It was annoying to feel so vulnerable. The last time my gauntlets had burned out, I had a team. Though I know now that that team wouldn’t have helped me, I had the belief that they were there for me. But now I was alone. I had no idea when Shuzshu and Velvese would return. I had no idea if Mae could return on her own, or if I was going to have to figure out how to go collect her.

  I found myself absentmindedly trying to tug on the leash, just so I would know when she got back. That was honestly a comforting distraction. What was more comforting was knowing that the most forward actor against me at the moment was about to be hanged. I wondered if his tier was just a sham. While I was pretty good right now, I don’t think I would have been able to fight a Tier Twelve, so he must have been closer to eight.

  After picking up sandwiches for myself and the Kobold, I entered the Red Bottle at around noon, finding that it had quite a few customers. It was satisfying to see that business was still ramping up.

  Moving over to the side of the counter so that I could have my back against a wall rather than to the crowd of customers, I put down the sandwiches. The moment that Eulreka got a good look at me she suddenly shouted. “We’re closed for lunch!”

  Everyone, including myself, jumped at her shout. A few patrons looked around confused until they saw me, and the sandwiches I had placed down on the counter. It didn’t take long for her to shoo out all the customers and then flip the open sign to closed. The last thing she did was lock the door before I suddenly had a Kobold on me.

  “What happened?” she demanded, already undoing the bandages to look.

  “Quite a lot… I have to say first that your fire resistance potion was an absolute lifesaver.” I then went on to recount what happened yesterday with the Earth Dragon, and what had happened to my home, and finally about Landerson.

  She hadn’t said a word the entire time, listening to me as the tips of her fingers ran slowly over my burned arms. I could tell she was thinking by the look on her face, the way her brow knitted together and her pupils narrowed into slits. What I couldn’t tell was what she was thinking. Suddenly she nodded. “Can help,” she declared before making her way into the back room.

  I followed quickly after. “We can eat lunch first,” I suggested.

  “No. Eat while cook,” was her response, and I would normally have agreed, but I was annoyingly hungry. The next forty or so minutes were spent with her making something, using dozens of different ingredients and prepping some things that my alchemy skills actually couldn’t identify.

  Eventually she seemed satisfied, and covered up the cauldron. “What are you making?” I asked, unable to help my curiosity.

  “Salve,” she said simply as she walked back towards the sandwiches.

  “A salve, hm?” That would explain why I couldn’t follow what she was doing. Salves don’t technically fall under the Alchemist profession. They’re something that one of the Witch adjacent professions can do instead of healing potions. It makes sense that they would fall under her Synthesizer profession as well.

  She was already digging into one of the sandwiches before I even got out there. I had gotten seven of them, just in case she wanted more, or I could take them home for later. Before joining her I tried tugging on the leash again, but it was still slack.

  It was quite obvious that the Kobold was brooding. She was obviously upset over the things that happened, but I was a bit curious as to what part she was thinking about. “What’s on your mind?” I asked as I started to eat as well.

  “If knew, could have made better potion.”

  Ah, it was that part. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have taken the mission. Or if I really had to go, I would have prepared better,” I said with a sigh.

  “How do you prepare for that?” she asked, her brow furrowing. “Tier Twenty Three.”

  I took a few bites as I thought through a plan. “I would have approached the situation in a very different way. First being that I would never have entered the lava filled area and observed from on top of one of the mesa’s. Then I would have attempted contact from a safe distance, outside of its lair. Something clearly had it agitated, and I would have offered to assist if it was within my capabilities, though whatever it was to get something that strong that pissed I doubt I could have helped.”

  She just chewed thoughtfully as she listened. “That work?”

  “Maybe?” I said as I furrowed my brow. “It would have been a lot more favorable for me, and I wouldn’t have put myself in harm's way…”

  “Not get hurt,” she said with a nod.

  With a chuckle, I nodded in agreement to that. Unfortunately I had gone in too overconfident. I should have retreated the moment I didn’t see any Magma Lizards, but hindsight is twenty twenty. Eventually, after eating her third sandwich, she was finally satisfied and we then went back into her laboratory.

  The little lizard was rather quiet. It probably hit her really hard that she almost lost someone that was so willing to help her so soon after losing her brother. I wasn’t sure if she had anyone who cared about her other than me. That was sad, considering who I was and how I acted. Not to say I didn’t like the little thing, but it was much more in a professional manner.

  “Salve,” she said with a satisfied nod as she started to scoop the odd smelling goop into wide jars. The smell of it had overpowered everything else in the lab, and all I could smell was an odd smokey sort of smell that reminded me of burnt dead roses. “Every day, apply to burns.”

  “For how long?” I asked as she started shoving the jars at me as she filled them.

  “Till healed,” was her response, looking at me like I had two heads for even asking such an obvious question. “If run out before, come back for more. If healed before run out, give back extra. Use lots of cream, rub in till no more absorbed.”

  I nodded. She had given me eight jars of the stuff, and from the ingredients she had used it did not look like it had been cheap. “Thank you, Eulreka,” I said with a smile. “I honestly don’t know what I would do without you.”

  Her face got quite an interesting tinge of light blue to it, which I assumed was her blushing. “Okay! Out. Go home. Apply salve.”

  With a laugh I followed her demands, making my way back home. The Slip Mice were nowhere to be seen, but I expected that. I glanced at the golden horn as I made my way to the table and began removing my gauntlet. My eyes were drawn to the kitchen. “Fuck that’s going to be expensive,” I said with a sigh.

  “I will fix it.”

