered around the room, looking at things while I waited. We needed to distract the empire. What better way than to give them property troubles? It was legal as well, mostly. Plus, the building was in a great location for Essential Traders. This inspection was not going to go well. Their previous landlord was a property holding company that had some sudden financial difficulties and needed to offload several properties, some of which had recent damage. I picked up three, including this one. They were reluctant to let this one go as the Empire was paying significantly above market rates. I can be quite intimidating when I want to be. I picked up my first Merchant Specialisation, completing that deal. I am now a Real Estate specialist. That gives four attributes: one in Physical Perception, one in Mental Agility, one in Mental Perception and one free. The Skill that came with it was called Detect Flaws, and I would be putting it to good use today. It basically does what it says and works with any of your available senses. The flaws I will find today are well within the capabilities of the level 1 skill as we set them up last night. All that was not going to make today easy. I expect the empire to argue, threaten, bribe and do whatever else they need to do to stay here. They were essentially bribing the previous landlord with the high rental. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Secretary Jones came out looking cross. She was a short, plump lady who also looked like she would not stand for any nonsense. She looked like she knew what she was doing. This was going to be a long day. I smiled at her, looking forward to the challenge. Let''s do this. I met Wiremu and Ruku in the tavern that evening. I was exhausted. ¡°How did it go?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°They are appealing to the Disputes Tribunal. It is not unexpected, and they still have to be out by the two-week mark unless the Disputes Tribunal overturns the eviction notice.¡± ¡°Will they?¡± ¡°Unlikely, I have documented evidence, and nobody likes the empire around here.¡± ¡°I still think it would have been easier to burn it down,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Easier, yes, but you are not thinking long-term. It is in a prime position. The aim was to become the landlord of the residential house the spies were in. This was an unexpected bonus. That will teach them to use the same people for both.¡± ¡°They will come looking into your background,¡± Ruku warned. I nodded, ¡°That is why I put all the properties into the Hunter Corporation.¡± ¡°Hunter Corporation?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°Wiremu Hunter is a big deal around here. We need to cash in on the name. It is becoming quite a common thing to do. There is already Wiremu¡¯s Eatery, Hunter Tours, Hunter Enterprises etc. That last one annoyed me as it was my first choice. We might have to stage a takeover.¡± I could see Wiremu becoming uncomfortable. Good. Wiremu changed the subject, ¡°You will be at training tomorrow?¡± ¡°Yeah, I have nothing planned tonight, so I should be good. I want to level the Baton Skill as it works well with my Parry and Knockout Skills. The Whip is interesting, especially the short multi-prong barbed one. I have tried to replicate it with shadows, but I need it at a higher level first, so I know it better. Umreti has also promised to teach me his Disarm Skill. I am looking forward to Duel Wielding a sword and whip. It will make me very unpredictable.¡± I can¡¯t believe I used to think of the whip as just a farmer''s tool. ¡°I think it will suit your fighting style very well,¡± Ruku said. ¡°I don¡¯t think you should bother learning the Whip, Tama,¡± he said to Wiremu, ¡°Stick to levelling the Blunt Weapons. Strength and power are where you need to focus.¡± I nodded at that. A weapon like a whip would just melt if he did anything interesting. He had enough trouble with the Bow. ¡°Are you going to learn the whip?¡± I asked him. ¡°Yes. I like the long whip. It is fun. I can use it to deliver poison at a distance as well.¡± ¡°How are we going on the project,¡± I asked. We were in public, so we had to be a bit careful. ¡°Good,¡± Wiremu answered. ¡°We''re ready for a long session tomorrow. We are hopeful of our first success.¡± ¡°And what about the ¡®magic mushroom¡¯ you found?¡± ¡°The Rock is a mystery. Nobody knows anything. They are sending samples to the Lore Society in Freeport. Puia is processing some of it. It is changing him in some way. We will have to see what happens.¡± ¡°I don''t remember him doing that with the Necrodermis in the desert. Or did he?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°That¡¯s a good point. Hang on,¡± I figured he was communicating with Puia. ¡°What a sneaky goblin thief!¡± he said. ¡°He did absorb it. I had him heat the forge where I refined the ore. That ingot should have been larger.¡± He must have looked at the Skills list, ¡°Far out Regeneration 3 was sitting there on his list. Has it been there ever since the desert mine? Puia can now regenerate like my skill, but he needed a compatible stone to absorb. This is big. What will he get from this stone? This is exciting.¡± Well, Wiremu has made a discovery. Then I thought about Nyx. Nyx seemed to share the relevant skills with Tabitha easily enough. It must be the rock or lava elemental feature or maybe a restriction. ¡°You had better keep an eye on his status,¡± I said pointedly. ¡°I can¡¯t believe it has taken me this long to find out how Puia gets more skills. He has rock and temperature but nothing else until now. My Prospecting Class led me there! I need to do more prospecting. Hey, you got any Blacksteel?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°Only small bits why?¡± ¡°I want to see what Puia would do with it.¡± I gave him a funny look because he was just going to feed it to Puia. At least he slips up like the rest of us. If he had known this earlier, he would have been buying all the enhanced rock and metal he could to see what Puia could do with it. I must admit to being curious myself. ¡°I will find a small piece later,¡± I said. Then I remembered I still had the Blacksteel stiletto I looted from Crime Boss Fett in Jern. Maybe I will let Puia have that, as I don¡¯t use it, and it is just sitting there being useless. We will see. ¡°Tell me about the alchemist. What did you find out about the mushroom thing?¡± ¡°The poison is very similar to a drug that is known to give strange visions. A hallucinogen, she called it. She wanted more. Diluted and mixed with other components, it can help calm a mind, and Mental Healers use it. It can be addictive, and a black market for the stronger stuff is also available. The Fungi itself was looking half dead when we opened the container, and it died very quickly after that. We think there was some connection back to the main plant that was severed that I didn¡¯t see. The alchemist still paid very well for it.¡± ¡°Are you going back for more?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°No, we don¡¯t have time, and it is dangerous. I will wait to see what Puia does with his part once he has incorporated it into himself or whatever he is doing, but that could be a while.¡± 285. Enchanting: Wiremu

285. Enchanting: Wiremu

We finally did it! It wasn¡¯t pretty, and it did crack James¡¯ Class, causing spiritual damage. Still, Mayakku''s snap decision to draw out the Spiritual energy as well as the class instead of letting it disperse and trying another refinement meant we had our first success. James will take some time to recover, but we didn¡¯t shatter anything. We definitely need to keep refining the flavour, or we will either keep cracking classes, or worse, we will shatter them, or we will keep wasting Monster cores, and we can¡¯t afford to do either. Mayakku¡¯s base Enchanting Class has moved to the master level, but more importantly, so has her Spiritual Sensitivity Skill. It has opened her up to more nuances in the flavour, which will help us refine the runes even more to mimic the flavour. My Sense Spiritual is now at the top of the journeyman level, but I don¡¯t even have the sensitivity Skill. The Colonel was there to see our success, and it was just as well he was. The slave Master that came with these two is Lucas, and he was so excited that it worked he would not shut up. Mayakku said, ¡°But James is injured.¡± Lucas responded, ¡°That happens in about one in five cases anyway. The Spiritual Damage will heal, and he is now free.¡± Mayakku and I were not aware of the statistics, but it made sense with how close you had to come to the edge of shattering it. We knew that with this setup, it would happen in almost every case, so we had to do better, but we were almost there. The problem was Lucas would not shut up. The Colonel had to put him under house arrest essentially, but that would only last until the last slave was freed. This could go public at any time. I used my Copy skill to copy the latest version, and we sent them out to the same three people as before with instructions and a warning that this version of the Ilaiya Formation would likely cause Spiritual damage, but it worked. We think the person running it had to have at least a Journeyman Level Spiritual Sense and an Interrogate Status Skill, but this was also yet to be tested. This ensured the work would not be trapped here or destroyed if we were. Mayakku was working double time because she was convinced the key to carrying out the ritual without the expensive monster cores and enchanting materials was in Flesh Enchanting. She had already translated the energy into runes to take energy from the person. The control runes were not needed as the person could control energy flow and strength. The key difficulty was the flavour runes and the controlling of the energy after the flavour was changed, as the energy no longer belonged to the person. At this stage, she was thinking of using the cactus silk and needles from the current setup. I volunteered to be the flesh she could experiment on. The first problem we had was whether the Flesh Enchanting remained after the use of my Skills like Snakeskin, Granite Armour and Lava Body. Mayakku enchanted the Revitalise runes on my shoulder as an experiment. The first thing about Flesh Enchanting I noticed was that it was painful. It was not like tattooing and marking the skin. It was enchanting the flesh underneath the skin. I have a very high pain resistance, and it was still very painful. The second thing Mayakku informed me about was that the best places for enchantments were where there was plenty of flesh. Her enchantment of the claws worked but was very inefficient. The enchantment on the skin of her hands was better, but still, there was not a lot of flesh there. She was modifying how it worked as her knowledge grew. The Revitalise Runes were carved into the flesh of my shoulder muscles to maximise it. I was expecting the Ilaiya Formation to fit on my arm or something, but there was not a lot of flesh there, and it would reduce the efficiency. It would have to go on my torso, preferably the front. Before we get to that, we have to test the one rune. Snakeskin changed the top layer of my skin, and the Flesh Enchantment was underneath that and still worked. Granite Armour also went over the top of my skin, and I could have Snakeskin on underneath it, so that still worked. The real test is Lava Body as that changes the flesh. I stripped off and activated Lava Body. I could sense the change in the Rune. It was still there. That made sense, as wounds also remain when I convert to lava. However, I could not activate the rune in this form. I tried different ways, but it would not work. I guess it is not technically flesh but molten rock. I changed back, and the rune was still there and could be used. That was successful, but there is another potential problem. What happens if the flesh gets cut or damaged? I have many scars from the damage I have taken. Most of them were more than skin deep. The second question is what happens if my Regeneration Skill repairs the damage. Do I get original flesh or enchanted flesh? I decided I needed Ruku¡¯s help and possibly Astrids. Ruku¡¯s reply to my question was one of his own, ¡°How do you think Regeneration reforms limbs?¡± I hadn¡¯t thought about it. When a healer regrows a limb, there are months of regrowing muscles and nerves and retraining muscle memory. Often, this involves more trips to the healers to correct things. This is not the case in Regeneration. It might take a while to reform, but it is very close to what you lost. This only happens at the Master Level. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I said unhelpfully. ¡°Regeneration is building an image or template of the body as it levels. This image is completed at the Master Level. However, you can add to that image as your body changes. Take Modrica, for example. From her bond, she can now generate claws, as the skill levels she could choose for these to be permanent, like Mayakku. This would then be added to the template Regeneration is building, but the changes to your body don¡¯t stop at the Master Level. Therefore, things can be added to the template. This takes time and a conscious effort on your part, too.¡± ¡°How much time and effort?¡± ¡°For this, I have no idea, but it is only a change to flesh, not a tail or gills or anything. I will wait for you to tell me.¡± That was and wasn¡¯t helpful. I felt the Skill, and it seemed like I sort of knew how to do it. For the one Rune, it would take several days. More would take longer, so I held off. I would do it all at once, eventually. We were insanely busy. Mayakku was making more variations to try and get a better result and her Flesh Enchanting. The rest of us were making preparations to leave as soon as the last slave was freed. Tabitha was the busiest in sorting her businesses, legal and illegal. The Famous Five were back, and everything was being prepared at the Quarry, in the secret storage areas Tabitha had me make. We didn¡¯t tell the Colonel, but it was pretty hard to hide. We were buying supplies and shoeing horses and shutting down the menagerie in town. I didn¡¯t know what the Colonel might do. Would he just let us leave? We had a session with the final slave, Evonne. Mayakku could have gone all the way, but she decided to make some more changes first. Those changes were some minor variations to the flavour, but mostly, it was time to carve my flesh. We wanted to test the Flesh Enchanting, so this was it. If an average enchanter does this ritual with a 1 in 5 injury rate, we estimate we might get 1 in 3. Judging from the cores we have used, we also estimate the energy levels required. The estimate is that there is a base cost of around 50 for the ritual and then a cost of about 10 per level. This meant a Level 1 Slave was 60, an Apprentice level (5) was 100, and Journeyman was 150. My Spiritual Energy is a cumulation of the three Spiritual Attributes. So I had a maximum of 152 in energy, but I could not let this get to zero, or I would die. Because of our bonds, I could share energy with T¨¡oke and Puia, and that also helped with regenerating the energy. I figured that if it was the only thing I did in a day, I could free five or six Apprentice level slaves or maybe two Journeyman level Slaves. I do have some free attributes I could spend. It is time for some pain.
Wiremu Hunter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Str Agi Per Str Agi Per Str Agi Per
Base Attributes 9 12 11 9 12 11 10 8 10 92
Earned Attributes The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. 11 5 2 12 3 1 3 2 5 44
Hunter B 12 2 14 24 5 2 2 6 5 60 0
Monster Hunter S 6 6 6 6 6 5 29 1
Scout S 8 8 3 8 1 6 10 36 4
Assassin S 4 1 4 5 5 1 16 0
Bond Master S 6 2 6 6 6 1 21 3
Stone Shaper B 10 20 10 10 40 0
Prospecting S 6 6 1 2 3 3 7 22 2
Spy B 11 1 4 3 11 15 10 11 55 0
Forger S 3 3 3 3 3 12 0
Warrior B 7 14 8 11 2 35 0
Metal Shaper B 6 6 2 6 3 5 22 2
Totals 72 45 54 62 52 47 64 43 45 484 12
Constitution 171 161 152
286. Exit: Wiremu

286. Exit: Wiremu

Mayakku had delayed the final attempt, citing more work. She was carving my flesh, which was taking longer than expected, and I needed some breaks. In the breaks, she carved Ruku and Umreti as well because they wanted to. We were pretty confident this would work. It was spaced out over four days. We made copies of everything, including the Flesh Enchanting formation. We included how to become a flesh enchanter, which was for an enchanter to kill a monster. There are no guarantees, but that is how Mayakku got the specialisation. Tabitha couriered four copies to the Kirghiz Kingdom. One to the King, one to Kelda, one to T¨¡tt¨¡ and one to the Lore Society in Waiouru care of Duchess Irena. We were spreading the knowledge. We had three to leave here, one with the Colonel, one with the Lore Society and one with the Enchanters Guild care of Matua. Our wagons rolled out a full week before we were ready under the leadership of Modrica and Umreti, helped by the Famous Five. Astrid stayed to watch me get my chest carved up. She said it was in case I needed extra healing, but she didn¡¯t seem to pay much attention to me. I had to be careful with the Regeneration Skill and make sure it healed around the Runes and didn¡¯t destroy them. This was the first step in adding them to the template. The morning arrived, and the Colonel and Captain Lee arrived at the quarry an hour before the scheduled time. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose there is anything I can do to make you stay?¡± The Colonel said. ¡°No, Colonel. There is a war coming, and if we stay here, it will come here instead of the Kirghiz Kingdom,¡± I said. Tabitha was not here. She claimed to have too much to do. She would also stay for a few days after we left and watch our trail. ¡°Not many know about the coming war,¡± he said, ¡°although the rumours are growing. I am not sure you have thought this through,¡± the Colonel continued, ¡°If you are successful today, and your preparations indicate you think you will be, then when you get to the empire you will start freeing slaves.¡± I nodded. ¡°What are you going to do with the ex-slaves? Many will be damaged, many traumatised. You have freed them. You have a responsibility to them, and you are in hostile territory. What is your plan?¡± That had been worrying me, and I did not have an adequate answer. Freeing slaves was a one-at-a-time affair, and it was slow. We would not have hundreds of freed slaves at once, but even a half dozen people who are struggling to cope with just living is going to be a burden. ¡°What are your suggestions,¡± I asked, as he definitely came here with a plan. ¡°You know you can¡¯t free all the slaves by yourself, right?¡± I nodded. That was obvious. I pointed to a package lying near the door, ¡°A copy of everything for you, including the experimental procedure we are planning for today.¡± He nodded, ¡°Thank you. There are several ways we could do this. Essentially, the Free Republic can¡¯t take the burden of caring for a lot of freed slaves. Some, yes, but not a lot.¡± I figured that would be the case, so my first idea of breaking slave bonds, or killing the masters, and assigning a new master from the Republic and taking them out of the empire to free them was not going to work. ¡°We also can¡¯t expend the cost of the enchanting and monster cores to do that.¡± he continued.¡®We will probably equip our border forts with this, but it is not cheap.¡± I expected that ¡°The experiment we are conducting today should mitigate a lot of the cost if it works.¡± ¡°The cost is not just in the enchanting, but in supporting ex-slaves until they can become productive members of society. Our experience is that less than half of them ever make it that far. I am aware you sent some packages to the Kirghiz Kingdom. I assume they contained that?¡± he pointed to the package. I nodded. ¡°That will ease the burden and split the Empire¡¯s attention.¡± Which is why you letting them be sent was the unspoken message. ¡°You are taking a long time to get to your suggestion.¡± ¡°There is another factor you may not be aware of. The Healers say the chance a slave will rehabilitate drops significantly if they are taken out of the culture they grew up in. It is much better if they have family or relatives around, but a strange culture exasperates the adjustment issues.¡± ¡°So it is better they stay in the empire, regardless of it being hostile.¡± ¡°Yes. The advice I have been given is that your best way forward is to set up a network of underground communities that can either free the slaves themselves or at least care for them once they have been released. We realise this is not something you have probably done before, and there are risks involved. Captain Lee here has offered to come and help you.¡± Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I looked at her suspiciously. ¡°It involves me taking an extended leave of absence for the Defence Force,¡± the Captain said. They assume underground networks are foreign to us, but that is exactly what Tabitha has been doing for the last eight years, and she has a Class for it, and my Spy class is not unrelated. ¡°I will have to discuss that with the others,¡± I said. Tabitha was not here to discuss it, but I was not going to commit to another government agent without talking to her first. ¡°I grew up in the Empire and spent my first thirty-five years there.¡± Captain Lee said. ¡°Things went bad, and I escaped one step ahead of the slavers. I have spent the last fifty years working for the Defence Force.¡± ¡°She has infiltrated the empire for us multiple times. She knows how to get in and out.¡± the Colonel said. They were trying to sell her skills to me. All that has done is make me wonder if she is a double agent. Truth Sensing was not giving me any issue, but I know it is not infallible. Maybe I am being too suspicious. Hanging around Tabitha too much. ¡°I will have to discuss it,¡± I reiterated. The Slave, Evonne, arrived, and we prepared for the ritual. Everyone was looking at Mayakku, puzzled when she didn¡¯t pull out the Enchanted Granite. Instead, she stepped back, and I took her place. I drew the runes and then got out the silk and needles. I started to push Spiritual Energy through the runes carved in my chest. I inspected Evonne, and she was a Mid-Apprentice Slave. This would be a good test. Mayakku had made the exit point of the Ilaiya Formation to be a rune on my left shoulder. With a small trickle of energy running through the rune, Mayakku put her hand on my shoulder as one last test. Matua was there and was watching closely. It is likely Mayakku told him what was happening so he could be a backup for her. I then stabbed my shoulder with a needle connected to six threads and proceeded to place them in the runes on Evonne, directing the Slave Master as required. Once all six were placed, I sensed the flow using my Spiritual Senses. This was the only sense I had that could follow the Spiritual energy that was not mine, and this energy was no longer mine after it passed through the formation. I used my Interrogate Status to check what was happening with the Class. My Bond Care was keeping watch on the bond, but it was the Class that was important. The Class had minor fluctuations happening, so I started to increase the Spiritual Flow, monitoring the fluctuations and watching for any cracks. Increase. More. Slow to maintain. Check. Increase, More. Slow, Check. Increase, more, almost there. The fluctuations were happening wildly now. I was using Bond Care to smooth the bond, but it is the class that is important. More. Touch more. I thought I saw a small crack appear, so I grabbed the energy and started to withdraw it. I was letting it disperse, but I was not sure I had done enough. Then the class started reducing in levels, Yes! I kept a steady flow out, watching the class levels drop, and then it reached zero, and the job was done with only minimal spiritual damage. I looked at Mayakku, and her grin was humongous. I grinned back, and we grabbed each other''s arms in congratulations. Matua and the Slave Master were the other two who knew we were successful, and they were both loudly proclaiming the fact. Mayakku helped me disconnect Evonne from the cords and dragged her ex-master to attend to her. ¡°Congratulations,¡± the Colonel came up to us. Captain Lee was following him. ¡°To both of you. I assume that was the Flesh Enchanting at work.¡± Mayakku nodded. He looked at Mayakku, ¡°We would like to employ you to enchant some of our key personnel. You will be remunerated well,¡± he pulled out a document, ¡°Please read this. It is a twelve-month contract. Security is provided as part of the package.¡± This was not totally unexpected, as Mayakku had indications she would be offered something. We had discussed it, and I knew she didn¡¯t really want to go up into the Empire. Now that the Flesh Enchanting worked, there was actually no need for her to go. ¡°Thank you, Colonel,¡± she said, taking the document, ¡°I will read it and consider the offer.¡± I know what Mayakku really wanted, and that was to get back to her family. She had made a big sacrifice coming with me as they are a close-knit family. She was no longer the main income earner in her family, so chose to come and work on the enchanting to free the slaves. While she would continue to refine her work, she was no longer needed to accompany me. ¡°If you take up the offer,¡± the Colonel continued, ¡°you will leave as soon as possible for the capital of Free Port. That will be the base for your teaching and enchanting and the most protected area. You will also receive full Republic Citizenship, giving you the rights and privileges all citizens enjoy, including protections from legal attempts to take you out of the country. We are the Free Republic, and those freedoms will be protected. If you want to leave after the contract ends, then you are free to do so.¡± ¡°Thank you, Colonel, I will think about it.¡± The Colonel looked at me, ¡°Are you leaving straight away?¡± ¡°Yes, within the hour.¡± That was not strictly true. Tabitha was still busy in town, so while we would disappear, it would be a day or so before we actually left. The Colonel looked at Mayakku, ¡°Are you leaving immediately, too?¡± ¡°I am booked for the night at the Central Inn. Astrid and I will celebrate, and I will look over your offer.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see Putia anywhere. Did she leave with the wagons?¡± I nodded, even though Tabitha/Putia was still in the city and would be for a while. She and Dusk would have no problems catching up with the wagons. Ruku is the one who is going to play decoy and ride out for the wagons in the next hour while I disappear. ¡°What about my offer to come with you?¡± Captain Lee said. ¡°We will contact you when I have discussed it with the others.¡± ¡°But you are leaving,¡± she said puzzled. ¡°If we contact you, there will be some hard riding needed,¡± I said vaguely. We cleaned up and shuffled people out. Then Ruku, dressed as me, rode out on Mosey to join the caravan. I switched to my redheaded merchant persona I hadn¡¯t used in far too long. It is the red goatee beard I like, and Tabitha hates. I discreetly followed Mayakku and Astrid to the inn, then left to find Tabitha. 287. Clan ?rna: Tabitha.

287. Clan ?rna: Tabitha.

He bloody did it on purpose. He knows I hate the goatee, especially as a redhead. We were meeting at one of the safe houses. I frowned at him when he entered. Wiremu just gave me a big cheesy grin that made me roll my eyes. ¡°Captain Lee, the mediocre stealth ¡®expert¡¯, huh?¡± I said when he explained her offer. ¡°Apparently, her expertise is infiltrating the Empire and setting up spy networks.¡± ¡°So, at least an agent for the Republic, possibly a double agent for the Empire?¡± Wiremu nodded, ¡°Apparently, we have no experience setting up clandestine organisations to support ex-slaves, and we need help.¡± I raised my eyebrows at that, ¡°If only they knew what I have done in the last few weeks right under their noses.¡± ¡°If they did know, it would not have been clandestine. They are lucky you didn¡¯t start a war.¡± ¡°Please, The gangs around here are child''s play.¡± ¡°Should I ask how much you took over when I asked you not to?¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Probably best not to ask. We have a good second income stream and are divorced from the Kingdom. Not enough to keep the bounty payments going, though.¡± ¡°We are barely paying one a month now, so while the cost per bounty has risen, the numbers have dropped, and we are spending less there.¡± ¡°What do you think about Lee,¡± I asked. ¡°Truth Sensing didn¡¯t detect anything. The Famous Five are experienced at coming and going in the empire, so we don¡¯t need her. She might be helpful with existing contacts in the empire, but she might also betray us.¡± ¡°That about sums it up,¡± I agreed. ¡°I could check her out, but I won¡¯t find anything.¡± ¡°So take her, use her and watch for betrayal, or leave her behind?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°Shall we flip a coin?¡± I suggested. Wiremu laughed, ¡°Like I would trust you in a game of chance.¡± He pulled out a coin, ¡°Heads or tails?¡± ¡°Heads she comes, tails she stays, and I am watching you! I know your Sleight of Hand has been improving.¡± Wiremu smiled and flipped the coin to land on the floor. We looked at it, and then Wiremu said, ¡°Do you want to tell her how indispensable she will be to us, or shall I?¡± ¡°You can. Practise Roleplaying some of that boyish charm.¡± ¡°I thought I might bring out Wild Bill.¡± ¡°Probably best not to yet, if at all.¡± I made a point of looking him up and down, ¡°the sleazy merchant look doesn¡¯t really suit either.¡± He just grinned again, then said, ¡°Have you talked to Mayakku?¡± ¡°Briefly. I scanned the proposal and made a couple of minor Adjustments. She will be safer here than going with us.¡± ¡°I know, but I was thinking she could flesh enchant some others if she came with us.¡± he shrugged, ¡°It is probably better she stays and then heads back to her family. Or heading straight back to T¨¡tt¨¡ is probably the safest option.¡± ¡°Astrid is thinking of staying with her.¡± ¡°Really? I think I demonstrated that a Healer is still needed after the cactus monster episode.¡± ¡°Your body was processing the poison, and you would have been fine. She sped up the healing. I think she is keen to head back to the kingdom as well.¡± Wiremu thought for a bit, ¡°I suppose Umreti has the First Aid class, and we can stock up on potions.¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°The empire does have merchants, you know.¡± I reminded him with a smile. The first place we were heading was my home city of Yelets. I was looking forward to seeing the place again, but I was also dreading it as it would remind me of my brother Warren. We had three or more months of travel first. ¡°I guess it is their choice. We have been together for a long time.¡± Wiremu sounded melancholy. I think this brings up Kelda in his mind and, to a lesser extent, the others who left. ¡°It is just us now. Clan ?rna. The five of us are in the last step of the mission. It is you, me, Modrica, Ruku and Umreti through life and death.¡± ¡°That is very dramatic,¡± Wiremu said with a smile. ¡°I am an actress,¡± I said, having pulled him out of his melancholy ¡°You also forgot about the hangers-on.¡± ¡°Yes, but Lee and the Famous Five are hangers-on. Temporary.¡± Wiremu nodded, then changed the subject, ¡°When will you be ready to leave?¡± ¡°Tomorrow night. That gives me the rest of today, tonight, and all of tomorrow to sort things. I can sleep on Dusk as we ride.¡± ¡°You know I have technically completed my mission. I have found and funded a way to break the Slave Class and made it available to everyone. I could stop and retire now.¡± I snorted in disbelief, ¡°Yeah, right.¡± ¡°There are two specific things I want to do. I want to dismantle the slave army if they are building one. Secondly, I want to tear down the slave-making quarry and similar places. There will be similar places.¡± I nodded, ¡°and as a means to those ends, we will establish hidden rescue and rehabilitation centres, which are Empire-funded.¡± ¡°Empire funded?¡± ¡°Who do you think we are going to steal from?¡± That got another smile from Wiremu. Then he said, ¡°Before I go and break the good news to the indispensable Captain, I have something I want to show you.¡± Wiremu then put his hand on the table and created a small slab of Granite. But it wasn¡¯t normal Granite. It was messing with my Spatial Awareness. I looked closer, and it was like it was giving me a headache, and it felt like the world might begin to spin. The strange thing was that it was affecting my Spatial Awareness as well. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Puia has finished processing the rock he took from the mushroom cave. We can add this effect to rock and lava, but I think we might be able to add it to any mineral, like metals.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t told me what it is,¡± I complained, taking a step back. It was very disconcerting. ¡°The Skill is called Phantasm (Mineral). This is only Level 1. It distorts perception and perception skills at the novice levels. It distorts my Thermal Sensing, What about your Spatial Awareness?¡± I nodded. ¡°It increases as it levels, and in Apprentice, it also starts to make people hallucinate. Not just seeing things but smell, hearing, touch and other senses. I get the impression that what someone senses will depend on them and their fears. At Journeyman level, this is a full-blown hallucination involving all the senses.¡± ¡°How do you combat it?¡± ¡°Mental Strength, mostly. Mental Resistance and Mind Shields help as well.¡± I reinforced my Shadow Mind with Mental Strength and could look at the rock again. ¡°Interesting,¡± I said, ¡°So disorientation and moving into Hallucinations. How would you use it?¡± ¡°I am still working on that. I have some traps in mind that it could be used in. You can''t control what people see, though.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be so sure of that.¡± Wiremu looked at me, puzzled. I continued, ¡°People jump to conclusions if you give them a few clues. You are doing it right now with your red hair and disgusting goatee. They look at the obvious and make assumptions about the rest. The Phantasm Skill could enhance those assumptions, but it would have to be well into Apprentice level.¡± ¡°You really are good at this, aren¡¯t you.¡± I grinned. Illusions, acting, and misdirection are my sweet spot and always have been. Distract was one of my first skills. ¡°You are thinking we could use this to help get Modrica and Umreti into the Empire?¡± Wiremu was quick. He always had been. ¡°We would have to think carefully about what first impressions we want to give, but yes, it is a possibility. We would need to test it, and it would have to be past the disorientation stage.¡± ¡°Disorientation is good in fights,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°The path to levelling it,¡± I said. ¡°Now that Puia has shown what he can do, I guess you are looking for some Blacksteel?¡± Wiremu nodded, ¡°If you have any.¡± I pulled the Blacksteel Stilleto out of my Spatial pocket, ¡°I have only ever used this once, I think. It is just taking up space. I am very interested in what Puia could do with it.¡± ¡°Its main properties are its strength and durability,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Don¡¯t forget that Nyx has a particular preference for Blacksteel,¡± I said. ¡°You think Nyx could form a link through this to Puia?¡± ¡°That might be going too far, but it might help with communication and sharing of energy. But it may not either. He might just be able to be harder and more durable.¡± Wiremu put the stiletto on the granite he had made and placed his hand on it. Puia melted the Blacksteel. I didn¡¯t think that would be possible, but he did, and it disappeared. Wiremu then removed the Granite. This was going to be interesting. 288. Moving on: Wiremu.

288. Moving on: Wiremu.

Lee was waiting by the gate, and we left Freebourne just before the gates closed for the night. Mayakku had elected to stay, and Astrid stayed with her. After the twelve-month contract, they would head back to the kingdom together. I would miss Mayakku. We used to have long discussions on Spiritual topics. It was one of the things that livened up the boring days of travel. I was missing Mosey. He might be slow, but he had stamina, and he could carry my weight much easier than the new mount. We had a spare mount with us loaded with packs. Tabitha and Dusk were just loping along beside my poor laboured beast. Lee was riding a mixed breed that looked related to the courier horses. Fast with a reasonable amount of stamina. She had packed light, obviously used to travel. They both made my poor beast look like the poor cousin. The wagons were about a week ahead of us. The road we were taking came close to the village I grew up in, and they would be passing it about now. It would take us three to four days of hard riding to catch up¡ªmaybe more with my poor animal. I did plan to detour and pay my respects at my old village. I know it has been rebuilt, and new people live there, but it is something I need to do. Tabitha had a still healing scar poking out from the back of her armour. I was dying to ask her about it, but it would have to wait. I am guessing I will need to repair her other armour. I was in my Tama Forrester persona and planned to stay that way till we near the empire borders. Tabitha was already sporting a different look, not too different from her natural look. I saw Lee glancing at her frequently, trying to figure her out. We were riding hard, so conversation was limited. My poor horse finally needed a break about midnight, and we stopped for a while. I switched to the spare horse, putting the packs on mine. I was harder to carry than the laden packs. Tabitha and I have been together for about 7-8 years now, and we are both loners. She is more social than me, but she enjoys silence as much as Modrica and almost as much as I do. So, while we stopped for an hour or so, we had no need for words. She brushed down Dusk while I removed the packs from the horse and got them ready to load up again. Lee was taking care of her own horse as sat down to eat from her supply and watched us with a puzzled look. Tabitha tossed me the jacket of her ripped armour, and I examined the cut. I would get the story eventually, but not now. It was going to need a whole new back section, so I sat and started picking apart the stitching to remove it. Tabitha tossed me some jerky which I caught without looking up and started chewing on it. Tabitha then mounted up and rode off into the night. ¡°Where did she go?¡± Lee asked. I looked up. I preferred the silence. ¡°She and Dusk are itching to get some speed. While they are gone, they will check our trail for followers.¡± We hadn¡¯t been travelling slowly, but Dusk was like Tabitha and wanted to stretch her legs and feel the wind rushing by. ¡°How do you know that? You guys haven¡¯t spoken a word.¡± I could tell from the little things. Tabitha was a complicated creature, but sitting still was not her. She had to be moving and moving fast by preference. I am happy to sit for hours waiting for my prey to take the bait. That would drive Tabitha insane. Her body language told me that she had an unpleasant time recently, which I assume is related to the wound. She and Dusk got pleasure from a long, fast run, so away she went. It would settle her down. I looked at Lee and shrugged, ¡°We have been together a long time.¡± I tossed some of the jerky into the shadows past Lee, and T¨¡oke dropped his camouflage and snapped it up, swallowing it in one go. He then slithered away into the night. Lee looked back to me after watching T¨¡oke go and said, ¡°I have good senses, yet I could not sense him or Putia¡¯s disguise Skill. I can barely sense yours when I concentrate.¡± ¡°You should start calling her Lyla. That is her new name. It sounds like you need to spend some time improving the sensing skill.¡± I knew Tabitha had chosen Lyla in memory of the Lionkin we found so messed up, and we had to help put her out of her misery. ¡°Where was ¡°Lyla¡± when we were in Freeborne? I barely saw her.¡± I bet one of your tasks was to track us all as well. I just shrugged again. I had the back panel separated now and stowed it all away. It was time to saddle up and get back on the road, so that was what I did. Lee took the hint and packed her things together. We were soon back on the road. A couple of hours later, Tabitha and Dusk flashed past us. There was no sound of hooves or anything else. She was in full Shadows Embrace. I only knew she was coming because of the disturbed air around them. Lee had no warning. This huge black presence was suddenly there and then was gone on ahead before Lee even had time to draw her weapon. Her reflexes were quite good. I am sure Tabitha is just messing with us, which is good. It means she is in a better frame of mind. ¡°What was that?¡± Lee asked, alarmed. ¡°Lyla.¡± I hadn¡¯t flinched or slowed down. Lee was looking everywhere as if we might be under attack. ¡°It is just her, don¡¯t panic.¡± ¡°I have only been with you for less than eight hours, and my nerves are shot. Plus, I feel like I am a fresh-faced recruit rather than a seasoned professional.¡± I just shrugged again. ¡°We should all keep striving to learn,¡± I said diplomatically. The sun was rising when we caught up to Tabitha. She had a small fire going and had water boiling for a cup of tea. She poked in the ashes, and she had baked some potatoes. She had been here a while. I unloaded the horses, and we sat down to a hot breakfast. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Don¡¯t get comfortable,¡± I said to Lee. ¡°We will stop tonight for some sleep.¡± ¡°We will be moving slower today,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°It is for the horse''s sake, and so I don¡¯t get too far behind.¡± Lee looked puzzled¡ªright, a newbie. ¡°It is my turn to relax,¡± I said. ¡°Lyla relaxes by riding, I relax by hunting, and we are far enough out that there might be something around.¡± I paused, ¡°Do you have any hobbies that you want to do while we travel?¡± She looked a bit flustered. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We will slow right down when we catch up to the wagons.¡± ¡°I am good for now,¡± Lee said. After breakfast, I distributed the packs between both horses. I shouldered my bow and a quiver of arrows and took off on foot. This was not going to be a relaxing hunt, as I had to keep moving to keep up. Tabitha had to blow off some steam, I needed some alone time. T¨¡oke was curled up in my jacket, getting his alone time. Now it is just us, and I can relax. I kept moving all day, occasionally veering to follow a track. There wasn¡¯t much here. We were still too close to the city. T¨¡oke and I made it back to where Tabitha had camped in the early evening. There was a fire going on. I added the rabbit to the stew Tabitha had on and scraped and dried the two pelts. There was no sense in hunting the bigger stuff until we were closer to the wagons. I hadn¡¯t seen much anyway. ¡°So Lee,¡± I said, ¡°What appearance-changing Skill do you have?¡± I assumed she had something. ¡°It is called Mask, which makes changes to my head. Can I ask what you two have?¡± ¡°Mine is called Veneer. It makes surface changes but is not limited to the head.¡± I replied. Lee looked at Tabitha. She ignored the question. ¡°I am supposed to be here to help,¡± she said, getting frustrated. She was tired from riding for a day and night without rest, and Tabitha had obviously been giving her the cold shoulder all day. ¡°I can¡¯t help if I don¡¯t have some basic information!¡± Tabitha joined in, ¡°I don¡¯t think you are here to help. I think you are here to Spy, Infiltrate, Sabotage and Collaborate with the enemy.¡± That was good of her, I had only gotten through her skill to get Ceramics Worker, Earthenware, Porcelain, Spy and Infiltrator. The first three she was letting be known. Lee¡¯s jaw had dropped. I guess Tabitha got them all. She did have all day, but then I had all night. I am going to go with Lee being more weary when Tabitha tried. ¡°The Defence Force trained me in all those classes and specialisations.¡± ¡°Including Collaborator?¡± ¡°Yes, including Collaborator! It gives a Sense Loyalty and can help to weed out traitors in underground groups. It is one of the major reasons I was asked to help here.¡± ¡°Asked to help? I thought you were on leave to do this.¡± I said. ¡°I am on leave. I was asked, but it was my choice, and I wanted to help!¡± ¡°You can understand that we are dubious about your loyalty,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°A business rival screwed over my parents and tried to get us all enslaved to compensate him. Do you know what happens to someone if they refuse the Slave Class from a Magistrates Order? They get sent to a mine or similar, and it is made permanent instead of time-limited.¡± ¡°So people know about these workplaces where people are tortured into slavery, and they just let that happen?¡± I said in a dangerous voice. ¡°Those that speak up against it end up as inmates,¡± Lee said, and Tabitha gave a slight nod. ¡°So you ran?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, we ran, but only I made it to the Free Republic. My parents made it possible by leading the troopers away and getting caught. I still haven''t found them after fifty years. Debt slaves have some protections from the Magistrate. Permanent Slaves do not.¡± My Truth Sensing was telling me she was being honest, and I signalled Tabitha that. ¡°So, what have you been doing in the Empire for the last fifty years?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Setting up networks to track and help slaves. We have mostly been helping people who want to run from being made a slave. Growing up in the Empire, slavery was normal, and it was one of the incentives to do well and avoid it happening to you. Most slaves are treated well.¡± ¡°How many cities does this network cover?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Now you want all our secrets?¡± Lee responded. ¡°We don¡¯t trust you either.¡± ¡°Your constant use of the plural is not selling it that this is personal. Besides,¡± Tabitha said, ¡°this is the great Wiremu Hunter, who has spent more on killing Taskmasters than most cities make in a year.¡± ¡°Which is suspicious in itself,¡± Lee responded. ¡°Where did that coin come from, and where do you fit in? What were you doing all that time in Freebourne out of sight? We had reports of gangs fighting in the streets, and here you are wounded.¡± ¡°I was doing your job for you,¡± Tabitha said. Lee just raised one eyebrow. ¡°I told you several times that the Mad Mongrels were working with the Empire spies. The Mad Mongrels are no more.¡± ¡°You took out a whole gang?¡± she said in disbelief. ¡°It was very unfortunate, but the spies themselves seemed to have got caught up in the violence and were killed,¡± Tabitha continued. ¡°One of them was an assassin and backstabbed you, didn¡¯t they?¡± I asked. Tabitha nodded, ¡°I twisted out. Hence, the slice instead of the stab, but the blade was poisoned.¡± ¡°I did tell you to increase your Poison Resistance,¡± I said. Tabitha rolled her eyes, ¡°I told you so? Really? Anyway, it has gone up now.¡± ¡°This is crazy,¡± Lee said. ¡°You say you destroyed a whole street gang and a set of spies. You believe her,¡± she said, pointing at me. ¡°This is just all crazy.¡± Tabitha and I just looked at each other and shrugged. ¡°This is what we do. You are not here because we need you,¡± Tabitha said. Don¡¯t tell her about the coin toss. ¡°Why am I here then?¡± Please, don¡¯t tell her about the coin toss. ¡°You apparently have some contacts that could make things easier,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I hope you weren¡¯t lying.¡± Lee shook her head, ¡°I have contacts.¡± I nodded. ¡°Then we are pleased to have you,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Do I get some answers?¡± ¡°Only when you need them.¡± 289. Home: Wiremu

