Victor cursed walking back toward town. “Shit. I still don’t speak common well.”

  He stomped back with Swordie speaking up. “Yes, you’ve been learning diligently with Serena for a while now with only occasional sex breaks. Diligent but horny. I’m sure you will be fine.”

  “I’m only human! She’s hot and strong! I know I need to learn common I just didn’t think I’d need it this soon.” Victor protested.

  “Unfortunately, you like so many others are governed by your physical desires.” Swordie consoled him. “At least you’re not currently in a dangerous situation.”

  “You cannot possibly have said that.” Victor looked at him angrily.

  “No, that doesn’t apply to me. Only you.” Swordie noted.

  “My level of fear has escalated. Congratulations.” His trepidation as he watched the sky made him hold his breath. “I swear if I see Luke’s griffin in the sky or Zolvorn in town I’m never going to forget it and I’ll never let you forget it either.”

  “I am confident that at least will be fine.” Swordie practically chuckled replying to him.

  He looked at his hand. “I feel so dirty.”

  “It is better to save one life than to advocate for a thousand. You did the right thing, Sir Victor.” Swordie affirmed him with a weighty resolve.

  “He took his skills away from me for a while.” Victor touched his eyes. He could feel the mana fatigue setting in. “Uhg how long will this last?”

  “Given that you attempted to overdraw your mana pool constantly for several seconds due to sustained spells probably a few hours. I will enjoy your slave collection with a darkened face and bags under your eyes.” Victor giddily added.

  “Oh god I’m going to look like a monster, aren’t I?” Victor peered down at Swordie.

  “Delightfully so! Poor choices have consequences and poor outcomes.” He gleefully chimed in. “That said these are the consequences of a good choice. Sometimes those too fall short of the perfect reality mortals deserve.”

  Victor patted Swordie. “At least we agree on that. Sometimes being good sucks but at least here on Verdan I feel like being good doesn’t kill me.”

  “Give it time,” Swordie added.

  The two of them approached the western gate. The guards cheered and waved him through allowing him to skip security. He waved as he headed through. Clouds slowly blocked the sun as Victor approached the general store. He walked in noticing that the other three had left for 5 Star Road. He walked up to Cleo wearing the ring. “Hello, sir welcome back! How may I help you today?” Her perky almost cheerful voice slowly faded as she noticed the ring on his hand. Victor panted in front of her with bags under his eyes and clouds covering the sky behind him. “Sir?”

  The foreman walked up to him. “What do we have here? Are you looking to purchase something? Someone?” Victor held up his middle finger with the ring on it. “Ah, you’ve purchased someone directly from Mr. Scott. Well, who is it?” Victor pointed to Cleo slowly standing up towering over the short cat girl. “A splendid purchase! She arrived here not long ago and hasn’t been defiled yet. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your purchase. Cleo, you belong to this man now. If you have no other purchases to make, I’d ask you to make space for other customers.” He clasped his hands together and smiled. “Or if you have other purchases feel free to speak with them or me and I will make sure you are well taken care of.”

  Victor in disgust simply motioned with one finger that she followed and walked out. She sheepishly followed crossing one hand over her chest and squeezing her arm. “Master where are we going?”

  Victor walked into an alley and looked at his mana. All that walking and waiting he had only 11 mana back. ‘Fine, I’ll just do it anyway.’ He tried to say “Where is your slave crest.” In common she heard. “Show me your chest.” She looked down defeated in this dark dreary alley as she pulled up her shirt. Victor grabbed her shirt and pulled it back down. “Aw hell, I’m going to need a translator.”

  “Master, I can’t understand you. I’m sorry.” She answered sheepishly.

  Victor groaned and motioned for her to follow him. The two of them walked and walked to 5 Star Road. Emilie was outside beating a rug. “Oh, hey, it’s you at that slave girl.”

  Swordie spoke up. “Victor is having issues communicating as his curse is acting up. He wants to know where the slave crest on this girl is.”