  It took everything in me to not spin around, and it was only the slight familiarity of the voice that I didn’t. Looking over I saw a surprising sight. The first thing I saw were the large antlers sprouting from a head of short green hair. She had a face that reminded me of a deer with a smattering of freckles. And while her torso was humanoid, her arms and lower half were covered in thick fur, and her hands and feet were hooved, though she did have what could be called fingers. There was a burn across her shoulder. Curiously, all she was wearing was a large flower themed apron. “Ah, you were a Forest Spirit before becoming a House Spirit?”

  All I got in response was a nod.

  I nodded in return as I turned back to removing and stowing the gauntlet. “I’m glad you’re okay,” I said as I removed my coat, looking at the kitchen. House Spirits tied their very being to the house, so any damage to the house would also hurt the Spirit.

  There was silence for a few moments as I pulled one of the jars and removed my shirt to properly begin removing the bandages. “I thought you would leave.”

  I glanced over at her, she had remained on the other side of the room from me. Her large brown eyes were staring at me like she couldn’t figure something out. “You thought I would just… let you burn down?”

  “Yes,” she said simply.

  “Even after so long, you still think so little of me?” I said with a sigh. I had left the little Spirit to its own devices and hadn’t worried about her since moving in. She had been rather passive and docile, which was honestly the best I could have hoped for. But I couldn’t blame her for still being so wary of me.

  Retrieving and opening one of the salve jars, the smell of it was even more pungent, quickly filling the room with a sort of medicinal smell. Sitting down at the table I began to slowly apply the salve, rubbing it into the burns. It was interesting watching it actually be absorbed. I wondered if it would hurt when I got feeling back. “May I help?” the Spirit asked softly.

  I paused for a moment and looked back at her. “Well, I’m not going to say no to help…”

  ~

  Shuzshu’s Point of View

  This was not as fun as Landerson had said it would be. In fact, it was just annoying. The enemies weren’t difficult until Vel and I got all the way down to floor forty. I was beginning to understand why my beloved didn’t like the guild master; he’s a liar. As my Mistress would have said, he’s a schemer.

  Progress had been smooth until we reached floor thirty, and then it became harder to navigate and battles took time because those lizard things were hard to spot. I don’t know how my beloved can keep all of these different monsters in his head. The way he could call out what to do with ease made things go so quickly. Although we were taking our time like he told us to, it was still annoying.

  At least Vel was here. I would have preferred to have my beloved, even if I’d prefer he didn’t fight, but Vel and I complimented each other's combat styles. I had to admit that she was faster than me, but I was far stronger. In our hunts we had learned to play off that quite well. She would harass them and draw their attention, and I would hit them when they were distracted. It let us beat things far above our strength.

  But right now as we entered the forty second floor, all I could think about was how much I missed my beloved. I knew Vel also misses him, though I don’t know if she would ever say it. She tries to act aloof and distant, but I have seen the way that she lays her head in his lap when they are alone. I am glad that he has warmed up to her so much, though I wish he would pet me more often.

  The Fox was a different story entirely. Although annoying sometimes, she was also fun. Honestly she was a lot closer to me in strength than Vel, so wrestling her was fun. I also saw the way she looked at him when she thinks no one is looking. She wanted him so badly. And Gods did I understand that feeling. I was sure that my beloved was well aware of how the Fox felt but he was… hurt.

  If I ever find the people who hurt him I will make them suffer. I tried not to let him get too much into his own head, because it was like watching the light in his eyes die. He was much better when he was working, or distracted. He just did too much thinking and was too smart.

  Vel looked at me, a bit confused as to why I wasn’t continuing. I don’t think I could explain it to her. I shook my head. “Nothing. I just miss Arc,” I explained.

  She hesitated for a moment before she nodded. “It is much different in here without him.”

  “Let’s take a break here before continuing on,” I said with a bit of a huff. She was so good at pretending that she wasn’t bothered. If I hadn’t seen and heard the way they talk in private, I might believe her. But I don’t think either of them realized how keen my senses were.

  “Alright,” she agreed, leaning against the wall. She also wouldn’t admit that she was tired. We had been fighting nonstop for over a day now just to get to this point. I was tired, too, but not as much. I just had more stamina than her.

  Suddenly my head jerked to the side as I felt… something. There was an extremely massive spike of familiar mana. But that shouldn’t be possible. I saw the way that Vel jerked as well, clutching suddenly at her chest before throwing up and passing out. It had happened so immediately that I was fairly sure she threw up as she passed out.

  I rushed to her side and propped her up a bit, trying to get a read on what was wrong, but she was out cold and gasping for air. Then as suddenly as it came, the mana was gone. And while Vel’s breathing started to become steady, she was still unconscious.

  There was an extremely bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, because that looked like someone, or something, had just forcibly broken her slave contract by overloading the connection. I had seen that happen once before, but it had killed the master, and the slave died a few days later.

  I didn’t want to think about that as I hefted her up onto my back before quickly making my way back up the floors. For some reason it was worse leaving than it was coming in. Probably because I no longer had Vel to assist me, and I had to fight while also protecting her. I used to be good at protecting people, that had been my task. But this was different, and annoying.

  It took probably an entire day before I managed to get back above level thirty, when Vel finally woke up. “Are you alright? What happened?” I asked, setting her against a wall as I checked her over. She was a bit bruised from the way I had been carrying her, but she’d get over that.

  “I… I don’t know,” she said after a moment of gathering her bearings. “There was just… so much mana in me suddenly I passed out.”

  “So I hadn’t imagined that,” I muttered, trying to think about what I had felt. It had felt like my beloved's mana, but that shouldn’t have been possible from this distance.

  Vel suddenly clutched at her chest, and I saw immediate panic in her eyes. “The brand’s gone,” she said in shock, and I could see the tears welling up in her eyes. “Master is…”

  “Something must have broken it,” I quickly assured her. “They can be destroyed. We had a run in with a group that could destroy it, so it must be something similar.” That seemed to at least slightly reassure her.