289. Home: Wiremu

¡°Well, that''s new,¡± I said. We were at the intersection where the main road intersects with the track to my old village. There was a fort there, manned by Defence Force units. We checked in, and we were only about half a day behind the wagons. I wanted to see the old village. It was still named Kohekohe, and it was 4-5 hours off the main road. The presence of the fort told the story of the increasing trouble with the Empire. It looked big enough for 2-300 troops. I was going to go to Kohekohe alone, but Tabitha insisted on coming as it wasn¡¯t far, so Lee tagged along. I am pretty sure she wanted to watch me. I wonder if there will be Bard''s tales. I remembered this track well as it also led to our nearest neighbours on the other side of the fort. The trees were larger, and the track had been upgraded and could almost be called a road now. I guess this is called going down memory lane. We were only half an hour out when a young lad came running flat out toward us. ¡°Imperial Attack! Run!¡± he yelled. I froze. It felt like going back in time. This couldn¡¯t be. ¡°Wait, lad. Where and how many?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Hundreds, raiding the village. I need to get help.¡± was the reply. This didn¡¯t make sense. Was it a prank? The lad was serious, according to Truth Sensing. The Imperial must know about the fort. The warning would take 3-4 hours to deliver and the troops at least 4 hours to respond. It must be a hit-and-run, and they think they can keep ahead of the troops or join a larger body. I dismounted and grabbed my bow and quiver of arrows. ¡°Can you ride, lad?¡± He nodded, then shook his head. A definite, maybe. I grabbed him and lifted him into the saddle, ¡°Just hold on, and the horse should follow the road. Ride fast to the fort and raise the alarm.¡± The lad looked scared but nodded. I slapped the rear of the horse to get him going, and they were off. ¡°Leave the horses here.¡± I tied the pack horse to a branch, and Lee dismounted and did the same to her horse. I saw her add a buckler shield to the sword. Tabitha said she had the Light Infantry Class, but it was only Apprentice level. I didn¡¯t know what that meant in terms of her skills, but it was obviously a Defence Force Class, and she was not much into fighting if it was low-level. We had been waiting to join with Ruku and then restart our sparring, and then we would find out her skills. Tabitha didn¡¯t dismount. Dusk was coming. I looked at her, ¡°They will have some wagons or a fast way to move prisoners close by. You want to find them and disable them?¡± Tabitha nodded. ¡°What do you want me to do?¡± Lee asked. I was not expecting much from her, so I hadn''t thought about it. I probably should have sent her to the fort for help with the kid. Tabitha spoke up, ¡°Watch his back.¡± Then Dusk galloped off into the trees, and she seemed to disappear. We took off at a run towards Kohukohu. I knew the road, so I knew that over the next rise, we would be in sight of the village. They would have people watching the road, so I veered into the trees, and we ran at an angle where I knew we would get a line of sight. We would be at a shorter range than if we stuck to the road, but not being seen was preferable. Lee was dropping behind as she couldn¡¯t keep up. I didn¡¯t slow down. I paused when I sighted the village. I thought the kid was exaggerating when he said hundreds, but there was definitely more than one hundred, probably closer to one-fifty. They were in two groups. The village had a wooden palisade which we never had when I was growing up. Another sign of growing conflict. One group of about fifty was clustered around the gate. There were four heavily built troopers smashing at the gate with a ram, and they were being protected from the defenders by the shields of the rest of the group. The majority of the troopers were waiting outside the range of thrown weapons, as that is what the defenders were using. There were a couple of archers in the towers, but the rest were standing on a platform near the top of the palisade, and they were throwing rocks and javelins primarily. The troopers were not attacking the defenders. I guess they didn¡¯t want to damage or kill the future slaves. As I assessed the situation, the gate cracked under the pressure of the ram. This was not going to happen again. I reached for my sling rather than my bow. T¨¡oke and I had not practised this, but he was in agreement and dropped from my shoulder. I wound up the sling and prepped my Power Strike Skill. Power Strike was not primarily a ranged Skill, but I had used it with my bow before. My accuracy was not going to be great, but then it didn¡¯t need to be. I sensed Lee arriving as I let loose. T¨¡oke shot out of that sling with as much power as I could put into it. Halfway to the target of the group at the gate, he grew to be a 12 m-long snake wrapped in Granite Armour supported by Granite Bones. The group went flying in all directions. Several would never get up again. When T¨¡oke rolled to a stop against the gate, he reduced the armour so he had more flexibility and sunk his fangs into the torso of one of the ram operators. His super-heated fangs went straight through the man''s chainmail vest, and he lifted his head to look around with the man in his jaws, dripping blood and venom. Everybody had stopped, stunned, including the defenders. Lee had her jaw hanging open as well. I wasn¡¯t done yet as T¨¡oke casually swiped his still granite-lined tail, sending two troopers flying. And the ground shook as he triggered Granite Quake. I tucked my sling into my belt and grabbed my bow, taking a bead on the highest-ranking officer I could see in the larger group away from the gate. Power Strike again to the centre of mass, and the super-heated arrow with Puia sunk into his chest. He burned from the inside out, and Puia formed into a low beetle with a tough black shell and two lava pincers. Nobody interfered with him as he transformed from the body of the Force leader as they were struggling to think straight from his Phantasm (Mineral), affecting their mind. He started scuttling through the troops, snipping off legs and setting people alight. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. I was firing arrows as fast as I could, targeting people who looked to endanger either of my bonds or the highest-ranking person I could find. Power Strike, Triple Shot, Sudden Strike, Quick Strike, Imbue Venom, and Venom Arrow, I used them all in rapid repetition until my quiver ran out of arrows. That is more than forty dead in about a minute. I tossed my bow into a nearby tree, pulled out the simple mace I had made, and created a spiked shield. T¨¡oke had less than fifteen to finish off, so I ran toward Puia¡¯s larger group. Lee was following me, but she seemed a bit stunned. She had better snap out of it quickly. I bowled into the largest group I saw with my spiked shield, impaling two and ripping it out again as I trampled over them, swinging the mace at a third. They were concentrating on Puia, so Sudden Strike triggered on all three, and they didn¡¯t get up again. Then I was in the thick of it, and I triggered Granite Quake to keep them off balance. Lee finally woke up and was protecting my back. Quick Strike, Power Strike, Sudden Strike, Sprint, Granite Spike. I kept moving through the staple Skills with the occasional Granite Quake. I was moving, not giving them a chance to rally or organise. I would target people who tried to bring order. The veterans organised anyway. Puia had been taking some hits, so he circled close to me, and I saw some damage on his plating, which looked suspiciously like Blacksteel. Lava was showing through the cracks, so I Imbued Venom into it, and a cloud of Venom Vapour rose from his body, but it was more than just Venom Vapour as troops nearby seemed confused, and I saw one hit another. Then it clicked he was using his Phantasm (Mineral), and it was mixing with the Venom Vapour, causing confusion. This was the main reason the troopers weren¡¯t organising. I can try this, and I recreated my spikes on the shield with Pantasm (Mineral), Imbued Venom and turned them into lava to burn off. A cloud of a dangerous mix caused soldiers to stop and cough, and some started striking out at random. This made taking people down super easy as they were not concentrating on me any more, and my Sudden Strike was triggering in almost every hit. I heard coughing behind me, and Lee was bent over in pain and confusion. She probably got a whiff of the cloud. I kicked her, and she stumbled back out to the edge of the fight and collapsed on her butt. She would be fine. I checked the breeze was blowing away from the village, and I doubled down on the cloud and moved myself upwind to let the troopers breathe deeply. I shook the ground with Granite Quake again as it created good openings for me. I was burning through the energy. Puia and I were down to our last fifty when I felt a lot of pain coming from T¨¡oke. Most of our fifty were acting woozy from the cloud, so I looked over, and he was squaring off against an organised three with shields. He had an axe embedded in his upper body. I threw my shield at the nearest alert-looking trooper, and the spikes embedded into him as I turned and threw Lava Darts as fast as possible at the nearest of the three around T¨¡oke. I saw a defender on the wall throw a javelin at another and wound him. I never knew Triple Shot worked with thrown weapons, but it does when you are desperate enough. I switched my aim to the other and missed as T¨¡oke swiped him with his Granite tail, which now sprouted Granite Spikes. T¨¡oke broke his shield with his Power Strike and sent him flying. T¨¡oke turned to the third, spitting lava. I was suddenly struck on the back with a Shield Bash, sending me flying. I rolled and pulled a knife in my off hand, but the trooper who bashed me was impaled on Lee''s sword. I nodded to her as I created a new shield and rushed past her to stop her being beheaded. Melee fighting is chaotic. I spiked my new shield and started the poison cloud again. Puia had reduced the last fifty to thirty who were mobile, and several were trying to run. The first got my thrown mace crashing against his back, and I am sure there were broken bones. I created a stone knife, cutting and bashing my way through the group and threw my knife at another runner. I missed the centre of mass, but his leg collapsed under him as an arrow from the defenders pierced it. I am glad they are doing something. They probably have been all along I just didn¡¯t have time to see. Lee was back up and slicing and stabbing on my upwind side. I am glad she figured out the cloud. The last five squared off against us, but two suddenly went flying as T¨¡oke came to help after finishing his job. Actually, only one went flying. The other was stuck impaled on the Granite Spikes from T¨¡oke¡¯s tail. I threw my knife at one, Lee sliced the second, and the third got a Triple Shot of Lava Darts to the face. What a mad, crazy fight that was. I leaned against T¨¡oke for a minute to get my breath back. Then I noticed he still had the axe embedded in him. I grabbed it, ¡°Hold still,¡± and I levered it out. I felt my pockets; yes, there was one unbroken potion, so I tossed it into the air above me, where his head towered over me. He caught it and crushed it and swallowed it, container and all. The wound was deep. I knew he would heal, but we might need to fight again soon, so it was better to speed things up. ¡°You should have taken that,¡± Lee said. I looked at her, and she indicated I should look at myself. I did, and I had cuts I had no memory of. Some were deep, slicing right through my Snakeskin. Now that I had stopped, I also think I had a broken rib from that bash. Pain Resistance is a blessing and a curse. I fixed the rib with Lava Body and patched the worst cuts with granite. ¡°Are you OK?¡± I asked her. ¡°You caused my worst damage,¡± Lee replied. Oops. Then I looked around. There were troopers alive, but none were mobile. Then I looked at the village. The wall was crammed with people, and they were just staring at us in silence. Oops. I was still catching my breath as Puia limped over to me. He had lost several limbs, and his armour was barely able to be called armour anymore. I guess it is not so easy to repair the Blacksteel. I reached down, and he melted into my hand, much to the consternation of Lee and the watchers on the wall. We were all very drained. ¡°Thank you, stranger,¡± yelled an older man on the wall. He was talking to me, not Lee. ¡°The Village is yours. Anything we can provide is yours. You and your team will always be welcome here. May we know your name, stranger?¡± I limped closer to the wall. Now that I noticed it, there was something wrong with my leg as well. A blessing and a curse. As I moved closer, one of the younger members on the wall pointed to smoke rising from deeper in the forest. I turned to look. I figured it was Tabitha¡¯s doing. I turned back to the speaker, ¡°Thank you for your kind offer, sir. Our arrival was timely as we were just coming to visit.¡± ¡°You know someone here?¡± he asked in surprise. ¡°Not any longer, sadly.¡± I straightened up as I discovered I had been leaning on T¨¡oke more than I thought. I need to rest. ¡°I was ¡­¡± I took a breath, ¡°I was coming to see the village where I grew up. My name is Wiremu Hunter, and this was my home.¡± That caused a lot of exclamations of surprise, not all of them suitable for children. I did not ever envision I would arrive here amongst hundreds of dead Imperial troopers. I guess there is going to be another Bard''s tale about this, too. ¡°Then let me be the first to welcome you home,¡± said the old man. Then the youngster, with the Keen Sight, pointed past me and said, ¡°Who¡¯s that? 290. Who鈥檚 That?: Wiremu

290. Who¡¯s That?: Wiremu

Who is that? I turned to look at where he was pointing. Tabitha emerged from the shadows, riding Dusk. She stopped a moment and looked at the carnage around us. I got the feeling she had been riding hard. She probably deduced how many troops there were from the camp or the number of mounts, etc and was worried. Fair enough, too. She waved her hand almost negligently, and a wave of shadow rolled across the battlefield. Where there was a live trooper before the shadow, once it passed, there were only dead troopers. The shadows swept the entire field and then returned to Tabitha, disappearing into her shadow. Lee might have recovered from my show, but she was re-shocked as Tabitha tidied up loose ends. Tabitha was also making a point to the watchers. If the giant snake was not enough, we also had the shadow of death. Dusk strode majestically forward, careful to avoid standing on bodies. They came to a halt beside me. ¡°As I said, I am Wiremu Hunter. Let me introduce my team member, Black, who is riding Dusk. This is T¨¡oke, my bond,¡± I said, indicating each person. ¡°This is Captain Lee, currently on loan to us from the Free Republic Defence Force.¡± That nicely introduced us and gave the impression the Defence Force sanctioned this without actually saying so. ¡°Black?¡± Lee whispered the question to me. Tabitha spoke next, ¡°I have destroyed the camp they had and freed the prisoners. They are following with the captured horses. We don¡¯t need two hundred horses, so perhaps the Defence Force can make us an offer,¡± she said, looking at Lee. I could see the villagers were torn. They were grateful for being saved and excited at meeting me, but they were scared at the destruction they had just witnessed and the power they had seen. T¨¡oke wasn¡¯t helping things, but it wasn¡¯t healthy for him to change size while being so wounded. They would have to get used to him because there was no way I was sending him away. I stepped forward so everybody focused on me. I addressed the elder, ¡°Thank you again for your welcome and offer. I have been looking forward to coming home. There is one thing I have been missing most in my travels, and that is a good old-fashioned hangi.¡± The elder didn¡¯t miss what I was trying to do, ¡°You heard the man. Open the gates and let them in. Let''s get the hangi started. We have to celebrate the return of our lost son and our saviour!¡± People then scrambled into action. I heard orders go out for the hangi prep, and teams organised to strip the bodies and prep them for burial. I glanced at Tabitha when I heard that. Tabitha winked at me, ¡°I have already swept the field clean of coin.¡± Of course, she has. At that point, the first of the freed prisoners came out of the forest leading horses. ¡°There are three slaves,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I am pretty sure you killed their master. I knocked them out and told the others to keep them unconscious. Do you want to free them or send them back to Freebourne?¡± ¡°I would like to field test the formation some more if I could, but I am pretty drained, so it will have to wait until tomorrow at least.¡± ¡°The Defence Force squads will be here in a few hours,¡± Lee reminded us. ¡°We will leave it up to whoever is in charge of them to sort it out, then,¡± I said. Tabitha and Lee nodded. ¡°Do I get to know who Black is?¡± Lee asked. ¡°After all you have seen, that is your first question?¡± I asked incredulously. We were moving toward the opening gate as the elder came toward us. ¡°I have a Skill called Sense Significant from my Infiltrator speciality, and it is not limited to things. This is significant,¡± she replied. The Elder was almost on us, so I said, ¡°She is the Black Butcher of Jern.¡± Lee stopped in shock as Tabitha and I moved forward. ¡°Hello, son! I am called Hakopa, one of the elders here. Come in, come in. Do you or your bonds need any care? We have a herbalist here who can help.¡± ¡°That will be great, thanks, Hakopa. I really need to sit for a while, and these should be looked at.¡± I indicated my wounds. ¡°Come, come. I sent a boy to let him know he would be needed. That was quite a display there, son.¡± Now, I was starting to feel more welcome. Everybody gave T¨¡oke plenty of space. Hokopa kept on the other side of the group. Tabitha dismounted at the gate, and I noticed everyone also keeping well away from her. The healer''s hut was close to the gate and had an herb garden outside and lots of herbs laid out to dry. The herbalist was a gruff old man. He covered my wounds with a paste and then bandaged the worst of the damage. I took the time to examine my leg, and the knee had taken a hit. I couldn¡¯t remember when it was hit. Maybe when I was shield bashed? I am not sure. Joints are tricky, but I spent a few minutes setting the bones back into place. Some kids brought us a platter of fruit to eat. They couldn''t take their eyes off T¨¡oke, and a tray almost landed on the ground. T¨¡oke was coiled up next to the road with Dusk next to him. I went over with some bandages and tended his axe wound, as the herbalist would not go near him. The herbalist looked at Tabitha, ¡°Any wounds, girl?¡± Tabitha shook her head, ¡°No. Some of us know how to fight smart.¡± Smart ass. We were shown to a house they kept for visitors, and I shifted the furniture so that T¨¡oke could curl up inside, and then he and I lay down for a rest. I woke to shouting outside. The sun was setting. It seemed like the Defense Force had made good time. Whoever was in charge sounded confused at the story they had been given. Captain Lee had just told him it was classified and not to investigate further. He was not impressed. I rolled over and spied a jug and meat slices, so I took some time to wake up properly and had a snack. There was no sign of Tabitha. I assume she was out there fleecing the Defence Force. I went over to T¨¡oke and removed his bandages. The wound was looking good, which was a combination of his Regeneration, the potion and the herbalist¡¯s salve. He decided it was good enough to shrink, and he took his normal place on my shoulder. We came out of the hut, and Captain Lee was there with another captain. The captain looked me up and down, ¡°You¡¯re supposed to be Wiremu Hunter? I don¡¯t believe it.¡± I turned toward where the feast was being prepared and walked off, saying, ¡°I don¡¯t care.¡± We walked toward the villagers, who were in a celebratory mood, and the ale was already flowing. I was handed a mug, and I asked where I could help. Hakopa spotted me and grabbed me. I went with him, and he introduced me to the other key village members. We then helped them dig up the cooked hangi, and the party really started. We ate and drank and chatted and laughed. I sensed the captain looking at me several times but ignored it. Tabitha had several young men trying to get her attention, and she was stringing them along in typical Tabitha fashion. Tabitha looked like she was having a good time, which is great. She was relaxed enough to offer a puppet show, which was a big hit. She did a simplified version of the Barman and the Noble¡¯s Daughter, which brought back a lot of memories. She could still get people rolling on the ground in uncontrolled laughter. She is very talented. I saw Lee looking at her, very confused. I guess the puppeteer entertainer didn¡¯t fit well with her image of the Black Butcher. Then the instruments came out, and there was singing and dancing late into the night. The next morning, I woke late. The Defence Force was out cleaning up the battlefield and burying the dead. As I watched, the two Captains rode back into the clearing, obviously having looked at the remains of Tabitha¡¯s fight. There are probably some squads cleaning that up as well. I ignored them and went to find some breakfast. After breakfast, Hakopa found me, and he took me to see the memorial they had built for the previous village. It was in their small graveyard. I spent some time there just remembering them and my old life. The memorial itself was a wooden pyramid with names engraved on it. The names triggered memories. I sat there remembering for several hours as I poured energy into the pyramid, Petrifying the wood into stone. This would last a lot longer. While I was there, I looked at my Status. The Warrior Class had gained two levels and was on the verge of becoming Journeyman Level. There were many Skill increases. The new Skill was the most interesting. Phantasm Venom Cloud had jumped to Apprentice Level. As it levels, it increases in effectiveness at overcoming resistances. Poison and Mental are the two areas it attacks. The levels also increase the volume I can produce, which is also a function of my Mental Strength as well as my Spiritual Strength. It is quite complicated. I encouraged T¨¡oke to learn it as well, as it is even better than Granite Quake against groups of enemies. My Hearing Aid picked up Captain Lee talking to the other captain. ¡°It was just the two of them,¡± Lee said. ¡°Not possible. We found two hundred bodies, and there was you, at least.¡± ¡°I can account for five at most, and it wouldn¡¯t have mattered if I wasn¡¯t there. I saw him and the snake kill close to fifty before they even knew he was there, and that was in the first two minutes of the fight. You talked to the villagers. They saw it. You just don¡¯t want to believe it.¡± Lee said. ¡°So what killed the ones at the wagons? The prisoners didn¡¯t see anything but darkness. Are you going to claim Darkness killed them? They were cut and stabbed like anyone.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t forget the hoof marks on some. You got the testimony from the villages when ¡°Black¡± arrived here. Maybe darkness did kill them. It is no stranger than the beetle thing that appeared and disappeared. I was right next to that, and it was hot, like furnace hot.¡± ¡°I saw the burned bodies. What was it?¡± ¡°I have no idea, but to me, it makes being killed by darkness within the realms of possibility. Two, no three, no five impossible things killed two hundred troopers.¡± ¡°Who are they?¡± ¡°As far as I am aware, he actually is Wiremu Hunter. I have no idea who she is. Wiremu said she was the Black Butcher of Jern, which I can believe, and then she turned into a top-tier entertainer performing a half-hour-long show made famous by that Kirghiz group, and as far as I can tell, she performed it flawlessly.¡± ¡°Did she kill using shadow puppets?¡± ¡°I have no idea.¡± I tuned them out after that. It wasn¡¯t relevant. If I can create gas clouds by burning things on lava, I should experiment with different materials. I could create my own obscuring clouds without Tabitha, and they can poison and confuse at the same time. What burns and creates a lot of smoke? Or could I do that with different types of rock? The current cloud does obscure some sight. Could I mix it up and make it thicker? I also have sixteen attributes available. Most need to go into Spirituality to help me with higher-level slaves and so I don¡¯t run out of energy so fast, but there must be another Skill I can learn.
Wiremu Hunter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 9 12 11 10 8 10 92
Earned Attributes 11 Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. 5 2 12 3 1 3 2 5 44
Hunter B 12 2 14 24 5 2 2 6 5 60 0
Monster Hunter S 6 6 6 6 6 5 29 1
Scout S 8 8 3 8 1 6 10 36 4
Assassin S 4 1 4 5 5 1 16 0
Bond Master S 6 2 6 6 6 1 21 3
Stone Shaper B 10 20 10 10 40 0
Prospecting S 6 6 1 2 3 3 7 22 2
Spy B 11 1 4 3 11 15 10 11 55 0
Forger S 3 3 3 3 3 12 0
Warrior B 9 18 10 11 2 41 4
Metal Shaper B 6 6 2 6 3 5 22 2
Totals 76 45 54 64 52 47 64 43 45 490 16
Constitution 175 163 152
Resistances: Poison +31, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +36, Heat +34, Fire +13, Disease 1, Acid 1, Mental 8, Skills: Novice: General Lock Pick 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap3, Spiritual Trapping 4, Stone Shaping 4, Slave Master Bond 3, Phantasm (Mineral) 3 Fighting Heavy Armour 4. Slingshot 4, Batons 2 Senses Lore Metal Alloy Lore 4, Gem Lore 3, Spiritual Metals Lore 3, Weapon Lore 4 Apprentice: General Sewing 9, Cooking 8, Animal Care 8, Sprint 7, Butchering 7, Repair Leather Armour 9, Dwarvish 9, Slight of Hand 7, Granite Mind Armour 5, Elemental Bond 8, Hunters Mark 7, Disarm Traps 5, Detect Traps 5, Detect Spiritual Trap 6, Metal Shaping 5, Bond Care 9, Interrogate Status 6, Lava Body 6, Copier 8 Fighting Phantasm Venom Cloud 5, Granite Quake 9, Granite Wall 7, Petrification 8, Marksman 7, Granite Sand 9, Blunt Weapons 7, Sudden Strike 9, Lava Dart 6, Granite Armour 8 Venom Vapour 7, Senses Thermal Sensing 7, Telescopic Sight 8 Lore Mineral Lore 8, Metal Lore 8, Sapient Lore 8, Elemental Lore 7, Journeyman: General Mapping 14, Tutor 13, Identify 14, Map Making 10, Manipulate Status 12, Analyse Bonds 11, Tracking 11, Skinning 11, Weapon Repair 11, Hide Armourer 12, Riding 11, Veneer 12, Roleplay 11, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 10, Molten Rock 10, Orcish 13, Camouflage 13, Fishing 10 Fighting Hammer 14, Granite Spike 14, Granite Bones 14, Granite Shield 14, Granite Manipulation 13, Triple Shot 10, Bow 13, Small Blades 14, Unarmed Combat 12, Throw Weapons 13, Spear 13, Quick Strike 13, Power Strike 13, Imbue Venom 12, Venom Arrow 10 Senses Darksight 14, Sense Treasure 10, Bond Senses 12, Truth Sensing 10, Sense Spiritual 14 Lore Animal Lore 12, Plant Lore 10, Monster Lore 10, Master: General Stealth 17, Animal Bond 17, Far Sight 16, Hearing Aid 16, Deceive 15, Regeneration 15, Snakeskin 15, Trapping 15 Senses Granite Sense 15 Affinity: Granite, Lava Monster Kills: 9 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +22, Cold +30, Heat +34, Fire +13, Pain +23, Acid 1 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 4, Venom Vapour 4, Granite Quake 5, Phantasm Venom Cloud 2 Apprentice: Granite Shield 8, Granite Sense 7, Granite Manipulation 9, Molten Rock 6, Sudden Strike 8, Hunters Mark 7, Lava Spit 6, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 5, Thermal Senses 6, Lava Body 5 Journeyman: Strength Boost 12, Power Strike 13, Venom Spit 11, Granite Spike 11, Grow 13 Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 18, Camouflage 15, Regeneration 15, Granite Bone 15 Affinity: Granite, Lava Bond: Puia, Lava Elemental Resistances: Cold +30, Skills: Novice: Granite Spike 3, Apprentice: Thermal Senses 6, Granite Manipulation 6, Regeneration 5, Phantasm Venom Cloud 5 Journeyman: Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 10, Master: Molten Rock 11 Affinity: Lava, Granite 291. Grain of Sand: Tabitha.

291. Grain of Sand: Tabitha.

Modrica is pissed at me. I got into two good fights, and she wasn¡¯t there. On top of that, I put on a show that she missed. She loves the puppets, even if she has already seen them many times. I have to put on a show soon because Umreti hasn¡¯t even seen them once, and she thinks that is a crime. We spent four days in Kohekohe, and Wiremu did remove the class from the three slaves. He is pleased with how it went, even though one of them was close and she would need a lengthy recovery period. The Wiremu hero worship is reaching new heights. We left in the night and rode hard to catch up to the wagons. Two days and nights of hard riding, but it is good to be together again. Ruku is setting up the morning sparring sessions again. All I heard was that Modrica would be beating me up every morning because she was pissed. I pulled out the grain of sand to examine. This is Wiremu¡¯s new fucking Skill. It is actually Puia¡¯s Skill Phantasm (Mineral). We are trying to use it to hide or misdirect attention, but the first hurdle to overcome is that it is a rock and indiscriminate in its effect. For it to not affect us, we need to build our Mental Resistance and our mind shields. He also needs to level the skill, so hence, we are carrying around grains of sand that attack our minds. That sounds so weird to say. It looks just like a grain of sand, but it does affect my thinking. I am distracted and uncomfortable. My Mental resistance has gone up a level already, and I can block it out with my Shadow Mind. It is getting easier to use Shadow Mind without having to concentrate on it. Pushing Shadow Mind to the Apprentice level would make a big difference there. I do have one advantage, and that is if I put the sand in my Spatial pocket, the effect is masked. That makes it a good surprise weapon. Travel is boring, so this is a great time to practice these things. We still have about a month of travel through the wilderness of no man''s land before we hit the Imperial borders properly, and then there are about two months to get to Yelets. Wiremu wants to divert to find a bond for Umreti, so that will add another couple of weeks. The quarry where Wiremu spent three years is also somewhere between here and Yelets. Wiremu is very keen to pay a visit there, too. I am settling in for the trip now we are at a slower pace. Wiremu is off hunting and bringing back live animals for trade. Sometimes, he will take Ruku or Umreti. Ruku sometimes goes off fishing. Modrica and I usually stay by the wagons. We are city girls, and the men are the rugged outdoors type. It is too stereotypical for me, but it is what it is. Captain Lee is an inquisitive bitch. I hope she becomes helpful as she is gaining huge benefits from this. She now has Mental Resistance and has developed a Mind Shield. Her fighting Skills are weak, but she is a spy more than a fighter. Which is probably where the inquisitiveness comes from. The Famous Five look after the wagons and beasts mostly. Moja, Mbili and Tatu drive wagons, and Nne and Tano scout but come in for our training sessions. Tatu is happy with his Spider bond, and Nne recently bonded with a baby Free-tailed bat. She is happy. The bat is a fast flyer, and she does most of the night shift. Tatu was not happy as spiders are one of the food sources for bats. We are one big semi-happy family. Wiremu is watching our back. We wouldn¡¯t put it past Rodion to follow us. He knows our destination, so he might be heading direct. A wolfkin will stand out in the Empire, though. A big majority of humans in the empire. My main issue is I have fifteen attribute points accrued from Class levels. What do I do with them? Wiremu is going to put most of his toward increasing his spirituality, but I can be more flexible. I have had a lot of skill levels, especially in the last fight. Stealth and shadows are still my go-to abilities. One thing that has been bugging me is that Foxkin who could beat my Spatial Awareness with her stealth. How did she do that? How can I do that, and how can I counter that? I am not used to being snuck up on, and it is not pleasant. She beat Wiremu¡¯s Master level Hearing Aid as well as my Spatial Awareness. She also beat his Thermal Sensing, T¨¡oke¡¯s nose and my Master level Darksight and Nyx¡¯s Spiritual Senses. How? I honestly thought that couldn¡¯t happen with my Spatial Awareness. Would Ruku¡¯s Sonar have picked her up? Or his Ocean Sense? I will never know. I need something new. Something different. Ruku¡¯s Ocean Sense is a different skill. It is almost like an environmental awareness Skill picking up minute disturbances and anomalies in the surrounding area. It is quite a vague skill. Ruku says he got it from spending days on his own fishing and becoming aware of what is around him. My Engulfing Shadows lets me sense my surroundings, and using that in the extreme enabled me to learn Spatial Awareness. I am a city girl. I don¡¯t spend forever in one place. Cities have their own flow and movement, but I am not going to learn a city equivalent skill travelling through the wilderness for months. I need to be in a city, and the next city we will come to is Yelets. Yelets brings my thoughts back to Longstrider. Adrian Longstrider, my old master thief, who taught me my basic class. I was scared of him back then. Would I be now? What do I actually know about him? He is a Master Thief and Burglar. He had an extended information network and a Trainer Class. He was the master crimelord of Yelets. Everybody paid tribute to him. Only one gang stood up to him during my time, and he ruthlessly crushed them. Adrian Longstrider was the only name I knew him by, but it sounds so false now. It is hard to know what I will need to stand up to him, possibly work with him or take over from him. He will have used his trainer Class to give himself many skills, and he is old. If there is one thing I have learned recently, it is that older people have many high-level skills. That is a worry, and I don¡¯t know how to prepare for it. With his information network, he might know about my Shadow Affinity. I know he was trying to keep track of me shortly after I got to Jern. Laid a claim on me, in fact. My biggest advantages are Nyx and Modrica and, to a lesser extent, Wiremu. He probably knows something about Wiremu. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. What do I need to tip the scales in my favour? I am strong in the shadows, but if he knows that, he will try to negate it. It is super energy-intensive to operate in the middle of the day or in brightly lit rooms. How do I do that? Option 1: block or disable the light source. It''s good for things other than the sun, but Wiremu¡¯s Clouds are an idea I could work on. Clouds that are created from a source that is not me. Option 2: Get out. That would mean going against or through Spiritual metals and enchanted materials. I have a greater idea of how enchantments work now, so that is good. This option means I need tools. What tools do I need? Option 3: ??? Not sure. Perhaps use the light somehow? Shadows are an absence of light. What am I doing when creating shadows in a lit area? Do I absorb the light or change it in some way? I know I don¡¯t reflect the light, which brings to mind that mirrors could be useful. I cast Engulfing Shadows and looked at what it did. My Sense Spiritual and Spiritual Perception were much higher now than they ever used to be. I wasn¡¯t sensing enough. I could tell from the Engulfing Shadows that the light was being absorbed, but I could not sense it to affect it. I decided to put a point into Spiritual Perception and see if I could tell the difference. Yes, there was some. I bumped it up to 55. That was better. The light was absorbed by my shadows, which makes sense. The stronger the light, the more energy it takes. Shadow Manipulation and Binding Shadows etc. gave the shadow a physical form. Instead of absorbing the light, could I do something else with it that is less energy-intensive? Bend it or even reflect it? Engulfing Shadows is my go-to Skill, and it has been sitting on the cusp of Master level for ages. Can I push it over with this? I recast Engulfing Shadows in a small area and looked at where the light entered the skill. Instead of absorbing, could I bend it? I concentrated on the area with Spiritual Strength and tried hardening the surface. This was sort of what I did with my Shadow Shield. Shadow Shield is weak, but here, I am only trying to move or deflect light. The surface hardened. I knew how to do that. However, the light hitting a black surface was still absorbed. Instead of Spiritual Strength, I tried Spiritual Agility. Unfortunately, It was my lowest Attribute. Could I use the agility to bend the light to create my shadows rather than absorbing it? I spent the next few hours trying all sorts of things. The light was not easy to grab and move. It is easier to bounce off a surface, like a mirror. I hardened the surface of my Engulfing Shadows again. Can I change it to a colour other than black? It is the shadows under the surface that are important to me, not the surface itself. If I am operating in a low light area, then I don¡¯t need any of this, but if I am operating in a strong light area, like the desert in the day, I do need this to reduce my energy costs. What I am getting now, though, is frustrated. I don¡¯t have the patience of Wiremu to sit by a pond for hours doing nothing. I need results and action. Progress. Time for a break. I took out the grain of sand again and flexed my Shadow Mind against its influence. Shadow Mind finally went to the Apprentice Level. See Progress! I looked at the grain of sand. It was grey and formed a shadow on my hand. I focussed my Spiritual Perception on this shadow and the grain of sand. I could sense the shadow. I manipulated it, and the grain rolled on my palm, moving the shadow. Think, girl, think! I cast a tiny Engulfing shadow next to the grain of sand. They sat side by side, one grey and one black. It has to do with the surface of the object. I can see that and how some light bounces from the grey surface. The light just disappears into the Engulfing Shadows. I moved the Engulfing shadow over the grain of sand. This was not easy as it was a spiritual material., but I did it and matched the surfaces together. Can I make the light bounce from the surface of the Engulfing Shadow be the same as the light hitting the grain of sand? This was better as I had a direct comparison here, and Spiritual Agility was definitely the way to go. I upped the attributes in Spiritual Agility to make it 45, and that helped, but I was down to seven spare points. That helped, but I was not there yet. Do I put more points in? I do feel I am onto something. Fuck it! Of course, I do. I am not going to stop when I am making progress. 46, 47, 48, 49, 50. Fifty helps me move the light, and the surface colour changes slightly. Yes! More! I put more effort in, and the colour slowly starts to match the grain of sand as I match the light waves. Yes, and I have a notification of a new skill. What the fuck is this? I was changing Engulfing Shadows, and I have a whole different Skill instead. Reflecting Surfaces allows me to change the light on the surface of something. That is not what I was going for. Changing a grey rock to look red is not very useful. Wait. I was using it on Engulfing Shadows. I cast a fist-sized Engulfing Shadows and then cast Reflecting Surface on it. Yes! Some of the light is reflected instead of absorbed, and it therefore reduces the cost. But it also costs to cast Reflecting Surface, and overall, it is more expensive. Does the Reflecting Surface cost reduce as it levels? Yes, but¡­ but it is more complicated than that. The size of the surface I am covering affects the cost as well. The bigger the surface, the less light I can reflect for the same cost. A dark grey reflects very little light compared to a bright yellow or white. I switch to my Embracing Shadows and cast Reflecting Surface over a me size object and experiment with cost vs energy saving to get a feel for the Skill. I am sitting on a wooden bench, driving a wagon. I cast Reflecting Surface on my leg and tried to match the colour of the bench. No shadows are involved in this, and I manage it for a small section. It is like my leg disappeared for a short section. That is amazing. What is even more amazing is this is not a shadow skill. I learned it from my shadows, and it synergises to reduce the shadows'' cost in intense light, but I can use it on anything. I looked at my disappearing leg and noticed small things like the grain of the wood stopped and restarted. I am going to have to work on the details, but this could make me invisible without shadows. Or I could make an object invisible near me. My Spatial Awareness will help a lot with this. I used it on my hand and turned it orc green. I then did the same to Dusk¡¯s head. Her mane was a problem, and it cost energy. I had to be in the Spatial Awareness range. Could I create a mirror? In other words, can I reflect all the light? No. at least not until Journeyman Level, depending on the size. This is something I can work on. 292. Black and Gold: Wiremu