  Cleo spooked had every hair on her body standing on end. “Master your book, it speaks.”

  Victor nodded along realizing Swordie could have done that anyway before pausing as the realization hit him. “Seriously? You made me walk all the way here to do this in front of them?”

  “Indeed.” Swordie cheerfully noted.

  “I’ll have to go inside for it to be in private, won’t I?” He followed up.

  “Correct.” Swordie’s sass continued.

  Victor finished. “It’s going to be”

  “Yes!” Swordie practically laughed.

  Cleo cautiously explained. “Sir my slave tattoo is on my butt. Mr. Scott’s men place all their slave crests there. At least all of the women, I was not around the men.”

  Victor walked into the bank with Cleo following. Emilie raised an eyebrow. “Hey, is she a party member?” Victor shook his head no.

  Jenora and Serena turned to the door as he entered. Serena ran over and hugged him before seeing the ring and stepping back. “What is that?”

  Victor pointed to Cleo. “Slave ring, I need to free her.”

  “Your common is terrible but you’re so obvious it’s painful.” Serena slapped her face. She sighed. “Alright girls show your slave mark.”

  “Ma’am I’m not sure my new owner would like that.” Cleo cowered back.

  “He’s going to wipe that slave tattoo off of you. Where is it?” She asked. She couldn’t believe her ears and complied lowering her pants and turning around. Victor turned red looking at her. “Get a good look?” Victor shook his head looking at the tattoo and put his hand to her. Victor slowly wiped it off of her casting his spell. As it lifted from her the ruby in the silver ring cracked. As the last line disappeared the ring shattered. “There you’re free to go.”

  Before even pulling up her pants she felt where the tattoo was. She turned around shaking her head. “No way. There’s no way this isn’t a dream.” She pinched her cheek and shook her head. She slapped herself. “There’s no way this is real. When am I going to wake up?” Embarrassed she pulled her pants.

  Jenora walked up to her. “It’s real. He’s an idiot when it comes to slaves. Some people think it’s unsavory or dislike it, but he hates it more than the Golden Goddess hates the archdevils.”

  Victor turned to Serena and tried to speak in single words to make sure he spoke clearly. “Victor. Punished. Curse.”

  She knelt and whispered in his ear. “One day I’m going to kill the one who cursed you. Then I’m going to slap you for getting cursed in the first place.”

  Cleo looked at her hands. “I’m free? For real? I’ll get to return home?” She leaped into the air high.

  Jenora put up a hand. “Easy young one, don’t hurt yourself.”

  Emilie elbowed Jenora. “Aw let her be happy it’s not often a hero comes along and frees you from slavery.”

  Serena smiled and patted his back before kissing him. “How long?” Victor held up 7 fingers. “Well get cleaning. You don’t need to speak for that.”

  “Mana fatigue.” Victor edged out.

  “Well get cleaning! You’ll live.” Serena threw a rag at him. “Either start cleaning the dust off the floor or start beating rugs. We’ve gotten most of the paper off the central room floor.”

  “Cleo, was it?” Jenora asked.

  “Well, that’s the name they gave me but it’s not my real name. Oh, that reminds me.” She ripped off the collar with Cleo printed on it throwing it to the ground. “DAMN YOU CALEB SCOTT! I HOPE A DEVIL FINDS YOU AND EATS YOU!”

  Her words resonated through the hall. Emilie crossed her arms. “Well, what will you do now?”

  “I’m going to go home to Sepnul in the Great Desert of Devolus but I don’t have any money. I don’t think I can make it.” Her righteous anger turned to slight disappointment. “Even freed I am not free.”

  “What level are you?” Emilie asked.

  “I’m level 5, I’m a rogue but I’m weak.” She shook her head. “If you’re adventurers, soldiers, or artifact hunters I’m not cut out for it.”