  “Right… that’s… that’s possible…” she muttered.

  “Come on, let’s go and ask him what happened,” I said as I offered her my hand.

  She took it and I pulled her up. “Where are we?”

  “Floor twenty seven, I think.” I had to admit that I hadn’t been paying attention, as I had just been going.

  “Okay.” She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “You’re sure he’s alright?”

  I smiled a bit and pat her on the back softly. “Honestly, I don’t think a Dragon could even kill Arc.”

  Progress was so much smoother with Vel here, and it didn’t take long before we managed to get out. It was sometime around noon. My beloved had said that he was going to be gone for a few days, so he might not even be back yet. We decided that the best course of action was to head home, as neither of us wanted to see the guild master after he had lied to us.

  The moment we rounded the corner and home came into sight I was suddenly aware of two scents. The scent of blood, and the scent of smoke. While neither was particularly strong, it was still curious to smell them. Both were rather old, probably by half a day, but it was getting stronger the closer we got.

  Without realizing it my pace had quickened and I hurried to the door. Throwing it open I frantically tried to pick out details. There was some sort of Deer Spirit beside my beloved that quickly vanished. The kitchen was burned. There was a large golden horn-

  My eyes snapped to what the Spirit had been doing. She was applying salve to my beloved’s arms. For a moment my brain refused to register the reason why. Almost all the flesh on his arms had been burned away. I had never seen burns like that. I couldn’t register what I was looking at.

  My eyes were unfocused. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t breathe.

  It wasn’t until Vel pushed past me and rushed to him that I snapped out of it. “Master!” she shouted, in tears as she fell to her knees beside him and shoved her face into his side.

  Suddenly my focus snapped and I could finally see my beloved. His body was more bruise than skin. His eyes were blackened, and one of them wasn’t open all the way. He was missing a large patch of hair. His arms were a blackened red like they had been melted, and I could see lines of harsher burns throughout.

  What happened? Shouldn’t he have been fine? Where was the damn Fox? Didn’t she tell me that she would protect him? That I had nothing to worry about? That everything would be fine? Why was my threat detection not registering him? My thoughts came to an abrupt halt as his eyes locked with mine. “Hello, Shuzshu.”

  End of Shuzshu’s Point of View

  ~

  “Hello, Shuzshu,” I said as I tried to smile a bit. Velvese was sobbing into my lap, though I wasn’t exactly sure what had gotten her upset since she had come in already crying about something. The big Gnoll had just been standing in the doorway staring at me for quite a while now. “Come on,” I encouraged as I held a hand out to her. “I’ll explain what happened.”

  She seemed almost reluctant to approach me, but didn’t come more than halfway across the room. Her eyes locked onto my arms as I began to explain what happened, starting from the request, to the dragon, to the assassination and banishment of Mae, and the confrontation with Landerson that ended in his arrest. No one said a word as I finished my explanation.

  “It’ll probably be a few weeks, or months, before I’m back in any condition to start remaking my gauntlets,” I said now that I was finished. “I’m out of commission for… a long time…”

  There was silence for a few moments, before Velvese spoke. “My brand is gone…” she sobbed softly.

  “Ah.” So that’s what she was crying about. “Yeah it probably couldn’t withstand the amount of mana final charge shot through my body. Slave brand isn’t that high tier of a spell, and considering I was packing enough magic to knock around a Tier Twenty Three… Well, it’s not surprising.”

  “I’m gonna kill him.” Even though Shuzshu’s voice was low, it carried throughout the room as she growled. “I’m gonna rip him to shreds.”

  I looked at her for a moment. Her fists were clenched so tightly that I could see her nails digging into her palms and drawing blood. “Come here,” I said softly, reaching out to her again.

  She didn’t move. She also wasn’t looking at me.

  “Shuzshu, come here.” There was a bit of hesitation, but after a moment she moved over, staring at my hand as she approached. When she got close enough I reached up and grabbed her by her mane, pulling her in. Her fur felt good against the parts of my body that still had feeling. “Everything will be okay,” I said softly.

  “I want to kill him,” was all I got as a low growl.

  “They’ve already hanged him,” I said, though I was probably putting a little too much faith in the Duke, I felt like right now was a good time to trust him. Besides, “I want my Gnoll here,” I said softly.

  That finally got a better reaction as she leaned into me, slowly sitting down beside Velvese, who was making an attempt to stop crying. I just sat there, rubbing their heads. It made me feel so much better to just have them here.

  It took a while for the two of them to calm down. While Shuzshu mostly just seemed too stunned to do anything more than stare at me, and occasionally growl when she thought about Landerson, Velvese had exhausted herself crying.

  When I explained what the salve was for, the Gnoll took it upon herself to finish the House Spirits task in applying it. To my surprise she was even more gentle about it, taking care to make sure that she thoroughly rubbed it into every place that was burned.

  “How are we going to get Mae back?” Shuzshu asked as she was sealing the jar. That had honestly used surprisingly little of the salve, as only a quarter had been used up.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  That was a good question. “I don’t know…” I said with a sigh. “I’ve been trying to think about that. But there are so many problems.” With her help, I started bandaging my arms again.

  “Can’t we just go get her?” Velvese asked, looking up at me from my lap. She had been clinging to me since she got back, but it wasn’t like I was going to push her away.

  “That’s easier said than done.” I sighed, shaking my head. “She’s in the Spirit Realm. First I would have to convince a Spirit to bring me there, which could have some really nasty strings attached. Then I would have to find her, which could be extremely easy or take years. Even with our tether…” I grabbed and tugged slightly at the leash for emphasis, finding it still slack.

  “What about the Deer?” Shuzshu asked, looking around for a moment.