292. Black and Gold: Wiremu

Umreti, Ruku and I sat and watched. This is a problem. ¡°Your Mentally weird Poison Cloud would work if we could get near the hole,¡± Ruku said. ¡°You could drown them as well, but that won¡¯t be the only entrance,¡± I said. ¡°They will swarm in defence of the nest. Snakeskin and Toughhide only go so far. Modrica¡¯s Armoured Skin and Granite Armour are probably the only things that will hold, and there may be enough that they run us and Te?ka out of energy as well.¡± ¡°You and Modrica could collapse the tunnels with your quakes,¡± Ruku suggested. ¡°Possible, but this is a huge nest. I have only mapped half of it. There are millions of hornets in there.¡± I replied. ¡°There are no animals in the last kilometre. They were food for this. They killed a Forest Troll. How about we just go around and leave it.¡± Ruku suggested. I flicked out a hand with Quick Strike and the Slight of Hand and grabbed a wandering hornet. It was about ten centimetres long with black and gold stripes. It stung me repeatedly. Snakeskin was newly Master level and stopped about half of the stings. The Venom was potent, and the sting was painful. My Poison Resistance would stop a lot, but it also got through my Pain Resistance. Others don¡¯t have anywhere near my level of Resistances. My Sense Spiritual was telling me this was a spiritual creature, and the venom was spiritually enhanced. That also might be how it got through Snakeskin. There are millions of these. ¡°I think this venom is reducing or bypassing my Pain Resistance,¡± I commented. ¡°That would make for a very painful death,¡± Ruku said. ¡°We are off the main trail, but this will multiply. I think we should kill it if we can. Does the army have a method for this?¡± I asked Ruku. ¡°An alchemy powder is usually used. Spread it around the area, and the hornets carry it into the nest, and it kills the larvae. It will also kill the queens or at least greatly reduce the number of hornets and weaken the nest. Fire works as well, but to get a fire to burn underground, you need an accelerant or an affinity user. Water is limited, and filling a nest of this size is beyond me as it will also soak into the soft earth around it. Plus, it is on the side of a hill.¡± ¡°And we don¡¯t know where the entrances are,¡± I finished. ¡°I could scout more.¡± Ruku nodded, ¡°Normally, something like this is reported to the nearest military base, and they get the necessary supplies and deal with it.¡± The Free Republic fort is six weeks behind us. We are not far from the destination where I have a bond in mind for Umreti. The trouble is the bond creatures are rare, and this is the only colony on this side of the continent. A hornet nest of this size threatens them, and it may wipe them out. What I have in mind are the Lowland Gorillas. They just seemed right to me as they are large, strong creatures but also gentle and family-orientated. They are smart herbivores who only really get violent when threatened. This seemed right for Umreti¡¯s mental state as his damage has settled but is still there. A calming bond with family orientation seemed right. I may have it wrong, and we made this trip for nothing, but I like to think my class was leading me in this direction. Lowland Gorillas are endangered and close to extinction, and if we leave these hornets, they are likely to be the cause of the extinction of this subspecies, especially if they are killing trolls already. The nearest military force is probably the Imperial Border Patrol. We are rather hoping to avoid those. ¡°You two head back and warn the wagons, and T¨¡oke, and I will see if we can map the full nest.¡± ¡°I stay here. Watch,¡± Umreti said. Ruku and I both looked at him. He was watching the hornets come and go. I saw his hand was shaking like he was having a small seizure. ¡°We will both stay till you get back,¡± Ruku said, obviously concerned about him like I was. He wouldn¡¯t be able to move easily if he was having a seizure. Were the hornets causing the seizure? They were triggering something. I nodded, ¡°We shouldn¡¯t be too long,¡± and I slipped away. My Granite senses were only of limited use in mapping the nest. Hornets don¡¯t build in rock but soft earth and bark. From what I can tell, it started in a large fallen rotten trunk of a tree. That means it doesn¡¯t go deep. It is spread out. My Granite Armour should make me immune, and Puia should be able to burn out the nest in sections. This will cause the hornets to swarm in defence. The trick is killing all the queens, and there will be thousands of them, probably hundreds of thousands. As I moved around the giant hive, there were hornets coming and going all the time, and I was pushing my camouflage to remain hidden. I didn¡¯t want to get them swarming, or they would probably kill me. My defence would be to create Granite Armour and run, hoping to get far enough away before I ran out of energy. I did have to kill a number, and I quickly buried the bodies under granite as I am pretty sure they warn others by releasing pheromones. I saw a number of hornets crawling over the corpse of a small bird. I decided to capture them so we could test our skills on them as I encased them and the bird in solid granite. It was about the size of a small backpack, so they would have some breathing air until I got away. There was furious buzzing in the cage, I had about ten of them. I created a handle, picked it up and went to join the others. Umreti had stopped shaking, and Ruku nodded to me, so we made a quiet exit from the area. The wagons were stopped about five kilometres away from the hive as we had been warned about the hive by our Scouts, Nne and Tano. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Everybody gathered as we came back. ¡°It is even bigger than we thought,¡± I started. ¡°Multiple millions of hornets, thousands of queens. There are so many they are unsustainable, and the queens will probably all split up this winter and spread out.¡± I put the stone cage on the ground in front of them and reduced the granite so it was a mesh we could see through. The Hornets were large, ranging 7-9cm long and black with gold stripes. They were not happy. Everybody looked closely at them as Ruku described the sting and the danger of swarming. Modrica wanted to test her Armoured Skin, so I separated a hornet from the others, and she grabbed it and let it repeatedly sting her hand. Then she crushed it. Modrica grunted and said, ¡°Takes energy.¡± Tabitha said, ¡°Separate a couple out for me, and why is that one larger than the others? It also has a stronger spiritual presence.¡± We looked at it closely. ¡°That is a queen,¡± Ruku said. ¡°It is rare for them to be outside the hive.¡± I separated two workers from the other, and that portion of the cage was suddenly encased in shadow. After about five seconds, the shadow withdrew. ¡°We can syphon energy from them quickly to kill them because they are so small,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°The problem is how many there are. We can only hold so much energy, and we can only disperse it so fast. Nyx can only grow so fast. Multiple millions are too many. If we did this during the day, there would be more energy used in the skill. We would last longer and kill more.¡± ¡°This sort of thing is usually done at night when the hive is dormant,¡± Ruku said. Tabitha just shrugged, but I was not paying attention to them any more. Umreti was fascinated with the queen. I watched, and his hand was shaking slightly, but I noticed it was different than a seizure. I watched with my senses as he reached out mentally and was rebuffed by the queen. I raised my hand to silence the others. I concentrated on Bond Care. He reached out and was rebuffed again. Why was he attempting this? Strong, protective calm was what I thought he needed. I was fine if I was wrong, but a hornet nest was violent, buzzing death. The hornet queen was not wanting this either. He kept making attempt after attempt and was rebuffed every time. Was there compatibility there? To be quite frank, I couldn¡¯t tell. There didn¡¯t seem to be incompatibility. That was a start. I put my hand on Umreti¡¯s shoulder to get his attention. He grunted without looking away from the queen. ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± I asked. ¡°Why this?¡± ¡°I am Umreti,¡± he replied. I was puzzled. I didn¡¯t understand. ¡°Umreti,¡± Modrica explained, ¡°means to die.¡± I knew that, which was why I was puzzled about the name when we first met. I was his master back then, and he couldn¡¯t lie to his master, so I had taken it to be his name, even though it was strange. I thought he had a death wish because he was a slave, and it was so strong he changed his name. ¡°This,¡± Umreti said, indicating the queen, ¡°is not Umreti but Ubiti.¡± Umreti is to die. Ubiti is to kill. Maybe I misunderstood the name. Maybe the ¡®to die¡¯ didn¡¯t refer to him but to others. Maybe he was going with the ambiguity of the name. Somebody is going to die. Just because he doesn''t talk much does not mean he is unintelligent. Umreti is a Weapons Master. He does have a strong killing intent to his spirituality. Yet there is also the First Aid and survival classes. Those were the ones I was focussing on when looking for a bond. Caring for others and surviving together, but with strength, led me toward the Gorillas. Umreti obviously has a different direction he wants to head. That is fine. He knows what he wants, even though I am not sure about it. One thing I would stand against is an incompatible or forced bond. I don¡¯t sense any incompatibility, even though I sense other bonds could be better. It is his choice at the end of the day. The problem is his attempts are continually rejected. Why? I focussed on Analyse Bonds. The Skill being Journeyman gave me good information. ¡°The queen is rejecting you because she is already bonded, not to a person, but to the other queens in the hive. They form a network of small bonds. There are lots of them.¡± That caused Umreti to stop and think. ¡°Can you break them?¡± I examined the bonds again. They were not unhealthy. Some were stronger than others. Then I sensed some fade, and one was cut. I think the queen in her hive would be continually forming new bonds and strengthening them, but as she was separated from the hive, some of the weaker bonds were getting weaker. It seemed she was not bonded with all the other queens, but only some of them, probably the ones she interacted with. As I watched, she was strengthening bonds with the workers near her. I had never sensed these flexible bonds before. I guess when winter came, they would reduce bonds as they flew to make a new hive. This must be how they worked. My Bond Master Class Levelled. Working out how different bonds function is the key to this class. I have learned something new. My Monster lore also levelled with this knowledge. I thought these might be monster hornets from the level of Spirituality in the queen and the hive, but this was totally new to me. Where is the Monster Core if they are monsters? I was missing Mayakku and her Spiritual Sensitivity. Maybe they are like the Sand Elemental, and it is split amongst the queens. If that is the case, the flexible bonds confused me. Mayakku could sense the link between the separate parts of the Sand Elemental core. That must be different to the bond I am looking at. Thinking about it, one queen could start a new hive. A new Monster hive and then grow more queens. Is this how monster hives spread? One monster queen starts weak and growing strong with the hive. That is all I could think of. I realised I had been silent too long, ¡°Yes,¡± I replied, ¡°but they are naturally formed, and they are fading as she is separated from the hive. Her bond with the workers in the cage is growing stronger. The more important question is, this is a Monster Queen. What is her affinity, and are you compatible?¡± That got everybody¡¯s attention. ¡°Can you tell?¡± Umreti asked. ¡°Let me get a better feel for it. What I know now is that you are not incompatible, but that is not the same thing as being compatible.¡± I focussed back on the bond, but this time, I tried to get a feel for the flavour. I could sense some poison, but it was not the main flavour. ¡°I don¡¯t think I have sensed anything like this before,¡± I said, and I tried to understand it. ¡°It is almost like it hurts.¡± ¡°Pain is an old friend,¡± Umreti said. ¡°Then, when you try bonding, channel your pain. Are you sure this is what you want? You have suffered pain, but the hornets deliver pain. It is not the same thing.¡± ¡°I have delivered my share of pain, even when keeping people alive. I plan to deliver a lot more when we get to the empire. I will bring the pain.¡± ¡°It is your choice.¡± I still thought my idea for a bond would have been better, but it wasn¡¯t up to me. I watched as Umreti got the queen''s attention with his pain, but it wasn¡¯t just pain. It was mixed with his killing intent. The queen¡¯s other bonds were still there, and I guess she had a choice to make. She was one queen among thousands, or would she start her own hive with Umreti? I watched as the queen made her choice, and the bond snapped into place. The five workers in the cage with her became her workers, and a new hive was born. 293. Growing Pains: Tabitha.

293. Growing Pains: Tabitha.

I knew I should have interfered with that coin toss and left the bitch Lee behind. My shadow Manipulation could have done it easily. Lee is getting to know all our secrets. I guess it was inevitable, but I feel like strangling her and dumping the body. I still might. Maybe I will let a small section of hornets escape in her direction tomorrow. Now Wiremu is building Umreti, a portable hive from leather. I am really not sure about this. We are carrying around a Monster Hornet Hive. Something about that just makes me shiver uncomfortably. I know I can suck them dry of energy in seconds, but still, I shiver because I sort of can¡¯t do that to Umreti, and the thought of a ten-centimetre hornet landing on my shoulder just makes me seriously uncomfortable. Tomorrow is going to be bad enough, but I don¡¯t mind going on a killing spree against them. It is living with them that I have trouble with. Umreti and his new queen are going to sit out tomorrow so they don''t get mixed up in the slaughter. We are going for a multi-pronged attack at around dawn, so the sun is rising on Nyx and myself. Nyx and I are in charge of the above-ground part. Wiremu has identified three main exits for the hive and some smaller ones. Nyx and I will blanket them and suck the life out of everything that exits. I think we will get overwhelmed, but it is the best place for us. We will have Te?ka, Ruku and T¨¡oke with us. Te?ka for his earthquake skill to close some of the tunnels and restrict the number coming out. T¨¡oke will be mixing his funny cloud to add to the mix and using his Phantasm to keep them off us. My Intimidating Aura may not be enough if they work up into a frenzy. We have some heavy furs to cover ourselves with, and Ruku can add his Whirlpool shield, which should also be effective. Worst case scenario, we hide under Te?ka and his Armoured Skin. Wiremu, Puia and Modrica are the underground team. Modrica is going because it is burrowing under soft soil, and earth is her affinity. She will also be able to collapse areas as well. Wiremu and Puia are going to smoke them out and poison them. It will take a while for his venom to make it through their resistances, but the Phantasm mental attack should confuse and slow them down enough. The queens are normally at the bottom of the hive breeding. The new larvae will be very susceptible to the cloud, and the queens will get hit first, slowing down any call to swarm. At least, that is the theory, so we start the cloud underneath the hive in several places. Wiremu and Modrica will laze around in a soft tunnel while we have to deal with the swarm. The bitch will be sitting around the wagons doing nothing as normal. I will see if Umreti will bug her with the hornets. Wiremu and Modrica left at around midnight to dig tunnels, and the rest of us set up an hour before dawn. Nyx blanketed two main exits and a wide area, and I did the third exit. Nyx and I tried a few things as there were hornets coming and going even at this hour. We settled on a thick layer of shadows and then a hard top to stop them from escaping if they got through the shadows. None of the few hornets that exited got through the shadows. They dropped to the ground, sucked dry of energy. Activity picked up as the sun rose, and we were handling it fine. The constant stream of energy coming in was nice. Nyx was very much enjoying it. She was using the energy to grow. I am not sure grow is the right word. She doesn¡¯t grow larger. She grows stronger or darker or more dense. I suddenly realised I probably haven¡¯t really been providing her with enough food for real growth for a while. I have been negligent. Then the hive really stirred up. Wiremu and Puia have started. Hornets started exiting from every hole we had mapped and a few we hadn''t. They were coming out faster than we could syphon them dry, and the first ones struck our hard ceiling. It was only my Reflecting Surface, even though it was the most non-reflective I could make it, but it was strong enough to stop the Hornets, giving us more time to syphon their energy. I was directing most of my energy toward Nyx. Then, the Hornets who struck the barrier did what Hornets do when threatened. They stung the barrier, and it fucking hurt. The stings started multiplying, and the pain ramped up. Through the haze of pain, it occurred to me that the hornets were spiritual monsters and, as such, could hurt spiritual beings like Nyx. That''s how I found Nyx trapped and being attacked by goblins who were also spiritual beings. Maybe only one in ten were making it to the barrier, but that meant for every thousand, there were a hundred attacking the barrier. They were swarming out of the hive in their tens of thousands. I weakly waved Te?ka forward. Her job was to use her Earth Manipulation and Earthquake to close some of the exits and limit the hornets exiting the hit. I felt the ground shake. Te?ka started drawing attention from the hornets, and they started attacking her, but her Armoured Skin was sufficient for now. We had to release the Reflecting Surface as spiritual damage was starting to accumulate, as well as the intense pain. Nyx and I released it at the same time while also trying to deepen the shadows to give more time to syphon the energy. Nyx was coming up to her limit despite her growth. With the removal of the surface, hornets were now out of the shadows and circling. Angry. Looking for a target. It is fortunate we were all hidden in the shadows. One in fifteen or one in twenty was making it out of the shadows, but the swarm was growing. For every hundred thousand hornets, that was a swarm of five to seven thousand angry hornets. More were pouring out of the hive all the time, even with Te?ka closing exits. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. I signalled Ruku. It was time to give the hornets a target. Ruku stepped close, and I thinned the shadow around us so we became visible to the hornets around us. Ruku started spinning his Whirlpool Shield around us both as the swarm above us dove down at us, back into our syphon zone. It was a good plan, but Nyx and I could not handle much more energy. I let most of the swarm hit Ruku¡¯s whirlpool Shield, and it darkened with the bodies of drowned hornets as they attacked it. It changed colour with poison as well, but I couldn¡¯t tell if it was Ruku¡¯s poison or the hornet''s sting. It was probably both. I felt the Earthquake, and I was sure it was not Te?ka, so it must be Modrica collapsing things underground. The intensity of the swarm coming out was lessening, or they were less vigorous. I think these ones were affected by Wiremu and Puia¡¯s mind fuck cloud, whatever the hell they call it. I am starting not to think straight. It is like a pain building up and threatening to burst, and I could sense Nyx was similar. I shut the shadows back around us to hide us, and Ruku pops the lid on one of the containers of water he brought as he thins his shield and starts cycling clean water into it. I dunk my head into it and take a long drink. Then I feel Ruku¡¯s Refreshing Mist and Hydrate Skills activate. I notice one of the tunnels suddenly stops spewing out hornets, and nobody seems near to it. Then I sensed a small lava snake moving through the tunnel with bits of hornet burning off his body. I had totally lost track of T¨¡oke as he moved through the tunnels burning and letting loose the mind fuck cloud. These Hornets seemed endless. Nyx and I felt like we would burst. I spoke to Ruku, ¡°Nyx and I need to consolidate for a while.¡± ¡°Direct me to the best spot,¡± he said. I guided Ruku with Shadow nudges. He was not totally blind in the shadows as his Sonar pierced through to a limited extent. Ruku took both a full water container and an empty one with him. Once he was in position, he strengthened his shield from the full container, which cost him less energy than creating the water itself. Water Manipulation was one of his Master Skills. I then called Nyx to me, and the Shadows withdrew from the area, and she came and entered the Blacksteel knife to rest and consolidate her gains. With the shadows withdrawn, Ruku became a target for the hornets exiting the tunnels rather than them trying to escape. His Whirlpool Shield became dark with bodies again, but the hornets also started dropping around him, and the empty container started filling with murky water. This was his Hydrate skill in reverse. He was dehydrating the hornets around him, and the majority were dropping before hitting his shield. I knew he couldn¡¯t keep it up for long, but it was giving Nyx and myself a breather. Yes, I was still covering my area, but the two of us were now consolidated and could easily handle half the input, so we took it easy as Nyx condensed as much energy as she could, and we released the rest. The sun beating down on our shadows was also using more energy, which was a good thing at this stage. I looked at the sun. It was well above the horizon. This had been going longer than I realised, and still, there was no end in sight. There were now two angry swarms curling above us, looking for a target, and one had just focused on Te?ka, who was now outside the Shadows. Te?ka could armour up against the attack but had no way to fight against it. I pushed my shadow out toward him, and he got the hint and started to come to me. Then the swarm hit him, and I lost sight of him under ten thousand Hornets. This was a problem, and I was worried for him. He should be stronger than a Forest Troll, but these things took down a fucking Forest Troll. Then Ruku hosed him down with Water Surge, and I saw his fur on one side as the side facing Ruku was washed down. Te?ka took the opportunity to let out an Enraging Roar, which enhanced his constitution and had a short stun effect. He was still quite a way from me, and the roar had attracted the attention of the other swarm. Just before the swarm covered Te?ka again, I sensed a rock flying toward him and landing on his back. A layer of Granite appeared on his back and head, giving him more protection, and T¨¡oke went to work farting out mind fuck gas from his back. The hornets emerging now could barely fly straight as they were heavily affected by Wiremu and Puia underground. The thing is, they kept coming, and they recovered after a short time in the fresh air. Then I saw actual smoke from some tunnels, and the ground looked like it was burning. Wiremu and Puia were working their way towards us, turning the hive into Molten Rock. They must have hit some key breeding areas. It was time for a last push. The end is in sight. Nyx moved back out to Ruku¡¯s Blacksteel pendant, and her Shadows once more engulfed the area. With the Hornets now coming out weak from the gas clouds, they were already half out of energy, and this made life much easier. Nyx and I were almost able to keep pace with it now. Nyx had had a growth spurt, and the sun was beating down at our shadows, sucking out our spare energy. An hour and a half later, I sank down beside Te?ka, exhausted. I realised it was almost noon. Nyx was full to bursting with energy, but I was physically exhausted. The landscape was a burned and smouldering mess entirely clear of vegetation. Wiremu and Modrica were walking towards me, covered in dirt. They had emerged from the ground near the centre of the destruction. Some queens certainly escaped, but they would have to start from scratch again. The significant threat was dealt with. Te?ka was the most damaged, but Ruku and I had some stings to show for it. My Syphon Constitution was very effective in the swarm, and Ruku¡¯s Regeneration is off the charts. Te?ka was the problem, needing to drink the blood of his kills to recover, and the hornets were not suitable. He was stuck with a potion and a general anti-poison cleanser. ¡°Was there a core?¡± I asked Wiremu. He opened his hand, ¡°We recovered parts of one.¡± ¡°Well fuck. I am going to close my eyes for a bit, and then we can see what we can salvage from this mess.¡± I walked over to Te?ka and sat down, leaning against him and closed my eyes. 294. No Class: Tabitha.

294. No Class: Tabitha.

It was late afternoon when I opened my eyes. I was still leaning against Te?ka. He was a marvellous fellow with soft fur. Someone had left me water and some food. I looked around to see Wiremu and Umreti poking in the dirt. I levered myself up and walked over. ¡°What have you found?¡± I asked. ¡°More small monster cores. They are very small, I suspect the queens had them, which means most are buried in lava underground. I imagine they have been destroyed.¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Or,¡± Ruku said as he walked up, ¡°we come back in a decade to find some very interesting types of spiritual rock.¡± That got Wiremu¡¯s interest. I could almost see his senses spreading out to investigate. ¡°It just feels like my normal lava.¡± he said. ¡°I imagine it needs time to absorb the spirituality that was released by the hornets,¡± I said, remembering the time Puia took to absorb different rocks and that he was an active elemental rock monster. ¡°Yeah, I wonder how long the rock in the mushroom cave took to absorb the spiritual flavour?¡± Wiremu said. He picked out what looked like a grain of sand but must have been one of the cores. He then encased it completely in Granite, so it was now the size of a plum. ¡°Let''s keep this and watch it over time to see how it changes.¡± That is a start, but surely there is more. ¡°What about the bodies? Can we salvage anything from them?¡± I picked up one of the hornets lying around and examined it. ¡°As far as I can tell, they will have alchemical value, but we don¡¯t have the means to refine them or preserve them,¡± Ruku said. ¡°So there is nothing here to salvage?¡± ¡°Umreti has salvaged a number of wandering workers for his queen,¡± Wiremu said. I looked at Umreti and the leather backpack he wore. There were hornets coming and going at a constant rate. He definitely had more than the five he started with. They were building their new hive in the backpack. These hornets are just creeping me out here. I know I will have to get used to them, but I think it is going to take some time. ¡°I am going to find a decent meal,¡± I said. ¡°The famous Five have set up camp about ten minutes walk that way,¡± Ruku said. As I walked, I looked at my status. Engulfing Shadows went to the Master level from that. It was the prime Skill I used. I now have six master-level Skills, well behind both Ruku and Wiremu. I know Ruku said it is unusual for people our age to have a single master-level Skill, but I feel I am still lagging behind. My Shadow Predator Class levelled as well. I haven¡¯t really done a lot of fighting that challenged me, and that class had not levelled for a long time. This had been a challenge, particularly for the shadow skills. Syphon Energy went up two levels, and Syphon Constitution went up one. The best part was one that didn¡¯t show up on a status sheet. Nyx had grown. She was denser and more¡­ solid is not the right word, but it partially is. She can affect the physical better. She is more resistant to light and pain. In fact, she now has resistance shown in her status. That wasn¡¯t there before. Resistances to Light, Pain and Mental. Maybe her growth is shown indirectly by her status. Mbili was tending a campfire, and there was a kettle on as well as a pot of stew. ¡°Nobody died, huh?¡± Moja greeted me. ¡°Not today.¡± She shook her head in disbelief. I could sense Mbili nearby, but Tatu is usually caring for the animals, and he is not here. ¡°Where is Tatu?¡± Moja humphed, ¡°ran off to look at the mess you made.¡± Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! I decided it wasn¡¯t important and sat down with a bowl of stew. Something is different. I looked at my status, and there was no new class or anything. My Spirituality seemed stronger and more flexible. I guess if Nyx can grow, so can I? Then I spotted it. My base attributes had gone up. Spiritual Strength went up by two and Spiritual Agility by one. That rarely happens once you are an adult. I heard Wiremu coming. He was scolding Tatu, ¡°That was incredibly dangerous.¡± ¡°What was wrong with letting Qatil eat the hornet carcasses? They prey on her,¡± ¡°They will make her more spiritual and impart some small aspect of their being on her.¡± ¡°She already has a neuro poison, and making it stronger is not a problem.¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t their only aspect,¡± I noted he didn¡¯t mention the pain added to the poison. ¡°All the scavengers will be feasting, including Nne¡¯s Sarie,¡± Tatu said. I suddenly remembered he had a Brown Widow spider bond, and Sarie was a long-tailed bat. Dead hornets will be quite the feast for them. I really think they should be paying us to come on this trip, not the other way around. Coming back to visit in a few years might be interesting as this level of spirituality will spread out through the ecosystem. I tuned them out until Wiremu came over, ¡°I want to carry on to the gorillas,¡± he said, ¡°seeing as we are so close.¡± I nodded, ¡° I figured you would. They sound interesting,¡± He is probably hoping to raise his Animal Lore or something. ¡°They are a day away, and we could do with a couple of days'' rest. It is supposed to be a nice spot at the bottom of their valley and the edge of the lake,¡± he said. So, it is not just gorillas. It is also fishing. ¡°A couple of days rest sounds good.¡± It was a nice spot Wiremu found for us. It was on the shore of the lake, and he and Ruku caught us breakfast before they both headed off to find the gorillas. This last fight got me thinking about my fighting style. I don¡¯t usually think about that, as I am more interested in coins. Nyx and I are very good against large numbers of fragile enemies like the Hornets. Other than that, my fighting style is hiding and then striking from the shadows. My Shadow Predator Class grows when fighting in and from shadows. Sparring with the team has got me used to stand-up fights and teamwork, but there seem to be two things I am missing. The first is some sort of assassin class. Wiremu got Assassin from his Hunter Class. I got Shadow Predator from my Thief Class, which is not a fighting class. I guess Shadow Predator is my assassin-type class, but he has skills with attack bonuses, and I do not. None of my basic classes are fighting classes. That might be the difference, but it seems like I am missing something. The second thing is I have no mounted fighting class. Riding is something I love to do, and it passed the Journeyman level a long time ago, but no specialisation to fight mounted has become available. I thought about my fights. I don¡¯t tend to fight mounted. Dusk has been my game-changer in several fights, but we fight separately, not mounted. I think I want to change that. Ruku arrived back at about lunchtime, leaving Wiremu watching the gorillas. ¡°What do you know about mounted fighting classes?¡± I asked him. ¡°Not a lot. We didn¡¯t tend to have mounted troops at sea. I had some theory in my Captains¡¯ training, but that is all.¡± ¡°I want to learn to fight mounted on Dusk.¡± ¡°We should have arranged lessons in Freebourne.¡± ¡°I was busy in Freebourne.¡± ¡°You have the riding Class and want to specialise?¡± I nodded. ¡°And you have the Agility Riding Skill if I remember correctly.¡± I nodded again. ¡°Most mounted warfare is based on the Cavalry Charge, but that is more Modrica and Te?ka rather than you. The second most common is mounted archers or javelin throwers. Ranged attacks, but that is not you, either.¡± ¡°Modrica is good with the javelin when mounted,¡± I said. Ruku nodded, ¡°The type of mounted warfare you are best suited for is Raiding. That is your quick snatch-and-grab attacks or the quick attack and withdrawal type attacks. You have the speed, stealth and agility. How have you been training mounted combat?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t really.¡± ¡°Agility riding?¡± ¡°Not that either.¡± ¡°Right. There is a training exercise I have heard about but never seen called Ground Hogging. We make some targets that sit on the ground at different heights, and you gallop through. Some you have to hit with your sword, and some you have to grab and pick up at speed. Some of them will be flat plates lying on the ground. It will train you and Dusk in manoeuvrability and agility to turn to get them all in the time allowed. Once you get the hang of it, we can introduce other obstacles and even attacks.¡± That didn¡¯t sound like training. It sounded like so much fun. ¡°When can we start?¡± He grinned at me, ¡°Let''s see what we can find.¡± 295. Flinching: Wiremu.

