First, Will took a look at the skill shard he’d gotten from clearing the dungeon.

  Huh. That’s an interesting one. Costs a hell of a lot of mana, but it’s a one-time cost until it’s killed. Only lesser damage, but I might be able to boost that with aspects or levels. Not going to be using it right now though, since I’m still low on open skill slots. Still, it looks like a decent drop. Now let’s see what loot the boss has for me.

  The Mole-o-tov and Re-vole-ver seemed to count as a single quest target and boss, but they were still two distinct enemies in the eyes of the Harvester skill. Will chose to start with the Mole-o-tov

  The Fire aspect went directly into Will’s Passive Defense skill, where it merged with Stone and turned into a Lava aspect, which Will immediately boosted back to level two.

  Not bad. This should completely negate the environmental damage on the volcano Spaces. Now, what about those Mole-o-tov cocktails?

  Hmm. Not too strong, but it does have a better blast radius than Thunder Ball, and will keep doing damage for a while after the explosion. Definitely a keeper. Let’s see what the vole has to offer.

  The Gunslinger Hat was completely useless to Will, being both a common light helmet.

  The pistol, on the other hand, might actually be useful.

  There should have been no way for Will to operate the gun with his paws, but once again the game style logic of the Board seemed to overrule common sense. The weapon fit nicely into Will’s paw, and he could aim and fire it without issue. And somehow, he knew that reloading the pistol would just require some concentration.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Higher damage per mana than anything else I’ve got, but it’s not magical damage. Still, a decent back up weapon. And it should be really strong against varmints. Not sure what would count as a varmint for its purposes though. Guess that’ll be up to trial and error

  There didn’t seem to be anything else to do in the boss room, but Will still stayed put long enough to heal himself up as much as he could. Which turned out to be almost up to full health. He’d gotten hit a lot fighting the mole and vole duo, but none of those hits did over slight damage, which meant that he could reduce all of them to least, or even heal them completely.

  It still took time, since Will’s mana regeneration was very limited. Which he was planning on finally trying to solve, if the dungeon’s exit was really at Sarlisa and Bob’s.

  Which, after Will was finally ready to move, turned out to be true. As soon as Will had passed through the gap in the hedge fence, he’d found himself in the alchemist’s part of the Elixir and Enchantment Emporium.

  “Greetingsss, Will! Welcome back to Sssarlisssa and Bob’sss Elixssir and Enchantment Emporium!”

  Hi, Sarlisa!

  “I’m afraid my ssstock isss fairly depleted at the moment. I’ve been having sssome trouble getting ingredientsss lately.”

  Because of the rodents eating plants in your garden?

  “You know about thossse?”

  Yeah, I had a quest to clear your garden. Just got done with it now, actually.

  “That’sss fantassstic! I can finally get back to work! Here, you can have what’sss left over from my previousss batch.”

  Thanks, Sarlisa.

  “No, thank you, Will. Now, asss thankful asss I am, I’ll have to asssk you to leave, ssso I go to my garden and sssee what I can sssalvage.”

  See you next time I’m around then.

  “Of courssse! I’ll have new potionsss to sssell by then!”

  Will left the alchemist’s workshop, and went into Bob the enchanter’s half of the Emporium.

  The gnome was doing something with a piece of crystal and a complicated machine. The crystal was glowing with a rainbow of colors, some of which Will was absolutely certain shouldn’t have been part of any rainbow. And some of which he didn’t even know existed.

  “I’ll be with you in a minute!” Bob yelled, without taking his eyes away from his work. “Can’t stop this in the middle without losing the shard.”

  No worries!

  It took a little more than a minute, but eventually the light settled down into a uniform yellow, and Bob straightened out to the fullness of his not very impressive height and turned to face Will.

  “Ah, Will! Welcome back! How can this humble gnome help you?”

  Do you happen to have a mana aspect for sale?

  “Of course! What kind of enchanter would I be if I didn’t have mana aspects?”

  I don’t know?

  “The kind that doesn’t sell mana aspects, of course! And that’s a kind that is significantly less than the finest in the world! And as you know, we sell the finest potions and aspects in the world!”

  That makes sense. So how much for a mana aspect?

  “For you, my favorite customer in the whole world? Five silver marks!”

  Will chose not to point out that he was one of two possible customers on the Board. There really wasn’t any way to get Bob to admit that he was hyperboling. Instead, the wombat took five hundred copper bits out of his inventory and handed them to the enchanter.

  “Fantastic! Here’s your mana aspect.”

  Attached to Will’s Mana Pool II skill, the Mana aspect changed to show its specific effect, which would increase Will’s mana regeneration by a whopping eighty percent per level.

  Thanks, Bob. I’ve been wanting one of these for a while now.

  “You’re very welcome! Is there anything else I can help you with?”

  No, thank you. This is everything I can afford right now.

  “I’ll be back to work then. That Light aspect won’t make itself, you know!”

  Without waiting for an answer, Bob turned back to his machine, and the crystal started glowing again, this time cycling between different shades of yellow.

  Will spent a few more minutes spending his XP. He spent a hundred and fifty XP to bring the Mana aspect up to level three, boosting his mana regeneration to three and a half mana points per minute, and two hundred more to bring Least Cure Wounds up to level three, which reduced its cost to sixteen mana.

  Taking one last look at his updated status sheet, Will left the Emporium and rolled his dice.