  “Yeah, you wouldn’t be a good fit even if you were. That’s unfortunate. Well, we’re cleaning up here if you want to help us.” Emilie shrugged.

  Jenora agreed with a smile. “We could use help cleaning up here. Would everyone agree to pay her 2 gold a day until Forala returns? I’m sure Forala could use a bit of a helping hand to clean and repair this place.” Victor, Serena, and Emilie all nodded in agreement. “In 4 days, our guild leader will return. If you help us clean, we’ll pay you 8 gold for your troubles and we’ll let you stay here free of charge.”

  The girl turned to them and quickly agreed. “My name is Irina Kavel. I have to know, why are you being so nice to me?”

  Serena smugly giggled. “Well Irina you’re not the first slave he’s freed, and something tells me you won’t be the last. Hell, you might not even be the last he frees today if he got his way.” She turned to Victor. “Well did you get your way? Is he going to do it?”

  Victor shook his head no. “I failed.”

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  Swordie proclaimed. “An Angelic Knight does not fail when he saves at least one life.”

  Serena grabbed him around the neck and kissed him. “One life at a time dear.”

  Emilie nudged Jenora. “Awe aren’t they sweet?”

  Jenora grabbed Emilie and squeezed. “They are but you’re sweeter.”

  “He’s an angelic knight?” Irina grabbed a broom.

  Jenora gave her a big smile. “He is.”

  “Oh well, that explains it.” She started sweeping away some of the dust and pushing papers into a pile. “I heard about Lightbringer Luke doing things like this on occasion with a few slaves hoping he’d save them. I’m so glad it happened to me. Thank you.”

  Victor tried to say “You’re welcome” but garbled his words too. “You’re weather.”

  “Um?” She looked at Serena.

  “He’s cursed. For the next 7 days, his speech will be terrible.” She clarified as Victor stood up slipping on a piece of paper falling flat on his face.

  “Bad. Luck.” Victor stood up very slowly.

  “Oh.” Irina walked over and helped him up. “I’m so sorry about that. Did freeing me trigger your curse?” Victor held his hand steady and made the ‘kind of’ wave back and forth. She hugged him “Thank you so much. I’m sorry you’re cursed because of that.”

  Serena shook her head and made the ‘no’ hand sign before saying. “He’s cursed because he’s na?ve. He freed you because he’s kind. That’s all there is to it.”

  Jenora clapped. “Let’s get cleaning. This place is huge.”

  The week ended with 4 days passing as the group cleaned thoroughly before the last day of the week. As the day dawned the familiar sound of a crow cawed. “BEHOLD THE SCARY GUILD LEADER RETURNS!”

  “CAWTHORN!” Victor shouted from the exterior pulling down the plants.

  “MY MAGE!” Cawthorn landed on his shoulder and nuzzled his head while Victor petted him. “YOU NEVER TOLD ME WHEN TO RETURN SO I WAITED UNTIL I FOUND SOMETHING INTERESTING! SCARY GUILD LEADER IS APPROACHING FAST!”

  “I’m not scary, fast but not that scary.”Forala looked up to Victor as Cawthorn slowly crept his head back to face her. “Since you are all here I take it you’ve already succeeded.”

  “In record time too. Three days is all it took. We’ve been cleaning the new guild hall since then. I freed Irina and she decided to work with us.” Victor tried to explain but garbled half his words.

  “Are you alright Victor? You sound horrible.” Forala looked up grabbing him and inspecting him.

  Serena walked out. “He’s fine, his curse is acting up. He won’t be able to talk correctly for 3 days. How did your adventuring quest go?”

  “I took a tier 3 troll elimination quest to destroy a distant troll village. I destroyed it and killed most of them. They paid me 600 gold for it. Rather disappointing. I expected income more like the bandits we slew.” She furled her face.

  “Money is hard to come by. If you were a normal group of 4 or 5 people doing that quest it would only give you 120 or 140 gold. By the way, we need to split some of that gold from the bandits.” Serena shrugged.