  I shook my head. “She’s a House Spirit. Unless we want to bring the entire house into the Spirit Realm, that’s not an option.”

  Shuzshu scrunched her face. “I don’t want to go to the Spirit Realm.”

  “Neither do I,” I agreed. “She might be able to find her own way out… but I’ll try and figure a way.”

  That was sort of the end of the conversation. After sitting for a while, Shuzshu went to get food. The amount she brought was excessive, even for her. Her reasoning was that you heal faster when you’re full. I didn’t argue.

  With a bit of prodding, I managed to get Shuzshu to talk about their journey into the dungeon. The Gnoll made it sound like an absolutely horrible experience. She hated it because it was boring. Velvese was a bit more neutral on it, though she had to admit that Landerson really exaggerated how much fun they would have.

  Eventually after eating Shuzshu went upstairs, complaining about the smell of blood. She returned a few minutes later, dragging the corpse of the assassin down the stairs. I had honestly forgotten that I had left that up there.

  Without a word, she opened the door and tossed the body out into the street. She closed the door and simply stared at it a moment before she stripped off her clothes and threw them on the floor with a huff.

  I had to struggle with Velvese a moment as I tried to get up. The lizard made all sorts of complaining noises before finally letting me go. I started to make my way upstairs, planning to clean up the mess the assassin had made. But it was clean by the time I got there. Having a House Spirit was honestly really great.

  The sun was still up, but I didn’t care. I was exhausted and simply crawled into the mess of blankets and cushions. Shuzshu and Velvese soon joined me, pressing themselves close up against me. Yet I couldn’t help but feel there was something missing.

  ~

  It was the first time I had slept in in a long time. The two of them were still asleep, or at least simply laying with me. Something had woken me up, but I wasn’t sure what it was until it happened again. A rather forceful knock on the door.

  With a sigh I got up, pulling on pants before I made my way to one of the nearby rooms and opened the window to look down at who was knocking so loud when it was so early- Okay, so it looked like it was past noon, but still.

  Immediately all sense of grogginess was gone as I saw the well dressed man down below, wearing a very specific type of blue and green, with a rather pronounced hat. With a bit of annoyance, I made my way downstairs. He knocked again before I had a chance to get to the door.

  When I opened it, I took a moment to examine the man. He had a rather stern expression, though it faltered a bit when he saw me. “You are the Impact Archanist?”

  “I am.” I recognized the Guild badge that he was wearing on his chest. “What can I do for a Guild District Manager?”

  “On behalf of the Haven Empire’s Adventurer Guild, I would like to formally apologize for the actions of ex-Guild Leader Landerson.” He cleared his throat a bit before pulling out a small pouch and holding it out to me. “Compensation for the tampered guild mission is ten thousand gold. For two assassination attempts, two thousand each. Unfortunately I am not authorized to increase the payment by anymore. However, inside you will also find the deed to this current domicile, and all the appropriate change of ownership paperwork. All property tax has been paid for the next twenty years.”

  It was extremely hard to keep my face neutral as he spoke. I reached out and accepted the pouch. “I see. And Landerson?”

  “Ex-Guild Leader Landerson, as well as seven other Guild Staff, ninety seven Adventurers, fifteen Merchant Guild Members, and more than three hundred other individuals, have been executed for their numerous crimes.” There was no change in the expression on his face as he spoke.

  I just nodded slowly. “Am I correct to assume that the illegal Spirit hunting operation has been shut down?”

  “Correct,” he said with a nod. “Thanks to you. I am to inform you that your reward in that task will be handled by Duke Lanshire.” He reached into his coat again. “Finally, you have been promoted to Tier Fifteen.” In his hand now was a new guild card.

  I couldn’t help but stare at it a moment before slowly reaching out and taking it. “Why such a high promotion?”

  “To match the skills you have demonstrated. Not only were you able to survive an encounter with a Tier Twenty Three, while also wounding it, I am also told you defeated ex-Guild Leader Landerson quite easily despite your-” he hesitated, “Current state of health.”

  There was a moment of silence before I nodded. “Alright.”

  “Personally I think it should have been higher. But the Adventurer’s Council is worried that you won’t be able to recover.” I could see the way he was looking me up and down.

  “I will be out of action for several months,” I admitted. “Whether I can return to my previous strength will be heavily determined by if I have any damage that does not heal.”

  To that he nodded. “Your tier will hold for one year, and if you have not returned and demonstrated that you are capable, you will be dropped to Tier Nine to match your Gnoll companion, and be evaluated as a Tamer.”

  “Those are quite favorable concessions…” I said as I nodded. “I have no complaints about my rewards.”

  He took a deep breath, nodding slightly. “On a personal note. Thank you. The Adventurer's Council has been reluctant to remove Landerson due to his past heroic deeds, but he has been an absolute pain in my ass since he took the position.”

  We shared a bit of a laugh at that. “Yeah. Any word on who is taking the Guild Master position?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet. The Duke gave the Council no time to even discuss what was going on before he had Landerson executed. They are demanding reparations for the death of one of their Guild Leaders without even discussing it with them, but they are quickly backing down as more and more of his crimes come into the open.”

  “I imagine the Duke is making it quite public.”

  To that he nodded. “Indeed. Alright, I won’t take anymore of your time,” he said with a tip of his hat. “Again, thank you, Archanist.”

  I didn’t say anything and just nodded before closing the door. As I turned around I saw Shuzshu and Velvese staring at me, both of them looked ready for a fight. “It’s fine,” I said as I checked the contents of the pouch. Lots of papers, and fourteen thousand gold. With this much I would have enough to purchase all the supplies I would need without issue. “I’m about to cause a mythril shortage,” I said with a chuckle.