295. Flinching: Wiremu.

Well, that is a strange sight. Tabitha and Dusk were racing around the camp, stabbing and whipping things from horseback. Modrica was throwing things at them, but Te?ka never even stirred when Dusk leapt over him. Umreti looked like he was conducting an orchestra, but I guess it had meaning for the Hornets. Moja, Mbili and Tatu were pottering around camp, but I couldn¡¯t see Ruku anywhere. I moved toward the wagons when a fast-moving object shot out of the lake, into the air, somersaulted twice and then smoothly dived back in. At least Ruku is having fun. I had fun as well. I enjoyed the peaceful time observing the gorillas. My Animal Lore went up as well. I even interacted with them. The big old patriarch checked me out first and then ignored me. Slowly, over the day, some of the young ones got closer until I was in the midst of them. These gorillas are incredible. Strong, but peace-loving. I felt a connection, and I really felt Umreti made the wrong choice in his bond. Maybe not the wrong choice, but not the best choice. We were all there for the evening dinner. The fish Ruku caught was delicious. He wouldn¡¯t confirm whether he out-swam it in order to catch it. I was telling them about the gorillas when Ruku said, ¡°You seem very enamoured with the gorillas. Why don¡¯t you try bonding with one?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t I ¡­? What? I already have T¨¡oke and Puia. That is my limit.¡± ¡°Is it? But you are a Bond Master, and you have Bond Care to find the proper bond. Why couldn¡¯t you bond with another animal? Gwaed had several bonds; don¡¯t dismiss it because she was an elf. You have a Bond class and Skill.¡± I paused. Ruku was onto something. Could I have more bonds? It would be tricky. A Rock and/or Lava affinity was rare. None of the gorillas would have lava, but they may have a rock affinity. They are more likely to be plant or tree irritated, but there is a lot of variety. I only had a Granite affinity when I bonded with Puia. It was close enough to be compatible. Would one of the gorillas be compatible, and would they want to bond with me? With us. T¨¡oke and Puia are part of this as well. T¨¡oke was curled up by the fire, and I reached out through our bond to get a feel for what he thought. What he thought was, ¡°Leave me alone. I am warm and sleeping while I digest dinner.¡± His middle did look distended as if he ate too much. This might have to wait for tomorrow. I reached out to Puia. Puia was all for it, as he was all about wanting new experiences and flavours. I looked around the fire, and everybody was looking at me. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°You zoned out. Lee was asking you a question.¡± Tabitha said. Lee. I had forgotten about her. ¡°Sorry, what did you ask?¡± ¡°I asked if you thought a gorilla would be a good bond for me?¡± I thought about it for a moment and tentatively used Bond Care. ¡°It is a matter of compatibility, both with what type of animal you like and how they fit with your classes. Have you been preparing for a bond?¡± ¡°Only for a couple of weeks prior to leaving the Republic.¡± ¡°You can come with me tomorrow if you like, but I think the main focus of your classes is Spying, and I get a lot of earthy feel from you. A big massive gorilla is probably not really going to be compatible.¡± ¡°I might come anyway.¡± Ruku came with us as well. T¨¡oke was in his giant form, slithering along beside us and moving in and out of the trees. I got the impression that Lee was still uncomfortable with T¨¡oke¡¯s giant form. Maybe a little scared. That is not a bad thing. There were several family groups of gorillas in the valley and surrounding area. They were called Troops, not family groups. There was one dominant male and a harem of females and young. This larger group we were approaching contained several adult males in addition to the patriarch. Silverback was the correct term for the patriarch. A Silverback and his Troop. It was not uncommon for larger groups to have more than one male, but there was always only one Silverback. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. They remembered me from yesterday, but the others had to stay back. T¨¡oke came with me, causing a lot of anxiety among the Troop. The Silverback came forward loudly, demonstrating his dominance and trying to scare away the predator. I sat quietly at the edge of the clearing, and T¨¡oke curled up beside me. When it was clear we were not leaving, the Troop moved away to the other side of the large clearing. I just sat examining them. There was a bond between them. It was focused on the Silverback and spread out from there. The Hornets had a network of bonds that strengthened and weakened depending on their interactions. This was not like that. It was more like Rodion''s bond with his pack. He bonded primarily with the dominant pair and, through them, with the others. The Silverback had bonded with all the others, but there were weaker cross-bonding as well that seemed more flexible. Some of the Silverback bonds were stronger than others. The cross-bonding was overall weaker, and not every gorilla was cross-connected to every other gorilla. I couldn¡¯t figure out why this was the case. I guess I would have to suspend several months here observing them to work it out. Would any of them want to bond with me? Would any of them be able to bond with us? I am getting a lot of earthy and vegetation feelings from those bonds. That is no good. The Lava will just destroy it. We sat for a couple of hours just watching. Then Ruku and Lee left to head back, so T¨¡oke and I moved further up the valley to find a smaller troop. We headed up the slopes on the side of the valley where the vegetation was thinner. This was the third and last troop before heading back. This Silverback only had three females, and I was getting rock vibes from him. If I bonded with him, would the females come too? I watched them for an hour, and he watched us back. I am going to a dangerous place. It is not a place for a whole family. I decided to reach out and test it out. Bond Care was not giving me negative feedback, but it was not positive either. I reached out mentally toward him and felt him testing the fit. It wasn¡¯t going to be like T¨¡oke or even Puia. Then I felt him flinch back in rejection. I was too violent. My classes were primarily focused on killing, and these were generally peaceful creatures. He was right. I had two fighting Basic Classes, not one and two specialisation in killing. My main focus is Hunting. I wanted a peaceful life, but I am a Hunter and Killer. Did my classes make me a killer? I started with the Hunter Class, but I have two specialisations from it that are not killing: Scouting and Bond Master. Yet I chose to learn Warrior. Is it my circumstances? Have I been forced down this path because I had to fight to get out of the Empire? Or is this who I am? What would I be like if I had stayed in my village and the slavers had never come? That is an impossible question. I sat there watching the troop as the sunset, thinking about it and all the what-ifs. T¨¡oke thought I was mad. He just deals with what is rather than what ifs. I can¡¯t change the past, so this is who I am, and I got this way because I want to free others. I could have stayed in Jern or Obalno or any other city, but I kept on, not for myself, but for strangers. For people who couldn¡¯t help themselves. Does that make me crazy? Tabitha would say so, but then she has followed me down this path without flinching, so what she says and what she really thinks are two different things. Ruku came because he wanted a purpose, and helping us help others gave him that purpose. I imagine he also saw two lost young people that needed guidance. A Dad. I haven''t had a dad since mine was killed, but Ruku has been there for us, and he didn¡¯t flinch either. I am who I am because of the choices I have made. I have had help in making those choices and in dealing with the consequences of them, but I will own the choices, both good and bad. Bond Master. It makes sense it allows for extra bonds, but there was no indication of that when I got it. Having just been through the exercise with the Silverback, it is obvious I can get another bond. Wait a minute. Wolfkin can form multiple bonds with similar species, canines. Cathkin are the same with Cat species. Avion with birds, and Mer with fish. Are Humans and primates the same, or similar enough? That is an interesting thought. I won¡¯t be testing it today, though. Getting back on topic. I can have another bond. Can I have more? Probably. I need to be looking for a hunter with a rock or lava flavour. That pretty much rules out birds and water-based creatures. Birds would be unable to fly with Granite bones, and water is fundamentally incompatible with lava. T¨¡oke is proof the hunter does not need to be a mammal. Snakes and Spiders are some of the top hunters. There are other reptiles like the Komodo Dragon. They are solid reptiles that would be suitable, but I am in the wrong part of the continent for them. There was the wyvern egg, but it would probably not be suitable with rock. There are ground-based subspecies of the wyvern, but I don¡¯t know where to find them. Then, there are the various rock elementals to consider. I have sensed a lot of them in various places. Most recently, in the Mushroom cave. The revelation that I can get another bond does not mean that I need another bond. The three of us are happy enough. I wonder if a Fire Elemental would be compatible enough with lava? 296. Distracted Eyes: Tabitha.

296. Distracted Eyes: Tabitha.

We are now entering Empire territory. Wiremu has gone out to scout with Nne and Tano, as we could run into patrols any time. We also watch the sky for birds that might be bonds scouting for the Empire. We have wagons full of animals for sale, including some hawk chicks Wiremu found. Well, he found the eggs, and they hatched. Are we supplying the empire with more scouts? Our biggest problem is Modrica and Umreti. They are carrying a couple of grains of sand, but more is needed. They are in full-covered leather and can slip on helmets, but more is needed. One will have to stay close to me at all times so I can create a Body Image for them, and Nyx will be with the other one. Of course, Modrica and Umreti have to refrain from any particular orcish actions, including low grunts and growls. I don¡¯t have high hopes. We are heading to Yelets. Lee has contacts there, and so do I. Dealing with Longstrider is what I am mostly worried about, but if we can do a deal, we can establish a base there. Lee won¡¯t elaborate on her contacts, but whoever they are, they must be dealing with Longstrider. Somewhere between here and Yelets is the quarry where Wiremu spent three years. The trouble is he doesn¡¯t know where it is. He didn¡¯t have Mapping at the time and took off running in a random direction. We are coming from a different direction than Wiremu originally travelled due to our diversion to see the gorillas, but it is a large quarry. There will be well-built roads to it for transporting the rock. T¨¡oke was asleep in the sun on top of one of the wagons, and I sensed him waking up. A Granite plate appeared under him, and then a Granite layer on his tail. He banged his tail on the plate three times, then paused and did it again. I indicated the message was received, and he curled up and went back to sleep. ¡°Imperial patrol inbound,¡± I announced, ¡°They don¡¯t appear to have an inquisitor with them. Three squads.¡± Three squads meant about thirty soldiers. I checked our forged paperwork was nearby. Wiremu had Copied a transport group¡¯s paperwork, and I had Adjusted it to our needs. A new entity, Monster Traders, is licensed to transport and sell live animals between Freebourne and the Southern province of the Nystad Empire. Te?ka is our mascot, and his stylised image is our emblem. If you can¡¯t hide him, flaunt him. An hour later, Moja in the front wagon stopped for the patrol and pointed to me. I grabbed the papers and walked forward from the second wagon I had been riding. Walking meant I was lower than the mounted troopers, which would make me look small and frail. ¡°Hello, Force leader. Routine inspection?¡± I asked in a friendly tone. ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am. Can I see your papers, please?¡± I handed my papers to him. Mbili came up beside me. This is where his skills might be needed. The Force leader looked up and counted, ¡°Five wagons and live cargo and animal products. Is that all?¡± I nodded. ¡°Three people are missing. Are they in the wagons?¡± ¡°No, sir. Two are our scouts, and the third is our hunter, who is out hunting.¡± Wiremu will actually be watching and covering us with his bow, but he doesn¡¯t need to know that. ¡°We will be checking the wagons.¡± ¡°Yes, sir. The first is personnel gear and feed. Second are small carnivores. Third are the non-dangerous animals, and the fourth are generally poisonous. The fifth is reserved for our mascot.¡± ¡°Mascot?¡± ¡°Yes, sir. I am Lyla of the Monster Traders, and in the fifth is our monster.¡± He looked at the signs painted on the side of the wagons and said, ¡°A bear?¡± ¡°A Dire Bear, actually.¡± ¡°This I have to see.¡± ¡°Come with me. Just stay back. Mo is the only one who manages the bear. Mbili here can show your troopers the other wagons.¡± Time to live up to your reputation, Mbili. The Force leader issued some orders for his Squad Leaders, and several troopers dismounted, and Mbili started with the near wagons. I led the Force leaders and two of the three squad leaders to the fifth wagon. Te?ka is also part of the distraction, and three of the key people followed me to see this distraction. ¡°Open the back,¡± I said to Mo, ¡°let¡¯s show off our pride and joy.¡± Modrica opened the rear doors, revealing a cage with Te?ka chewing on a leg bone. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Wow. How did you capture that?¡± ¡°With great difficulty, but it was only a cub when we caught it, and Mo raised it.¡± ¡°Are you selling it?¡± ¡°No way. This draws in the crowds, and business is good.¡± ¡°The army would be interested, especially if you have managed to train it. We have a place for a good trainer as well,¡± he says to Modrica. ¡°If we ever plan to sell, we will be in touch.¡± which, of course, means never. He doesn¡¯t realise he just tried to hire an orc. The small stone is making him avoid paying attention to her. Wiremu has managed to adjust the level of the Phantasm influence, so it is a light touch. This is the first real test. I have a minimal image going in case he has sensing skills that pick up heartbeats or temperature, etc. The aim was to distract, which is almost a master-level Skill. I want to push it over that line to the master level. He looked directly at Modrica for the first time, ¡°The Empire will offer you a very generous amount. It can also be unwise to refuse.¡± Modrica took a step back, so she was standing behind me, making it clear he had to deal with me. A small sneer crossed his face, ¡°Someone of your stature and talent shouldn¡¯t have to hide behind anybody.¡± A typical attempt to divide and conquer, ¡°I would be careful what you insinuate Force Leader. Mo has the key to the cage.¡± Not that Te?ka needed a key to get out, but this was still posturing. The Force Leader glanced at Modrica, noticing her step, and placed her right next to the lock for the cage. I decided to direct their attention elsewhere. ¡°Have you seen one of these Force Leader?¡± I held up a small Monster Core from the Hornets. I saw he was looking at it carefully, and one of his Squad Leaders at least recognised it as a Monster Core. ¡°We are called Monster Traders, and we do trade in live animals and Monsters, but these are our prized stock that I am expecting the Empire to be interested in. Monster Cores are hard to come by, and this is our key product.¡± I might have distracted him too much, as the look of greed was apparent. I continued, ¡°That is another reason we keep the Dire Bear, Force Leader. It deters bandits. We are pleased to have made it back to the Empire, where patrols like yours actively hunt the bandits, and we can feel safer.¡± Things clicked for the Force leader, although his Squad leaders were faster. ¡°I can see how that would work,¡± he said neutrally. He snapped into official mode again, ¡°All Monsters must be registered before entering the city, and you will be responsible for any issues.¡± ¡°Of course. We are law-abiding traders.¡± That almost made Modrica laugh, which would have given everything away. ¡°Is there anything else, Force leader?¡± ¡°Let''s check with Squaddie Tyne.¡± I assume that was the Squad Leader that Mbili was showing around. We walked back up the carriages. ¡°Report Squad Leader Tyne.¡± ¡°Yes, Sir. I sense a number of valuable items, especially in these last two wagons. The poisonous animals and the monster make it difficult for me to determine what they are.¡± ¡°You will be sensing items like this, Squad Leader?¡± I said as I tossed him the small monster core. He coughed it and looked at it wide-eyed. ¡°Yes sir, like this.¡± ¡°We keep them in those two wagons so they are more difficult to steal,¡± I explained. I didn¡¯t bother explaining one was a live hive queen of Golden Hornets. I don¡¯t want to freak them out. I held out my hand for the core. He reluctantly passed it back. It is like they have not seen one before. I guess they haven¡¯t. ¡°May we proceed, Force Leader?¡± I asked. He nodded, ¡°I will sign off the field inspection, noting the need to register the live monsters. All personnel need to be present as well when you enter the city.¡± He got out the quill and marked our papers as such, and handed them back. ¡°Thank you. It is a pleasure to be back in the empire. Maybe you can help me with something Force Leader?¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°We had some trouble with caging some animals and were thinking stone would be better despite the weight. I heard there was a quarry around here with a stone mason who might be able to help.?¡± ¡°Indeed, there was a quarry about three days north of here. But I don¡¯t know that they sell directly. It is quite a detour, and they have agents in Yelets.¡± ¡°Thanks for the info.¡± The troop rode off. I was after dark when Wiremu got back. ¡°I tracked them for a while. Steady on their patrol route.¡± ¡°You ready to revisit this quarry?¡± Wiremu shrugged. ¡°I have to start somewhere, and I can¡¯t think of a better place.¡± ¡°It is going to bring back memories.¡± ¡°I know.¡± ¡°We could level the place.¡± ¡°We will probably end up doing that, but there are people to free first.¡± ¡°And people to kill. How many troops? ¡°There used to be a couple of hundred. There may be more now.¡± ¡°How good are the troops?¡± ¡°Not great. It used to be a punishment assignment. Most will only have one specialisation. They have hunting dogs with a tracker, but they do not keep troublemakers for long. I escaped with two low-level classes.¡± ¡°How do you want to do this?¡± ¡°You and I should scout the place at night, and then we can devise a plan.¡± ¡°Just scouting, huh?¡± 297. Scouting: Wiremu

297. Scouting: Wiremu

I figured the easiest way in was the same way I escaped. The huge granite wall was going to be easy with my Granite Manipulation. I could make a set of stairs if I wanted. Tabitha and I sat at the top of the cliff, watching the sunset. I could see most key places and guards from here with my Telescopic sight. As the sun went down, it combined with my Darksight, and I kept track of the guards. I could get over half of them from here with my Marksman Skill. The wall was too far and curved out of sight. We are just here to scout. Tabitha does not believe that and has the others within shouting distance of the gate. The gate won¡¯t stand up to Te?ka. It probably wouldn¡¯t stand up to Dusk¡¯s hooves. She has a power strike-type Skill. Come to think of it, the only one who the gate would stop was Lee. Umreti would have trouble, but not for long. The night watch took up their positions, and the inmates settled down for the night. The light from a fire reflected off the wall of a side quarry, and my Hearing Aid heard a tortured scream come from there. That is our first stop. I unslung my bow and picked off the two guards at the end of the quarry. ¡°Just scouting, huh?¡± Tabitha whispered. ¡°Aggressive Scouting,¡± I replied, making the first footholds on the cliff and starting down. It was easy. Tabitha followed me but occasionally ducked off to the side, practising her Shadow Step. This was just practice for us and not even stretching out skills. It was a huge difference from when I left. All I had then was Granite Bones. I jumped the last couple of body lengths, landing heavily, which was normal. T¨¡oke dropped from my shoulder and slid off into the night. I had no idea where he was going, but I trusted him. Tabitha landed lightly beside me, and we moved quickly through the dark quarry. Tabitha split off from me to scout the barracks and see how many troopers we were dealing with. I headed to the torture enclosure. The side quarry they used as a ¡°persuasion chamber¡± was walled off with stones. There was a guard at the wooden gate and a lock. I could have bypassed the guard without them noticing, but I was going to stop the torture so they would notice my actions. They were leaning against the wall beside the gate, possibly even dozing. I created Granite Spikes that pierced their head and heart. The spikes also held them in that position, so they looked like they were still on guard. I dropped off the wall to the inside of the gate and grabbed the lock, melting it into a lump of metal. I didn¡¯t want anyone escaping this area. There were nine troopers and a medic. With the one on the gate, it was a full squad plus the camp medic. The area was littered with the instruments of torture. From barrels of water and a blazing fire to tables equipped with straps and other instruments. The medic was there to ensure no permanent damage was done to the future slaves and to provide any necessary, if minimal, healing. There were two prisoners tied naked to separate posts. The smell of burned flesh hung in the air. The male prisoner had burn and whip marks in various places, and his head lolled to the side as he was currently unconscious. The female prisoner was worse, covered in bruises and whip marks, and the evidence of recent abuse splattered across her body mixed in her blood. She was conscious but had a vacant stare. Neither had accepted the Slave Class yet, but both were close to doing so. The medic was walking toward the unconscious man, probably making sure he would stay alive. The Squad leaders were watching him. The other eight were relaxing around the fire, snacking and drinking, obviously taking a break. It angers and frustrates me how they can be so casual about abusing another human. My anger was really starting to burn, literally. The area around the fire suddenly sprouted Granite Spikes and then turned to Molten Rock. The smell of burning flesh became very intense. Three troopers managed to roll out of the area. All of them had burns and gashes from the spikes. While they were escaping and putting out the flames from their burning clothes, I was putting an arrow into the leg of the Squad Leader. The arrow punched through from the back of the knee and broke the knee cap but lodged in the knee. He must have a strengthening skill, as I expected the arrow to go right through. I wanted him alive for questioning, so I hope he has a reasonable Poison Resistance. The Medic must have had some sort of sensing Skill active because he immediately started running for the gate, making my arrow miss. I couldn¡¯t follow it up as two of the troopers were closing on me. One of them was yelling threats, but I couldn¡¯t be bothered listening. I shouldered my bow, grabbed my mace, and grabbed a knife in my off-hand. My mace sprouted some spikes. I partially parried a sword strike from the trooper on the left, letting my armour and Snakeskin take the rest as I brought my mace down hard on the right-hand Trooper. He had a spear to keep me at range, but the fact I didn¡¯t pause at lefties'' strike put me in range of the hand with his forward grip. He almost pulled back in time, but I got his wrist, and the spike on the mace went through it. He stepped backwards out of reach, and I noticed he was limping. Leftie was fast, already coming back with a stab. I shifted my body, so it sliced along my leather vest instead and thrust my knife at his eyes to force him back. Spearman was thrusting at me again, but with only one hand, he had lost a lot of power. I brushed it off target with a flick of my mace and stepped in close, thrusting my mace at his chest. He went to step back, but the end of the mace sprouted a Granite spike that went through his burned leather armour. When I felt it break through a rib, I created a T on the end so it could not be removed without major damage. I then yanked the mace back out, removing it in a spray of blood and bone. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. This had cost me a cut from the swordsman, which my Granite Bones had deflected from being serious. Then my bow fell off my shoulder. He had sliced the holding clasp and the bowstring. Those are strings hard to get! I was fully concentrating on him now and advanced with knife and mace in full aggressive mode. He was backing up fast, trying to parry the blows, his sword becoming more and more chipped. My mace then caught the sword in a proper hit and snapped it in half. My knife sliced his neck and lower jaw in a shallow cut, and then the mace crashed into his shoulder, driving a spike deep into his chest. I created a small T, ripped it out, and left him to bleed out. I was not feeling like giving quick deaths today. I searched for the survivors, and the medic was trying to open the gate. The Squad Leader was limping that way as fast as he could, and the third Trooper was trying to hide in the rocks out of sight. She had extensive burns down one side and only one arm. The bones of her upper arm were sticking out of burned and smoking flesh. She must have a high Physical Constitution to be still awake. She would likely only survive with help, but the medic was trying to run. I left her and headed to the gate. The Squad leader saw me coming and fiddled with his pouch, extracting an alarm whistle. As he raised it to his lips, a Lava Dart appeared in his forearm, causing him to drop it, and he lost his balance. He tried to roll as he landed, but I was there already, and I had created a stone spear, which I used to pin him to the ground through his uninjured leg. I kicked the whistle away on my way to the gate. The Medic was calling for help, so I created another spear and threw it at him. I stopped. Shit. My aim is off today. I didn¡¯t mean to kill him straight away, but the spear went through his chest and pinned him to the gate. I didn¡¯t need to go there anymore, so I turned to the prisoners, ignoring the swearing and pleading of the Squad Leader, just like he ignored countless others pleading with him. I cut the unconscious guy down first and carried him over to a bedroll I found. I laid him down and checked his breathing and pulse. I then covered him and fed him one of the potions I had. I didn¡¯t want him to die now. I grabbed another blanket that was there and went back to cut down the girl. I wrapped her up and carried her over to lie near the guy. I fed her a potion. She was awake, but I am not sure she knew what was happening. I kept talking to her in a soft voice, saying she was safe now, but I could not see any effect. She hugged the blanket tight, and I fetched some water for her. I looked around, and the two I had been fighting had died of their wounds. The girl hiding in the rocks was now unconscious, so I walked closer and put a spike through her brain. Then, it was only the Squad Leader left. He was watching me in fear. As I walked toward him, I created a stone replica of Tabitha¡¯s Blacksteel knife, as it was a very intimidating knife. ¡°Please let me go, and I will have the commander go easy on you.¡± I think the guy must be delirious already. ¡°Just like you were going easy on those two prisoners, right?¡± I replied, running the knife up his arm, slicing his shirt and leaving a shallow cut that started bleeding. I doubt he felt it over his other wounds, but it was a message of my intentions that I was trying to convey. I squatted near his head, and the knife was close to his eyeball, ¡°Who is the commander, and how many troops are here?¡± ¡°C¡­c¡­commander Phillips of the 32nd company.¡± I can¡¯t remember how many Squads make a company. ¡°How many troops is that?¡± ¡°A..a¡­thousand.¡± I didn¡¯t need my Truth Sensing to tell me that was a lie. I poked his eye out and put the blade at the other eye, ¡°Want to try again?¡± ¡°Fuck you!¡± Now, he grows a spine. I guess he finally figured he wasn¡¯t getting out of this alive. ¡°Don¡¯t kill him!¡± came a voice behind me. I turned, and the woman limped toward me with the blanket wrapped tightly around her. I stood up, ¡°Why?¡± ¡°I want to do it,¡± she said. ¡°I have only been here a few weeks, but I will probably know what you need.¡± I nodded and flipped the knife, holding the blade and offering it to her. ¡°If that is what you want.¡± She nodded and grabbed the blade. It was too big for her, but she gripped it with both hands and basically fell on the Squad Leader, driving the blade through his chest. From my knowledge, she missed his heart but definitely got a lung. She pulled the knife out and drove it back in and then repeated several times. The potion had only been partially effective, and she had run out of energy, but the Squad Leader was dead. She had tears streaming down her face. I am pretty sure they were tears of anger. I helped her up, and she adjusted the blanket. She offered me the knife back. ¡°Keep it,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s find you some clothes and food.¡± I led her back to near the other prisoner, and she sat down. I fetched some more water and then went to loot the area. The two soldiers I killed had reasonable trousers, and one shirt would be fine with a wash. I brought them back and handed them to her, ¡°What¡¯s your name, Ma¡¯am?¡± ¡°Lilian, Who are you?¡± she replied as she picked the smallest of the clothes. They would still be too big for her. ¡°Quinn. Do you know his name,¡± I indicated to the unconscious guy. I don¡¯t actually know why I used Quinn. I should be Tama, or Mata Toa was my other ID. Quinn had a reputation from Southern Khigiz, and I guess I just felt it fit better. Maybe the Bard¡¯s Song about the Mighty Quinn had gone to my head. ¡°They called him Pedro, but I don¡¯t know him except for our time here.¡± I turned away to find if any food survived the lava, giving Lilian the opportunity to get dressed. One pack escaped the destruction and had some rations, and Lilian dug into them. I checked Petro was still breathing. This is the sort of thing we needed Astrid for. ¡°We need to get out of here. How many troops are there here?¡± ¡°300, maybe 350. What are you going to do?¡± ¡°Technically, we are here to Scout, but we do plan to free everyone and destroy this place.¡± ¡°This will stir everyone up when it is discovered,¡± Lilian observed. I sighed. Tabitha was going to be right again. This had turned from scouting to rescue in the first hour. 298. Trap: Wiremu

298. Trap: Wiremu

¡°We need to move from here. I will find you a place to hide and come for you soon.¡± I hoisted the unconscious Petro onto my shoulder, and Lilian limped after me. She was wearing a pair of trousers and the one good shirt, both of which were too large for her. She had cut the legs short so she didn¡¯t trip, and a rope at her waist held everything together. I had put the other trousers on Petro. I melted the lock off and then used Granite Spikes to jam it shut. Lilian was staring at me wide-eyed. I led the way deeper into the quarry and found a hidden corner that I enlarged. I placed Petro down and said to Lilian, ¡°Watch him. I will be back.¡± ¡°But if you are not?¡± she said. ¡°At the southern end of the cliff at the back of the quarry, you will find some hand holds for climbing about four meters up. It will get you to the top. It is best you wait for me to return, but if things go wrong, that is your best way out.¡± Lilian nodded, and I left them there with a water skin. The buildings were much the same as when I was there. There were two extra barracks and a second stable. I fixed the clasp that held the bow, but I didn¡¯t have a replacement string with me. That was a stupid error. I went to check on the prisoners. The troopers were Tabitha¡¯s destination. There were less than fifty prisoners. Much less than when I was here. They were in worse condition as well. I identified ten nightguards and then moved on to the commander''s office. I needed some idea of when the next wagons were coming and details on the current troopers. As I was going through the paperwork, Tabitha seemed to step out of the shadows in the doorway. ¡°Almost eighty slaves are sleeping in a bunkhouse built for forty. I have located the Slave Taskmaster.¡± ¡°A caravan is due next week to collect them and a load of Granite. It is also bringing supplies. It will take Ruku and me longer than a week to release eighty slaves from the class, even if they are new slaves.¡± ¡°Do you want to get them out or stay and fortify?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°If we get them out, we will be on the run with a large group and no supplies. It is best to stay and resupply from the caravan. Then, we can use the wagons to move them. I don¡¯t know where we will take 130 ex-prisoners,¡± I replied. ¡°A lot of the prisoners will deserve to be here, murderers, rapists, thieves.¡± ¡°I trust you and Modrica can bring them into line?¡± Tabitha just grinned. First, we have to take this place,¡± I said. ¡°There are three hundred regular troops and fifty specialised Troopers.¡± ¡°How many did you kill in the torture area?¡± She knew me too well. ¡°Ten plus the medic.¡± ¡°Plus the two as we entered. Ten guarding the prisoners and twenty on the wall. Therefore, three hundred are in the barracks. It seems a lot of manpower for just over a hundred prisoners.¡± Tabitha mused. ¡°It does, doesn¡¯t it?¡± I said. ¡°There used to be three times the prisoners. There doesn¡¯t seem to be anything here that might explain it.¡± ¡°Bureaucracy?¡± Tabitha questioned. ¡°Two hundred to two-fifty is normal and extra to guard the Taskmaster? Regardless of whether they are needed?¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± I said slowly. ¡°You have a plan for three fifty?¡± ¡°You are the trap master. Trap each barrack exit and have Modrica knock on the gate. We circle the back rows of the fight, taking out key people.¡± ¡°A good basic plan. I wish the bowstring hadn¡¯t been cut. I will also blockade the Slave bunkhouse so no one can enter or exit, and you kill the Slave Taskmaster. The slaves will not have any master, and no one can get in to become the master, taking them out of the fight. T¨¡oke can take out the guards around the prisoners and then come and help. Did we miss anything?¡± I asked. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°What about people running away?¡± ¡°If word gets out, that would be bad. Dusk is ideal to chase down runners. With Umreti on the wall, he can direct the Hornets as needed, either to the runners or to the main fight.¡± ¡°Ruku and Lee?¡± ¡°Ruku could be anywhere, but Modrica and Te?ka probably need someone to watch their back. Lee is not really a fighter.¡± ¡°Watch for runners?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°Maybe watch Umreti¡¯s back. There are twenty on the wall. She might learn something from him.¡± ¡°Done then. How long do you need to set up the traps?¡± ¡°Several hours,¡± was my answer. ¡°I will go and let the others know. Two hours before dawn?¡± ¡°Sounds good.¡± She faded back into the shadows, and I went to see what I could do to create traps for three hundred troopers. Eight identical barracks housed fifty people each, six of whom were occupied. There were two doors each, and the obvious thing was to trap the entrances. That will get the first two or three out the door before those behind them realise what is going on. Then, they will exit through the windows or bust through a wall. Therefore, the trap has to create confusion and panic to get more people. I also need to trap the common routes to the main gate. First, the Barracks. If I trap the doors and flood the barrack with Phantasm Venom Cloud, it will weaken and confuse them, making them more likely to fall into other traps. I create rock containers full of gas and a trigger. This will be like a fuse. A piece of lava will melt through the Granite at a certain speed. Plus or minus ten minutes should not significantly affect the gas release. I place these under the barracks and make small holes in the floor for the gas. Three per barrack for redundancy, but two should be enough. At each door, I placed a pit trap, but this is only one meter deep with a lava floor, which was another half meter deep. The trick here is that the first person crashing through the ultra-thin Granite layer will take some rope into the lava with them. This should ignite and carry the fire to the wooden barracks, which will cause more confusion to already confused minds. I found the officer''s liquor cabinet to soak the barrack doors and the ropes, which were available in their equipment store. Now, as a tracker, you anticipate where your prey is most likely to go. When confused people crash out of a burning building, what are they going to do? Some will try to sound the alarm bells. Others will go to the well for water. Others will head to the medic station. All good places for smaller traps. While I was at the well, I crisscrossed some spikes halfway down so the bucket wouldn¡¯t lower to the water. There were several water barrels that suddenly sprung leaks. A couple would spring traps when they were moved. There was very little wind, so the smoke and venom would hang around for a while. Upwind, I place some more Phantasm Venom Cloud boxes on timers. Now, if the gate is also being attacked, the leaders will be directing Troopers to the armoury and to the fight. The main road to the gate needs some decent traps. Marching or running troops will not be looking where they are going very carefully. Trip wires and spikes. The idea is to wound and slow down while keeping up the confusion. I lay small Phantasm rocks alongside the main routes to encourage people to stay on the path. What I did discover were some mining explosives. I hope there is a good crowd at the armoury. The first person through the door will set the timer going. Five to ten minutes later, there will not be an armoury. I had enough explosives for two more smaller traps. Then I saw what we had missed. They had guard dogs for tracking and chasing escapees. I have to do something about the kennels, but if I go close, they will start barking. The good thing about being in a Quarry is the ground is all rock. It is what has made these pits so easy to build. I burrowed ten metres to the kennel gate and set one of the explosives to go off when the gate was opened. No timer on this one. The dogs will gather around whoever comes, and I should get the person and the majority of dogs. This, however, took time, and I was out of time now as the gas should be starting half an hour before Modrica knocked on the gate. I went to the slave bunkhouse and blocked all the exits. I kept the last explosives with me. Action could start any time now. I was betting I would not hear action for another ten to fifteen minutes. I went to where I had stacked the four sentries I had removed and got dressed in a reasonably well-fitting Squad Leaders uniform. This way, I can direct people into the traps if necessary and generally add to the confusion. It had been a very active four hours, and my Spiritual energy was quite low. I was as prepared as I could be. It is the waiting that gets most people at this time. The suspense of not knowing when things will start gets to people. I was a hunter. I was used to waiting for my prey. Then, the coughing started. Here we go. 299. Exposed Shadow: Tabitha.