  “Fair enough, I thought most of it should go to the guild bank since we need funds to start up.” Forala pulled out her pouch. “How about 100 each? I’m going to put the 500 from my most recent quest into the guild bank. That would leave about 1,000 gold for the guild from the bandits.”

  Victor nodded and Serena agreed. Forala pulled out 100 gold and gave each of them it. Jenora and Emilie heard what was going on. “Gold?” She peered around the corner. “We’re divvying out gold?”

  Forala handed each of them 100 gold. “For the future, we’ll have to figure out exactly how much gold it costs to run the guild but for now we’ve got a good base to run it.”

  Irina walked out confused for a moment before immediately hugging Forala. “Oh my gosh, she’s so cute!”

  Forala stood there confused as Irina snuggled her. “I take it this is the one Victor freed?”

  Victor nodded. Irina grinned ear to ear. “Are you their daughter? You’re so cute.”

  Forala turned red and recoiled. “Wait no! What?”

  Serena laughed. “That’s adorable.”

  “I’m an adult! Gigantify!” She suddenly towered over Irina a full head taller than her with her chest in Irina’s face. “There. I’m not their child. Please get it right.”

  “Oh wow…” She looked up at her with a smile. “You’re so cool! I bet you’re high level too!”

  Forala suddenly filled with pride put her hands on her hips. “I am level 60.”

  Irina wondered in awe. “They hired me to help clean after Victor freed me.”

  Serena sighed. “Even with her help, all we’ve done is clean the rooms on the first floor. This place is huge! We’ve not even tried to clean the vault area below. Since Victor is suffering from his curse how do you feel about cleaning for the next 3 days.”

  “It would be a nice break.” Forala nodded. She took a step into the building. “I can’t believe he pulled this off.” She looked to the massive clean central area and several opened doors which had some cleaning done but were clearly not finished. ‘What a guy.’ She thought with a smile on her face.

  Another man in a large blue hat approached them. “Um hello.” He waved. “I heard you successfully defeated the ghost.”

  “Brice!” Victor shouted.

  “Hey! It’s the other mage.” Serena smiled.

  “Did you still have an opening in your group and guild? I see you have a catfolk with you.” Brice inquired.

  “Oh, I’m not an adventurer! Victor freed me a few days ago. I’m just saving up money to return to Sepnul.” She gave him a thumbs up.

  Brice smiled. “So you’ve still got a spot?”

  Jenora walked up to him and draped an arm around him. “You know it’s not even been a week since we offered you the spot. You’re in! Have some confidence.”

  He smiled nervously. “Easier said than done.”

  “What!?” Emilie shouted at him. “Look how tall you are how can you not have confidence?”

  Brice sheepishly added. “It’s not easy to feel confident in your choices when you screw up so badly it damages your life forever.”

  Serena slapped his back. “All you need are a few wins. Success breeds confidence. You’ll be fine.”

  Cawthorn proclaimed. “SAUSAGE! WE MUST CELEBRATE WITH SAUSAGE!”

  Victor chuckled and nodded. Forala turned to Cawthorn. “A good idea, we should celebrate tonight. We need to buy food anyway to have some reserves. I see we have some tables. We can all eat together for the first time tonight.”

  Swordie commented. “A feast is an excellent way of bonding for those who can eat.”

  Forala clapped. “Excellent! Irina came with me. We will purchase food.”

  “SAUSAGE!” Cawthorn screeched. Forala glared at him. “Sausage,” Cawthorn repeated normally.

  “Of course, we will get sausage and beef.” She nodded.

  “SAUSAGE! WE WILL FEAST!” He threw up his wings.

  Forala snapped her fingers. “Serena you’re with me. We will gather food for the night.”

  Serena hopped down the steps. “Alright let’s go.”