  Wait. No. How much star metal could I get with this amount? I looked down at the pouch again. At least a few pounds, right? If I couldn’t get a lot of it, I could make the circuitry from it and electroplate it in mythril or gold. My testing had proven that the gold electroplated mythril had a better flow than either one on their own. That was going to require testing.

  The other thing I was going to need to test was how the circuitry acted when submerged in magic silver. The efficiency of how much magic silver had been spent was ridiculously low compared to channeling it through the vials. But that came with a problem. Heat. Keeping the magic silver off my skin would be the easy part, simply adding another layer would do that. I just had to keep it cool.

  Since magic silver was liquid, could I use a sort of liquid cooling? There was quite a bit of unused room in the pauldrons that I could convert to some sort of circulatory system. That was doable, though I would need to design it from scratch. That was annoying.

  Not as annoying as how I was going to get that much star metal. I needed thirty three pounds of mythril for my gauntlets. Star metal was roughly twenty percent heavier than mythril. From the rough calculations I did in my head, I was going to need about forty pounds of star metal. But I didn’t know the price. I had about twenty five to thirty pounds of scrap mythril that I could sell to the Dwarf, but I also didn’t know the market rate of that.

  My thoughts were interrupted as I ran into something soft. I had been pacing without realizing it, and as I looked up I could see the Gnoll with a worried expression. “Ah, sorry. I got lost in my own thoughts.”

  “You had that look,” she said with a nod, putting her arms around me.

  “That look?” I questioned.

  “When you are working,” she said, still nodding. I could also see Velvese nodding.

  My face scrunched up a bit. I didn’t know what was worse. The fact that I had a thinking look, or the fact I was unaware. “I’m being bullied?” I complained, though I couldn’t help chuckling as well.

  Suddenly my feet left the ground as Shuzshu picked me up and held me even tighter. “Bully bully bully bully,” she said softly before cackling in that way that hyenas do.

  I laughed a bit as well. “Okay, okay. Put me down you silly dog. I need to go talk to that Dwarf.”

  She paused, looking down at me. “Dwarf?”

  “Yes, the Master Blacksmith Dwarf that helped me out last time,” I explained. It had been months now since I had talked to him, but he was the only one that I could think of that would give me at least a slightly fair price, considering he knew my Teacher.

  Her eyes narrowed at me. “You can’t work.”

  I chuckled a bit and nodded. “I know. But I need materials for when I’m better.”

  “No,” she said, squeezing me a bit tighter. “It can wait.”

  “It’s just a talk,” I argued, but I didn’t make any attempt to break free from her. She was right that it could wait, but I was just impatient.

  She got that look on her face that told me she was thinking and eventually she nodded. “Alright. But we’re coming with you.”

  I blinked. “Did you think you weren’t?”

  Now she just looked confused as she looked down. “You wanted us to go?”

  With a bit of a chuckle I nodded as she put me down. “Of course. I’ve no delusion that I’m not severely injured. How could I possibly go anywhere without protection?”

  She thought about that a moment before nodding. “Right.”

  We both turned to Velvese, who much to my amusement, was already dressed and ready to go. Shuzshu huffed as she went over to her own clothes and started putting them on. I watched them for a moment until my eyes drifted over to the massive horn that was taking up probably a fifth of the room. “We’re gonna take that with us,” I said, gesturing to the horn.

  Both of them looked at it, and then looked at me with their heads tilted. But I didn’t elaborate and just put on my coat and boots. Or at least I tried to put on my boots. I quickly realized that I couldn’t properly lace them due to the state of my hands and the bandages. Shuzshu actually had to help me. Velvese wanted to help, too, but she didn’t know how, so she just observed.

  With that slightly awkward thing out of the way, the two of them maneuvered the horn out the door. It took them a bit, but it was easier for them than it had been for me considering how strong Shuzshu was. The corpse was nowhere to be seen, though there was a bit of blood smear still on the cobbles.

  I wasn’t entirely sure what the horn was made of, but I did know that in Monster Hunter it made some extremely powerful weapons and gear. So it had to be worth a lot. Even if it wasn’t going off video game logic, it was still the horn of a Tier Twenty Three Earth Dragon.

  The walk over was pretty short, since we weren’t leaving the district. “Alright, you two wait here while I go talk to the Master Blacksmith.”

  Shuzshu didn’t like that, but she did agree when she saw the size of the place. It was a building built by Dwarves and barely modified to accommodate humans, there was no way she would have even fit.

  The first Dwarf I spotted I recognized as Gauld. He spotted me at about the same time and nearly jumped from his spot. “You uh… doing alright, silver hammer?”

  I nodded a bit. “Yeah. Is the Master here?”

  He let out a snort as he got up. “When is he not here is a better question.”

  Again I nodded, chuckling a bit. “Guess that’s to be expected.”

  “Come on,” he said with a bit of a wave to tell me to follow. He led me into the back, back into a very familiar forge.

  He was currently working on something, and neither of us dared to interrupt. It was always amazing to watch a master of a craft work. The sheer effortlessness at how they do things. How they make the most difficult task look easy.

  It didn’t take long before he shoved the metal back into the forge and turned to us, whipping his brow. “Well if it isn’t the Archanist. What’cha need this time?”

  “Three things,” I said with a slight bow of my head to greet him. He made a gesture for me to continue. “First, what is the current market rate for mythril, and star metal?”

  His brow arched at me, looking me up and down and seeming to take in my appearance for the first time. “Broke your gauntlet thingies?”

  I nodded. “And instead of rebuilding, I want to upgrade.”

  He nodded to that. “Current going rate for processed mythril is one twenty. Star metal is sitting at four ten, last I checked.”

  I nodded slowly. Quickly doing the math, if I sold all the mythril I had at that price, I’d be able to get forty one pounds of star metal. “Would you be willing to buy the mythril that I had, and procure forty one pounds of star metal for me?”