299. Exposed Shadow: Tabitha.

The moonlight was coming and going between the clouds. It wasn¡¯t ideal, but it could have been worse. I went over the wall easily enough with My Shadow Step, met the others, and told them about the plan. I got the feeling Ruku would have liked to change a few things, but he went along with it. He is our experienced tactician, and we should have consulted him. He did point out one glaring detail which required a change. Two-thirds of the wall was on one side of the gate and one-third on the other. Umreti cannot clear the whole wall himself. Lee was not confident about dealing with the guards on the smaller side, so Ruku would do it and then join Modrica. That made it easier for me, as Ruku could climb the wall with his Suction-cup Skill, and I only had to get Umreti and Lee up together on the larger section of the wall. We left a bored and grumpy Modrica sitting on Te?ka. A bored Modrica may be tempted to attack before the time. She has missed out on a lot of the fights recently. Umreti and Lee travelled in my Shadows Embrace to the base of the wall. I Shadow-Stepped to the top and killed the end guard. I then lowered the rope for Umreti and Lee to climb. Umreti was wearing a smaller pack than the main hive, with hornets crawling in and out of it. ¡°Don¡¯t start more than half an hour before Modrica¡¯s attack unless there is a disturbance. Wiremu has probably set up a complicated set of traps rather than simply dropping every one in a lava pit,¡± I shrugged, ¡°We don¡¯t want the alarm to sound until after I kill the Slave Taskmaster. Once the wall is clear, support Modrica and watch for any who try to run.¡± Umreti nodded and indicated to Lee he should put on the dead guard''s jacket and pretend to be her. I Shadow-Stepped down the other side of the wall and went to find the Taskmaster, and then I will take out as many of the officers as possible. The officer''s quarters are a large two-story structure situated behind the administrator''s offices. The ground floor of this structure and the administration centre are made out of stone. The upper floor is wood. It is like it was added on later and may have been. I was observing it from the roof of the admin building tracking guards. I have maybe two and a half hours to get this done, but the problem is these guards are not your basic troopers. There were some specialised Sentries among them. They were alert and active. My guess is they were assigned to protect the Slave Taskmaster. The building has lots of windows, but the guard rotation has pairs patrolling the outside, so one pair always has eyes on the walls, and help is a corner away. There are eight outside guards. How many are inside? I can tell when a guard approaches the window opposite me, but the others are bedrooms. I think the Taskmaster is in a ground-floor room on the other side of the building. I wait for the latest set of guards to have their back to me, and Shadow steps across and up to the other roof. Even though I was Embraced in Shadow, one of the guards looked back. Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe he had a different sensing skill. I lay flat until they turned the corner. I then worked my way across the roof. As I did, my Spatial Awareness was noting where everybody was on the top floor. There were two guards in the hallways, and four of the five rooms were occupied by sleeping officers. Three of the four had sleeping companions. One of them had two companions. I couldn¡¯t tell, but they were probably slaves. Whether they were personal slaves or slaves from the quarry didn¡¯t matter except for who had to die to set them free. Maybe they weren¡¯t slaves but spouses or partners. Wiremu could tell I couldn¡¯t, so we will see what happens after the Taskmaster is dead. I investigated the chimney. The morning cooking fires were not yet going. Some smoke was rising from last night''s embers. That would be a messy way to enter. If my Shadow Merge was at Apprentice Level, I could get in easily that way by Shadow Merging my whole body. It would need to be at high Apprentice to stay shadowed for that length of time. Unfortunately, it was stuck at the top of the Novice level. I went to the empty room. It had a window, but the ground Patrols were diligently looking up on every wall. Then I realised the window wasn¡¯t just locked. It was nailed shut. Did I have to open the window, though? Could I Shadow Merge through it? I would have to Merge each part of my body as it passed through the window and keep merging different parts as I went through. It sounds tricky. It is only a pane of glass thick. I could not do that with the roof as Shadow is linked to light, and neither can pass through opaque objects. They can pass through glass. Once the patrol had their back to me, I reached down and tested it with my finger. Then, my whole hand. I then pulled back to consider as the next patrol came around the corner. The Patrols meant I had maybe 30 seconds to do this. I mess up, and I shatter the glass and alert everybody, as well as potentially losing a limb. It is unlikely I would lose a limb, but I would have serious injuries with glass embedded in me. Glass in the brain is serious. Spiritual Strength and Spiritual Agility guide Shadow Merge. Strength governs the time I can spend merged and how much of my body. Agility is what I can do with it. In this case, it will govern the merging of different parts of my body at different times to pass through the glass. Both my Spiritual Strength and Agility were in the low fifties. Slipping my spare attributes into them would bring them both up to 55, particularly the Agility. I did that and tested my hand again. I slipped my arm in and hit a snag. My sleeve bunched up against the window. Shadow Merge did not turn my clothes into shadow. I probed the Skill with my Identify, and it wasn¡¯t until Journeyman level that I could start adding objects. Probably underwear-sized objects until the mid-journeyman levels. Fuck. I don¡¯t want to bloody rob places naked. I am not Wiremu and don¡¯t want to be bare-assed in front of everybody. The chimney was looking more inviting all the time. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Fuck it. I swore to myself continually as I stripped naked. At least I had reasonably dark skin, so I didn¡¯t become a beacon. The good thing was that my Spatial Pocket was large enough to fit everything. Just. I had a lot of stuff in there for emergencies. I might need to leave more space now. Here I was, clothed only in shadow, waiting for the patrols to move past. It felt unusual to have the draft against my private bits. At least my tits are small and won¡¯t be a nuisance. Then, I wrapped them in shadow and used Shadow Manipulation to give a bit of extra support. A shadow bra, how low have I sunk? Actually, I could make this sexy¡­ No! Stop! I don¡¯t have a partner right now, and that line of thought is unhelpful. I will save it for later. Lee¡¯s quite cute. I wonder if she has had seduction training as part of her spy skills¡­ Time to go. I grabbed the edge of the roof with my hands and swung my legs over the edge. I would go feet first. I moved smoothly with my feet to the window and had my butt out for everyone to see. I was in Shadows Embrace, so they couldn¡¯t see, but it felt very exposed. I supported my body with Binding Shadows and merged my feet through the window before I could change my mind. I kept my body moving smoothly through the window pane despite it feeling strange as I moved the Shadow Merge to different parts of my body, and the pane of glass felt like it was splitting me in half. When the pane of glass passed my tits, it gave me a funny feeling, and I almost lost control of the merge. Shit, this was hard. I am glad I put the points in Spiritual Agility, but I didn¡¯t realise how much Mental Agility I also needed. I had Binding Shadow supporting me on both sides of the window so I wouldn¡¯t crash to the floor. I had Shadow Embrace working and Shadow Merge constantly changing. I let the shadow bra go as I needed the concentration elsewhere and didn¡¯t need the support. I am out of practice juggling this many things. Once my head was through, I relaxed a bit, which was a mistake. I was still bringing my arms through when my feet kicked over a shelf, and I didn¡¯t have the spare reflexes to catch it. It crashed onto the floor along with its contents. This alerted the hall guards, who moved toward me. I quickly moved my arms in and deepened Shadows Embrace as much as possible. I also used my Binding Shadow to pin me to the ceiling on the offside of the door. I drew two knives from my Spatial Pocket. I heard one guard mutter, ¡°That room should be empty. The Force Leader is on duty.¡± They drew their swords. I am really not sure I can keep this quiet anymore. I will try, but speed is going to be needed. Shit. Here I am, clinging to the ceiling, naked. I need armour. These are no basic troopers. I shaped my Shadow Shield around my torso to give a little protection and to cover my butt, of course. It is not strong shielding and never will be. But it is something, and it will make me stop feeling naked. The troopers, not quite, slammed the door open. It was very firmly and forcibly opened, and they came in swords drawn. I caught the door with shadows so it didn¡¯t bang against the wall. One trooper went left and the other right. I threw my knife at the further one while I dropped on the nearest one. I got the Blacksteel knife into his neck, severing his spine, but the other one moved, and the knife deflected off his armour. I reached out with my Binding Shadows and bound his mouth shut as I leapt towards him. He was fast. He grabbed my knife arm and wrenched it away from him. He dropped his sword and grabbed me with his other arm, bringing his knee up to my groin. He was a brawler/wrestler class and aimed to make full use of it. His knee crashed into my groin, which was only covered with a light shadow shield. I might not have balls, but shit, that still hurts. I pulled out some of Wiremu¡¯s Phansy dust with my empty hand and threw it in his eyes. I could see him affected and temporarily blinded. I kneed him in the balls. Unfortunately, his armour protected him, and I only had Tough Hide on my legs. He was trying to twist my arm off, but I could tell his mind had blanked, or I would be receiving punches as well. I twisted with the arm and elbowed him in the throat. The arm and groin were painful, but I sparred with Modrica. I used Slight of Hand and Pickpocet, got his belt knife, and stabbed his groin instead. That made him release my arm, so I stabbed him up from under his chin into his brain, and he lay still. I stood up and checked them both, but the fight had not been silent, and the neighbouring room occupants were getting up to investigate. I realised I was standing in a room with two dead bodies buck naked. His hit had dissolved the Shadow Shield, but I didn¡¯t have time to get dressed. I went to re-engage the shield but realised I had a new Skill, Shadow Armour. Thank you very much. I put that on, and it hugged all my curves. It almost felt like I was still naked. Now was not the time to be picky. My arm and groin were throbbing, and not in a good way. I will figure out the details of the Skill later. I took off for the stairs, sending Nyx on ahead to bind the Slaver. I was on the stairwell as the first doors were opening. The Slave Taskmaster was at the bottom of the stairs in the second bedroom on the right. There were two guards on the door. I spread out the Engulfing Shadows and Syphon Constitution. The Shadow Armour seemed to help me move in the shadows better. It will still have poor armour value. One Guard had drawn his weapon and was trying to see through the shadows, and the other had turned to enter the Taskmaster''s room, probably to warn him or get him out. Nyx had blacked out that room as well. I could hear thrashing from the room as the Taskmaster had some way to at least get partially free of Nyx. I stabbed at the guard in the hall, but she sensed something and moved. It only scraped her armour. I bound both guards in the shadows and stabbed the back of the one who was facing into the room while ducking under the wild swing of the other''s sword. I left the hall guard and stepped over the one collapsed in the doorway. The priority was the Taskmaster. I pulled out a short baton for my offhand and clubbed unconscious the young boy in bed with the Taskmaster. There is another traumatised kid. With my other hand, I removed the Slaver''s head with my war knife. The guard in the hall was yelling the alarm, banging on the walls, and making a racket to get attention. The outside guards were heading for the door, and there was a lot of movement upstairs. My best exit was back upstairs and out a window, so I stabbed the troublemaker on my way past and headed back upstairs. That is the wrong choice of words. I am the one making trouble. Nyx flooded the whole ground floor in shadow, and I dropped a couple of Phantasm rocks to confuse people in the shadow. I headed back upstairs to kill as many as I could on the way out. I hoped everybody was ready because this just went loud. 300. Squad Leader: Wiremu

300. Squad Leader: Wiremu

From the racket coming from the officer''s quarters, something has gone wrong for Tabitha. All the slave bonds suddenly disappeared, so she got the Taskmaster first. The trouble is she is early. The gas hasn¡¯t even started in one of the barracks. Then, one of the rear barracks flared up as a trap was triggered. That is early, too. It looks like we are all go. I walked toward the fire at a brisk pace, getting into the Roleplay of Squad Leader to match my uniform. I could sense the panic in the barrack as people started to rush for the second exit. They almost filled that pit before that door flashed into flame, and there were no clear exits. Several rushed out the flaming door to end up in the lava pit. They weren¡¯t thinking straight, which was the Phantasm Venom Cloud at work. One smart trooper dove out a window. I pointed to her, ¡°There is a fire, trooper. Sound the alarm!¡± I shouted, sending her to the trap there. She sprinted off. Some got out coughing and looking around. I moved through them, talking in a caring way and helping them sit to recover. They will never get up again. I will definitely get a level in my Assassin Class from this. Maybe more than one. Other barracks were flaring up now, and this was repeating for all of them. I rushed outside the barrack that was not triggered and yelled, ¡°Fire! Fire! Everybody out!¡± There was a scramble and rush for the doors, triggering the traps. I kept moving and ¡®helping¡¯ those I could. Of the fifty in each barrack, the traps and fire were getting 10-15. I had accounted for 30 or so, accounting for 90-100 troopers. The ones that were out were under the effect of the Phantasm Venom Cloud, and more of that was spreading across the area. I saw a group that looked reasonably with it, ¡°Don¡¯t just stand there, you idiots! Get the buckets at the well! Go! Go!¡± and off they went to trigger that trap. Then, there was a great crash at the gates, and the gate alarm bell started ringing, so I started rounding up troops. ¡°Form up, you scum bags. We have an emergency at the gates. Where are your weapons?¡± Only about half of them escaped the fires with weapons. ¡°Those without weapons to the armoury on the double! The rest of you form up over here.¡± Half of them ran off to the armoury. It was going so well when a commanding voice said, ¡°Squad Leader Report!¡± A Force Leader was marching toward me, looking very angry. ¡°Yes, Sir! The Barracks were attacked by assassins, Sir! These Troopers are forming up to reinforce the gate, Sir!¡± ¡°Where are the other troopers going?¡± ¡°To get weapons from the armoury, Sir.¡± ¡°Well done, Squaddie. I will take these troopers to the gate. You get to the armoury and follow with the others.¡± ¡°Yes, Sir!¡± I ran toward the armoury as the Force Leader doubled-timed his troopers down my trapped road. As soon as the Force Leader was out of sight, I changed direction to ¡®help¡¯ others with the fire. Shortly thereafter, there was a massive explosion at the armoury. Those mining explosives were more potent than I had thought. That was a bit of overkill. Then, there was a second explosion at the kennels. A second overkill. I won''t have to worry about dogs. My good luck had to end. ¡°Report, Squaddie!¡± The base commander was marching toward me flanked by a Force Leader, another Squaddie and two experienced Troopers. ¡°Yes, Sir! Assassins attacked the barracks, Sir!¡± ¡°Yes, we are hunting the assassin. I don¡¯t recognise you. What is the daily watchword.¡± ¡°Yes, Sir!¡± and then I flicked a Lava dart at him and drew the sword that came with the uniform. ¡°You found him, Sir!¡± I finished as I charged. The Commander was only nicked by the dart, and the troopers tried to flank me as I fainted at the commander and engaged the squaddie next to him. I sliced him enough to make him withdraw, and I had to duck out of range and fight a retreat. The remaining four were good. I threw a Phantasm Dart at a heavy trooper, and he just took it in the shoulder, thinking it wasn¡¯t going to harm him. That suited me because he became sloppier in his fighting. This was a losing battle, so I shook things up with a massive Granite Quake. In a Granite Quarry, all my Granite Skills seem easier. The Commander and the Force Leader lost their footing, but the Troopers covered for them, and I couldn¡¯t get a killing blow in. What did work was stacking Hunters Mark on the trooper with the dart in him and pulling hard to slow him down momentarily. I got a good cut in before the second Trooper bashed me from behind. The two troopers were better fighters than the officers. The Trooper didn¡¯t have a shield for the manoeuvre, so it wasn¡¯t as effective as usual. He was surprised I only moved a few steps before elbowing him in the face. I am a lot heavier than I look. It gave enough time for the Commander and the Force Leader to get back into the fight, and the trooper must have activated a self-heal skill as the blood stopped flowing very quickly. I blasted them with super-heated Granite Sand and gave the Trooper something that he would not self-heal from using my Power Strike. I got a stab into the Force Leader as well before they recovered, but it wasn¡¯t fatal, and the bleeding stopped quickly. I had Imbued Venom in that, so that should reduce his healing. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. The Squaddie was returning to the fight, so I was now facing four with two wounded. The moon went behind a cloud, and the flickering fires were the main light. I had been manoeuvring around as I was pushed back. I blocked a strike, twisted away and turned it into a kick against the Force Leader. I used Power Strike in the kick, and it took him in the chest, staggering him back into one of my lava pits. Try self-healing flaming and melting legs. Now, there were three. Suddenly, the commander¡¯s neck started spraying blood everywhere, and the Trooper was held in shadows. I slammed Granite Spikes through the Trooper''s feet as I stabbed the squaddie in the heart. When I turned back, the Trooper was dead with a Blacksteel Knife in the brain. I nodded to the shadow that was Tabitha as she pulled her knife out and wiped it on his shirt. ¡°Thanks. I am done here. How is the gate going?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I have been hunting down officers. There are still a couple around.¡± ¡°I will head to the gate. There is at least one Force Leader there.¡± ¡°You had better lose the Uniform, Ruku¡¯s Sonar won¡¯t distinguish beyond the surface.¡± ¡°Good point,¡± then I got a better look at Tabitha, ¡°Wait, are you fighting naked?¡± She disappeared into shadow, and I heard, ¡°Just following your example,¡± as she moved off. What the¡­? I really want to hear that story. How on earth did she end up naked? Sure, she was covered in shadow, but it didn¡¯t hide anything. She was wearing her leather armour earlier in the night. How? Just ¡­ how? Why? I have got to hear this one. I did strip off the Squaddie jacket and moved toward the gate. I avoided the main paths as there could be unsprung traps there. I wouldn¡¯t want them to go to waste. I could hear fighting and Te?ka¡¯ roaring. I hope Modrica is having a good fight. She has been grumpy for weeks. Te?ka was surrounded. Modrica was on one side, and Ruku was on the other. I could tell they were holding position just inside the gate, mostly defending. Modrica or Te?ka would swat the occasional trooper, but they were being a distraction and stopping most for running out the gate. I did see one person slip past and sprint away while I looked. I wonder how many others slipped through. Before the runner was out of my sensing range, they were covered with a swarm of wasps and went down and lay still. That was a bad way to go. Dusk will be annoyed if nobody makes it through for her to run down. Dusk isn¡¯t bloodthirsty like Te?ka, but she does love a good run. It was time to end the distraction and finish the fight. The sky was lightening, and dawn was not far off. The biggest opposition was the Force leader in the way he organised the troopers and reinforced their line. I reached for my bow to take him out before remembering the string was broken. I had taken off my Squaddie jacked, but I still had it, so I put it back on and ran up behind the fighting. The Force Leader saw me and smiled, ¡°My favourite Squaddie! Where are the reinforcements?¡± ¡°The assassin blew them up with the armoury, sir. The commander was fighting the assassin.¡± I am taking a page out of Tabitha¡¯s book about half-truths. It is a way to get around Truth Sensing Skills. The Force Leader¡¯s smile vanished. ¡°Well, son, you take the left, and I will go right. One of the two controls the beast, and we need to remove the control and show it the way out the gate.¡± That was a good plan from the knowledge he had. ¡°Yes, sir!¡± I said, stepping forward to go to the left. He turned to the right, and I stabbed him in the back. My stone knife went through his leather and into the heart. I spiked his brain to make sure he was dead. Ruku must have seen me take out the Force leader as he gave a yell, ¡°Charge!¡± Te?ka immediately started forward, bashing aside the troopers in his way. Ruku moved away from Te?ka¡¯s side as he also went on the offensive, but that was nothing to Modrica¡¯s reaction. She stepped forward, ignoring the strikes hitting her armoured Skin, and switched out her mace with her flail. She had one with a longer chain and a large spiked head. She started spinning that and moving forward as the near troopers went flying, and the ones behind started running. The faster runners ran straight into her Earthspikes, the others managing to stop in time. Then Modrica was among them. Ruku was moving through his side like a wave. He had his Whirlpool Shield running and was using his Water Manipulation to create whips of Poisoned water spinning with his Whirlpool. The whips were moving so fast they were cutting flesh and letting poison in. His spear was redundant until he came to a trooper with heavy armour. Then his Piercing Strike went through the softer parts, dismantling the trooper. Te?ka was doing his own thing, and I just sat and watched. I saw T¨¡oke watching from the roof of the prisoner''s hut. He was in his large form. I couldn¡¯t sense the prisoners from here, but I could imagine they were staying well away from him. I saw several troopers run out the gate and reached for my bow. I have to carry extra strings. This is pathetic. Wasps descended, but only one went down. The others ran even faster. Maybe they thought they could outrun the wasps? I don¡¯t know. I guess I would run faster as well. I settled back down against a wall and checked my Status. I gained two levels in Assassin. I was stacking up the attributes. It is time to explore some higher-tiered skills. These, like Telescopic Sight, had requirements of other skills at the Journeyman level. I started to think about my Journeyman Level Skills and how I used them when I sensed Lee approaching. I dropped Camouflage, ¡°Over here,¡± I called. She looked over, startled and then came over, ¡°Why are you just sitting here? Are you injured?¡± ¡°No, just watching that nothing goes wrong.¡± ¡°I almost attacked you when I saw the jacket.¡± Whoops. I removed it. ¡°I need your help with a couple of tortured prisoners. I gave them a potion, but one was still unconscious when I left them. Umreti¡¯s First Aid might help.¡± She nodded, ¡°What about this?¡± ¡°They will be finished soon, and T¨¡oke and Umreti are keeping an eye on it. This way.¡± I figured bringing a female with me would help calm Lilian. Well, a smallish lady. Bringing Modrica would not have helped. I am pretty sure bringing a naked Tabitha would not have helped, either. We moved off into the Quarry. 301. Outlaw: Tabitha

301. Outlaw: Tabitha

I was clothed in my leathers when Wiremu got back. Wiremu inspected the leathers as if looking for damage. He¡¯s trying to figure out why I wasn¡¯t wearing them earlier. I smirked. ¡°Hi,¡± he greeted me, ¡°Good to see you¡¯ve re-covered.¡± The smirk turned into a withering look. He smirked. ¡°Were you injured?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°She was just exposing some of the bare essentials,¡± Wiremu said. Ruku looked at him funny, and I rolled my eyes at him. We were saved from any more of Wiremu¡¯s humour as Lee arrived, helping two obvious prisoners, one of whom was barely walking. I led them to where we were keeping the other prisoners. The prisoners were grumpy that we wouldn¡¯t let them free, but that couldn¡¯t happen yet. We would work with the ones we could, but we had to stop word from leaking about this, and most of the prisoners just wanted to head home. Modrica had bashed a few heads to get the message across, and Te?ka and T¨¡oke then stood guard. ¡°Dusk is on her way back,¡± I said, heading for the broken gate. Wiremu followed, and Dusk galloped up. She had blood splatters on all her legs, and I wiped blood off her mouth. ¡°Come inside, girl, and I will get you cleaned up.¡± I led Dusk inside to the well while Wiremu stayed to examine the broken gates. The road to the well was littered with bodies and spikes. I led Dusk along the edge, where I sensed some resistance from Wiremu¡¯s Phantasm rocks. So that is how he got people to stay on the road. When we got to the well, I stepped through the gruesome remains of a trap. If we don¡¯t clean this up, we are going to have a really bad time. I tried lowering the bucket into the well, and it stopped less than halfway. ¡°Wiiirrrreeeemmmuuuuu!¡± I then cleaned Dusk as he started disabling unsprung traps. Ruku and Modrica bribed some prisoners to stack bodies and start cleaning up. Umreti is on watch on the wall. Ruku hosed down the burning barracks so the smoke would not alert others in the area. Once the traps were cleared away, Wiremu went to get some rest. Tomorrow, he and Ruku would start removing Slave Classes. These were level 1 slaves. It does not get any easier than this. Lee was setting up the old Officers'' quarters as a recovery area. They were the only major accommodation building left standing after Wiremu¡¯s fires. Wiremu made a large pit in the Granite to bury the bodies. He might get Puia to burn them, but I am not sure. I watched Wiremu walk Ruku through the ritual to release his first slave. He had the energy to do two before he needed a rest. Wiremu could free three, but we spaced them out, so they always had spare energy. With rest, Ruku could free three a day, and Wiremu could do five. That meant ten to twelve days of work with lots of downtime between slaves. The slaves had no master after the death of the Taskmaster, and some had been individual officers¡¯ slaves. We found it best that Ruku or Wiremu would become the Master and then release the slave from the class, so we were the master and the imitation taskmaster at the same time. Wiremu and Ruku both had Sense Spiritual at the upper journeyman levels and on the first day, Wiremu caused Spiritual damage to two people and Ruku only one. The damage was not too serious and would self-heal over time. With Wiremu¡¯s Analyse Bond Skill, he could sense better than Ruku, and on the second day, there was only one ex-slave each with spiritual damage. We would aim to reduce that, and rest was an important part of that. I left them to it and took Dusk out to bring our wagons into the compound. I then took turns on the wall, giving Umreti a break. I didn¡¯t have Farsight, but Nne and Tano were out scouting, so we should have plenty of warning. I took the night shift as Umreti only had Nightsight, and I had Darksight. Night sight was good for most things and did pair with his Farsight, but the hornets were day creatures, so it worked out better. Just before dawn on the third night, Nne¡¯s bat bond delivered a message. ¡°Imperial Courier inbound fast. Two escorts.¡± I sent Nyx to wake Umreti and Modrica and moved to above the gate. Umreti came running up onto the wall while Modrica and Te?ka joined Dusk by the gate. Umreti had his bow. He was reasonable with it like he was with every weapon I had seen him with. I soon saw dust rising on the road, and three horses came galloping up. What would be so urgent? This wasn¡¯t a regular courier. They slowed as they approached the gate. The Courier was a small woman on one of their specially bred courier horses. The other two were larger but also on fast horses. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Courier. Open the gate,¡± Umreti yelled, loud enough for them to hear. The courier stopped about twenty metres back from the gate and looked up and down the wall. What does she see? My Hearing Aid picked her out, saying to her companions, ¡°Something''s wrong. We run.¡± They spun their horses and started to gallop away. Umreti loosed an arrow, but it glanced off the armour. I started running for the gate as I glanced at the wall. What she didn¡¯t see was the problem. There were no guards except us two. Dusk stopped just outside the gate, and I dropped onto her back. Then we were away after them. We could not let a word escape about this place. I heard Modrica and Te?ka lumbering after us. They would lag behind, but it meant I didn¡¯t have to go for kill strikes. They could mop up after me. Dusk lengthened her stride as we moved into a ground-eating gallop. The Courier woman was pulling ahead of her two guards. She was lighter, had the superior horse and probably had a higher levelled riding Skill. They were all fast. The horses were bred to travel with speed over long distances. We were gaining on them, but not quickly. The riders at the rear were keeping an eye on us. As we came within five meters, one of them turned and tipped a bag on the road behind him. Caltrops fell onto the road for Dusk to cripple herself on. We had no time to swerve or jump to avoid them which is why he waited until we were so close. Dusk and I worked together, and Shadow Stepped twice, and we were over them. It looked like we were running on the ground, but the Shadow Steps were raised slightly above the metal caltrops. Dusk increased speed, even when I thought she was already going as fast as she could. I lashed out with my two-meter-long, five-prong whip when Dusk¡¯s head drew level with the other horse''s flanks. I had metal hooks sewn into the prongs. Three of the prongs caught in his armour, and I yanked hard on the whip, and it almost unseated him. Two of the prongs gouged the hide of the horse. I flicked the whip again as he tried to veer the now panicked horse away from us. This time, I aimed higher, and two prongs caught his armour, one in his neck and one in his helmet, with the other going over his head. The horse veering away from me meant all I had to do was keep a tight grip on the whip handle, and this time, he was unseated, landing heavily, and I really hoped he had broken something. I couldn¡¯t stop. His horse veered into the other guard¡¯s horse, causing it to stumble. The guard had already drawn his sword and swiped at me. It was sloppy and misaimed, and miss it did. I flicked the whip, and the prongs caught the sword. I pulled on the whip and disarmed him. I noticed one of the prongs was mostly cut through by the sword. I steered Dusk closer, and he tried to dodge and angle his horse away from the road. I think he was trying to give the Courier as much time as he could. Dusk and I had been practising Agility Riding, and Dusk had no problem closing the gap. I spooked the horse with a Shadow Puppet lunging at her like a predator, and the rider was almost unseated as the horse didn¡¯t move where he expected it to. My whip sent him flying as well. I then spooked the horse so it would keep running. I directed Dusk back to the road and the courier, who had increased her lead. I crouched over Dusk, and Shadow Merged to reduce the wind resistance. Dusk closed the gap slowly but surely. The rider glanced back and saw us gaining on her, and she looked surprised. Few horses could catch a Courier-bred horse. We closed the gap to five meters, and I regretted not having one of Ruku¡¯s longer bullwhips with me as they were coming into range. I will be carrying one in the future and practising with it. Instead, I reached out with my Binding Shadows to grab her, and I missed. I don¡¯t know if it was chance or she sensed something, but she had directed the horse to veer left tighter than I had expected. Horse and Rider were both good, and she made a series of tight turns in an attempt to avoid me. The training Ruku had suggested for Dusk and I was now showing its use. It was not just fun. Dusk followed the twisting and turning horse. One miss-step and it would have a broken leg. I gathered my feet under me, trusting Dusk. I judged it carefully. As it came out of a turn, I launched myself from Dusk¡¯s back. I flew to the other horse, grabbed the rider, and let our momentum drag her from the saddle. Her foot got caught in the stirrup, and her body twisted violently under me, and she was pulled away. I Shadow Merged into a roll and came up running. The courier was being dragged along the ground, her foot still caught in the stirrup. Her head and body were being violently bounced against the rocks and ground. Without a rider, the horse was just galloping straight now, and a riderless Dusk came alongside and steered it around in a circle back towards the fort. The foot slipped from the Stirrup, and the courier lay still. The horse slowed to a trot. I trotted over to the fallen courier. She was definitely dead. I was a bit sad about that. She hadn¡¯t had to die. She had been an excellent rider. I went through her pockets and then lifted her up over my shoulder and went to meet Dusk. The other horse had come to a stop some distance away and was breathing hard. I lay the body over Dusk¡¯s flanks and mounted her. The other horse was wary of us, but I got hold of her reigns. I transferred the body to the other horse, and we started heading back at a walk. The second guy I had unseated was trying to recatch his horse. He was limping, so it was not going well. All the fight left him when he saw me leading the horse with the body. I sent Dusk to go and round up the horse as I had the trooper disarmed and walking in front of me. The next person we met was Modrica riding Te?ka. They had a body behind her as well, so the trooper must have tried to fight. Or maybe he just mouthed off at her. We stopped and collected the caltrops as it would be nasty to leave them on the road. I am glad that one is dead. His horse was wounded, and we put it down. We returned to the quarry slowly. I checked my status, and I have a new speciality. Mounted Outlaw. It gave one attribute to Physical Agility, one to Physical Perception and one to Spiritual Perception. One attribute was free. I felt it could have been a specialisation of either Thief or Rider, but it came under Rider, probably because of my recent actions. I just rode down and robbed a lawful courier. Mounted Outlaw is an appropriate name. The skill that came with it was exactly what I wanted. Mounted Speed Boost did exactly what it said for short sprints. It was like a short Agility burst to both the rider and the horse. The duration of the Speed Boost was a function of the Physical Agility attribute, and the speed it gave was a function of the skill level. It wasn¡¯t a complicated Skill, but we would be levelling it up fast. 302. Deceive: Wiremu

302. Deceive: Wiremu

Tabitha¡¯s prisoner was only the first of several. The Quarry was not on the major trade routes, but that didn¡¯t mean messengers came and went. Well, they came. They didn¡¯t leave anymore. This was going to get noticed and investigated soon. Because of that, our caravan has moved out toward Yelets and camped with Modrica and Te?ka. T¨¡oke stayed behind and visible. T¨¡oke can hide, but Te?ka can¡¯t. The supply wagons are due soon. They will have two to three squads with them, more if they bring a Slave Taskmaster with them. Plus, wagons and wagon drivers etc. I assume the slaves here would be the labour force. Tabitha¡¯s courier is the puzzle. I had the contents of her courier bags laid out in front of me. What was so urgent they rode through the night? She was an official courier and had documents for various commanders and government officials. The quarry was only one of her stops. Most of the documents were general stuff. Coins owed, supplies ordered, troops on the move. That last was interesting. A staging camp was established south of Kirsk, and the deadline to be there was in four months. Was that when the Emporer was due to arrive? We heard he was marching south from the capitol with a large portion of the Northern army. There were also several copies of an Imperial Decrees to several Provincial governors with the promise of future tax reductions if they supplied troops in excess of the minimum obligation and even more for affinity users. This is what¡¯s behind the compulsory enlistment of people like Lord Nelson. It is probably also what is behind the creation of a slave army. If they impress the emperor, they will get favours in addition to tax cuts. It doesn¡¯t explain why the courier was in such a hurry. Four months was not long to move troops to Kirsk. Had the timeline been brought forward for them? The courier herself was dead, and the surviving trooper wasn¡¯t talking any more. Modrica was a bit rough with the interrogation. It is probably just as well he died as he had seen Te?ka in action. The other problem was what to do with eighty ex-slaves and approximately thirty prisoners. There were only thirty prisoners, as Tabitha and Modrica recruited ten, and Lee recruited three. Lee was a lot pickier than Tabitha, but she didn¡¯t know that Tabitha was recruiting for a different purpose. Lee and her helpers were looking after the slaves, some of whom were going to require weeks of recovery. Not many, fortunately, but some. Most of the prisoners and the freed slaves to date just want to go back to their homes. A few who are running or have been tortured want to go to the free Republic, but most want to go home and lay low. I think that is a fool''s dream. They will not be able to lay low for long. However, they need to make their own decisions. What I need to think about is how those decisions will impact us. We were always going to end up being hunted. What I want to do is muddy the waters. We are already telling our helper that we are heading north from here rather than east to Yelets. That has spread but won¡¯t convince many people. I look closer at the Imperial Decrees. It is printed on thick paper, but it appears to be normal paper. Most of the text is normal ink. There is spiritual energy coming from the signature and the Imperial stamp. My Copier Skill couldn¡¯t copy Spiritual Signatures until Journeyman Level. It was currently high Apprentice. I felt I might be able to copy the signature¡¯s spirituality but not the Stamp if I pushed it. It was because of my high Spiritual attributes. I have attributes to spare, and pushing more into Spiritual Agility could make things easier. I pushed the attribute all the way to 50. It didn¡¯t substitute for the Skill Level, but I might manage it, and the Skill would definitely level faster now. I could find paper and ink in the administration block. It wouldn¡¯t be the same paper, but it would be close. I could probably make a forgery to fool the provincial people but not the inquisitors or high-level people in the governor''s offices. Fooling patrolling troopers is still good. It is time to consult Tabitha, Ruku and Lee about what we can fool people with. ¡°We could give everybody an Imperial Pardon,¡± Ruku suggested. ¡°To obviously fake,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°We need something that is in line with normal practice,¡± Lee added. ¡°Pardons don¡¯t happen. You serve your time, and that is that.¡± ¡°Transmute the crime to other things like fines or non-slave service,¡± I suggested. ¡°Possible. That does happen. Mostly for the rich and powerful,¡± Lee said. ¡°We could publish a decree closing the quarry,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Why would they close the quarry?¡± Ruku asked. ¡°A monster taking residence would do it. Like the Sand Elemental near Obalno, and signs were posted to avoid it.¡± I said. ¡°We also changed shipping routes to avoid large sea monsters,¡± Ruku said. ¡°I am sure the empire does the same thing.¡± ¡°They do, usually temporarily, until the right people arrive to kill it or move it on,¡± Lee said. ¡°Do you want to take up residence here?¡± Tabitha asked me. ¡°Ha. No. But would we need to?¡± I replied. ¡°By the time a decree is issued, the monster has been investigated and is either left to create Spiritual Materials or the army is mobilised,¡± Lee explained. ¡°Mostly, it is done through the governor''s office, though.¡± The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°We could scatter some Spiritually enhanced Granite to give the impression a monster is here,¡± I said. ¡°That would certainly work for a while,¡± Lee said. ¡±Government paperwork does get lost.¡± ¡°That is a solution for the quarry. It could last relatively long term in the confusion of a war. What about the people?¡± I asked. ¡°Those going to the Free Republic won¡¯t get there without running into at least one patrol,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I can supply documentation that should get them past a patrol, as long as they don¡¯t do anything stupid. I made sure I brought plenty of papers. It is still a risk, but that is their choice. They don¡¯t have supplies, though,¡± Lee said. ¡°We should get plenty of supplies from the supply caravan arriving in the next day or so. They can probably take a couple of wagons. That would help with those still recovering,¡± I said. ¡°What about those that want to go to their homes in the empire?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°It seems to be a good opportunity to disseminate propaganda.¡± ¡°Like what?¡± I asked. ¡°We could mix it up. We want to create confusion so we can vary it.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°Shall we make an Imperial Decree baning slavery?¡± I joked. ¡°You can make it say anything?¡± Lee asked. ¡°I can Adjust a Decree, and then Wiremu can copy it,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°It is better if there are not too many adjustments.¡± ¡°Most of the decrees are about Tax deductions. Tax deductions don¡¯t pay for a war.¡± Ruku said. ¡°Incite rebellions by changing redactions to increases? That should fire up the governors if we can find a courier to deliver them.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I can get it to an Army base, and they will see them delivered, but that doesn''t solve the problem with these people,¡± Lee said. ¡°Running from the monster attack on the quarry?¡± Ruku suggested. ¡°That has possibilities,¡± Lee said. ¡°A lot of accommodations are made for monster attacks. Civilian commendation for helping and surviving a monster attack could work. There would need to be evidence.¡± ¡°I can have Puia destroy this place when we leave,¡± I said. ¡°That plus a Decree warning people away is probably our best option,¡± Lee said. Lee was our expert on Imperial law and bureaucracy. Tabitha grew up here but only knew things a thief would know¡ªa young thief at that. So that was the plan we set in motion, and my days got busier. Freeing a slave every 4-5 hours or so and then working on fake imperial Decrees. Two nights later, I had a change of plans. Here I am, moving through the dark, a half-day ride from the quarry. Nne had spotted the supply caravan, and Tabitha had decided it would be better to attack it before it went to the quarry. If people got away, then it was just bandits and not an invading force. This meant no recognisable bonds. I think Tabitha¡¯s new outlaw class is influencing her. Tabitha, Umreti, Ruku and Lee are playing outlaws. I am providing ranged support and stopping anyone from escaping. I watched Tabitha take out the guards and then mount Dusk and ride through the camp, tossing Phantasm (Mineral) rocks. The other three then rode into the camp, destroying tents and troopers. The civilians and slaves they avoided as they could. They were keeping affinities discrete as well. That was going to make it difficult against the thirty troopers. We had ascertained there was no Slave Taskmaster with them. Otherwise, there would be more troopers and experienced ones as well. Just a supply run did not need specialised troops. There was a lot of confusion, but my Darksight and Telescopic Sight kept track of the team. I added arrows where it would make a difference. The Phantasm was keeping the confusion going. These were not the brightest troops. A bit of Mental Strength goes a long way. Everything went smoothly. I had to discourage a couple of runners. They were civilians, and we were trying not to kill civilians, but I did have to wound them. One had reasonable stealth as well. With the troopers dead and the civilians gathered, they were bound and blindfolded into a covered wagon. We would keep them a few days before, ¡®letting them escape and make there way back on foot. Meanwhile, Ruku and I worked day and night to free the Slaves. There was only one irreversible error, and I don¡¯t think he will even recover. Ruku pushed too hard, and the damage is evident in all his classes. We tried so hard as well. As soon as the last slave was freed, we sent the ones heading to the Free Republic off. They are on their own now, and I hope Lee''s documents are enough. Our wagons and the people Tabitha and Lee recruited are resupplied and heading to Yelets. Tabitha and I are the only ones left here, but nobody knows that. Tabitha¡¯s Shadow Puppets give the impression that there are more people. The third night, after everybody left, T¨¡oke and I went to work Shaping the Granite all over the quarry. We made twisted faces and creatures from the rock, incorporating Spiritually Enhanced Granite and Phantasm (Mineral). I found if I put a grain of Phantasm (Mineral) in the eye of the creature, it gives the impression it is looking at you. Creepy and haunting is what I am going for. The quarry is going to be a haunted nightmare by the time I am finished. T¨¡oke preferred twisted snake shapes. I was sure several looked like him. I raised my Stone Shaping Class as well as my Granite Manipulation and Stone Shaping Skills. It is an hour before dawn, and it is time to wake everybody up. I launch a series of Granite Quakes, and T¨¡oke copies me, and we set the ground violently shaking. Some of the less stable structures partially collapse, and the ex-slaves and remaining prisoners panic. I caused a quake hard enough to collapse the gates and some of the barrier fences. The T¨¡oke ground stone in the Granite cliff on the quarry side of the prisoners'' area, and a shape emerged from the rock, and the grinding got louder. Tabitha¡¯s shadows increased the impression that it was moving rather than just shaped from the rock. Panic increased as the prisoners started to run. I heard several comments about a monster, and then someone clicked on to what we were aiming for. ¡°It¡¯s a Gargoyle nest! Run!¡± and this was repeated, ¡°Gargoyles, Run! I increased the Quakes, and some more buildings collapsed. The stone admin building lost a wall, and I shaped a twisted face on the side facing the gate with Phantasm eyes. It had a twisted smile and large fangs with narrow eyes. It did not take long for everybody to be out and running. I then collapsed more of the wall as if large rocks were thrown and left the rocks there. A granite quarry is the best place for me and T¨¡oke. We spent a few hours finishing the staging of the remains of the quarry. A Gargoyle Nest is not something most armies are equipped to deal with, and it will mean the quarry is abandoned for decades. The Imperial Notice warning people was almost superfluous. My Masters Level Deceive Skill went up. 303. Coming Home: Tabitha