  The two of them ran quickly down the road. Jenora clapped. “Well, Brice we’re cleaning out this guild hall. If you want, you can help us. We plan to relax for 3 more days while Victor’s curse effect runs out its duration.”

  “Sure! I’m happy to help.” Brice grabbed a broom and the group resumed cleaning, even Cawthorn pitched in clearing out vines from high on the walls. The rest continued emptying the rooms on the first floor. Along the way, Victor found a strange stone with a fanged maw on it and a single eye in the center of it. He thought of it for a few minutes and pocketed it. ‘Nah couldn’t be.’ He just thought to himself. A couple of hours later Forala and Serena returned with a stockpile of food.

  The two loaded down with large sacks of food wandered into the hall. The group gathered around them. Serena put down a box. “This part is going to suck. Is anyone good at building or tinkering?” Victor raised his hand. “Seriously?” He nodded.

  Forala picked up the box. “Well put this on the last room on the right it’s much larger than the others and would make a good kitchen.” She carried it on her shoulder into the room. “Is there anything you need besides these materials and tools?” She pulled off the box top. Victor shook his head no. “We’ll keep cleaning let us know when you’re done.”

  Victor pulled out the various pieces and began connecting them. Given the level of technology in this world he was shocked by how easily the stove fit together. It appeared to use metal pegs that turned to lock in place. Rather sophisticated relative to medieval technology that seemed to permeate the world he lived in. ‘I guess it makes sense, it’s not like they have no technology it’s just not the main thrust of their society since level, magic, and money matter far more than tech.’ He continued to assemble the stove and after a while, he finished wiping the sweat from his brow and pushed it to the wall near the window. “Done!”

  All of them peaked around the corner. Emilie smiled. “Hey, it’s looking good! Now we can make real food ourselves!”

  Jenora smirked. “Oh please you know you’re not cooking.”

  “Eh! What’s that supposed to mean.” Emilie glared.

  Serena pulled out some pans and a few wooden logs. She shut the door to the kitchen “I’ll cook today while everyone else cleans.” As the sunset, Serena opened the door letting out the smell of the meat and spices. “It’s ready!”

  Everyone shuffled into a long table filled with food. Bread, vegetables, and of course meat. Several smoked sausages sat at the end of the table.”SAUSAGE!” Cawthorn proclaimed as Victor put some onto his plate.

  The group gathered at a round table out in the central room. Forala sat down with a hock of smoked ham taking a large bite with everyone else.”This feels so right.”

  Serena nodded explaining. “The spices we got made this meal great. It’s sweet and tangy with the sauce and spices.”

  “Agreed! That isn’t what I meant though. It feels right to have my guild members eating well in a safe guild hall with me. I’ve always wanted that.” She smiled at Victor and then watched all of them eat taking another bite.

  Jenora nodded. “It’s nice to be safe and secure somewhere we can call home.”

  Forala couldn’t contain her smile as it spread further. “Home and family. For having everyone I knew dead I never thought I’d have any of that ever again.”

  Irina looked at her. “What happened? Did bandits kill your family or something?”

  “I am a half-drake, drakes commanded by a dragon killed my family. Victor helped me and eventually, we grouped up and went on to form this guild.” She spoke fondly facing Victor.

  “Oh wow, a half-drake. Why are you in a city? Don’t people discriminate against half-breeds?” Irina asked.

  “They do. Do you?” She took a bite.

  “I don’t mind. In the Great Desert, we’ve got little time for such issues. Life is a constant struggle to survive. I got kidnapped traveling to the ocean to fish.” Irina took a bite. “This is good!”

  Cawthorn crowed. “SAUSAGE!” Victor let him choke down a piping hot sausage. “HOT!”

  Victor looked at him. “More?”

  “ALWAYS MORE SAUSAGE!” Cawthorn choked down more as Victor sent another to him. The group chuckled finishing their delicious dinner. The happy atmosphere sustained itself all night. A marvelous night and the first night The Artifact Hunters Guild spent under the same roof.