  Both Dwarves stared at me in disbelief. The Master was the first to recover. “It’d take me about six months to get that much star metal, but I could do it.”

  I nodded as I started to pull out my ruined gauntlets from my coat. “I’m not sure at the exact amount, but this is somewhere between twenty five and thirty pounds of mythril. The rest will be paid in gold.”

  He grabbed some of the pieces. “It’s melted,” he said as he examined it. “How the hell did you manage that?”

  “That brings me to my last point. But I’d have to show you it for you to really understand.” I glanced at the piece in the forge.

  With a shrug, he waved it off. “Just testing something. It won’t hurt it to be in there for a while. I’m more curious as to what you’ve got.”

  He practically pushed past me to start walking out. “I had to leave it outside due to its size,” I explained. “My Gnoll and Lizardfolk are guarding it,” I added when he gave me a rather deadpan look.

  “Well, whatever it is better be worth the time,” he grumbled. “This wouldn’t be the first time someone dragged me from my work for a… waste of… time…” He stared wide eyed at the massive golden horn. “Earth Dragon horn?”

  “Correct. To be specific, the horn from a Tier Twenty Three Earth Dragon,” I explained as I shifted around him to get outside. His mouth fell open as I spoke. While he was stunned, I decided to press in with what I wanted. “I want four things made from it, and then the rest is yours.”

  His eyes snapped to me, obvious greed in his eyes. “What do you need?”

  “An axe similar in size to the one the Gnoll has. Two swords for the Lizardfolk. And knuckle and hand guards for my next pair of gauntlets.” Both Shuzshu and Velvese stared at me wide eyed. They at least had some sort of idea how valuable something like this was, and I was essentially just giving it to them.

  “That’s all?” he questioned as he glanced at the two guarding the horn, and then at the horn itself. I could tell he was doing calculations. I nodded. “Deal,” he said without hesitation. “And I’ll try and get that star metal as soon as I can.” He turned to look back inside and shouted, “Gauld! Get the boys! We got a big one!”

  If it was anyone else but a gold hammer Dwarf, I would be worried about being ripped off. But no Dwarf would ever squander an opportunity like this. This was a chance to make things that could be considered national treasures. Something that would outlive kingdoms. He would probably spend more making the items I wanted than the profit he would make selling the rest of the horn. That’s just how Dwarves were. They held their craft in higher regard than anything else. He would be bragging about these items till he died. Then his children, and grandchildren would brag as well.

  I pulled out my notebook and tore out a blank page. I quickly started to copy down the specific measurements and the design of the parts that I wanted. While I did that, about a dozen Dwarves came rushing out to help, only to stop dead at what they saw. It was an absolutely beautiful thing to behold.

  Moving over to the Master Blacksmith, I handed him the piece of paper. “These are the measurements I need the knuckles and hand guard.” He took it, looking it over as I pulled out the small pouch. I quickly transferred the papers into my coat before handing him the pouch. “And here’s fourteen thousand gold. That and the mythril should be enough to get the star metal.”

  He took the pouch, quickly checking its contents before nodding. “Aye. This’ll do it.” He gave me a rather hard pat on the back. “Pleasure doing business with you, Archanist. I’ll be sure to get it all done.” There was such a massive grin on his face that couldn’t be hidden by his beard.

  “I’m looking forward to it.” I shook hands with the Dwarf before we all started to make our way back home.

  We hardly got anywhere, though, before Shuzshu demanded we get something to eat. I easily agreed, since we had slept in so late and hadn’t had any food yet. They decided on kabobs from the same place that I often got them. Shuzshu nearly bought out the entire man's supply, which he seemed happy to sell since it meant calling it an early day.

  As I was waiting for her to be done I was suddenly pounced on. There was a brief scrabbling of claws on the back of my coat before I felt a familiar feline finally manage to get onto my shoulders. “How graceful,” I said with a chuckle.

  The cat didn’t look pleased, clearly having expected to have an easier time of that, but with the defenses on my coat they had struggled to gain purchase. She let out a meow that clearly noted her annoyance.

  I reached up to pet her, but she shied away from my hand, her face scrunching up. “Ah, yeah the medicine is pretty pungent,” I said as I let her sniff at my hand.

  She looked conflicted, putting a paw onto my hand and making a confused little noise.

  “I got hurt pretty bad,” I explained. The feline shifted a bit before laying down, draping herself over my shoulders and purring softly. I remember reading that cats purring actually had a sort of healing effect on the body, and wondered if it had a more magical sort of effect in this world.

  “Who’s this?” Shuzshu asked, her tone tinged with a bit of aggression.

  “A local that I’m friends with,” I said as I pet my new scarf.

  “That is the cat that I smell on you sometimes,” the Gnoll said, narrowing her eyes at it. I realized that this was the first time she had actually seen it.

  “She’s a good kitty. Just needy for some attention, and hungry.”

  “It’s pretty strong,” Shuzshu said with a tilt of her head and I frowned at her. While I wouldn’t mind having the cat around more, the Gnoll had a very odd sense of what was part of her ‘pack’. If given the chance, she would probably try and make that dragon part of the little group.

  That was a thought that actually worried me. “Let’s go home,” I said with a sigh, heading off back towards the house. The walk was uneventful, but I was a bit surprised that the cat stayed on my shoulders. Usually she left before too long, but we all arrived at the house and she was still there. “You can come in,” I said as I scratched under her chin. “Just leave the Slip Mice alone, alright?”

  The cat made a rather uncommitted noise in response as we walked inside, seemingly content to just sit on my shoulders. However my thoughts on the cat quickly shifted in the next moment. “It is rude to profile me as such,” the cat said with a huff.