303. Coming Home: Tabitha

I watched as Ruku, Lee, and our helpers from the quarry approached the gate to Yelets with our wagons. Wiremu and I came over the wall two nights ago. And we smuggled Modrica and Umreti in. I have been getting the lay of the land while Wiremu sorted accommodations for us and a yard for the wagons. Longstrider is still in charge here. He has lasted a long time. He is still in sole charge, as far as I can tell. I don¡¯t have many contacts here after all this time, but one of the fences I used to use was still in business and still worked for Longstrider. We will have to meet in the next couple of days. Inquisitor Jones and Cooper are based here, and apparently, Jones is out on patrol. Cooper is a large, heavyset woman for whom I am looking out for. She can¡¯t be everywhere, and Yelets has three main gates. ¡°Would you like another cup of tea, sir?¡± the server asked me. ¡°No, thank you, young one, but if you don¡¯t mind, I will just rest my weary bones here for a while.¡± ¡°No problem, sir.¡± ¡°I would be most pleased if you would join me,¡± I winked at her and patted my knee, indicating where she should sit. The server giggled, ¡°I have to work,¡± she tried to say sternly. ¡°Another time, then.¡± My Body Image was that of a certain old man with whom I helped celebrate his 150th birthday in Waiouru. I swiped his ID papers while I was there and made a few Adjustments. He was a cheeky old man, and I thought it would be fun. It is fun. Ruku and Mbili are escorting the troopers to inspect the wagons, and I am sure I saw Mbili pass some coins. Our contract with the Famous Five ends here in Yelets. There is not much left of their home town of Alamaeadin. I must find out what they plan to do. Ruku and the Squad Leader were spending some time at the back of Te?ka¡¯s wagon. I am sure he is getting a lecture on the responsibility of keeping dangerous animals in a city. They then headed to the administration building to fill in the paperwork. I spotted three people who I thought were watching those entering the gate. One I vaguely recognised from my time here was that she was part of Longstrider¡¯s organisation. One I was pretty sure was an undercover Imperial. I am not sure about the third, possibly also Longstrider. The wagons were always going to draw a crowd. A caravan full of exotic and dangerous animals is always an attraction. Hopefully, it will draw attention away from the people with the caravan. When Ruku emerged from the Admin building, a young lad ran up and delivered a message to him. The wagons rolled out and headed toward the warehouse compound Wiremu had arranged. While we may have escaped the inquisitor at the gate, I would still expect a visit from her in the next few days. I got my creaky bones moving, tossed a coin to the server as thanks and gave her a wink. I then hobbled my way toward a safe house I procured, where Modrica and Umreti were staying. The city was familiar and different. This was my home. I grew up here. I remember robbing that place when I was learning my trade. Some of the differences were some new buildings, and some shops had changed. There used to be a cheesemonger there, but now it is a grocer. I stopped and stared at Bob¡¯s Goods. It was a general goods store, but Bob was the one to give my brother Warren his first job as a guard. Warren, who died as we tried to escape this Empire. Stolen story; please report. I felt guilty, as it was me that caused us to need to get out. It wasn¡¯t just the failed robbery on the governor''s palace, but that was when I awoke my Shadow Affinity. If the Empire found out I had an affinity, I would be forced to work for the army. That wasn¡¯t the main reason. I was well-practised at avoiding the authorities by that point. We ran mainly so Longstrider didn¡¯t find out about the affinity. He would trap me worse than the empire. Longstrider might have been my mentor and trained me as a Thief, but I was scared stiff of him. He comes across as a friendly, wise advisor, but I had seen the steel underneath. He was a conniving and ruthless bastard, and we were lucky to escape. I still don¡¯t know what his classes and specialities were. He was certainly a talented high-level thief, but he also had some sort of trainer class like Ruku. Despite working under him for four years, there was so much I didn¡¯t know about him. I admitted to myself that I was still a bit scared of him. Even with my current skills, I wasn¡¯t sure about confronting him. Having Wiremu, Modrica, and Ruku at my back gave me more confidence. The thing was that Longstrider also had a lot of allies. He ruled the criminal world of this city and had connections throughout the empire, the Kirghiz Kingdom, and probably the Free Republic. His chief enforcer was a mountain of a man that scared the shit out of everyone. He had an extensive organisation and kept it intact for decades. Yes, I was still scared of Longstrider. Longstrider could wait a few days. We would be approaching him through Lee¡¯s contacts. I wasn¡¯t stupid enough to think he wouldn¡¯t find out who I was, though. It will also be obvious who Wiremu was. We need some contingency plans. We can¡¯t just burn down the city, as there are several thousand Imperial Troopers in a compound adjacent to the city. We killed 300 low-level troopers with preparation, surprise and traps. Thousands of competent troopers, many specialised ones, were a different story. There are almost certainly several affinity users with them, as well. I also need to verify how many and what affinities they have. The object here is not to fight but to subvert and keep under the radar of the authorities. Whether we can do that or not will depend on Longstrider¡¯s reaction to us. If we end up in a fight with Longstrider, all secrecy will disappear, but that is true for him as well. I kept limping onwards and not letting the memories get to me. Then I saw it and wondered about it. It was one of the largest buildings in the city. I had always known it was there, but I had never stepped inside. Religion wasn¡¯t for me, but I used to wonder if there was a god. Or gods. Where did the classes come from? Why is it called Spiritual Energy? I figured these, ¡®Radiant Sanctuaries¡¯, were just another method of control by the Emperor. The Kingdom didn¡¯t have them, nor did the Republic. Why does the Empire have them? Every major imperial city has them, and their priests go out to the major towns and army bases in order to ¡°bring people into the light.¡± Now that I have run my own organisation, I can see it is a method of control, but that is not a sufficient reason for that level of expense. There is something more going on. I might start with one of the priests and see if I can see their status and find out if there is a priest class. ¡°Can I help you across the road, old man?¡± a voice said. ¡°Cheeky bloody whippersnapper. If I were a century younger, I would show you a thing or two.¡± I said to Wiremu, who was wearing that disgusting red goatee beard again. ¡°Sure, sure. Is it past your nap time?¡± ¡°It is always past my bloody nap time.¡± I took a moment to assess our surroundings. The street was moderately busy, and you never knew who had hearing enhancements. I nodded at the Sanctuary, ¡°What do you know about religion, you heathen.¡± ¡°Being a heathen, not much. Wouldn¡¯t a learned older person like you know more?¡± ¡°I stayed away when I was younger. Now I prefer the dark. All this ¡®radiant light¡¯ makes it hard to sleep.¡± ¡°Just a dirty old man in the dark.¡± I whacked him on the shoulder, ¡°I am definitely a grumpy old man.¡± ¡°You think there is something to that religion?¡± ¡°Yes, but what?¡± ¡°Let''s get you home, old man. Your nurse will be waiting for you, and you can sleep on it.¡± ¡°Are you trying to kill me?¡± He definitely is if he is referring to Modrica as a nurse. She hasn¡¯t nursed anything in her life. ¡°As the beneficiary of your will¡­ Of course not.¡± 304. Snake: Tabitha

304. Snake: Tabitha

¡°I made contact, and we are meeting Snake at midnight tonight in a building by the West gate,¡± Lee said. I knew Snake. She was one of Longstrider''s key lieutenants. There had been many a rumour about them having an affair, but I put no stock in it. I mostly only knew her in passing as she was not part of the thieving or the enforcing crowd. Her reputation was mixed. Nobody really knew what she did, hence the accusations about her sleeping her way to the top. I mostly knew Longstider, and he didn¡¯t keep useless people around. ¡°Should I bring T¨¡oke?¡± Wiremu half-joked. ¡°Absolutely,¡± I said. ¡°Snake is only expecting me and a guard or two,¡± Lee said. ¡°She will get me, you, and Wiremu. I will be interested in seeing if she can sense T¨¡oke. The others can wait nearby in case there is trouble,¡± I said. ¡°How did you know Snake was female?¡± Lee asked. ¡°I never said it either way.¡± Lee didn¡¯t know this was my home town or that I knew Longstrider. ¡°I have been here before,¡± I said. ¡°I have changed my mind. I want Modrica with us.¡± ¡°Snake will take that as a sign of aggression,¡± Lee said. ¡°Yes, because that is exactly what it is.¡± ¡°I thought you wanted to make a deal? I have heard what happens to people who are too aggressive to these people,¡± Lee was starting to worry. ¡°I have had a good relationship here. That¡¯s why I came, to help smooth things over.¡± ¡°This is always going to escalate to Longstrider. We might as well escalate it now and get it over with, one way or another.¡± ¡°You know Longstrider as well, don¡¯t you?¡± Lee asked. ¡°I know Longstrider better than Snake. It is better to go straight to the head of the Snake.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need me here at all, do you?¡± Lee asked. ¡°You have been helpful so far with the documents for the prisoners,¡± I said. ¡°You do the introductions tonight, and Tabitha will take it from there,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Whose Tabitha?¡± Lee asked. ¡°You really are mixing up the aliases,¡± I said to Wiremu. ¡°You introduce us as the ones who can set the slaves free, and we will take it from there.¡± Lee did not look happy. Lee let us into the empty warehouse just before midnight. Ruku¡¯s bond, Wai, is wandering around somewhere, as is T¨¡oke. Ruku and Umreti are close with Dusk and Te?ka in one of the wagons. They are our backups. I walked beside Lee with Wiremu behind her and Modrica behind me. The three of us were armoured and masked but with no other disguise Skills running. I don¡¯t know Snake¡¯s role for Longstrider, but I am guessing she is part of his information-gathering team and, therefore, would have a number of sensing Skills. ¡°They are coming,¡± Wiremu said. His Thermal Sensing reaches further than my Spatial Awareness. There were no lights in the warehouse, just the moonlight coming through an upper window. Modrica is the only one with Nightsight and would struggle the most. We all have Darksight. ¡°There are a number surrounding the place,¡± Wiremu added quietly. Then I sensed Snake coming with three large bodyguards. Snake moved very smoothly. It is almost like she glided. She has a very high Physical Agility. They came into the large space and stopped about five meters short of us. ¡°Hello, Lee. We weren¡¯t expecting you for a few months yet. What is with the animals you came in with?¡± ¡°Hello Snake. Something big happened in the Republic, and our strategy is changing,¡± Lee replied. ¡°So you are changing to animal rescues now?¡± Snake smirked. ¡°No, we are focusing on slaves now,¡± Lee said. ¡°Really? Because these are not your usual people, nor are the ones with your animals. I don¡¯t recognise anyone, and it makes me very suspicious. What are you really up to, or are you being forced here?¡± Her tone started to sound threatening. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°I volunteered to come and be a liaison. We want to set up a freedom and recovery operation for Slaves,¡± Lee said ¡°That sounds like it will quickly gain Imperial attention. We won¡¯t be interested in allowing that to happen in this city,¡± Snake said. ¡°You said you are here to be a liaison. With whom?¡± she looked at me, ¡°Is it with you? And why did you bring an Orc? That is just asking for trouble.¡± I stepped forward, ¡°Yes, it is with me.¡± I took a Granite plate from my Spatial pocket, put it on the ground and slid it over to her. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°That is one-third of an Enchantment that will remove the slave class without requiring the presence of a Taskmaster,¡± I replied. The guards with her looked surprised, but she did not. She bent down and examined the Runes. I had no idea how much she understood, but I had the feeling it was more than most. ¡°I had heard some rumours but didn¡¯t put much stock in them.¡± Snake looked back at me, ¡°Is this a scam? It has the feel of a scam. You have a shady feel as well.¡± ¡°The Republic has used it to free slaves,¡± Lee said, ¡°I saw it myself.¡± ¡°I will believe it when I see it,¡± Snake said. ¡°This is even more reason for the empire to crush any enterprise doing this. I see no profit in it, only disaster.¡± She looked up at me, ¡°What do you get out of this?¡± ¡°It is that warm fuzzy feeling of doing good work,¡± I replied. Wiremu couldn¡¯t help himself and snorted, holding back a laugh. That drew Snake''s attention. ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°We won¡¯t bother with introductions until we meet with Adrian,¡± I said, using Longstrider''s first name. That drew her attention back to me. ¡°You look familiar, and you obviously know things most people don¡¯t. Do you have a death wish?¡± ¡°He will meet with me,¡± I said, removing my mask and lowering my hood. ¡°My name is Tabitha Carter.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the brat he spent so much time on a decade ago, and then you disappeared into the Kingdom without so much as a thank you. We heard you had died in Hrothgar. I was hoping it was true.¡± ¡°I am pleased to disappoint you.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you have a brother?¡± Snake glanced at Wiremu. ¡°Warren died before we even left the empire.¡± ¡°Humph. Is this your way of crawling back to join us?¡± ¡°Ha! That''s funny. No, we really can free slaves. I am currently working with the Republic, freeing slaves. While I am making coins, it is indirectly. I am doing this for my clan and for a little payback for Warren.¡± ¡°Clan?¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough until we meet with Adrian.¡± ¡°That¡¯s Master Longstrider to you, and what makes you think I won¡¯t just put you down?¡± I reattached my mask and raised my hood again. ¡°You can try, but I¡¯ve seen you spot the two bonds, and you have tried to pierce our Statuses, so you have some idea what you are up against. You four and the twenty outside are not enough.¡± ¡°It is never just a numbers game,¡± Snake replied. ¡°It is a Skills game, and we have the numbers and the Skills. You walked into this place. You should not have done that if you wanted to attack.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to attack. I want to talk. To Adrian.¡± I looked at Wiremu, ¡°What is the trap?¡± ¡°It is just a poison vapour, slightly caustic. The only one who would really have trouble is Lee,¡± he said. I knew that wasn¡¯t strictly true, as my Poison Resistance wasn¡¯t great. He has been telling me to raise it for a long time. I guess he will be again. Just as well, Wiremu¡¯s Deceive is at the Master Level. As Snake said, it is about Skills. ¡°I believe you about the Skills,¡± I continued, ¡°One thing Longstrider is known for is training his people. He trained me. Keep the plate. Have an enchanter look at it. When Adrian wants to meet, send a message to the warehouse with the wagons.¡± ¡°You expect to be able to just leave?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I said. ¡°We walked into your trap, but you are smart enough to know we didn¡¯t do it without a backup plan,¡± I turned to Wiremu, ¡°She is not wrong about them being highly Skilled. Adrian trains people thoroughly. Each of the thugs outside is probably worth three of the troopers we took down in the Free Republic. It is the reason Longstrider is still around.¡± ¡°Snake,¡± Lee said hesitantly. ¡°I was there for that. You should know that it was only those two and their bonds, and they killed two hundred troopers in the one fight.¡± She pointed to me, ¡°He alone killed a hundred and fifty of them.¡± Snake''s eyes narrowed. She probably has some sort of truth-detecting skill. Longstriders people are skilled, especially his trusted circle. Snake is probably worth ten of any of the others, and that might be underestimating her. I had been trying to pierce her status as well. I hadn¡¯t got far, but her highest class was something like Acrobat, but maybe she was fooling me. ¡°That is valuable information. Thank you, Lee.¡± Snake said. So, she believed Lee and planned to use that information in the future. I can see what Snake is in the inner circle. Snake looked at Wiremu, ¡°If you did that, then that is more than skill. That is affinity. Why are you here?¡± ¡°To free slaves,¡± Wiremu said. There was a long pause as Snake considered this. ¡°Very well, I will let you know when you can meet with Longstrider. Expect it to be two nights away.¡± I nodded, and we turned and walked out into the street. We didn¡¯t hide our trip back to the warehouse. Once we were there, Wiremu turned to me, ¡°How do you think that went?¡± ¡°It could have been a lot worse. She figured out who you are.¡± ¡°Yeah, that was going to come out eventually. What do you think she will do with the information?¡± He asked. ¡°That will be up to Longstrider.¡± ¡°Do you think he will sell us to the Empire?¡± ¡°Depends. I trained under him for two years but was around him for almost four before he took me as an apprentice thief. I could never predict what he would do.¡± 305. Imperials: Wiremu

305. Imperials: Wiremu

A loud banging on the gate woke me the next morning, ¡°Open up for the Imperial Inquisitor!¡± I only got a couple of hours of sleep. This is not my problem as such. I am to stay out of the way while Tabitha deals with the Inquisitor. My role is if everything goes bad, then I assassinate them. Then everything will get worse. ¡°Coming,¡± I heard Tabitha yell. We were expecting a visit. I hope this is a routine inspection and not Snake setting them on to us. I armoured up. Ruku, Modrica and Umreti will be doing the same. Tabitha is there with Moja, Mbili, Tatu and three helpers we picked up. This will be the last act of the Famous Five before their contract ends. Getting past Imperial inspections is what Mbili sold to us. The Inquisitors have a fierce reputation for seeing through lies. In my research in the Kingdom, I found out it is a specialisation of criminal investigation classes. Therefore, they all have some fighting skills but specialise in restraining people and discovering the truth of things. High levels in perception skills like Keensight and its more advanced tiers. Usually, some sort of truth or lie, sensing skills. The specialisation often gives status interrogation skills. Some inquisitors have torture skills like reducing pain resistance and healing so they can inflict more and continued pain. Other Inquisitors have the skills to seek hidden things. Some have mental persuasion skills, and some have Spiritual sensing skills. Some have various combinations of the above. There are probably Skills I have never heard of. The Lore Society records were far from complete on this class. Then, a magpie flew into my senses range. Ooh, that''s sneaky. It was a bond. I don¡¯t know if it was bonded to Inquisitor Cooper or one of her helpers, but it was obviously there to give them a different perspective. I was one of the few who could sense the bonds. I suspect it was Coopers. The bond was a healthy one, so the bird shares a lot of traits with its partner. What did I know about magpies? Firstly, they are known to be very intelligent birds. That¡¯s not good. They are aggressive to those nearing their nests. They like picking things that are not food, particularly shiny things. These are hint¡¯s but are a start at understanding Cooper. Inquisitors always have at least one squad of elite Imperial Troopers. Several when they are outside a town, but Cooper only has one with her now. Elite troopers have multiple specialities and master-level skills. They are probably like Ruku but without the affinity. Together, they are very intimidating, and that is an effect they use well. Tabitha opened the gate dressed as a merchant. ¡°Can I help you?¡± The Guard who had knocked said, ¡°Imperial Inspection under Inquisitor Cooper. Stand aside.¡± ¡°Happy to assist the empire,¡± as she stepped aside. The troopers marched in. The Inquisitor was in the midst of them. The magpie was definitely her bond. ¡°You are importing live animals. Let me see your papers,¡± Cooper said. ¡°Gather everybody in the compound by the wagons immediately.¡± Tabitha started to move off to do that when she was stopped by a trooper, ¡°Not you,¡± he said, ¡°You stay to answer questions.¡± Then, the troopers moved through the wagons, rounding people up. I assume they were trying to unsettle her. I was perched high in the rafters, having climbed up at the knocking. There were a number of bird cages hanging from the rafters. The birds in them will distract anyone looking up. It was Tabitha¡¯s idea, and her Distract Skill is almost Master Level. The magpie was on the rafters above the cages. Ruku, and the others were two doors down at a rented office we procured. I was in camouflage, which was only upper Journeyman level. It might not be enough. I carefully readied my bow. ¡°It says here you came into the city with thirty-five people, but I only see seven,¡± Cooper said. ¡°Where are the others?¡± ¡°Gone their separate ways. Like these ones here, their contracts were only as far as Yelets.¡± Cooper stared at her in silence with a look of disbelief on her face. The silence dragged out. Tabitha fidgeted nervously because she was a professional actress, and that is what a merchant would do. I pulled out an arrow and readied my bow. The magpie was in the rafters on the other side of the warehouse, but hopping around. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°I will need a list of names.¡± Cooper finally said. ¡°I ¡­ I don¡¯t have written names. It was only verbal.¡± Tabitha was exhibiting a lot of nerves and an answer that was not what was wanted. I would give her an acting award. ¡°I don¡¯t believe you,¡± Cooper said. ¡°You must report to the boss trader.¡± ¡°I am the boss trader, ma¡¯am,¡± she replied. Cooper stared at her in silence. Tabitha said hesitantly, ¡°The gate guards took a list of names, ma¡¯am.¡± Cooper knew that and probably had the list. ¡°Tell me about these animals,¡± she suddenly said, changing the subject. ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am. Which ones, ma¡¯am?¡± ¡°The monster ones.¡± ¡°The Dire bear we raised from a cub, and is our company mascot, ma¡¯am. He draws the crowd.¡± The magpie hopped toward me by two beams. I might need to make a distraction. I am not getting any hint of Cooper''s Skills. The magpie was a problem. We had a number of distraction scenarios planned. The magpie complicated them. Going simple is best, I think. I sent a feeling to T¨¡oke. Tabitha was winding down her speel on Te?ka as I watched the Magpie hop to another rafter. ¡°I want to see the hidden compartment in his cage,¡± Cooper said. ¡°As you wish. We keep the most valuable things there for obvious reasons,¡± Tabitha said. She moved toward the cage, ¡°The main Handler is not here, but he should be familiar enough with me to get him out of his cage.¡± The trooper nervously fingered their weapons as Tabitha unlocked the cage and clipped a thin leash to his collar. Tabitha looked tiny, and the leash looked flimsy next to Te?ka. Tabitha started to coax Te?ka from the cage, and more than one trooper drew their weapon. Cooper looked calm. Te?ka was reluctant, ¡°Tatu, can you grab a snack for him? That might help.¡± Tatu had the Animal Handling Class, and I am sure Cooper could see that. He looked at the nearest trooper for permission, and the trooper nodded yes and then followed at a signal from Cooper. He returned shortly with the entire hind leg of a large buck on his shoulder. ¡°Over there in the corner is best,¡± Tabitha said. Tatu placed the leg on the ground and backed off. Te?ka¡¯s interest picked up, and the whole reinforced wagon moved as he stepped out, and Tabitha led him to the corner. He picked up the leg in his mouth and settled down for his snack, where he could see everybody. Tabitha tied the pathetic leash to the wall. It was obvious to everybody the leash was not going to do anything to stop Te?ka. Tabitha then turned her back to him and jumped up into the wagon. A trooper and Cooper followed her as she showed them the strong box. My Hearing Aid started to pick up shouts outside. Three of the troopers also picked it up. The Squad leader sent one of them to investigate. Tabitha emerged from the wagon, followed by the other two. ¡°I am pleased you have demonstrated you can control the beast,¡± Cooper said. ¡°You can put him back now.¡± The trooper came back from outside, ¡°There¡¯s a fire, sir,¡± He reported to his squad leader, ¡°But there is something strange about it. It is unnerving people who get close, making it difficult to put out.¡± I had got T¨¡oke to drop a couple of Phantasm grains to attract the attention of the Inquisitor. Nothing like a mystery to attract an Inquisitor. It was Tabitha¡¯s idea. ¡°Ma¡¯am?¡± the squad leader queried Cooper. Cooper didn¡¯t respond immediately but looked around. I am sure she was also communicating with the magpie as it took wing and squeezed out a gap in the roof. ¡°I am happy enough here,¡± Cooper said and then turned to Tabitha. ¡°I know you are hiding things. You are more than the Merchant and Real Estate specialist I can see. I think you are another one of those merchant/thief combos, but better than the average. I am happy you are not a threat to the peace, but we will come down on you hard if you do anything illegal. Keep the beasts under control, or you will be evicted from the city.¡± She turned back to the Squad Leader, ¡°Let''s go take a look at this suspicious fire.¡± I figured the magpie had confirmed the strangeness of it for her. As the troopers left, there were sighs of relief, but Tabitha wasn¡¯t foolish enough to let her guard down yet. At least three of the troopers had high-level Hearing Aid, and the others had just as good senses in other areas. I still don¡¯t know what Cooper had. I shouldered my bow and dropped from the rafters. Tabitha raised an eyebrow at me. I moved to the far side of the warehouse next to Te?ka, and Tabitha followed. The noise was getting louder outside. ¡°She had a bond, a magpie. Best to warn the others.¡± Tabitha nodded. ¡°Good timing on the distraction. She was so close to finding the first level of deception. It would have complicated things.¡± ¡°I will head out and make sure they leave,¡± I said. I stripped off my leather jacket, put on a basic worker''s shirt, and left my bow as I went out. That went as well as it could. That was a surprise. I also got a level in camouflage. It was close. 306. Longstrider: Tabitha

306. Longstrider: Tabitha

¡°Hello, Tabitha. Wiremu. I was sorry to hear about Warren,¡± Longstrider strode into the room, followed by Snake. It was only those two. No guards. I wasn¡¯t surprised he had figured out who Wiremu was. Snake mostly had it figured out anyway. Lee acted surprised, but Ruku and Wiremu didn¡¯t react. Modrica was her stoic self. ¡°Adrian. Susan,¡± I greeted them, getting a scowl from Snake at the use of her first name. ¡°You are approaching us as equals,¡± Longstrider said, ¡°Has the student surpassed the teacher?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that the aim of teaching?¡± I replied. ¡°I suspect it is only in some areas, though.¡± Longstrider grinned, ¡°Really? You have learned some modesty?¡± ¡°Not a lot,¡± Wiremu said. I gave him a glare. Longstrider smiled, then said, ¡°I see you two have a good working relationship. I have met Captian Lee, but I have not met the other two here.¡± ¡°My name is Ruku.¡± Modrica was in a full-face helmet. Her only response was one of the low growls that only orcs can do. I smiled and said, ¡°She¡¯s not one for words,¡± without introducing her. Longstrider¡¯s eyes flicked between each of us. He is always assessing. Then he said, ¡°What you missed, Snake, was that those four all have affinities. If you focus your Spiritual Perception through the Skill, you will pick up a sense of what they are. Those two are solid, but Wiremu is hotter. Ruku is a liquid of some sort. Tabitha is different to anything I have sensed before, but I am sure it is an affinity.¡± ¡°What Skill is that?¡± Wiremu asked. Longstrider smiled, ¡°All information comes at a cost.¡± He turned to me, ¡°Snake said you want to establish an underground organisation to free slaves.¡± He pulled out the enchanted slate. ¡°This is interesting work but incomplete. I don¡¯t doubt you have a full set of plates to do the job. Rumours are already coming out of the Free Republic about this and about the famous Wiremu Hunter visiting there. I could be rewarded handsomely if I handed you over to them.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you are that interested in more coins,¡± I said. Longstrider just raised an eyebrow. ¡°I think back to the jobs you had me do when I worked for you. Half of them were for information only. Even now, you say information comes at a cost, but you are not necessarily talking about coins. When I arrived in the Kingdom, I had an idea to become a travelling information broker because that is what I saw in you. You talk a lot about coins, but they are not your main focus.¡± ¡°You were always quite observant,¡± Longstrider said. ¡°I hoped with some experience and more skills under your belt, you would end up in charge of the thieves. That was the main reason I sent you to the kingdom. Not because of some minor stuff up here, but to get experience. I expected you back in a couple of years, but then you didn¡¯t arrive in Hrothgar as expected, and I lost track of you. Things would have been different if I had known about your affinity.¡± ¡°I am sure you were heartbroken.¡± ¡°I invested a lot of time and skills into you. I had no return on that investment, but now here you are.¡± ¡°That¡¯s garbage. I returned plenty of that ¡®investment¡¯. I am here now, but not to help you.¡± Longstrider looked toward Wiremu and raised an eyebrow. ¡°If I thought you would betray us to the imperials, we wouldn¡¯t be having a meeting,¡± I said threateningly. ¡°I have been in charge in this city for over five decades. Many have tried to muscle their way in. Four Affinity Users is a first, I will admit. I am almost interested in seeing how it will go. However, it would waste a lot of lives and draw attention we don¡¯t want, which is why I am here having a meeting.¡± ¡°You are also controlling the information,¡± Ruku interjected. ¡°That is why there are only the two of you. You don¡¯t want Wiremu¡¯s identity to leak.¡± Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Longstrider smiled, ¡°Information is valuable.¡± He looked back at me, ¡°You have collected some very interesting and talented people, Tabitha.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t collect people,¡± I responded. ¡°Nonetheless, the quality of the people around you says a lot about your leadership.¡± ¡°That is the first error I think I have seen from you,¡± I said. ¡°All these people are not gathered around me. We are gathered around Wiremu.¡± That got a double eyebrow raise, and even Snake reacted. ¡°The famous Wiremu Hunter and his crusade against slavery. This is really what you are here for?¡± Then he had an aha moment, ¡°The quarry to the west of us. You did that?¡± Wiremu nodded. ¡°I spent three years as a prisoner in that quarry.¡± ¡°I remember Quarry Worker was your highest class. I really want to know how you summoned a nest of gargoyles, but I will not ask.¡± ¡°All information has value,¡± Wiremu said. That got a smile out of Longstrider, ¡°Maybe we can deal as equals.¡± Longstrider turned back to me, ¡°I have two major concerns. Snake raised the first. How are you going to avoid Imperial attention? The second is what is in it for us if we let you operate here.¡± ¡°The second is easy to answer,¡± I said. ¡°Information. Nobody pays attention to slaves. You can have first-hand access to freed slaves, many of whom will be angry at their previous owners. Many of them might wish to seek alternative employment acting against their previous owners. I came into this city with twenty people in my employ, seven of whom were ex-prisoners at the quarry, and thirteen were ex-slaves. Some of them used to work for you and were sloppy or unlucky. I got up to speed on your organisation very quickly.¡± ¡°I can see that being very useful. It also will explain why Pedro came knocking. It also tells me you took over the quarry before the gargoyles. That is very intriguing. However, what about the first concern?¡± ¡°The first concern is trickier,¡± I said. ¡°Breaking slave bonds is going to be noticed by their master. Killing masters will be even more noticeable. Some slaves can be purchased legitimately and then released. They could work off the debt in more equitable ways.¡± Wiremu interjected, ¡°Bear in mind that freeing slaves is not cheap. We will provide the enchanting slates, but it takes monster cores or a Jouneyman-level enchanter to power them. The amount of energy required is dependent on the level of the slave class. We anticipate there will be a debt to be paid either by the ex-slave or their family. What we are not interested in is this debt being slavery in every way except the class.¡± ¡°It is one of the reasons Lee is here. The Free Republic will manage the debt,¡± I said. ¡°Things get murkier for slaves that cannot be bought. The price of slaves will also rise as they become less available.¡± ¡°We have already seen that with reduced Taskmasters,¡± Longstrider said. ¡°What you are proposing will take a lot of upfront capital and years to pay it back. Who is fronting up with that?¡± ¡°That is not information you can afford,¡± I said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t assume that if I were you,¡± Longstrider said. I ignored that. ¡°We are not looking to free every slave all at once. This is a long-term operation that will need to spread to various cities. What we want to do in Yelets is a pilot scheme proving its effectiveness and profitability. Other operations will then be able to be started by various people who are not us.¡± ¡°There might be some start-up funding available,¡± Wiremu said. The idiot. Does he want to stay broke for the rest of his life? Hang on. Maybe he is not an idiot. Start-up funding with interest accruing over the years to pay it back could be lucrative. It is high risk as the empire will shut them down where possible. Longstrider seems to have had the same thoughts as I did, ¡°Interest rates will need to be kept reasonable,¡± I said, dampening some of the enthusiasm. Then I continued, ¡°It will take a varied approach for the non-legal.¡± ¡°Illegal?¡± Longstrider clarified unnecessarily. ¡°We have forged bills of sales,¡± I said and handed over one for Longstrider to look at. Interestingly, he passed it directly to Snake. Did she have experience in this? ¡°Alcohol and some mental confusion should do the rest.¡± ¡°Mental confusion?¡± Wiremu tossed over a small pebble of his Phantasm (mineral), which both Longstrider and Snake were fascinated with. ¡°Those could be for sale while we are in town,¡± I said before Wiremu could give them away. ¡°Interesting,¡± Longstrider said. ¡°You know the empire will shut these businesses down where they can.¡± ¡°That is why they have to stay illegal. Having said that, there is no law against a business funding the release of slaves,¡± I said, having looked it up. ¡°No law yet,¡± Longstrider clarified. ¡°I am sure the enchanted slates will be illegal soon.¡± I didn¡¯t disagree. ¡°You have answered my concerns to some degree. The empire will still come hunting. Inquisitor Cooper has always been worse than Jones in figuring things out.¡± Wiremu started, ¡°The reason¡­¡± ¡°THE REASON,¡± I interrupted, ¡° is simple but will cost you.¡± Wiremu looked a little sheepish at that. Then he perked up, ¡°For some extra fees, I can give you a similar advantage.¡± Longstrider was looking carefully at us, ¡°I am interested. You have only been in town three days. Cooper has been here for almost five years. How did you find the secret so fast?¡± ¡°Let''s just say Wiremu has some unusual Skills,¡± I said. ¡°I would be interested in talking about those as well,¡± Longstrider said. ¡°OK, you have sold me on this for now. Let''s talk details, and profit sharing.¡± 307. Not so simple: Wiremu.

