Lisa sat on a small stool as she went through her system menu to tweak all her new menu options when her ears twitched and she took a dagger off her belt and threw it into the tree line. The twenty sentries arranged around the camp instantly became alert as an elderly dwarf came out of the woods twirling the thrown blade.

  “ You need proper training las. Before I send you off I will have a guidebook made for you to go over during his training. I have a feeling you will be sticking around.”

  The summons return to their regular pattern as they identify the dwarf as an ally and the dwarf moved to sit on the vacant stool.

  “ Fine, whatever, I know you are a legend and all, but that does not mean I got to like you.”

  The dwarf laughed to that as he handed her blade back to her.

  “ Heard I signed up with the lad, eh?”

  “ Yea, half the city has heard, even before I left before my last job. Not that it is any of my business why you left your old post, but I can see why. He is a special one.”

  “ That he is, if he gets his chance he will change the status quo. This world has been invaded by those demons for far too long and if nothing changes we are going to lose that war.”

  “ Why do you say that?”

  “ I am old las, this is not the first world ending event I have lived through. Just the longest. The nobles are more concerned with preserving or gaining power, merchants and adventurers are more concerned with money than the people. And the people have all but given up at this point. Look at your own people, once mighty nomads now forced to live in slums and work menial jobs.”

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  Lisa closed her eyes knowing exactly what he was talking about. Being outside the walls of the city always made her feel better than sitting inside them.

  “ So, what do you see happening in the future.”

  The dwarf hummed to himself a moment before taking a flask from under his beard and drinking from it.

  “ If he manages to pull off the impossible and establish his own land, and survive... Well, a fundamental shift will occur. Here will be a new noble line who is not cowering to the demon threat. He will draw the masses to him like never seen before in the war. And if he just keeps to his own standards he will quickly draw in numbers that will rival any kingdom. And if I am correct about you, you will become his second wife. Don’t deny it, I know what happens when a beastkin finds their future partners all too well. With potential like his, any pair of thighs would go and say make me yours in a heartbeat.”

  Lisa squinted her eyes annoyed which caused the dwarf to laugh.

  “ Don’t be like that, I was once in his position. I am in that position. Breaking into the realm of demigod tends to show a person just how much they can do when there are few to hold you accountable. Just after me last wife I swore to never take another.”

  Lisa dropped a little hearing that. Hammering home the fact the dwarf has probably outlived any grandchildren he has had at this point.

  “ Any family left?”

  The dwarf merely nods to this.

  “ A few, I keep an eye on them but keep my distance. Best for all that I do. Something I am sure he will learn in time too.”

  Lisa closed her eyes and started seriously picturing her own future. She pictured herself leaving the capitol after she got her money and disappearing. Perhaps becoming a hunter for some village. Or a small town guild master. Now however she recalled her dream. Of living in a castle that did not feel constrained like a city did. Of that of having children. She then pictured herself in fifty years. Her hair had turned grey and eyes have dulled with age. She is sitting in a garden with her young grandchildren. Her oldest home for a period of rest as he told his children of his and their grandfather ongoing campaign against the demons. A time she would have been out there as well, but age had caught up to her before she hit level eighty five while her husband had long ago broken into the realm of timelessness.

  As Lisa finally relaxed and daydreamed the dwarf turned to Jake as he was looking over his plans and revising them with new information, he knew also Jake was listening in on them as well. He also knew that Jake knew his whisper was heard by him and not paid attention to the pantherkin.

  “ I got to live past the first ten years before I start concerning myself with the next hundred.”