  I paused for a moment, wondering if I had truly just heard that. In all previous encounters the feline had not said a word to me or let slip that it could even do so. “Be that as it may, I still have to say it.”

  Shuzshu and Velvese took a bit longer to recover, but it was the Gnoll that managed to do so first. “It talks?”

  “Of course I talk,” the cat snapped. “Just because I am sealed, does not mean I am incapable of basic communication.”

  Sealed. That was a good bit of information. That meant that this wasn’t a shadow beast, but a demon of some kind. “Could’ve fooled me with your little street cat act,” Shuzshu said with a huff.

  I could feel the cat tense up. “I’ve just had a rough time,” she argued. “This human is the first adult in decades to actually be nice to me. And the first one period to actually invite me into their home.”

  “Yes, and don’t make me regret that,” I said as I ruffled the feline's head a bit roughly, causing her to make a disgruntled noise. Thankfully I didn’t need help taking my boots off, though having a creature hanging limp over my neck did add some difficulty to it.

  “Oh I wouldn’t dare. Even if I have to get along with them, I wouldn’t dare. Just for the chance to be inside again…” She let out a wistful sigh. “I miss the days of being pampered. I was a familiar, you know? Then that dumbass got himself killed in a duel, and I got kicked out of my comfy little tower.”

  To be able to have a demon as a familiar would require a person to be very strong. Demons are extremely hard to bind to contracts. “That’s unfortunate,” I said as I made my way over to the table. In the time it had taken to take off my boots, Shuzshu and Velvese had stripped and put all the food on the table.

  Again she sighed. “It’s been almost two hundred years now, and because that bastard of a Wizard worded the contract that I would be free upon his death, not returned home upon his death, I’ve been stuck here,” she continued to complain. “I’ve been forced to steal food, and beg because my powers were sealed when I left the demon kingdom. I can’t believe I had to stoop to such levels. I may not be royalty, but I’m a noble damn it.”

  Her rant continued for quite a while as we ate, clearly not having had anyone to complain to for a long time. I listened but tuned most of it out. But certain bits caught my attention. Like how she said she was a noble. Nobility amongst demons works on a power scale. The strongest demons are royalty, and their tiers go insanely high into the high thirties and forties. Nobility is usually above twenty, sometimes approaching thirty.

  The person who made her his familiar must have been extremely powerful. It wouldn’t surprise me since Wizard was a profession that often reached Tier Thirty and above. Just thinking about that made my head spin a little. But a powerful Wizard could obliterate an entire city with a single spell, so it made sense. And here I was sitting at fifteen.

  Looking at the feline that was sitting on the table, somehow managing to complain while also stuffing her face. I couldn’t tell what sort of seal she had, considering that I had no casting implement to do so. Something to worry about in the future.

  After eating I removed the bandages and Shuzshu helped me apply a new layer of the salve. I was a bit surprised to see that the redness of my arms had drastically reduced. I still had no feeling, but compared to yesterday they already looked better. Taking the time to examine my arms I was a bit shocked to find very little muscle damage.

  From what I could tell, rather than being melted, my muscles and bones had actually absorbed the magic silver. That was an odd and extremely interesting phenomenon. Why had it acted differently to my skin? The first thing that came to mind was pores. Was it because there was too much surface area? It also hadn’t damaged my blood vessels, instead it was absorbed. All the fat from my arms was gone…had it melted away, or had it mixed with the magic silver?

  Most of the damage was to the epidermis and dermis, but the only damage to the hypodermis was to the nerves and the fat storage had been removed. Any other damage was done by the heat from the circuitry. But there was no damage to the muscles besides the strain of what I put them through using final charge. And the bones were fine as far as I could tell, but I didn’t have an x-ray to be able to see it in greater detail.

  Shuzshu had to nudge me to bring me out of my thoughts. “Thinking?” she asked.

  “Trying to figure out why I was only hurt on a surface level. While these injuries look extensive, they aren’t deep. I still have my full strength, and it’s just the nerve damage that makes intricate tasks difficult since I can’t feel what I’m doing,” I explained, though she seemed completely lost. “It looks a lot worse than it actually is,” I simplified.

  That she understood, and she helped me rebandage my arms. As she did I explained what I had to do with the Duke tomorrow, and asked if they wanted to come. The cat didn’t want to, but Shuzshu and Velvese both immediately demanded that they come.

  The test of the day passed uneventfully as I went into my lab and sketched new designs. The new plan for my gauntlets was a layered design where the circuitry would be submerged in magic silver, rather than drawing it from a source. This did come with its own complications, but I had months to work it out.

  ~

  The next day all of us made our way towards the Duke’s mansion. The cat had been over the moon with the luxurious bedspread, and refused to even get up as we were leaving. My group got a few odd looks as we walked, but no one tried to stop us. I did spot that one guard I had an interaction with, but he just gave me a nod as we passed.

  The guards in front of the Duke’s place went a bit rigid when we got there, but didn’t argue in letting us in since we were expected. There was an odd feeling of pressure as the three of us made our way to the door that I couldn’t quite place, until I saw the door open. And there was mister protagonist himself. He wasn’t wearing his armor, and I couldn’t see any of his harem, but I did catch the end of the conversation. “-don’t care who it is!”

  Apparently his words faltered and he froze as he saw me. “Move, boy,” I said as I stepped up to the door.

  He didn’t have a chance to respond before he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and dragged to the side. “You little bastard, do you not understand-” the words of the other man stopped, and I recognized him as well. It was the blonde with the baby face.

  I hardly glanced at them as I took in the room. Off to the side was the little harem, talking to the maid that I had carried out of the dungeon. She looked uncomfortable and I could guess why. “Sue,” I said, which caused everyone’s attention to snap to me. “Please inform Lady Lillece that I am here for her first training session.”