307. Not so simple: Wiremu.

Of course, things aren¡¯t so easy. We left Tabitha and Lee to hammer out the details with Longstrider. I could tell Tabitha was still very suspicious of Longstrider. The biggest problem was that the largest single owner of slaves in the city was the Imperial Army, and with war imminent, they were buying, not selling. ¡°The vast majority of army slaves are in their supply and service divisions,¡± Ruku said. ¡°I have to keep reminding myself we cannot free everyone now. This is a gradual war of attrition.¡± I said. Ruku nodded, ¡°In my officer training, one of the things that is emphasised is the importance of your supply lines. If you can¡¯t feed or equip your soldiers, they can¡¯t fight effectively.¡± I nodded, ¡°So reducing the slaves in the army supply divisions would be crippling.¡± ¡°Yes, but you can¡¯t just think about the enemy supply lines. You must think of your own.¡± At my puzzled look, Ruku continued, ¡°In freeing slaves, what is the most critical thing?¡± ¡°My Granite and Copy Skills can produce the slates¡­ Aha!¡± ¡°Yes, Monster cores. It is unnecessary for you and me as we have the flesh enchanting, but we can¡¯t reproduce that. The slates need monster cores to empower them. Monster Cores are already scarce. The Empire restricts the sale of Monster cores, and with war, this will become worse.¡± ¡°We need a steady supply to distribute¡­¡± I looked around. Tabitha was not here. ¡°I meant a supply to sell.¡± Ruku smiled. ¡°A steady supply is not really possible. Obtaining a stockpile, on the other hand, would only be nearly impossible.¡± ¡°The army.¡± ¡°They will have a stockpile to power their larger war enchantments. The city will have a stockpile to empower the wall defences. The city is probably the easier of the two.¡± ¡°We have some, especially the small ones from the hornets. There will be private individuals with some,¡± I said, remembering some of the nobles in the Kingdom. ¡°True, but only a couple at a time. But they will be easier than the city. This is more you and Tabitha¡¯s area of expertise rather than mine.¡± I nodded, ¡°True. It was your expertise that identified the weak link in our supply lines. I would much rather hunt the monsters, but this is a built-up area, so stealing is what is available. If only there were a nest of gargoyles nearby.¡± ¡°If only.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll scout the city for a bit and discuss options with Tabitha. It¡¯ll probably need to be a joint heist.¡± First up was to map out the city and identify key places. Not just heavily armed storage places but also guard stations, patrol routes, and other important places. With my Mapping Skill, I could make sure I covered everything above and below ground. The Empire was predominantly human, so they did not build below ground as much as the dwarves. The Radiant Sanctuary was different. It was built as far below ground as above, but it was a blank to my senses. I hit a blank wall. What are they hiding? I had not heard of any gods or super-beings, but I wasn''t arrogant enough to think I knew everything. It was made from a lot of spiritual material, and the whole building blocked my senses. What I did know was that nobody would spend that much money for no purpose. So what was the purpose? I watched people come and go for a couple of hours. Some were normal people or looked like normal people. The priests, or officials or whatever they were called, were obvious from their rainbow sashes over white shirts. There even seemed to be a military order belonging to the Radiant Sanctuary. Radiant. Light, white and rainbow symbology. Sanctuary: a holy or dedicated space to escape from danger or persecution. It is built like a fortress. Not a fortress to fight from, as there were no arrow slits or towers. There were no windows. A fortress that is a place to hide, like where a treasure house would hide its valuables. What are you hiding? Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. One spire rose from the centre of the building about ten meters above the roof. My Granite Senses said a spire was sunk into the earth below. My Granite Sense could not pierce the earth spire, but it seemed to mirror the one going up. Three stories above ground and then the spire, three stories below ground and then the spire. The one that went up had a shiny surface to it, so it was easy to find, which I guess was the point. It is a curiosity, but it is not my main target here. When I go out drinking next, I will ask some locals about it. I bet Tabitha wants to see what they are hiding. Maybe I will attend one of their public services. Once I had mapped the city, both above and below ground, I drew a map for everyone to see. There were tunnels underground. Not many, but some. There was one between the City administration building and the City patroller''s buildings. There were some private tunnels connecting expensive residences and commercial buildings. No dwarves were here, so the tunnels were few compared to the kingdom. Modrica and I were good at tunnelling, so it may be a way we can use to get around without being noticed. Even though there are no dwarves here, they still like to hide their valuables underground. A large guard fort near the southern wall has a protected area underneath. I can¡¯t sense into it, but my coin is on that being where the Monster cores are for the wall enchantments. It is time to get with Tabitha and plan a raid. ¡°He is definitely going to double-cross us,¡± Tabitha declared. ¡°I don¡¯t know how, but he is.¡± ¡°The easiest way would be to sell us to the Imperials,¡± Ruku said. ¡°He will get everything he can before that,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°He has a full set of enchantment slates and our business plan. What more does he need?¡± I asked. ¡°Monster cores,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°And training,¡± Ruku said, ¡°The enchantment is not easy to use. You can stuff it up fairly easily.¡± ¡°He could work it out,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°He is a trainer who upskills his people. He will have an enchanter he can access, and the instructions we left in the Republic will soon be public knowledge.¡± ¡°He is not a trainer like me,¡± Ruku said. We looked at him curiously. ¡°For me, training is an extra. From what I heard, he is passionate about teaching. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if his first basic class were Teacher, which I am pretty sure would now be master-level with multiple specialities.¡± ¡°If that is true, I wonder how he got where he is today?¡± I said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter how he got here. All that matters is what he will do.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I think it does matter,¡± Ruku said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he thinks of you as his star pupil, Tabitha. Teachers are proud of the achievements of their students.¡± Tabitha narrowed her eyes at him, and he went on, ¡°It doesn¡¯t mean he won¡¯t continue to test you and give you challenges to reach greater heights.¡± ¡°I would want my star pupil to join my group,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe, maybe not,¡± Ruku said. ¡°How much do you think he has figured out?¡± I asked. ¡°Too much. Tabitha said. ¡°He will definitely know everybody who came into the city with us, and the animals will give a clue,¡± Ruku said. ¡°I don¡¯t think he has connected either of your Kingdom personas yet, Tabitha.¡± ¡°Just picking up on the affinities is dangerous,¡± I said. ¡°How much information do you think he got? Don¡¯t overestimate him. He hadn¡¯t figured out Cooper yet.¡± ¡°It is better to overestimate him than underestimate him. He is definitely going to double-cross us,¡± Tabitha stated. ¡°Then we are going to need a multi-layered plan for this heist and plenty of escape options,¡± Ruku said. ¡°We don¡¯t want a three-way war. How many affinity users are in the army garrison?¡± I asked. ¡°According to Longstrider, three. Water, Earth and Fire, or similar. I haven''t got independent verification yet.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°And at least three thousand troopers?¡± I asked. ¡°About that from the size of the garrison, but they are always patrolling out,¡± Ruku said. ¡°Plus, however, many are in the town guard,¡± I said. ¡°Four to five hundred, I would guesstimate,¡± Ruku said. ¡°If they get stirred up, we will need to get out in a hurry,¡± I said. ¡°We need the cores, but this is not going to be simple,¡± Tabitha said. 308. The Long Game: Tabitha

308. The Long Game: Tabitha

Two days later, we were waiting for a meeting with Londstrider. We were all here except Umreti, who was on danger watch and Lee, who was organising her own people. It was mid-morning, and we were in a half-filled warehouse. It was two stories high, with windows letting light in from the second story. Shadows came from the light hitting the stacks of crates. Some of the weatherboards were also cracked, letting in additional light. It was fairly run down, and the goods in the crates were cheap goods. ¡°I have never been in one,¡± I said when Wiremu asked me about the Radiant Sanctuaries. ¡°I am not sure why. They just never felt right to me.¡± ¡°Do many people go?¡± he asked. ¡°All the important people. Some others.¡± ¡°What is with the spike towers and no windows?¡± ¡°Spike tower, singular, and I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°No, Spike Towers, plural. The second spike is drilled down into the ground. In fact, the building is the same underground as it is above. Mirrored, you might say.¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Really? I didn¡¯t know that.¡± ¡°You have never been curious?¡± ¡°To be honest, I have always actively avoided it and was seriously uncomfortable around the priests.¡± I thought about it and said, ¡°I only got an affinity a couple of weeks before I left. I wonder if my Shadows always reacted against the light even before the affinity became a thing.¡± ¡°I would suspect so,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Does Nystad mean light?¡± ¡°The empire of light? Not in any language I know. As far as I know, Nystad was the name of the first emperor.¡± ¡°He had a light affinity?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°As have all the emperors after him?¡± ¡°... Yes, but they were not always the eldest.¡± ¡°That is strange when you consider it, is it not?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°Yes. With affinities being so rare and not guaranteed. However, having one family with four generations of light affinity users consecutively is part of the reason they claim they are entitled to rule.¡± ¡°And I bet it has something to do with these Sanctuaries,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°The official story is the sanctuaries are the emperor''s gift to the people.¡± ¡°Because emperors who promote slavery are so benevolent,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Are there a lot of these Sanctuaries?¡± ¡°Every major city.¡± ¡°Smaller cities and towns?¡± ¡°Roving priests and their guards visit regularly.¡± ¡°Interesting. I want to visit a Sanctuary,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Go for it. Tell me all about it afterwards.¡± I had no desire to visit; in fact, I felt some revulsion at the thought. ¡°The Sanctuaries are irrelevant to your goal,¡± Longstrider said as he strode into the room, followed by Snake and an average-looking man I had not seen since I arrived. I had memories of him, though. This was Longstrider¡¯s chief enforcer, Merciful Matt. He was of average height and weight. He looked unremarkable, although I noticed a new scar visible above the collar of his jacket. ¡°Longstrider, Snake, Matt,¡± I greeted them. ¡°Ruku, Wiremu and Modrica, this is Matt, Longstrider¡¯s Chief Enforcer, also known on the streets as Merciful Matt. He is known for putting people out of their misery.¡± ¡°More like they beg for mercy,¡± Matt said with an unsettling half-smile. ¡°Modrica here is my chief enforcer, known on the streets as Modrica the Merciless.¡± Longstrider raised an eyebrow at that, and Modrica and Matt sized each other up. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°Why are the Sanctuaries irrelevant?¡± Wiremu asked. ¡°Because they have nothing to do with slavery. That is your goal, right?¡± Lonstrider said. ¡°Besides, I am pretty sure the Sanctuaries are part of the Kingdom¡¯s goal in inciting this war. Do you want to get involved in the war?¡± ¡°Not particularly,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Then ignore the Sanctuaries. There is enough trouble to be had making a profit from freeing slaves and dodging Inquisitors.¡± Longstrider turned to look at me, ¡°Or are you here to get involved with the war¡­ Countess Auditor?¡± ¡°Now you are just clutching at straws, trying to get information out of me. I know your tricks,¡± I replied. ¡°I am impressed. I thought one of you would react to that and give it away. Stone-faced, the lot of you.¡± ¡°It will take much more than some random false accusation,¡± I said. ¡°Not convinced it is false. There are a lot of rumours circulating.¡± ¡°Let''s get back to freeing slaves,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°I have some ideas about raiding for a supply of Monster Cores in the city supply, but I need more information about the security.¡± Longstrider just raised an eyebrow. Wiremu continued, ¡°The easiest for us would be to tunnel under the street to the lowest corner of the saferoom and drill a small hole through the Spiritual metal and see what is behind it. The edges and corners are usually least protected by enchantments. Then, there are several options depending on what we find. Are there any seismic detectors?¡± Longstrider just looked at him silently for a while. I assume casually tunnelling under a hard-packed street was giving him something to think about. He is totally going to double-cross us. ¡°Yes, there are,¡± he said eventually. ¡°There is also a ground scan enchantment that they run once a day. Behind the Spiritual Metal, and by the way, I haven''t been able to find out what it is made of, there is a layer of flammable liquid. The level is checked regularly, and of course, heat will make the whole thing burst into flame. Then, there are layers to protect the inside from damage of all sorts of types.¡± ¡°External penetration is unlikely without being discovered,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Who has legal access and how?¡± ¡°You won¡¯t get in and back out without being detected, and even if you do the weekly inspection will discover the theft. Then the city goes into lockdown, and the place is swarmed with troopers and trackers. That does not make for good business,¡± Longstrider said. ¡°In fact, I will lose a lot of people if they sweep the town.¡± Wiremu looked like he was going to say something when Longstrider continued, ¡°What I don¡¯t think you understand is that removing slavery from the empire is not a sudden thing. It will be a slow, gradual process taking decades, possibly centuries. We have a good money-making scheme, which I think will work despite those who will not make it through alive or unharmed. The risks are large, but the payments can be mitigated with quality information, and that promises to be a gold mine if we do it right. What we must avoid is the attention of the empire. If we don¡¯t, this whole thing dies here.¡± ¡°Along with most of us,¡± said Matt. ¡°There will be no big heist,¡± Longstrider said, ¡°Slow and without drawing attention is how it will proceed.¡± ¡°Some slaves will need to get out of the empire, and some will want to,¡± I said. ¡°We have ways already worked out with Lee to the Free Republic. We also have ways into the kingdom, but the war may disrupt that.¡± Longstrider said. ¡°I hope they are better than how you shoved me onto the first caravan that came through,¡± I said. ¡°I have much more reliable contacts now. Your journey worked out OK in the end,¡± he replied. ¡°Warren died,¡± I said flatly, and I may have pulsed my Intimidating Aura a bit at that. I still missed my brother. Longstrider dipped his head in acknowledgement of that. That is all the apology I am going to get. At the end of the day, it was not his fault, and I had made mistakes that cost lives. A lot of lives. The bloody Bards are still singing about it. ¡°Here are two Monster cores to get you started,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°It is part of our starting funds for you. We expect the coin plus interest,¡± I added. Just then, three of Umreti¡¯s hornets arrived at one of the cracks in the weatherboard and worked their way in. Everybody in the room sensed them. ¡°Golden Hornets,¡± Matt muttered, and he and Snake drew weapons. They flew straight to Modrica, landed on her arms and shoulders, and crawled around. I saw Longstrider had not drawn a weapon and was looking at us and our lack of reaction. ¡°They belong to you?¡± He asked Modrica. ¡°They do,¡± I replied, knowing Modrica would just ignore him. ¡°They have been spotted around the city. The Guards are looking for the hive. Nobody wants a hive near the city,¡± he said. Modrica just growled, extracted a small piece of paper from each of them, and handed them to me. The Hornets kept crawling over her. Matt and Snake did not put down their weapons. I read the papers, ¡°We have a problem. Cooper is about to raid our warehouse with five squads geared with monster-killing weapons.¡± ¡°She is probably looking for the hive, and you brought many strange creatures into the city,¡± Longstrider said. ¡°She is probably wary of the Dire Bear getting loose.¡± ¡°Or she is going to kill it anyway,¡± Wiremu said. ¡°As long as the hive is not there, she will probably leave after searching,¡± Longstrider said. ¡°No, she won¡¯t. She will know straight away things are not right,¡± I said. ¡°The hive is not there, right?¡± Longstrider asked. ¡°No, but neither is the Dire bear.¡± 309. Retirement Plans: Wiremu

309. Retirement Plans: Wiremu

¡°How on earth did you move the Dire bear without me knowing,¡± Longstrider said. ¡°People who watch late into the night get sleepy and tend not to admit that to their superiors,¡± Tabitha said. ¡°The important thing now is what we are going to do about the imminent discovery by the Inquisitor.¡± ¡°I can draw them away,¡± I said. What Longstrider said about the slavery taking decades had got me thinking. My work was mostly done. I helped Mayakku crack the slave class and distribute it. I got a lot of satisfaction dealing with the quarry. What is important now is to let Longstrider and Tabitha establish the underground operation and then spread it to other cities. They are the best people for that, and this is Tabitha¡¯s home territory. ¡°It would have to be you, Modrica and Umreti. It will also have to be a big distraction, and that will draw out the garrison.¡± Tabitha said. ¡°I know. It means we won¡¯t be back here,¡± I said. This will mean we run far, probably out of the empire. Modrica growled low and rumbling. ¡°No, you will need me,¡± I said. ¡°We will be in the wilds, and I am the Hunter and Tracker.¡± Modrica growled in displeasure. ¡°I will stay with Tabitha,¡± Ruku said. He looked at Modrica, ¡°I will take over your role as Chief Enforcer. I am a Warrior and Commando. I will back up your Krvne Sestre.¡± Modrica grunted her assent. She turned to Longstrider and rumbled in a very threatening way at him. Matt was about to step in when Longstrider stopped him. ¡°She won¡¯t have trouble from me,¡± he told her. ¡°Where will you go?¡± Tabitha asked. ¡°I remember a nice lake at the bottom of a nice peaceful valley. It is a good location, with some good hunting.¡± I replied. Tabitha nodded, understanding I meant the lake at the base of the gorilla valley. It was about midway between the Empire and the Free Republic but off the main travel routes. It would be a good semi-permanent base. ¡°We need to get going,¡± I looked at Modrica, ¡°Get Umreti to meet us at the second safe house. I think a smash-and-run attempt at the Monster cores will get their attention, successful or not.¡± Modrica nodded, and a hornet flew off shortly thereafter. Then T¨¡oke came out of Camouflage in the rafters above me and dropped onto my shoulder. This caused Longstrider, Snake and Matt to tense up again. Just goes to show their senses still need work. Longstrider¡¯s eyes narrowed at me, ¡°I had heard there was a snake,¡± He pointed at Tabitha, ¡°I will talk to you later about information allies should know. Right now, I need to get my people under cover,¡± Longstrider said, and he, Snake and Matt headed off in different directions. ¡°We will come with you to the safe house,¡± Tabitha said. We made our way briskly to the safe house through the morning crowds. Once we were there, Modrica got to loading supplies onto Te?ka, and Tabitha grabbed me. ¡°This is insanely risky. You know the Affinity users will be after you.¡± ¡°I know. I also know that if we don¡¯t do this, the Inquisitor will just keep coming, and even Longstrider will be at risk.¡± ¡°Fuck Longstrider. I have already lost one brother. I don¡¯t want to lose another.¡± I took her hand, ¡°You know how good I am at surviving. I will be fine. I also have Modrica at my back. All three of us are good survivors. Umreti has a Class for it.¡± You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°It will still be years before we see each other again, and it won¡¯t be here.¡± ¡°I know. Yelets will be off-limits for us. I will build a supply base at the lake. Nyx should be able to find us. I will stockpile cores there.¡± ¡°Bloody hunter.¡± ¡°Always. But I am going to give you five years. Then I want to hear the Black Butcher has infiltrated the empire and liberated all the slaves. This is how you redeem the Black Butcher name.¡± ¡°You bloody idiot. Wiremu Hunter frees the slaves, not the Black Butcher.¡± ¡°I am just the assistant. This is the Black Butchers show now. Make it a star performance, then retire rich and famous.¡± ¡°I am not retiring by a lake in the middle of nowhere. I will need somewhere to spend all my coin.¡± ¡°I think you already have more coin than you could ever spend.¡± Tabitha just grinned at me, though sadness was showing through. She hugged me. She almost never hugs me. Ruku came in with Umreti, and we laid out a rough plan. Umreti and I would do the smash and run, and Modrica and Te?ka would get us out of the city. We moved Te?ka to this house because it is not far from the gate. They already know about the Hornets, so we might as well use them. Then they will know they are with us and will stop looking for them. Once we are out of the city, I will be the one to try and lose the pursuit. Hiding Te?ka and his tracks will be a problem. We will need to get into the bush as soon as possible. We didn¡¯t plan much more than that as we didn¡¯t have time, and it will get messy anyway. I grabbed some mugs from the kitchen and poured some ale for everyone. ¡°To our continued health and a long retirement!¡± We all drank. We didn¡¯t have time for long goodbyes as Cooper could be rousing the guard any time now. Nyx was the key to communicating between us as she was the fastest mover. Tabitha also had Dusk, so she had the next fastest transport on the continent, not counting the Avions. ¡°The Affinity users and Trackers are your biggest threats,¡± Ruku said. I nodded. ¡°Apparently, Earth, Water and Fire. You and Modrica know what earth-sensing can do. For water, watch out for the Skill Sensing Water. I only picked it up when we were in the desert, so I am still learning it.¡± I raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°I spent the first sixty years in or on the ocean, sensing water was useless. My Sonar was much better. The sensing distance is based on Spiritual Strength. Sensitivity is based on Spiritual Perception. Your Lava Body will not register.¡± I nodded, ¡°but will flare on any Thermal sensing.¡± ¡°Which the fire user will have,¡± Ruku said. ¡°Hopefully, you won¡¯t have all three after you. Watch those Trackers and Hunter Marks. Modrica won¡¯t be sensitive to them.¡± I nodded. We were in familiar territory now. We both knew we were stalling. ¡°The best strategy is to go fast and get out of range and stay out of range,¡± Ruku said. I nodded, ¡°Thank you for everything.¡± ¡°Be safe, son.¡± Ruku and I shook hands, and then it moved into a hug. We understood each other, and I would miss his fatherly input. And fishing. Umreti and I needed to go. If the guards were roused and searching the city, this was the best time to raid the supply stockpile. You never know. We might even get something. More likely, we will just cause mayhem and destruction, and Tabitha and Longstrider will make off with the goods while we run as the decoy. Or nobody will get anything, and we just get chased. That is our job. The rest is no longer our problem. We left Ruku and Modrica loading and armouring Te?ka. Tabitha slipped out into the crowd. She would be looking to profit from the opportunities we create and perhaps ways to help. Umreti had a small pack on with a few hundred hornets. Te?ka will be carrying the main hive. Umreti was the Weapons Master, and I am not sure how many weapons he had on him. I could see a short and a long whip. He had knives and a short bow. Let''s just say he was leaving his options wide open. At least he had left the long pole weapons behind. I wore my leather armour. I put a cloak over the top even though it was really too warm for it. My bow was back on Te?ka. It would be my most essential tool once we are out of the city, but it will only be of limited use until then. T¨¡oke was on my shoulder in Camouflage. I had a fresh stock of throwing darts and small stone-throwing knives. I had a mace on one hip and a baton on the other, next to my sling. As we threaded our way to the Guard storage building, the lunchtime crowds were out. This was close to the wall but quite far from the gate. There were a lot of patrols on the move. 310. Not Happy: Wiremu

310. Not Happy: Wiremu

I was NOT HAPPY! It wasn¡¯t the Guard compound I was looking at that was the reason. This wasn¡¯t the way it was supposed to go. We were supposed to stay together and free slaves TOGETHER. I reined in some of those angry thoughts. Just some of them. The guard compound took up a whole block. One half was armoured storage, and the other half was the guard HQ for this part of the city. I don¡¯t do partings very well. I don¡¯t do emotions very well. I bottle them up and put them to one side. I go out hunting to calm down. Fishing is good. I can recognise I am angry and frustrated, but I can¡¯t just leave this time. Tabitha can¡¯t distract me. T¨¡oke was there as always. He could feel my emotions through our bond. T¨¡oke is like me, a patient hunter, setting traps and ambushes. I didn¡¯t feel like being patient now. I wanted action, explosive action. A warning came in the back of my head. Alamaedin. I showed too many of my abilities, and some well-coordinated guards captured me. Not even affinity users, just regular guards. Water to cool my lava, trap me in my Granite, and then sledge hammers to break it apart. That is all it took. This time, there are affinity users nearby. I needed to plan for the long chase. I am not sure I cared. Umreti was standing beside me with a full helmet and armour. Umreti is a strange name for someone with a Survivalist Class. It means ¡®to die.¡¯ I know he chose it at a low point in his life when he wanted death. He has had a good year or almost two years with us and come a long way, but he has not changed his name. He is a Weapon Master and Survivalist, and I am a Hunter. When we join back up with Modrica and Te?ka, we will have our Armoured Cavalry. We can do this. I looked at Umreti, ¡°Go big?¡± He nodded and grunted assent. He needed to hang around Modrica more. Fancy using an action and a grunt to show agreement. How wasteful. Then I felt Nyx arrive in my Blacksteel Pendant. I got out my card, and she spelt out her message. ¡°Gate guards reinforced. More inspections when leaving city.¡± This was happening, and we needed to get on with it. Time to make other people not happy. I was looking at the fortified section of the compound. I nodded to Umreti, and he headed to the public service areas. He was better against people. I was better against fortifications. Puia burned through my foot and went underground toward the storage unit. I started to walk to the gate to the fortified area. Because the compound took a whole city block, there were roads on every side. The wall around it was tall and enchanted, and the buildings were back from the wall. There are four troopers in the watch towers on each corner, and I would be willing to bet they were archer specialists with enhanced senses. Suddenly, an alarm enchantment sounded in the compound. Puia had triggered something. It was go time. I spun around and threw T¨¡oke as hard as I could at the top of the nearest watchtower. Just before he reached it, he Grew and was covered in granite and smashed through the wooded structure, sending two of the Troopers flying. The watchtower at the other end of the street was suddenly swarming with Golden Hornets. I placed my hand on the wall and triggered Granite Quake. This was not in the ground like normal but directly through my hand into the vertical wall. Cracks appeared in the wall, so I did it again. And again. This was one well-built wall. Again, but this time, with Granite Manipulation widening, the cracks and pieces started to fall off. One last time and the whole section collapsed. I climbed over the rubble into the compound. My Hearing Aid picked up the clash of weapons from near the public entrance, so Umreti had engaged. I was too far to hear the buzz of hornets, but from the screaming, it wasn¡¯t hard to imagine. Then flames burst out the windows and doors of the stone building in front of me. If they want to coat their storage with a flammable liquid, I have the perfect accelerant in Puia. I hope their insulation was up to it, or there will be nothing left in the vault. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The roof burned off, and clouds of fire and smoke rose into the air. A city-wide alarm started sounding. I think we have their attention. I bent down and picked up T¨¡oke. The entire top of his watchtower was now just a bare platform. Puia re-entered me through my foot. There would be no looting of the vault until the fire died down. That would be Tabitha¡¯s problem if she could do it safely. It was time to extract Umreti and get out of the city. Then another alarm sounded, and a shimmering barrier appeared between four poles and in front of the footpath with the buildings on the other side of the road. It appeared to go around the whole block. A hand cart was parked half on the footpath and half on the road, and it was sliced in two. There were some civilians trapped as well, and I saw someone touch the barrier and quickly withdraw their hand. I moved toward the barrier. It was obviously a defence mechanism to hold any attackers until reinforcements arrived. It went up about three to four stories, and I sensed down into the ground about two stories. I threw a dart at it, and it was stopped, and sparks flew from where it connected. The same thing happened with a lava dart. This was impressive. Longstrider must have known about this. It hit it with a Granite Spike near ground level and continued to do so, and the Granite looked like it was continually chopped off at the barrier. It wouldn¡¯t stop flying over it. With time, we could tunnel under it. We would not have time. This was a significant signal to the army. This was also very energy-intensive, so it would not last long. Reinforcement would be coming with speed. I could reduce the time it is active with my Granite attacks, but there might be a faster way. I ran to one of the corner posts. They held the enchantments, and it looked like they were powered by a monster core at each post. This seemed like a waste of coin to protect a few monster cores. However, it was not my mystery to solve. I had to get out and leave this to Tabitha. Umreti came around the corner, shooting his short bow back where he came from. Hornets swarmed around him, some darting back along his path. There was already organised resistance, making him retreat. These were no trash Troopers guarding slaves. Time to get out of this trap. The pillars had some sort of Spiritually enhanced metal. Puia and I made short work of it. It didn¡¯t shut down the whole pillar, but a line of the barrier about a handspan width stopped working on both the edges that met at this Pillar. Puia melted the ones above, and I melted the ones below where we had started. A shield wall of troopers came around the corner after Umreti. I saw some of the hornets fall, and his arrows had very little effect. After the shield wall came the archers, and we were under a hail of arrows. There were only about six of them, but I think they all had Triple Shot. One of them might even have had Quintuple Shot. I had two hit my armour, and one got through to my Snakeskin. Umreti took a couple, and one stayed embedded. ¡°Through here!¡± I yelled as I dove through the gap I had made in the barrier. Puia rejoined me. Umreti followed me with a dive, and the hornets swarmed after him. Several arrows hit the barrier as we ran off down the nearest street. One of the nearer troopers dove through the gap we had made, and I discouraged that with a row of Granite Spikes before I got out of range. We ran past a major intersection. Everyone was making a path for us, thanks to the hornets. As we crossed the intersection and headed toward the gate with Modrica, I heard, ¡°There! Get them!¡± A patrol had been running toward the storage compound, and I guess two armoured people running away from the place; one surrounded by a swarm of hornets was too suspicious to leave alone. Trooper whistles blew, alerting other patrols to our whereabouts. We ran past another intersection, and this time, there were two squads of mounted troopers responding to the alarm. They saw us, responded to the whistles, and changed direction. Just around the corner, I raised a double row of Granite Spikes and kept running. The spikes caught three of the horses, throwing their riders. The rest stopped and started hacking at the spikes with their weapons. Umreti sent hornets to hassle them. It slowed them down. Civilians were scattering off the street now. Two people in Mercenary garb came out of a building and tried to intercept us. One blindsided Umreti but ended up writhing on the ground as the hornets went to work. Umreti rolled with the tackle and was straight back on his feet without pausing. The one who tried to tackle me got a mace to the head, and I didn¡¯t even break stride. Then I sensed the gate and what was waiting for us. This made me unhappier. 311. Shit: Wiremu

311. Shit: Wiremu

I sensed the gate before we came around the corner to see it. The gate was shut and barred. There were lots of civilians milling around as their travel had been interrupted. The gate was wooden and the width that two wagons could pass through simultaneously. There was a smaller personnel gate to the side. Inside, covering both gates, was a steel Portcullis that was down and secured. The gate was embedded into the stone wall, which rose above it an additional two stories. There was a stone watch tower on either side of the gate. The wall above the gate was lined with two squads of archers, plus however many were in the watchtowers. There were two squads on the ground with weapons and shields and in firm formation. All of them were looking toward us and the noise the three squads chasing us were making. Forty to fifty prepared Troopers were in front of us, stopping us from getting to the gate. Thirty troopers are hard on our heels. I created a stone shield and yelled to Umreti, ¡°Bow.¡± He tossed me his short bow and his half-full quiver, and I gave him the shield. This bow would not take anything like Lava arrows, but I had more bow skills than he did. Before we came in sight, I created a double row of Granite Spikes across the road behind us and another two rows of shorter, less obvious ones. The mounted troopers who decided to try and jump the large spikes will find their mounts crippled by landing on the smaller rows. It will slow them down a bit, hopefully enough. When we came around the final corner, the civilians were already scattering. Well, the smart ones were. The remainder of Umreti¡¯s Hornets, about two hundred, leave us and fly towards the archers on the wall. Before I started with the bow, my sling was already in motion, and I let loose the moment the gate came into view. I was afraid I had overshot as I tucked the sling into my belt and started with the bow. However, T¨¡oke saved the day again. He Grew, grabbed one of the crenulations on the wall and crashed down amongst the archers. I had already fired my first triple shot with two Venom Arrows before he landed, and I didn¡¯t stop. The first two arrows struck their target, but the crenulations on the wall were not just on the external side, and the other archers took cover after sending their first volley in reply. I was ducking and weaving as I tried to keep the archers busy. Time for a stone chest plate and helmet. That was just in time as an arrow with a power shot glanced off my helmet, chipping the stone. Another glanced off my thigh, taking some Snakeskin with it. These were no amateurs. Umreti was making headway, but the stone shield was chipped and cracked, and he had not gotten to the ground troops yet. The archers were being harassed by the Hornet, which gave me some breathing space, and I sent a Powershot at what looked to be the Force Leader of the ground troops. She went down, but I wasn¡¯t sure if I killed her. This drew more of their attention to me. Then, a larger swarm of Hornets came from a road to our right and flew into and around one Watchtower and along the wall. This was over a thousand strong. I didn¡¯t realise the hive had gotten so large. Then, there was an Enraged Roar from that street as Te?ka let loose the Skill, and he appeared in a full run with Modrica on his back. The heavy cavalry had arrived. Modrica was throwing javelins as fast as her arm would go. I saw several Troopers in front of the gate go down. One javelin I saw slammed into the wooden shield the trooper held, cracking it. He staggered back, and the next javelin punched through the crack into the trooper. The troopers were disciplined as the shield wall moved to face the charging dire bear, and those with spears braced them against the ground to meet his charge. This wasn¡¯t a horse charge. This was a multi-ton dire bear with Armoured Skin thundering at them. Te?ka didn¡¯t bother trying to dodge or jump. He just ploughed into them, snapping spears and shields and sending troopers flying. He did not come out of it unscathed as I saw a couple of spears punch through into his body, but it didn¡¯t seem to bother him. He had done his job in breaking the shield wall and delivering his payload. Modica launched herself from his back into the midst of the troopers and went to work with her mace. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Te?ka¡¯s entrance had taken attention off Umreti, and he went for the watchtower on the left as that had the winches for raising the Portcullis. It would be easier to raise it than burn through it. We were conscious that this was only the opening round in this fight, and we would need all the energy we could conserve. As Umreti busted through the door at the bottom, a larger group of Hornets swarmed in through the arrow slits and upper areas. Then, the hornets were suddenly swarming out of the building, and hundreds dropped to the ground dead when they didn¡¯t get out fast enough. I could feel it from a distance, and it was some sort of Fear aura, like Tabitha¡¯s. It was not as strong as Tabitha¡¯s Intimidating Aura, but it had some sort of damaging effect as well, which was enough to kill hornets who weren¡¯t fast enough. Looking at the range at which the hornets stayed back, it did not have that big a range either. It made sense that if the guard was hunting a Hornet Hive, they would position their troopers with skills against Hornets around the city. I wanted to go in to help Umreti, but that was not my job. T¨¡oke was near the top entrance to the Watchtower. He would head down. I could feel through the bond he was feeling the effects of the Aura. He was tougher than hornets, and we had trained against Tabitha¡¯s Intimidating Aura. He would hunt the Aura user. Now that the archers on the wall were largely neutralised, my job was to deal with those who were chasing us. The first troopers who were chasing us had entered the square but had stopped and waited for the slower ones. They were forming ranks and assessing what was going on. That was not good. Puia had been at work since I entered the gate square, but I didn¡¯t want to give them time to spot the danger. I was out of arrows, so I shouldered the short bow, whirled around, and started throwing poisoned knives at the troopers. When the first one went down, they focussed on me. These were City patrol, armed with batons, swords and knives, and ex-mounted troopers, with swords and small light round shields. The ones who were there started advancing on me with six shield troopers at the front. The shields were small, so did little to stop my knives and darts. I angled toward the gate some more so they would come around more. I threw a couple of Phantasm Darts to disorient them, and then the ground fell away from five of the front row, and they were knee-deep in lava. Several put their hands or shields down to stop their fall, but that made it worse. I cut down four others with throwing knives in the confusion. Puia rejoined me, and I backed up toward the gate. I am a Master Trapper. Then, trouble happened. All the hornets suddenly went crazy and dove toward the Watchtower the Umreti had entered. They were crazy enough to ignore the fear and started dropping from the damage it inflicted. Dropping in the hundreds. In the door, Umreti entered, and a heavily armed Trooper appeared. He or she was in full-plate armour with a steel full-sized shield and sword. A second Trooper followed them, and then a slimmer trooper without a shield came out. He was also in full plate, but he was dragging a body after him. Two more troopers with shields were behind him. The thin guy tossed the body aside. It was Umreti. His helmet was missing, along with an arm and half a leg. His face was cut and a tusk broken. He was alive, but with the amount of blood pumping out, he wouldn¡¯t be for long. Modrica released her Engraging Roar and started bashing her way towards them. The Shield bearers formed up calmly to meet her. There was no rush, just competent efficiency. These were not just Specialised Troopers. These were Elite Troopers. Something was affecting my Thermal Sensing around these troopers, and I wasn¡¯t sure what. I was moving closer as I was afraid Modrica was charging toward her death. As I got closer, I noticed the dead hornets had holes in them and some still had tiny needles stuck in them. Bloody goblin shit. ¡°Wait!¡± I yelled, ¡°Affinity User!¡± Modrica never knows when to stop. Te?ka was not far behind her. The thin man looked at me. This is no Water, Fire or Earth affinity. This was a Metal Affinity. Iron or Steel, possibly Ferrous. Everyone is in full steel plate armour with steel swords and shields. Elite Troopers. An Aura or Skill with flying needles. I noticed it now: the thin man stayed a certain distance from his guards. I bet he had a gap in his circulating needles at that distance. I started running toward them. Modrica would need help to stay alive. Shit. Portcullis is still down, gate locked and a fight that will not be quick, allowing reinforcements to get here while we are trapped. I changed the direction of my run. We would need a way out. I would have to trust Modrica to engage and survive while I bust through the gate. The five troopers in full plate moved forward to meet Mordica and Te?ka, and as the rear trooper passed Umreti¡¯s body, needles started tearing and ripping through his flesh. Shit. 312. Steelwill: Wiremu