  She gave a slight bow. “Of course.” With that she quickly scampered off. I stood in the center of the room, looking towards the stairs, but my focus was towards the group. Baby face and mister protagonist retreated towards the group of girls.

  “Don’t,” I said softly to Shuzshu. I could tell that she was pissed and was about to go and take it out on them.

  “Why not?” she snapped, turning to look at me, clearly frustrated.

  “Because you shouldn’t bully children,” I said calmly, looking up at her.

  She huffed and folded her arms. “Children?” I heard one of the girls say, frowning.

  “I’ll show you children,” mister protagonist said as he made his way over. “I challenge you to a duel.”

  I blinked at him a few times, looking him up and down. “I just said I wasn’t about to bully children, why-”

  “Scared?” said the cat-eared girl.

  My eyes narrowed a bit at her before I turned to the man in front of me. “Fine. What are the stakes?”

  “Each gets to set the demand of the other,” the Duke said with a sigh as he came down the stairs. It looked like he hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep.

  I gave him a slight bow of my head. “Goodmorning, Duke.”

  “It is indeed morning,” he responded, glaring at his son.

  “What do you want?” I asked the boy in front of me, folding my arms.

  “When I win, you are to leave this kingdom,” he said with a smirk.

  “You can’t demand that,” Lillece said with a roll of her eyes.

  I just frowned at him as I thought of something comparable. I sighed and shook my head. “I don’t even want anything that’s touched your disgusting little hands. My reward will be beating you senseless.” I heard the Gnoll snort.

  “As if you could,” one of the harem members scoffed.

  “No armor. No restriction on weapons,” he said, still smirking.

  My focus turned to him. “No magic or buffs,” I responded.

  That caused him to jolt slightly, but after he thought about it a moment he nodded. “Agreed.”

  He walked away back to his group, one of them pulling out his sword from a storage bag. “Is that wise?” Lillece whispered as she came up beside me.

  It was an easy decision for me, since I didn't have my gauntlets anyway and couldn’t buff myself or use magic. “I hope you won’t see me in a poor light after I beat up your brother,” I said with a bit of a smirk. Then I looked at the Duke. “This is an official duel. If your family, or his group interfere, he dies.”

  The Duke just nodded with a sigh. “Please don’t hurt him too badly.”

  I cracked my knuckles. “No.”

  We gathered in the training grounds, which had been cleared even before we got there. It had a small viewing area which was packed with not just those who had been in the hall, but also several other guards and official looking types. I walked to the other side, giving about fifteen feet between myself and little mister protagonist.

  “This is an officially sanctioned duel between Draken Lanshire, Eighth son of Duke Lanshire and Tier Six Adventurer,” it was one of the stronger looking guards making the announcement, “Verses the Impact Archanist, Tier Fifteen Adventurer. This battle will be until surrender, or unconsciousness.”

  Immediately I could see the panic on the boy's face, that quickly faded as he no doubt convinced himself that without my gauntlets he could take me. I flexed my fingers a bit before I began to wrap them in tape. Just because my hands were numb, didn’t mean I was just going to bare knuckle him.

  “Last chance, Archanist. Give up,” Draken said as he drew his sword, tossing his scabbard to the side. It was a rather nice longsword, a rather long grip, which he was clenching with two hands.

  I said nothing, finishing my wrap before looking at the guard and nodding. “Ready.”

  “Draken, are you ready?” he asked, looking over at the boy.

  He nodded, getting into a stance, the tip of the blade facing generally in my direction. “Ready.” The stance wasn’t bad, but I could see he favored his right side too much. It also wasn’t a stance for that type of sword.

  The guard pulled out a silver. “When the coin hits the ground, begin.” He tossed it.

  Draken’s eyes locked onto the coin, but I just watched him as I brought up my fists. The coin hadn’t even hit the ground before he charged, though it was less than a second so he wouldn’t be faulted for it. He closed the distance faster than I thought he would, but it looked like that was the fastest he could go.

  Was he trying to end the fight as fast as possible? I easily sidestepped his first swing, and he practically shot to the side in order to avoid any sort of retaliation. Two more swings followed in a similar way, all three had been diagonal and then it suddenly hit me what he was emulating. That was a kendo stance.

  That was a technique brought over from transmigrators. A few more exchanges confirmed my guess. But he was using it in a unique way, mixing in standard sword techniques. There was also the hint of his body not being able to match the technique. Like he had learned two different techniques through his profession and was trying to combine them. But he was bad at it.

  “Stop dodging and-” his words were cut short as I socked him in the face, causing him to stagger backwards a few steps, though he kept his sword up between me and him.

  “Do you think fighting is a joke?” I asked as I approached him, fists up. “Lillece! First lesson!” I called out as I got in range. “If you can’t block, you dodge. If you can’t dodge, you block. If you can’t block or dodge, you deflect.” To emphasize my point I knocked the next sword strike out of the way and struck him in the face again. “If you can’t do any of those, make sure when you do get hit, you mitigate the damage.”

  With a twist of my torso his blade missed again. “Shut up!” Draken shouted and went for another swing. However, I was done. I grabbed the handle and twisted the sword into an awkward position where he couldn’t use it to get at me. Then I struck his throat so he couldn’t surrender.

  He seemed to realize my intent just before I struck him again. Right jaw. Lower ribs. Hands. He dropped his sword and I tossed it to the side. Other side of the jaw. Broken left jaw. He put his hands up to try and fight back, but I just punched around them. Left cheek. Broken cheek bone. Haymaker to the temple. Lights out.

  I stood there, my breath barely even affected from the short workout. And then the last thing I had ever imagined happened. A blue screen popped up in front of me.

  System Detected

  Plunderer Activated

  Plunder System?

  Yes / No