312. Steelwill: Wiremu

Modrica entered the steelman¡¯s aura range. Or Skill range? I am unsure if it is an Aura or Skill, and it doesn¡¯t matter. Steel needles hit and bounce from Modrica. She has Armoured Skin at a much higher level than Te?ka. Then there is an earth wall on one side of her and in a line toward the Elite. The needles embed themselves in the earth. They are rotating in one direction around Steelman. I reach the Portcullis as Modrica engages the first Elite. Steel mace rings against Steel shield, and the elite counters Modrica''s initial move. The portcullis is not ordinary steel. All metal defences will be enhanced if they have a Metal affinity user. I don¡¯t stop, though, because Modrica badly needs me. I leave Puia to consume the enhanced steel and make a Te?ka-sized gap. This will also enhance him, I hope. I moved toward Modrica and Te?ka, this time creating my full Granite Armour. I watch as Steelman touches the shoulder of the two Elites in front, and their shields sprout spikes, which are immediately slammed into Modrica and Te?ka. Modrica is pushed back, while Te?ka is not. Both spiked shields are red with blood. I try to move faster, ignoring the random arrow that rebounds off my Granite. The rear two guards move up to support the front two while Steelman stays close, looking for opportunities. I don¡¯t think we can end this quickly. If reinforcements come, we are done. We need to extract and run and I am not sure Modrica will do that. Steelman repairs the dents and claw marks in the steel shields at a touch on the shoulder. That won¡¯t be using much energy. We either need to run him dry of energy enough that he runs or injure him enough that he runs, or the Elite extract him. The Elite¡¯s primary mission will be to protect Steelman. We need to trigger that primary mission and quickly. I crash into Modrica¡¯s elite, who is now supported by one of the rear ones. The other one, who was at the back, is now standing next to Steelman. Support and reinforcement to his mates and final protection for Steelman. My momentum and shield bash pushed the two elites back a step, and they were on the defensive briefly as I viciously and continuously attacked them. Modrica took the opportunity to grab her flail and struck hard, and the steel ball on the end of the flail went over the top of the shield and struck the helmet of the elite. His head went sideways, and the spike on the ball came out with blood on it. The flail chain was caught on the top of the shield, and the elite was momentarily stunned, but Steelman wasn¡¯t. He touched the shoulder, and the helmet repaired itself, and the chain broke, so Modrica was only holding a handle with a short chain on the end rather than a flail. She tossed it away and struck with her Power Fist, Armour Smash and Fast Strike Skills. This caused Steelman to have to have his hand continuously on the elite''s shoulder to keep up with the damage. The elites were not just taking damage. They had Skills of their own, and their swords were striking hard and fast and returning bloody, except for my elite. His sword was coming back twisted and half-melted from the lava. Then Steelman would touch him, and his sword would reform and last three or four strikes before starting to deform again. It was time to stop playing their game. I signalled Modrica, and this is where Ruku¡¯s group practice showed its worth. I created a field of ankle-high spikes under their feet, and Modrica and Te?ka simultaneously let loose with Earthquake. The ground movement, combined with the sudden uneven footing, had them all stumbling as we upped the violence of our attacks. While they were distracted with their footing and us actually causing damage, a small snake lept from a second-story arrow slit in the watchtower. Halfway to us, he was a giant snake, and I had advised T¨¡oke to go full Lava Body. He wrapped himself around Steelman so only his feet were visible, and he squeezed and cooked. Steelman had a very high Heat Resistance. I assume he worked a forge. It still must have hurt. T¨¡oke¡¯s body rocked as steel spikes ripped through him, and the near elite attacked him. T¨¡oke¡¯s upper body was free, and he Spit Lava and poison at the elite trying to hack his head off. T¨¡oke struck, trying to get his fangs on the guy, but he was quick, and T¨¡oke was hindered by holding Steelman. The T¨¡oke unravelled suddenly as Steelman¡¯s armour expanded, producing sharp steel plates that threatened to cut T¨¡oke to pieces. T¨¡oke bashed Steelman with his tail, and he went flying against the watchtower wall, causing the stone to crack. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. The Elites all fought a retreat to protect their primary mission, and I signalled the retreat. I could tell Modrica was reluctant, but she came. We got near the hole Puia had made, but the wooden gate was still closed, and the hole was not yet big enough for Te?ka. I slipped through the gap and unbarred the wooden gate. All the locks are on the inside, as the gate is to keep people out. The solid wooden bar is only the first lock. One-meter-high posts were embedded in the road to stop the gate from opening. These had to be pulled out, and the lever-and-pulley system retracted similar posts at the top of the gate. We didn¡¯t get time as the four elites and Steelman advanced on us again. All their armour looked fresh and undented, and Steelman had created himself a halberd. I am sure they were bruised and bleeding under the armour, but it was demoralising to have apparently made no progress. It''s time for round two. I took stock of our condition. Te?ka and Modrica were putting on their own intimidation show. Te?ka had opened the chest of a dead trooper and was eating her heart, and Modrica had another dead trooper and was drinking his blood with her fangs in his neck. This was helping them heal a bit. I was the least injured, although I was getting low on energy. T¨¡oke was probably the worst injured, with deep cuts into his Lava Body. You couldn¡¯t tell by looking at him, but I could sense it, and he couldn¡¯t start to regenerate until he changed back. For now, his Lava body was his best bet. T¨¡oke started the next round with venom spit to the face plates. They have to breathe, and their eyes, nose, and mouths are excellent ways to ingest venom. They responded by charging us. All four elites were at the front this time, and Steelman was behind with his halberd. The halberd was on a long pole so he could reach past the elites, and it had an axe head and a spear tip. He looked like he knew what he was doing with it, and he probably had some Skills to match. We met the charge. Modrica and I took one each, and Te?ka basically bounced two back. That was an exaggeration; they had just come to a sudden stop. T¨¡oke and I returned to work, filling their visors with Phantasm Venom Cloud. T¨¡oke started alternating that with Lava Spit. Burning face and reduced visibility are what we are going for. All these elites have a high resistance to heat, and potentially, they will have a self-heal or something. We were keeping Steelman busy repairing damage when I sensed the gap was big enough. Steelman made his move first, and his Halberg came down on Modrica¡¯s arm with some sort of power/ cutting Skill, and it sliced right through the earthen bone, cutting her left arm clean off just below the elbow. I retaliated with a short spear and a Power Stike throw. His armour deflected it enough, but it still pierced through his armour and lodged in his shoulder. I suspect he had Steel Bones or similar, but he was wounded and thrown back. Before I could do it again, I was thrown back with a Shield Bash and the spikes cracking my Granite Armour. Granite Armour was as easy for me to repair as the steel plate was to him. Modrica had sealed her arm with Earthen Shield and was still holding her own. She was no stranger to fighting, regardless of her injuries. She is no stranger to pain. ¡°Go,¡± I said, creating a Granite Wall between the Troopers and us. T¨¡oke was already on the other side of the Portcullis, spitting through the gaps. Modrica spun and led Te?ka through. The elites were already coming around the wall, and I spiked them, denting the armour. Again. I had forgotten about Steelman. He had gone to the Portcullis and had his hand on it, and the gap we had made was closing fast, and Te?ka wasn¡¯t through yet. He was moving, and the regrowing bars were bending to his strength, but it was slowing him down. T¨¡oke squeezed his massive lava body through the gap in the portcullis bars and bit down with full force into the plate-clad arm of Steelman. I was holding off three elites with all I could. I sensed one of T¨¡oke¡¯s lava fangs break, but the other pierced/melted their way through the plate and into his arm. I sensed he injected Puia. Steelman let out one of the loudest and agonising screams I had heard as Puia went to work. And I have heard a lot. Then Steelman did something I did not expect. He manipulated his armour and created blades that sliced his own arm off before Puia could get further than the elbow. The part of the arm Puia was in fell to the ground, and Steelman¡¯s upper arm ended in a steel plate. Puia sank below ground and rejoined T¨¡oke. T¨¡oke squeezed his body behind the portcullis as the fourth elite came to save his boss. Te?ka was through, and Modrica had finished opening the gate. I was burning energy so fast, holding off three elites. I was not going to last. I went for the wall again, curved around me and the gap. Before the elites could go over it, I had dove through and sealed it with another wall. Just before I ducked through the gate, I saw Steelman watching me. I gave him a nod of respect. Cutting off his arm to save his life was fast, smart thinking and took guts to do it in time. Less than ten seconds later, he would have been dead when Puia turned his heart into lava. He is a scary, smart opponent, and I hope there aren''t any more like him here. Steelman with a Steelwill 313. Hide-and-seek: Wiremu

313. Hide-and-seek: Wiremu

If blowing up their storage facility, maiming or killing a hundred troopers and maiming an affinity user doesn¡¯t get all the attention on us, then nothing will. We came out of the gate''s shadow to a hail of arrows. It is T¨¡oke I am most worried about. He is moving slowly. He is seriously injured. I ignore most of the arrows as they just bounce off my Granite. I create a Granite platform for T¨¡oke to rest on Te?ka while still in his lava form. Our pace picks up. I grab my bow from Te?ka¡¯s saddle and one of the many quivers of arrows he is carrying. I start picking off the better archers on the wall. With my Telescopic sight and my Marksman Skill, it is almost child''s play. We are out of range of most archers when I sense a bond to my left. I whirl and fire in one swift movement. A magpie lies there with my arrow embedded deep. All bonds that are sent after us will need to end that way. I scan the sky with my Farsight and telescopic sight into suspicious movement. It looks clear for now. We move out of sight of the walls and take a different angle. I estimate the cavalry will be on our trail within the hour. It is only midafternoon. It is going to be a long afternoon and a longer night. I start removing our tracks. We stop at Dusk in a cave I Shaped. T¨¡oke changed back to his normal body and started healing. He had to stay large for now, but at least he would not show up on Thermal Sensing for miles. I treated his wounds as best I could, and he took a potion. Modrica let me treat her wound. I wished Umreti was here. He had the First Aid skill. Modrica¡¯s healing was called Blood Restoration, and it was only at the early Apprentice Level. It was like my Regeneration, and would not regrow limbs and organs until Master level. She was going to be without the hand for a long time. While they rested, I created some camouflage for Te?ka. It was made up of bushes and grasses, and we needed to refresh it every morning and night. If I gave the signal, Te?ka would stop moving and lie down. If he had time, he could use Earth Manipulation to sink down into the ground and reduce his profile. All this was only assistance for T¨¡oke. T¨¡oke would ride him, and not just because he was recovering. T¨¡oke had a Master Level Camouflage Skill, which would always be on. It was not good at movement but could be extended to cover others. Modrica was also to stay close so she could be included in the skill, but she would bury herself immediately if she were caught away from them. I would have to be both scout and trail cleaner. If we met any patrols we couldn¡¯t hide from, we would need to eliminate them entirely. No survivors. My Hearing Aid tracked a group of horses galloping past. Before we moved on, I scanned everybody carefully for any tracking marks. Then we got moving. It was a very tense night. We stopped at every suspicious thing. It is just as well I did, too. It is the lone trackers sneaking through the scrub that is the danger. I can hear patrols from miles away. He was the patient, sneaky sort. He must have had some sort of tracker insight Skill like Kelda because he knew he was close even though he could not find us. He looked like the tenacious sort, so I decided to assassinate him. I stripped him of his pack and weapons, and Modrica buried him deep after drinking deeply. I am starting to worry about her feasting on the bodies of sapient races. It has a cannibalistic feel even though she hasn¡¯t fed on Orcs. Yet, to my knowledge. I will need to hunt animals for her. Once we get into the wilds, Te?ka can hunt for them both. I was exhausted by dawn, and we found a small stream in a rocky area and buried ourselves as deep as we dared for the day. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I surfaced about dusk and carefully scouted the area. A hundred meters downstream, a squad of foot soldiers are setting up camp for the evening. This is going to make moving tricky. They get a fire going and prepare their evening meal. Foot soldiers mean the mounted troopers have passed us during the day. They will be scouring ahead. They will know roughly how far a dire bear can travel in a day. Every day, the search area gets bigger. In comparison with our top speed, we are travelling at a crawl. It is going to take longer to get out of empire territory, but our biggest asset at the moment is our Camouflage Skill. T¨¡oke is a Master, and I am one step from becoming a Master of Camouflage. What I am most annoyed about is that I have to do all the running, scouting and trail hiding while T¨¡oke rides in comfort on Te?ka. That doesn¡¯t seem fair. I have two things in mind to develop at this time. One is Camouflage while moving. I know true invisibility is beyond me at this stage, but I am sure that the Foxkin we ran into in the desert had it or was very close. Therefore, it is doable. Ruku told me about his Concealing Mists, but it is a thing that hides you, like Tabitha¡¯s Shadows. When you know to look for it, Mist and Shadow being out of place is a clue that someone with Keensight would notice. The second thing we need is to hide from the people like that tracker with more intent-based skills. That includes Kelda. In fact, Kelda¡¯s Skill is what I have to base things on. That and my own Sense Treasure Skill. We have confused Skills like Sense Treasure with false treasure, but what about blocking the skill altogether? Or at least limiting its effect. These will be my tasks in the coming weeks. The camp I am observing has settled down with two on the first watch. Time for us to get moving. I explained the situation to the others, and we headed away from the camp. I tell them to follow the stream for now while I watch our backs and hide our trail. We move slowly and carefully. T¨¡oke is guiding Te?ka in where to put his paws and how to move silently. Te?ka might even get the Stealth Skill before we are done. I am in a constant state of high alert with my senses stretched and my Stealth and Camouflage pushed. I really don¡¯t want to kill anyone as the risk of it being discovered grows, even if we hide the bodies. Hiding a fight scene is nigh impossible, and it pinpoints us at a particular place and time. Plus, there is the risk of not getting everybody and them missing their reporting schedules, which will alert the commanders. I don¡¯t know how often the tracker was supposed to report. The push for speed to move away wars with the need for stealth. Steady and careful is the game now. There are patrols out at night. My Hearing Aid is usually the first to alert me to a nearby patrol. These troopers are not used to moving quietly. The Scouts and Trackers with them are the risk. One patrol had a sniffer dog with them. It wasn¡¯t a bond; it was just well-trained. It was very close to getting the squad killed. It was the grasses I had draped Te?ka in, as well as T¨¡oke¡¯s camouflage, that kept the squad alive. It also extended our life. It is the little things that keep us alive, and I am scared that I will miss something. It is a constant mental pressure. I keep checking and rechecking, but I know I am not perfect. I call the night¡¯s travel short when Granite Sense finds an unoccupied damp cave that will be easy to close. If I get mentally fatigued, I will miss something. As I relax, I let my mind roam over my Stealth and Camouflage Skills. Stealth is a Tier one skill that only requires Physical Agility. Camouflage adds Mental and Spiritual Agility and a higher level of Physical Agility. Camouflage, however, is mainly used in rural settings. Kelda learned to blend into the background where there were lots of people, like the army. Tabitha has her Mimic skills. Different skills for different settings. Different people as well. People¡¯s approach and attitudes play a factor. There has to be a moving version of camouflage for the rural setting, like blend and mimic in an urban setting. Camouflage requires all three abilities as well as Journeyman Level Stealth. I am way past Journeyman Level Camouflage. What attributes do I need to get Camouflage to be mobile? More of all the Agilities, but it also will involve Strength, Spiritual as well as Mental. I have to blend into the background while moving, more than just stealth. My Agilities are 47, 52 and 61. They are way above anything I dreamed of as a child. The main attributes to find and seek Skills are the Perception Attributes, and to block Perception, you need strength. This is true for spiritual seeking as well as physical seeking. I need strength, Spiritual Strength. That is something to practice tonight in our deadly hide-and-seek game. 314. Tension: Wiremu

314. Tension: Wiremu

It only took me three nights, and I didn¡¯t even need to use any of my spare attributes. I should have had this long ago so I could level it. Both T¨¡oke and I now have Adaptive Camouflage. There was a trick. It not only needed a high level in all the Agilities but also Spiritual Strength to maintain it and Mental Perception to understand who was, or could be, hunting you and adapt the camouflage to suit. I also found it needed Plant, Animal, Sapient, and Elemental Lore. Not to a high level, but you needed to understand your environment and what might be hunting you. The higher the Sapient Lore and the knowledge of the environment, the better it adapts. My Sapient Lore is only mid-apprentice, so it is not the best. However, my knowledge of the Environment is high. When I thought about hiding in this woodland/grassland area, my plant and animal knowledge converged and gave me a sense of an upper Jouneyman-level Savanna environment knowledge. I was the same for Forrest environments and much lower for Alpine, Jungle and Desert environments. This shows how well the skill adapted and affected the way the skill level was applied. It was a function of the skill itself. I need more Lore, particularly around different environments. I was embarrassed when I tried thinking about it working in an urban environment. Absolute Novice. This is now my highest-tier Skill. This is now my favourite Skill. This sped up our progress and meant I was more confident in moving during the day. Cloudy days were the best. One of my biggest worries was high-flying bonds. I watch the sky, but the sky is a big place. After three days, the troopers were also spread out more with the larger area they had to cover. And this was only benefiting me. I needed not to let down my guard, though. There were still trackers out there, so I was stopping us at the slightest discomfort. One of those times was dawn two days later. Te?ka sunk into the ground with Modrica next to him. T¨¡oke was well enough to have shrunk back to his normal size, and his Master camouflage was still better when they were stopped than the Novice Adaptive Camouflage. I was much better at Adaptive Camouflage than T¨¡oke. I think it is my greater understanding of the environment than his instinctive understanding. Finally, something I am better at! I was off to the side, a little way from Te?ka and up a slope, giving me a better view. I was Camouflaged behind a small tree, and I slowly prepared my bow. We waited. Half an hour went by. I knew Modrica would be getting restless. Te?ka is probably falling asleep. I still wasn¡¯t happy. I couldn¡¯t see anything. Everything looked normal. Still, I waited. An hour went by. The sun had risen, but there were rain clouds around. We would be getting showers today. Still, I waited. I was a patient hunter, and safe was better than dying. Another fifteen minutes passed. Was I wrong? I would keep waiting. Ten minutes later, I sensed someone in stealth creeping closer. He was leaking Thermal Energy, but other than that, he was passable. When he came over the crest of the hill, I raised my bow to take a shot. It is basic that if you are sneaking, you don¡¯t crest anything. He was young. Better than Illiaya, whom I trained but was still young. I lined up a shot, but I was not sure I was going to kill him. It would depend on what he did. I could now sense he was not human. He looked human, but small things were off about him. He was probably some Animalkin I had not seen before. I readied the bow. If he kept on that path, he would stumble over Te?ka. Sorry kid. There was a clicking sound like crickets, but my Hearing Aid heard the difference. The kid stopped, looking around. ¡°This is the wrong lead,¡± a voice said. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. The kid stood up, ¡°Shit, Uncle, your Skill is unreliable.¡± An older man, or Animalkin, rose from the grass on the rise opposite me. They looked related. ¡°I warned you it was. Many things can trigger it.¡± The kid sighed, ¡°We will never be rich. This bounty would set us up for life.¡± ¡°First rule, Kid.¡± The kid sighed again and recited, ¡°You must be alive to spend the bounty.¡± The old man nodded. ¡°Your stealth needs work. I sensed you way before you came over the hill.¡± then his voice developed some anger, ¡°And don¡¯t ever go over a hill when you can go around it.¡± The kid had a pained look on his face. He knew that. ¡°Where to next?¡± ¡°The report of those wild dogs is triggering the Skill. We will head there. You go first. I will be testing your Stealth.¡± The kid made a face and set off. ¡°Around the hill, boy!¡± The old man just stood there looking toward where the kid disappeared. Once the kid was at the edge of my range, the old man said, ¡°Thank you for sparing the kid.¡± He hadn¡¯t looked around or tried to run. He straightened up. ¡°I consider this a life debt and would exchange my life for his.¡± He then made a vow in a language I didn¡¯t know. He continued in Common, ¡°I will keep this secret for life. You won¡¯t know our people as we are not numerous,¡± My hearing Aid barely caught the ¡°anymore,¡± he said under his breath, ¡°but we are an honourable people. Service to the empire is the price we pay. You are not the first one that my unreliable skill has missed. You are good at this and by far the most dangerous I have come across.¡± He was convinced we were here. He was talking to an empty grassy area with a few trees dotted around. We had made no move or sound. He paused. ¡°I am going to walk away now. If you choose to take my life, I will consider our debt settled. If you choose not to, nobody will know, and I will run around uselessly for a couple more weeks.¡± His Skill is not unreliable. If the kid had not arrived, or we had moved on while he was here, then he would have reported our position. I think he had some sort of danger sense as well as his Seeker Skill, as it was only when I moved to kill the kid that he acted. He would not have known that otherwise. The timing was too exact for it to be a coincidence. That means he will know if I decide to kill him. He had started walking after the kid. With a danger sense he would be very hard to kill. Should I let him live? He seemed honourable, but the reward was large. I had no way to ensure his silence except to kill him. I prepared an arrow. I drew the bowstring tight and Telescoped into his back. He kept a steady pace. I marked him with a Hunter''s Mark. He would not be hidden from me now till he got out of range over ten km away. He felt the Mark. His back stiffened. He didn¡¯t break it. Would he? His Danger Sense would be screaming at him at this point. All I need to do is let go of my fingers holding the arrow. I held the tension a little longer. His path veered around a tree, and I fired the arrow. He stiffened, but the arrow embedded into the tree beside him. He looked at it, got out his knife, and dug the arrow out of the tree. He unwrapped the thin strip of leather from the arrow and read what I carved into it. Then he put both into his pack. He turned to face where the arrow had come from. I had already moved, and he probably knew that. He faced that direction anyway and nodded his assent. Then he turned and continued his walk away after his nephew. We kept hidden until he got to the edge of the Hunters Mark range, and then I signalled, ¡°Time to move.¡± Te?ka and Modrica rose from the ground and levelled it back after themselves. I pointed the direction to head. My Mapping Skill was my second favourite Skill. Modrica tilted her head at me in query. ¡°I wrote, ¡®Contact the Black Butcher,¡¯ and signed it W. H.¡± She nodded in agreement. The tracker, whatever his name was, would have no problem finding Tabitha with that Skill. If he showed her the leather, they would know I sent him. I think they would work well together if they could come to an agreement. I moved to erase our tracks and follow the big, hulking, noisy Direbear. I can hear his empty stomach rumbling from here. Modrica fed him some jerky, but we will have to stop soon. 315. News: Wiremu

315. News: Wiremu

Modrica and I have come here every year for the last five years. It is seven years since we left Yelets. Te?ka stayed at the lake this time. He knows not to hunt the gorillas. T¨¡oke is nearby. The first year we came, I purchased some chooks and a rooster to take back to the lake for him. We both enjoyed the eggs, but the chickens didn¡¯t survive the year with all the predators around. I am still convinced Te?ka was guilty of some of that. Now, I have an arrangement with a farmer, and we let T¨¡oke feast when we come here. Freebourne is bursting at the seams for the Harvest Festival. I have just sold my pelts and am settling at the bar for the evening. There is a visiting Bard scheduled to entertain us later this evening. I get an ale and let my Hearing Aid pick up on the gossip. The war has occupied most of the gossip for the last few years. The war seems to have settled down. Nobody here knows if a treaty has been signed, but there doesn¡¯t seem to have been a decisive winner as usual. The tavern is full, but the noise dims as a figure darkens the door. Modrica has that effect. She still only has one arm, although her Skill is getting there. She refuses to have a healer look at it. Modrica taps the shoulder of the guy next to me, and space is made for her. The noise picks up again, and now the gossip is about me and the massive one-armed Orc I am always with. The bartender slid an ale in front of Modrica, and she grunted her thanks and took a long drink. She looks at me in a questioning way. ¡°She purchased something large for me two months ago,¡± I said. This is the primary way I know Tabitha is still alive, as she is the only one with access to my coins. My coin balance at the treasury steadily rises, and then a considerable hunk is withdrawn. Then it rises again a bit faster and a bit higher. I probably own a fair amount of the Empire by now. The bounty payouts on Slave Taskmasters have become few and far between, although the contract is still active. Therefore, coin comes in and only goes out when Tabitha buys me something. I have no idea what I would do with all that coin. I notice some blood on Modrica¡¯s glove. ¡°Locals causing trouble?¡± I asked. Modrica shook her head. In our annual visit, Modrica checks in with Tabitha¡¯s criminal empire here in the Free Republic. Now and then, she cracks a few heads. I have occasionally assassinated a troublemaker. The fear keeps most people in line now. While we wait for the bard, I pull out the year''s mail I picked up and flick through it. There is a letter from Janez of the Hazadrati in Kirghiz. I skim it. Nothing major. The smuggling has hugely profited from the war. He included an accounting for the coin, which I ignored. Then I saw the letter from Kelda. I sent her a letter the second year we were back to let her know how she could contact me. That was a surprisingly difficult letter to write. I knew she would be embroiled in the local politics when she returned to Hrothgar. She was a decorated heroine and heir to the Dukedom, but potentially permanently maimed. Was she healed? How was Liten? I heard nothing the following year. Did she not get the letter? There was a war on. Do I write again? I left it that year but sent another letter last year. Now I have a reply. I am very nervous. Modrica must have sensed something and looked over. She saw the letter and grunted. She is a solid support to me. I have appreciated her silent immovability more and more. I can see why Tabitha appreciates her. I hope Ruku is looking after Tabitha. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. I rip the letter open. It was dated six months ago. She apologised for not replying sooner. She actually received both letters at the same time on her recent return to Hrothgar, after she got back from a confidential military exercise. What the hell is she doing working for the military? She resigned after her five compulsory years. It had to be related to the war. However, there is no more information in the letter about that two-to-four-year ¡®exercise.¡¯ The healers only managed to restore partial sight to one eye, but ¡°I have learned some compensatory skills.¡± That has me very interested. Maybe I need to plan a trip to Hrothgar. ¡°Liten is well and is the primary reason for my continued good health.¡± That means she was in danger and Liten saved the day. Good on the bird. Wyvern. Bird/Wyvern. Then my heart sank. ¡°My father has arranged a political marriage for me to Marcus, Duchess Irena¡¯s youngest son. You might remember meeting him in Waiouru although he does not remember meeting you.¡± I don¡¯t remember meeting him. Shit. I knew this might happen. Probably would happen. It doesn¡¯t stop it hurting. I can imagine the political deals, including support for Irena as the next Queen. ¡°Marcus is an Administrator and will help run the duchy, but his true love is his art, and he is a very talented painter and sculptor. He is a gentle soul, so the match is better than most.¡± Crafty Irena. ¡°Marcus has been here in Hrothgar for the last six months, and I have got to know him quite well. Very little escapes my Sight these days. The wedding will be in Waiouru in the Spring, and then we will take up permanent residence here in Hrothgar. ¡°I have told Marcus about you and how much you mean to me. He has also suffered heartbreak and loss and wants me to be firm in stating that you will always be welcome here. Always. ¡°He made that clear before I told him who you really are. The big W.H. almost has a cult following here in Kirghiz. You are a huge hero, raised to almost mythical status. I had to assure Marcus you are just an ordinary man. A country bumkin even. I don¡¯t think he believed me, and I don¡¯t think he will until he meets you. ¡°Marcus insisted on painting me and Liten for you. It is a good painting. He does tend to draw me in a much too flattering way, but for this, I said you would want the truth and the scars. I usually wear a veil, but this painting is for the person from whom I never have to hide. Forever and always Your Kelda.¡± Shit, I am crying. In a bar full of people, too. I pull out the painting. It is very life-like. It is only the head and shoulders with Liten perched on the left shoulder. I study the face carefully. It is older. Her hair is clipped back from her face, and it is longer. I think she has added some scars to her collection. One eye has an obvious glass eyeball, and the other looks not quite right. I wonder how accurate this is. Probably as accurate as he could make it. Liten looks the same. I am happy for her. Really happy. I wipe the tears away again before they damage the painting. I carefully fold the letter and painting and put them in the inside pocket of my jacket. I will plan a trip to Hrothgar in a couple of years. ¡°Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome to the stage the amazing K¨­rero Paki, fresh from the empire with a tale so amazing you won¡¯t believe it.¡± A tall, thin man in bright robes strode onto the stage as the applause broke out. ¡°Thank you, thank you. It is fantastic to be back. This tale may sound like fantasy, but I swear everything I tell you is the honest truth. Refill your drinks now folks, and sit back and prepare to be amazed. This is a tale of a Villainess turned Heroine. The Black Butcher, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, the very same Black Butcher of Jern who murdered thousands and nearly levelled the city is now known as the Breaker of Chains! Yes, the Blackhearted murderess has turned against the Empire and broken the chains of thousands of slaves. Hundreds of thousands set free. Refill your drinks, ladies and gentlemen and get ready for a story of darkness and light, of bondage and freedom, of Radiant Sanctuaries torn asunder and swept clean in righteous floods.¡± then he lowered his voice. ¡°The Black Butcher has become the Breaker of Chains, and every amazing word I am about to tell you is true.¡± Authors note: Thus ends Wiremu¡¯s story. Thank you for reading this far. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I will probably finish Tabitha¡¯s story sometime, but I am taking a break for now. I have written a few chapters of Kelda¡¯s childhood, and there is a lot to write, especially about how she gained her Observer Class in the years between Jern and Kirghiz and what happened after she left Wiremu and all about the ¡®military exercise.¡¯ Her story is complicated because she darts in and out of Wiremu¡¯s story, and I would hate it if things didn¡¯t add up. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Right now, I plan to cool down and spend some time with some other stories. I will be back to this universe. May you find someone from whom you never have to hide your scars. King Dad End Statuses Wiremu Hunter
Wiremu Hunter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 9 12 11 10 8 10 92
Earned Attributes 11 5 2 12 3 1 3 2 5 44
Hunter B 12 2 14 24 5 2 2 6 5 60 0
Monster Hunter S 6 6 6 6 6 6 30 0
Scout S 8 8 3 8 1 10 10 40 0
Assassin S 6 1 6 5 7 1 2 22 2
Bond Master S 7 2 7 7 7 1 24 4
Stone Shaper B 11 22 10 11 43 1
Prospecting S 6 6 1 2 3 3 7 22 2
Spy B 11 1 4 3 11 15 10 11 55 0
Forger S 3 3 3 3 3 12 0
Warrior B 9 18 10 11 2 41 4
Metal Shaper B 6 6 2 6 3 5 22 2
Totals 78 47 54 65 52 50 55 61 45 507 15
Constitution 179 167 161
Resistances: Poison +31, Crushing +22, Cold +29, Pain +36, Heat +34, Fire +13, Disease 1, Acid 1, Mental 8, Skills: Novice: General Lock Pick 4, Disarm Spiritual Trap3, Spiritual Trapping 4, Slave Master Bond 3, Fighting Heavy Armour 4. Batons 2 Senses Lore Metal Alloy Lore 4, Gem Lore 3, Spiritual Metals Lore 3, Weapon Lore 4 Apprentice: General Sewing 9, Cooking 8, Animal Care 8, Sprint 7, Butchering 7, Repair Leather Armour 9, Dwarvish 9, Slight of Hand 7, Granite Mind Armour 5, Elemental Bond 8, Hunters Mark 9, Disarm Traps 5, Detect Traps 5, Detect Spiritual Trap 6, Metal Shaping 5, Bond Care 9, Interrogate Status 7, Lava Body 7, Phantasm (Mineral) 8, Stone Shaping 5, Adaptive Camouflage 8 Fighting Phantasm Venom Cloud 9, Granite Wall 8, Petrification 8, Slingshot 6, Marksman 8, Granite Sand 9, Blunt Weapons 8, Lava Dart 7, Granite Armour 9 Venom Vapour 8, Senses Thermal Sensing 9, Telescopic Sight 9 Lore Mineral Lore 8, Metal Lore 8, Sapient Lore 8, Elemental Lore 7, Journeyman: General Mapping 14, Tutor 13, Identify 14, Map Making 11, Manipulate Status 13, Analyse Bonds 11, Tracking 12, Skinning 11, Weapon Repair 11, Hide Armourer 12, Riding 11, Copier 10, Stone Shaping 10, Veneer 12, Roleplay 13, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 10, Molten Rock 10, Orcish 13, Fishing 11 Fighting Hammer 14, Granite Bones 14, Granite Shield 14, Granite Manipulation 13, Triple Shot 10, Bow 14, Small Blades 14, Unarmed Combat 12, Throw Weapons 13, Spear 13, Quick Strike 13, Power Strike 14, Imbue Venom 12, Venom Arrow 10, Granite Quake 10, Sudden Strike 10, Senses Darksight 14, Sense Treasure 10, Bond Senses 12, Truth Sensing 10, Sense Spiritual 14 Lore Animal Lore 13, Plant Lore 10, Monster Lore 11, Master: General Stealth 18, Animal Bond 17, Far Sight 16, Hearing Aid 16, Deceive 16, Regeneration 15, Snakeskin 16, Trapping 16, Camouflage 15, Granite Spike 15 Senses Granite Sense 16 Affinity: Granite, Lava Monster Kills: 9 Bond: T¨¡oke, Venom Serpent. Resistances: Crushing +25, Cold +31, Heat +35, Fire +15, Pain +25, Acid 1, Mental 7 Skills: Novice: Granite Sand 4, Venom Vapour 4, Phantasm (Mineral) 4, Adaptive Camouflage 3. Apprentice: Granite Shield 9, Granite Sense 9, Molten Rock 6, Sudden Strike 8, Hunters Mark 7, Lava Spit 7, Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 7, Thermal Senses 8, Lava Body 7, Granite Quake 7, Phantasm Venom Cloud 6, If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Journeyman: Strength Boost 13, Power Strike 13, Venom Spit 12, Granite Spike 11, Grow 13, Granite Manipulation 9, Master: Venom Bite 16, Quick Strike 18, Camouflage 15, Regeneration 15, Granite Bone 15 Affinity: Granite, Lava Bond: Puia, Lava Elemental Resistances: Cold +30, Skills: Novice: Granite Spike 4, BlackSteel Armour 3 Apprentice: Thermal Senses 9, Granite Manipulation 8, Regeneration 76, Phantasm Venom Cloud 7, Phantasm (Mineral) 7 Journeyman: Thermal Manipulation (Mineral) 11, Master: Molten Rock 13 Affinity: Lava, Granite Tabitha Carter
Tabitha Carter Level Physical Mental Spiritual Totals Free
Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception Strength Agility Perception
Base Attributes 9 12 11 8 12 10 9 10 10 91
Earned Attributes 2 3 5 3 2 1 3 2 4 25
Thief B 13 3 13 13 4 1 13 6 5 7 65 0
Shadow Predator S 12 7 12 2 14 16 9 60 0
Racketeer S 10 5 10 11 10 8 2 4 50 0
Life Thief S 2 2 2 2 6 2
Burglar S 6 6 1 5 2 2 8 24 0
Merchant B 11 2 11 6 11 11 3 3 8 55 0
Realestate S 1 1 1 1 1 4 0
Rider B 12 2 12 12 4 1 10 2 5 48 0
Mounted Outlaw S 1 1 1 1 3 1
Entertainer B 9 5 1 9 9 9 12 45 0
Totals 35 62 55 44 50 60 57 57 56 476 3
Constitution 152 154 170
Resistances: Cold 20, Poison 6, Pain 5, Disease 1, Acid 2, Mental 4 Skills Novice: General Sewing 4, Spiritual Traps 1, Detect Flaws 2, Shadow Armour 2, Reflecting Surface 4, Mounted Speed Boost 4 Fighting Baton 4, Apprentice: General Trapping 5, Cooking 9, Agility Riding 9, Sprint 7, Shadow Merge 65, Shadow Step 8, Shadow Mind 5, Fighting Shadow Shield 7 Senses Elemental Senses 9, Lore Journeyman: General Bargain 13, Appraise 11, Spatial Pocket 12, Pickpocket 10, Adjuster 10, Shadow Puppet 13, Performance 12, Tough Hide 11, Lock Pick 10, Detect Traps 10, Sleight of Hand 13, Detect Spiritual Traps 10, Disarm Spiritual Traps 10, Confuse Status 13, Identify 11, Distract 14, Disarm Traps 10, Orcish 12, Dwarvish 14, Lute 12, Coax 11, Mimic 14, Elemental Bond 12, Animal Care 11, Binding Shadows 12, Animal Bond 10, Syphon Energy 14, Syphon Consitution 13, Body Image 11, Fighting Intimidating Aura 14, Rampage 10, Parry 10, Blunt Weapon 10, Knockout Strike 10, Small Blades 14, Unarmed Combat 11, Swords 11, Dual Wield 10, Whip 7 Senses Sense Spiritual 12, Spatial Awareness 14, Hearing Aid 10, Lore Sapient Lore 10, Master: General Stealth 17, Shadow Manipulation 17, Shadows Embrace 16, Riding 16, Engulfing Shadows 16, Senses Darksight 16, Affinity: Shadow Monster Kills: 1 Bond: Nyx, Shadow Elemental Resistances: Light 25, Pain 13, Mental 4 Skills: Novice: Apprentice: Body Image, Shadow Shield Journeyman: Mimicry, Coax, Sense Spiritual, Master: Syphon Energy, Binding Shadows, Shadow Manipulation, Engulfing Shadows, Affinity: Shadow Bond: Dusk, Shadow Charger Skills: Novice: Shadow Shield Apprentice: Sprint, Fast Strike, Power Strike, Intimidating Aura, Binding Shadows, Shadow Step, Syphon Energy, Syphon Constitution, Shadow Merge. Journeyman: Speed Boost, Tough Hide, Master: Shadows Embrace, Shadow Manipulation. Darksight Affinity: Shadow New Triple Strength Story - Cold Hi from Kind Dad. I have been working on a new story in the Triple Strength Universe. It is called Cold. It will have similar vibes to the original Triple Strength story, but with new characters, skills, and affinities in a very different part of the world.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. The first chapters will go live on my Patreon soon. By soon, I mean in a few days. Check out my Patreon for updates. I plan to bring it to Royal Road, but first, I have to be happy with it. Don''t tell the Patreon Subscribers that they are the test subjects... Cold: Now live on RR My new story in the Triple Strength world is now live on Royal Road. Ivan is alone and lost in the Arctic. That is not usually a problem for his species. Polar bear kin are loners, and the Arctic is their home. However, he is pretty sure his mother has just been killed, and he is only six years old, which is barely a teenager for polar bear kin. He doesn''t even have his first class yet.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. The story follows Ivan as he grows and learns about the world. This is set in the Triple Strength World, but you don''t have to have read Triple Strength to read this. What to expect? Who knows. My stories often surprise me, and I am supposed to be the author. It will probably be more "Slice of life" than "save the world".